Lab 1 - GIS Management Overview & Program Development

Whoaa... this first lab assignment in my GIS 6555 GIS Management class was lots of work! To keep things concise, I'm only going to share 2 of the deliverables -- both of which were very eye-opening.

The SWOT Analysis

Yup, we were tasked to create the infamous SWOT/SWOC matrix-styled table identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats/challenges representing the case study "GIS Speeds Water Service Restoration" (Esri, 2015) at the town of Queen Creek, Arizona before they improved their processes. Along with my matrix, I also described the characteristics and explained how the elements were instrumental in contributing to the solutions implemented. However, I am not inserting that here because it was about 700 words long (ha).

Flowcharts and Business Processes

Another really cool lab deliverable involved the creation (and some really intense critical-thinking) of a total of 4 flowcharts (using Lucidchart) to model business processes before and after of these two case studies: "Quick Learner Saves San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District Millions of Dollars" (Esri, 2014) and "Ball Field Study Hits Home Run" (Esri, 2015).

Following direction from the article entitled “Five Tips for Better Flowcharts” by SmartDraw (2019), I created my flowcharts utilizing a left-to-right alignment, kept everything on one page, used a different color to denote decisions (instead of diamond-shapes), made sure the return/repeat lines were placed under the diagram, and used split-paths when applicable. All of these design choices are best practiced principles to facilitate the understanding of business processes.


References



Croswell, P. L. (2009). The GIS management handbook: Concepts, practices, and tools for planning, implementing, and managing geographic information system projects and programs. Frankfort, KY: Kessey Dewitt Publications.



Esri. (2014). Quick Learner Saves San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District Millions of Dollars. ArcNews, Winter 2013/2014, 35(4). Retrieved from https://www.esri.com/esri-news/arcnews/winter1314articles/quick-learner-saves-san-francisco-bay-area-rapid-transit-district-millions-of-dollars



Esri. (2015). GIS speeds water service restoration. ArcNews, Fall 2015, 37(3). Retrieved from https://www.esri.com/esri-news/arcnews/fall15articles/gis-speeds-water-service-restoration



Morgan, J.D. (2018, November 30). GIS Program Development [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaooMQHJeps&feature=youtu.be



Peterson, D. & Marshall, C. (2015). Ball Field Study Hits Home Run. ArcNews, Spring 2015, 37(1). Retrieved from https://www.esri.com/esri-news/arcnews/spring15articles/ball-field-study-hits-home-run



SmartDraw. (2019). Five tips for better flowcharts. Retrieved from https://www.smartdraw.com/flowchart/flowchart-tips.htm
 

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