Strategic GIS Planning and Management in Local Government

David A. Holdstock

• Editorial: CRC Press
• Año: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315356839
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Business
• Categoría: Government & Business

This "how-to" book on planning and managing GIS within local government describes and details the key components of a successful enterprise, sustainable and enduring GIS. It describes the strategic planning process an organization must undertake prior to GIS implementation. The heart of the book is the formula for success that offers a systematic methodology for examining and benchmarking a GIS initiative and the practical and repeatable strategy for success.

There are many obstacles to successful GIS implementation, and unfortunately, the local government landscape is riddled with false starts, poorly planned implementations, and glorified mapping systems. This book documents the reason for failure and possible remedies to overcome the challenges to implementation. It discusses pathways to change, ways of improving organizational effectiveness and efficiency, and lays out the organizational approaches, management processes, and leadership actions that are required for GIS to become an indispensable part of an organization. This book is about aiming high, so you can consistently hit your mark by formulating goals and objectives that will tremendously influence the success of a GIS initiative. It details the factors crucial for building an enterprise GIS vision statement that includes governance, data and databases, procedures and workflow, GIS software, GIS training and education, and infrastructure, and how to develop performance measures related to the stated objectives of an organization. The book combines theory with real-world experience to offer guidance on the process of managing GIS implementation. Through key components, this book introduces a new way to think about GIS technology.

1

Introduction

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

1.1 Background

We are about to enter a new world of advanced and innovative spatial analytics in local government and, with it, a future that includes a very different relationship with geospatial technology. We must change the way we train, educate, and transfer GIS knowledge to one another. We must understand what drives people to learn, think, and innovate. We must find new ways of capturing and appreciating outstanding human performance. All of this will include completely different management and learning styles and a new generation of Geographic Information Officers (GIO). Your goal is to plan, design, and build an enduring, sustainable, and enterprise GIS that first asks the questions, how healthy is my organization now, and how can we be prepared for the future? The good news is that a corporate-style diagnosis in the form of this book’s formula for success is the starting point for all local governments. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will allow you to prioritize investment and resources.

Are you prepared to take on this multiyear challenge?

The adoption of geospatial technologies within local government organizations has increased the demand for sophisticated planning tools and techniques to assist in the complex implementation process. As geospatial technology becomes ever more societally relevant, government organizations are beginning to understand the real opportunities as well as the complexities that this technology presents. GIS exists not only in the office but also on every smartphone and mobile device.

Currently, the real question is, what underpins a successful, enduring, and enterprise GIS in local government? Moreover, what is an enterprise, sustainable, and enduring GIS? In short, a sustainable and enduring enterprise GIS describes an integrated solution that serves an entire organization by offering (a) levels of geospatial functionality, (b) uniform standards, (c) good governance, (d) reliable digital data and databases, (e) workflow procedures, (f) training education and knowledge transfer, and (g) a backbone for architecture and infrastructure.

I cannot say how the future will unfold. What I can say is that throughout the past two decades, I have seen local governments not only repeat many of the same mistakes but also make the same mistakes at the same time.

I know that implementing new, innovative software solutions is not always easy. If local governments lack perspective on the effective use of GIS, the task of implementation can be cumbersome and time consuming. Deploying a structured and comprehensive strategic plan can introduce positive changes into the way that the GIS is adopted and embraced.

Everyone wants to make a difference in their community. For the GIS and government professionals to do so, solutions to the technical, tactical, logistical, and political problems that they face must be found and acted upon. Municipalities need solutions that will put their organization on the map.

I wrote this book to make a set of tools that are available to the local government professionals and GIS communities. I am hoping that if these tools are utilized correctly, they will allow your organization to develop a sustainable and effective relationship with geospatial technology. I call this toolkit the formula for success and hope that it can help you as much as it has helped me. But you may be wondering, “David, what exactly will this book give me?” Well, formally, it will provide you the following:

• A GIS formula for evaluating, benchmarking, and implementing an enterprise GIS

• An explanation of the challenges, barriers, and pitfalls of GIS implementation

• A strategy for developing a GIS vision and goals and objectives for an enterprise GIS

• An understanding of the importance of GIS governance and governance models in local government

• An enterprise GIS training, education, and knowledge transfer solution

• A thoughtful approach to quantifying and qualifying the benefits of GIS technology

• How to sell GIS

Understanding the principles that underpin success in the GIS community requires, more than anything, common sense. Informally, my book aims to help you with everything that falls outside of that particular realm. I am not just interested, however, in making the implementation and utilization of GIS technology that much easier but also in showing geospatial technology for what it is: a dynamic and ever-evolving tool for problem-solving. That is why GIS is so socially relevant and why, by using a combination of theory and real-world practice, this book provides invaluable insight into the implementation and governance of sustainable GIS technologies.

To achieve these aims, I emphasize the importance of both strategic planning and having a firm understanding of the potential for GIS as a technological innovation. I demonstrate how one develops goals and objectives, and presents the benefits and costs of GIS, along with the methods to achieve and present measurable results.

Over the next few chapters, you will learn everything, from how to secure buy-in from elected officials and senior management; where to identify funding and investment strategies; and how to eliminate data inaccuracies, redundancies, and duplication.

Using theory and real-world practice, this book offers a perspective on the process of implementation. It discusses recent innovations in GIS technology and contrasts the contemporary corporate, cloud-based style of GIS implementation with older styles of adoption and their constraints. Most importantly, this book emphasizes the value of strategic planning and an understanding of GIS as a multifaceted technological innovation.

This book will show how to overcome the barriers to successful implementation by detailing all of the procedural components that require an organization’s attention. As you engage yourself in the following chapters, please keep in mind that you should use this book to take your organization to a new level of GIS capability that incorporates an enterprise, sustainable, and scalable solution.

This book is about you as a leader. There are people in this world who could never bring themselves to build something larger and more lasting than themselves, and I am hoping that you are not one of them.

The following nine chapters of this book will show you how to build and manage the implementation of an enduring local government GIS:

1. Chapter 2: Strategic Planning

2. Chapter 3: The Formula for Success

3. Chapter 4: Challenges, Barriers, and Pitfalls

4. Chapter 5: Developing a Vision, Goals, and Objectives

5. Chapter 6: Governance

6. Chapter 7: GIS Training, Education, and Knowledge Transfer

7. Chapter 8: Return on Investment

8. Chapter 9: How to Sell GIS to Local Government

9. Chapter 10: Conclusions

To begin, I have provided a brief summary of each chapter as follows.

1.2 Strategic Planning

Chapter 2 details the strategic planning process that an organization must undertake prior to GIS implementation. Additionally, this chapter discusses the different perspectives on GIS and emphasizes the importance of understanding your audience. Three phases and seven detailed project steps compose the strategic planning process, and the chapter is broken down accordingly.

1.3 The Formula for Success

Chapter 3 is about wrapping your arms around the critical components of local government GIS. Ask yourself where, on a scale of 1 to 10, would your organization fall with regards to its managing and maintenance of a sustainable enterprise GIS? What about your personal understanding of the building blocks of GIS? Could you describe all of the criteria that are required to build a GIS foundation? Can you see the entire GIS landscape? If I asked you to grade yourself on these scores and then explain why you graded yourself that way, could you?

Chapter 3 offers a practical and repeatable strategy for GIS success. It describes the formula for success and documents how you should use it. This entails understanding the essential ingredients that are required to plan, maintain, design, implement, and manage an enduring enterprise GIS. Most importantly, Chapter 3 includes a list of defined GIS terminology and explains how to benchmark your organization according to these definitions.

The heart of Chapter 3 is the formula for success that offers a systematic methodology for examining and benchmarking your GIS.

1.4 Challenges, Barriers, and Pitfalls

There are many obstacles to successful GIS implementation, and unfortunately, the local government landscape is riddled with false starts, poorly planned implementations, and glorified mapping systems. Chapter 4 documents the reason for failure and possible remedies. This chapter’s premise is that active management can understand and overcome the challenges to implementation. To support this premise, Chapter 4 discusses five GIS strategic planning components, the planning challenges, and the barriers and pitfalls that can prevent a successful implementation.

It discusses how to sustain the process over multiple years and overcome barriers in the way of change. It discusses the pathways to change and the ways of improving organizational effectiveness and efficiency and lays out the organizational approaches, management processes, and leadership actions that are required for the GIS to become an indispensable part of an organization.

1.5 Developing a Vision, Goals, and Objectives

In the middle ages, English–Welsh archers, or longbowmen, would aim high to hit their target. Over distance, their arrows dropped slightly en route to their mark.

Chapter 5 is about aiming high so that you can consistently hit your mark by formalizing goals and objectives. Developing a vision, goals, and objectives will tremendously influence the success of a GIS initiative. In Chapter 5, a detailed seven-step methodology establishes a template for defining your organization’s vision and setting goals that support this vision. It describes, in sequential order, how to perform a ...

Índice

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• List of Figures
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Strategic Planning
• 3. The Formula for Success
• 4. Challenges, Barriers, and Pitfalls
• 5. Sequential Steps to Developing a Vision, Goals, and Objectives
• 6. Governance
• 7. GIS Training, Education, and Knowledge Transfer
• 8. Return on Investment
• 9. How to Sell GIS to Local Government
• 10. Conclusions
• References
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Index