Scope of GIS Project Management & Planning

Scoping GIS projects

• Project versus System implementation
• Tomlinson is a book written for system implementation, but is useful for project implementation
• 10 stage GIS planning methodology,

Single-purpose GIS project

• Initiated to serve one-time objectives

Departmental GIS project

• A department is responsible for implementing GIS functionalities

Enterprise GIS project

• Many functions are shared between different department, thus implementing GIS projects across multiple departments make sense (MPLIS chapter 16 describes the Enterprise GIS project)
• Will benefit from system integration
• Increasing strategic roles of GIS in an organization

Societal GIS project

• Cost sharing by the society as a whole

Methodology for GIS project implementation – the core

Needs assessment

• Data needs
• Functional needs
• Processing needs

System requirement

• Hardware/software needs
• Personnel/training needs
• Procedural needs
• Institutional needs

Data needs

• Geographic information needs inventory (Huxhold Figure 16-3)
• Identifies which maps or data are important for successful completion of each function in the unit
• Describe problems of current data and point out future needs as well
• Map inventory form will help you clarify issues involved in map use (Huxhold Figure 16-5)

Functional needs

• Identify activities which an organization perform to carry out its mission
• Identify all of their organizational units
• List the functions that require maps or other geographic information (Huxhold Figure 16-2 list of functions requiring geographic information by dept & function)

Processing needs

• Define how the data are to be used to fulfill the functional needs of the organization
• Application definition form contains data input requirements, processing requirements, and output products (Huxhold Figure 16-9)

Project management

• Project Management Job Functions
• Management tools
  • WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) chart
  • Gantt chart
  • PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique)

Needs assessment

• Lab 1 activity
• Arrange the meeting for needs assessment

Needs Assessment Meeting Objectives

• learn about the client’s organization
• determine who are the stakeholders/users
• help the client to understand the capabilities of GIS
• determine what the client’s goals or what they “need to know”
• begin to identify background resources and data sources