Integrating GIS and Data Management Within the Project Environment

Today, much of the focus on integrating Geospatial technology and data has been on the operations side of the business. Not much attention has been paid to the workflow within the project environment even though most of the data that is used to populate enterprise datasets is created or prepared as a requirement of a project; that said; it is early on at the project level when geospatial integration needs to be implemented and incorporated into the project workflow. On the other hand, project teams have historically focused on strictly satisfying the needs of the project. This is typically limited to the minimum work required to design, permit & build a given work scope. This approach has left many companies with the task of paying high costs for the project data to be translated, captured or in some cases recreated after the fact. Too many times, Gas Company X hires multiple consultants with different disciplines responsible for different project scope items (i.e. Environmental, Right-of-way, Engineering, etc...). Each company has established methods for preparing and organizing their respective data without ever thinking how Gas Company X intends on using the data for other enterprise needs during the project and after the project has been completed. This presentation outlines methods by which companies can require that their project consultants produce project data with geospatial integration in mind. This includes identification of required resources & workflows to specify and manage the data that is prepared and/or collected in a structured environment that is geospatially & data aware.