1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:02,620 - [Instructor] Hi, and welcome to module eight 2 00:00:02,620 --> 00:00:05,670 of advanced geographic information systems. 3 00:00:05,670 --> 00:00:07,200 In this first lecture, 4 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:10,203 we'll talk about managing GIS projects. 5 00:00:11,090 --> 00:00:13,960 And while these concepts relate mostly 6 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:16,610 to large-scale projects, there's certainly a lot 7 00:00:16,610 --> 00:00:19,240 of helpful things to think about 8 00:00:19,240 --> 00:00:21,950 as you're designing small-scale projects 9 00:00:21,950 --> 00:00:23,683 or independent workflows. 10 00:00:24,530 --> 00:00:27,480 Project management is the application of knowledge, 11 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:31,050 skills, tools and techniques 12 00:00:31,050 --> 00:00:33,310 to the required project activities 13 00:00:33,310 --> 00:00:34,640 that are necessary to meet 14 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:37,833 or exceed the needs of the stakeholders. 15 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:41,640 Now, when I talk about stakeholders, 16 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:44,560 I don't just mean the customer or the end-user, 17 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:48,060 but also the project manager, the project team 18 00:00:48,060 --> 00:00:49,513 and the client as well. 19 00:00:50,650 --> 00:00:53,610 Each stakeholder brings their own perspective to the table. 20 00:00:53,610 --> 00:00:55,120 And as we'll talk about later, 21 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:58,170 it's really important that everyone's objectives align 22 00:00:58,170 --> 00:01:01,140 in order to implement a successful project. 23 00:01:01,140 --> 00:01:04,220 Now, Murphy's Law of project management tells us 24 00:01:04,220 --> 00:01:07,200 that no major project will ever be completed on time, 25 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,640 within budget and with the same staff that it began with, 26 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:13,237 don't expect yours to be the first. 27 00:01:13,237 --> 00:01:15,270 The project management book 28 00:01:15,270 --> 00:01:17,940 describes five different process groups 29 00:01:17,940 --> 00:01:21,263 and nine knowledge areas related to project management. 30 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:24,060 The first of these process groups 31 00:01:24,060 --> 00:01:26,850 is the initiation process. 32 00:01:26,850 --> 00:01:29,100 This is where the project gets defined, 33 00:01:29,100 --> 00:01:31,940 where the scope is also defined, 34 00:01:31,940 --> 00:01:33,970 project goals are identified, 35 00:01:33,970 --> 00:01:36,920 as well as resources, deliverables 36 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:39,483 and the time schedule you're expected to adhere to. 37 00:01:40,890 --> 00:01:44,070 The initiation phase typically involves 38 00:01:44,070 --> 00:01:47,430 the top level management as well as 39 00:01:47,430 --> 00:01:49,723 the client and end-user stakeholders. 40 00:01:50,860 --> 00:01:54,870 At the planning stage, you engage in information gathering, 41 00:01:54,870 --> 00:01:56,690 you review the available resources 42 00:01:56,690 --> 00:02:00,220 to ensure they're adequate for a successful project. 43 00:02:00,220 --> 00:02:04,130 You conduct a risk assessment and identify potential areas 44 00:02:04,130 --> 00:02:05,560 that need to be monitored 45 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:07,890 throughout the life of the project, 46 00:02:07,890 --> 00:02:11,490 develop a management plan, a time schedule 47 00:02:11,490 --> 00:02:13,740 and a cost per task. 48 00:02:13,740 --> 00:02:15,310 This is an iterative process 49 00:02:15,310 --> 00:02:18,100 and involves all of the stakeholders. 50 00:02:18,100 --> 00:02:21,473 It reinforces what's been developed at the initiation phase. 51 00:02:22,930 --> 00:02:26,090 From there, it's time to execute the project. 52 00:02:26,090 --> 00:02:27,860 You'll develop the project team. 53 00:02:27,860 --> 00:02:29,850 Maybe you need to recruit new talent. 54 00:02:29,850 --> 00:02:31,590 Maybe you need to shift some talent around 55 00:02:31,590 --> 00:02:33,770 within your organization. 56 00:02:33,770 --> 00:02:35,190 You execute the project 57 00:02:36,060 --> 00:02:39,253 and ensure that all of the pieces are flowing smoothly. 58 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:42,800 It's likely up to you to perform some quality assurance 59 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,440 or quality check on the intermediate 60 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:48,100 or final results as they're developed 61 00:02:48,100 --> 00:02:50,070 to ensure the highest level of quality 62 00:02:50,930 --> 00:02:52,603 in the products that you produce. 63 00:02:53,540 --> 00:02:56,370 You're also in charge of information distribution, 64 00:02:56,370 --> 00:02:58,190 communicating with the stakeholders 65 00:02:58,190 --> 00:03:02,120 to make sure that is up to date on the progress, 66 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:04,510 understands any potential stumbling blocks 67 00:03:06,050 --> 00:03:09,480 and knows when to expect the deliverables. 68 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:11,410 Once again, the execution of the process 69 00:03:11,410 --> 00:03:14,913 is a bit iterative based on project fluctuations. 70 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:22,830 Monitoring and controlling 71 00:03:24,100 --> 00:03:26,550 is the process where you observe progress, 72 00:03:26,550 --> 00:03:29,260 you identify any potential issues 73 00:03:29,260 --> 00:03:30,913 and you seek their resolution. 74 00:03:33,030 --> 00:03:37,180 This process group spans the entire project life cycle. 75 00:03:37,180 --> 00:03:39,900 It's important to evaluate any proposed changes 76 00:03:39,900 --> 00:03:43,573 to the project to ensure consistency with the goals. 77 00:03:45,140 --> 00:03:48,250 Delays in data collection or data processing, 78 00:03:48,250 --> 00:03:52,130 shifting priorities or even a change in the composition 79 00:03:52,130 --> 00:03:53,330 of the stakeholder group 80 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:59,340 can all yield new suggestions for project directions. 81 00:03:59,340 --> 00:04:01,740 But again, you need to ensure consistency 82 00:04:01,740 --> 00:04:03,990 with the goals of the original project. 83 00:04:03,990 --> 00:04:07,050 Sometimes if for no other reason, 84 00:04:07,050 --> 00:04:09,223 then due to contractual obligations. 85 00:04:10,220 --> 00:04:12,917 Now, the last of these process groups is the closing process 86 00:04:12,917 --> 00:04:16,670 and this terminates the project actions and activities. 87 00:04:16,670 --> 00:04:18,950 You hand off all of the deliverables, 88 00:04:18,950 --> 00:04:20,930 the contract has been signed off 89 00:04:20,930 --> 00:04:23,470 and the client knows that they should no longer expect 90 00:04:23,470 --> 00:04:25,343 to be billed for any additional work. 91 00:04:28,610 --> 00:04:31,130 Now, in terms of knowledge areas, 92 00:04:31,130 --> 00:04:32,843 we have nine different knowledge areas 93 00:04:32,843 --> 00:04:36,400 that we can focus on for project management. 94 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:39,200 Project integration and management is the application 95 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:41,450 of the specific skills, techniques and knowledge 96 00:04:41,450 --> 00:04:43,500 to complete the task at hand. 97 00:04:43,500 --> 00:04:45,120 As the project manager, 98 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:47,090 you're the one responsible for development 99 00:04:47,090 --> 00:04:49,990 of a unifying theory of the project workflow. 100 00:04:49,990 --> 00:04:52,863 And this involves all five of the process groups. 101 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:55,483 Project scope management, 102 00:04:57,170 --> 00:05:00,810 this knowledge area identifies what needs to be completed 103 00:05:00,810 --> 00:05:02,810 and what should be avoided. 104 00:05:02,810 --> 00:05:04,120 Things like mission creep, 105 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:07,920 expanding the data collection effort, for example, 106 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:09,690 just because you're out there. 107 00:05:09,690 --> 00:05:11,550 You need to stick to the original plan, 108 00:05:11,550 --> 00:05:14,780 so that you can also remain on budget 109 00:05:14,780 --> 00:05:16,123 and within the timeline. 110 00:05:17,020 --> 00:05:18,870 Project scope management is centered 111 00:05:18,870 --> 00:05:20,480 on the planning and monitoring 112 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:22,363 and controlling process groups. 113 00:05:23,290 --> 00:05:27,550 Now, time management, this one's key. 114 00:05:27,550 --> 00:05:30,450 All projects are subject to time constraints 115 00:05:30,450 --> 00:05:32,710 and it's up to you as the project manager 116 00:05:32,710 --> 00:05:34,850 to ensure a smooth workflow 117 00:05:35,710 --> 00:05:38,780 and that any subsequent tasks 118 00:05:38,780 --> 00:05:42,080 that are dependent on input data 119 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:43,440 are delivered on time 120 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,210 so that you can keep the project on schedule. 121 00:05:51,410 --> 00:05:53,830 Project cost management means that you need 122 00:05:53,830 --> 00:05:56,170 to develop task level budgets 123 00:05:56,170 --> 00:05:58,713 and stay within those constraints. 124 00:05:59,700 --> 00:06:01,630 This involves planning and monitoring 125 00:06:01,630 --> 00:06:03,543 and the controlling process groups. 126 00:06:04,540 --> 00:06:06,273 Quality management means 127 00:06:06,273 --> 00:06:08,560 that you need to identify the quality standards 128 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:10,410 and ensure that they're met. 129 00:06:10,410 --> 00:06:13,290 You need to evaluate stakeholder expectations 130 00:06:13,290 --> 00:06:16,640 in light of the quality that you're able to deliver 131 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:19,310 and make sure that those two match. 132 00:06:19,310 --> 00:06:20,800 You also need to be responsible 133 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:23,190 for monitoring any project outputs, 134 00:06:23,190 --> 00:06:25,480 providing that QA QC assurance 135 00:06:26,900 --> 00:06:29,900 so that the products you deliver are of the highest quality. 136 00:06:31,130 --> 00:06:33,070 There's human resource management, 137 00:06:33,070 --> 00:06:36,340 acquiring, developing, organizing 138 00:06:36,340 --> 00:06:39,870 and overseeing the various team members responsible 139 00:06:39,870 --> 00:06:42,670 for all those different moving parts within the project. 140 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:46,900 Communication management means 141 00:06:46,900 --> 00:06:49,410 that you need to maintain open lines of communication 142 00:06:49,410 --> 00:06:51,410 with the stakeholders. 143 00:06:51,410 --> 00:06:53,310 Who needs to communicate with whom? 144 00:06:53,310 --> 00:06:54,660 At what frequency? 145 00:06:54,660 --> 00:06:57,530 These are all things that should be identified 146 00:06:57,530 --> 00:06:59,650 in the project planning phase. 147 00:06:59,650 --> 00:07:01,850 You also need to communicate with your team. 148 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:05,200 Make sure everyone knows where the different phases 149 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:06,350 of the project are at 150 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:10,330 and where folks could lend the helping hand 151 00:07:10,330 --> 00:07:12,780 if they're ahead of schedule with their own work. 152 00:07:13,750 --> 00:07:15,260 In terms of risk management, 153 00:07:15,260 --> 00:07:18,130 you need to identify and mitigate project risks. 154 00:07:18,130 --> 00:07:21,100 This could be anything from staffing and budget 155 00:07:21,100 --> 00:07:22,983 to data collection and processing. 156 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:27,860 Project procurement and management means 157 00:07:27,860 --> 00:07:29,420 that you need to outline a process 158 00:07:29,420 --> 00:07:32,140 to acquire these different product services 159 00:07:32,140 --> 00:07:34,920 and results from outside the team. 160 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:38,090 Ensuring that they fit into the overall workflow 161 00:07:38,090 --> 00:07:40,280 and that they're affordable 162 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:42,930 within the price constraints under which you operate. 163 00:07:45,090 --> 00:07:48,470 Now, I mentioned scheduling a couple of times already. 164 00:07:48,470 --> 00:07:51,530 When you have multiple different options for the ways 165 00:07:51,530 --> 00:07:53,970 that you might lay out your schedule. 166 00:07:53,970 --> 00:07:55,900 Essentially scheduling 167 00:07:55,900 --> 00:07:58,190 is a process for coordinating task completion 168 00:07:58,190 --> 00:07:59,963 throughout the project life cycle. 169 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:02,790 Now, we'll look at two different methods 170 00:08:02,790 --> 00:08:06,410 for scheduling tasks within a project workflow. 171 00:08:06,410 --> 00:08:08,690 The first of these is the Gantt chart. 172 00:08:08,690 --> 00:08:09,900 Now, the Gantt chart is nice 173 00:08:09,900 --> 00:08:11,480 because it displays dependencies 174 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:15,530 between or among the various tasks in the project workflow. 175 00:08:15,530 --> 00:08:18,910 It offers dates and the timeline to completion 176 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:22,200 and it works well when you have less than 30 177 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:26,803 or so sequential tasks as part of your project workflow. 178 00:08:27,740 --> 00:08:31,190 Now, a Gantt chart's not really suitable for large projects. 179 00:08:31,190 --> 00:08:33,530 You can't put it all on a single page 180 00:08:33,530 --> 00:08:37,080 and at some point once the task number becomes too large, 181 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,100 it becomes difficult to conceptualize. 182 00:08:40,100 --> 00:08:42,550 You need to understand the timeline at the outset 183 00:08:42,550 --> 00:08:46,380 of the project in order to set the Gantt chart up properly. 184 00:08:46,380 --> 00:08:49,283 And if things change along the way, 185 00:08:50,131 --> 00:08:53,350 it's somewhat difficult to update the Gantt chart. 186 00:08:53,350 --> 00:08:55,850 More tedious than difficult, I guess I should say. 187 00:08:57,220 --> 00:08:59,840 Here's an example of a very simple Gantt chart 188 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:02,910 where you lay out your tasks in the first column 189 00:09:02,910 --> 00:09:06,810 and the timeline and subsequent columns across the page. 190 00:09:06,810 --> 00:09:10,580 Then you just fill in the cells for the different tasks 191 00:09:10,580 --> 00:09:13,510 and when they're expected to be worked on 192 00:09:13,510 --> 00:09:16,150 and their expected data completion. 193 00:09:16,150 --> 00:09:19,000 Again, much more sophisticated options are available here 194 00:09:19,900 --> 00:09:21,750 but I think you get the general idea. 195 00:09:24,820 --> 00:09:28,020 A PERT scheduling approach refers to program evaluation 196 00:09:28,020 --> 00:09:29,410 and review technique. 197 00:09:29,410 --> 00:09:33,500 And once again, its primary task is to coordinate 198 00:09:33,500 --> 00:09:36,450 the completion of the project life cycle. 199 00:09:36,450 --> 00:09:40,580 The focus here is on events, not necessarily on dates. 200 00:09:40,580 --> 00:09:44,090 In a PERT schedule estimates the optimal, the normal 201 00:09:44,090 --> 00:09:46,220 and the pessimistic time that it might take 202 00:09:46,220 --> 00:09:49,040 to complete individual tasks. 203 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:49,903 From that, 204 00:09:51,260 --> 00:09:53,350 you can estimate the expected time 205 00:09:54,690 --> 00:09:56,203 with the formula that you see. 206 00:09:58,820 --> 00:10:02,660 Now, the PERT scheduling uses this expected time 207 00:10:02,660 --> 00:10:04,780 to identify critical paths, 208 00:10:04,780 --> 00:10:09,233 the longest possible project duration and it maps that out. 209 00:10:10,260 --> 00:10:13,223 Somewhat similar to a network analysis. 210 00:10:14,700 --> 00:10:17,330 In terms of pitfalls, the PERT schedule 211 00:10:17,330 --> 00:10:20,960 is a little bit less clear on the time to task completion, 212 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:24,760 instead focusing solely on those events. 213 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:26,480 And like the Gantt chart, 214 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:29,730 large projects do become difficult to map. 215 00:10:29,730 --> 00:10:33,570 In reality, it might be easiest to mix and match 216 00:10:33,570 --> 00:10:37,560 using a PERT chart for the big picture scheduling 217 00:10:37,560 --> 00:10:40,580 of the project workflow and Gantt charts 218 00:10:40,580 --> 00:10:44,123 to handle subsections of that overall schedule. 219 00:10:46,560 --> 00:10:49,800 Now, many different aspects to project failure, 220 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:53,260 but certainly poor planning would be at the forefront. 221 00:10:53,260 --> 00:10:54,130 And that could be anything 222 00:10:54,130 --> 00:10:55,420 from green-lighting a project 223 00:10:55,420 --> 00:10:57,350 that should never have been given a go 224 00:10:57,350 --> 00:11:00,970 to neglecting to include all of the stakeholders 225 00:11:00,970 --> 00:11:02,313 that should be involved. 226 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:05,190 Probably goes without saying, 227 00:11:05,190 --> 00:11:08,070 but unresolved political issues never really help 228 00:11:08,070 --> 00:11:10,490 when you're working on a project. 229 00:11:10,490 --> 00:11:14,450 You might have a lack of support, staff, funding 230 00:11:14,450 --> 00:11:16,953 or even institutional support from above. 231 00:11:18,030 --> 00:11:20,510 If you lack a project champion, 232 00:11:20,510 --> 00:11:23,713 it's likely project failure's not far behind. 233 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:26,370 Poor management. 234 00:11:26,370 --> 00:11:29,370 A project manager should have the experience, education, 235 00:11:29,370 --> 00:11:32,020 leadership abilities, be a skilled negotiator, 236 00:11:32,020 --> 00:11:36,420 communicator, problem-solver, planner and organizer. 237 00:11:36,420 --> 00:11:38,860 Who doesn't possess that skill set? 238 00:11:38,860 --> 00:11:40,800 The more complex the project, 239 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:43,143 the more adept the project manager should be. 240 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:46,500 And lastly, in terms of project failure, 241 00:11:46,500 --> 00:11:50,030 a lack of client focus or end-user engagement. 242 00:11:50,030 --> 00:11:52,260 You need to make sure the end-users 243 00:11:52,260 --> 00:11:55,750 are participating in all stages of the project. 244 00:11:55,750 --> 00:11:56,900 There's nothing worse than getting 245 00:11:56,900 --> 00:11:59,960 to the end of the project delivering some content 246 00:11:59,960 --> 00:12:03,170 that the client said was what the end-user needed only 247 00:12:03,170 --> 00:12:05,960 to have the end user tell you that that's not 248 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,260 a workable solution for their current problem. 249 00:12:10,750 --> 00:12:13,070 I'll offer my two cents. 250 00:12:13,070 --> 00:12:15,320 On the human logistics side, 251 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,980 communication cannot be stressed enough. 252 00:12:18,980 --> 00:12:21,370 Human interaction's always difficult 253 00:12:21,370 --> 00:12:24,200 and managing the various personalities of a team 254 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:28,290 sometimes really, really drawn all of the skills 255 00:12:28,290 --> 00:12:29,533 of a project manager. 256 00:12:30,492 --> 00:12:32,750 You need to help maintain both individual 257 00:12:32,750 --> 00:12:35,180 and team identities. 258 00:12:35,180 --> 00:12:37,450 You need to make sure that the stakeholders play nicely 259 00:12:37,450 --> 00:12:40,920 with one another, as well as with the project team. 260 00:12:40,920 --> 00:12:43,780 And if there are any outside contractors, 261 00:12:43,780 --> 00:12:46,200 you need to keep them on task as well 262 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:47,840 so that the overall workflow 263 00:12:48,900 --> 00:12:51,703 can be met within the timeline that's been promised. 264 00:12:52,790 --> 00:12:55,240 On the technical logistics side, once again, 265 00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:57,940 I put communication right up at the top. 266 00:12:57,940 --> 00:12:59,720 Communicating with your stakeholders, 267 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:02,010 communicating with your team, 268 00:13:02,010 --> 00:13:04,840 communicating with the managers above you 269 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:06,033 in the staff hierarchy. 270 00:13:06,970 --> 00:13:09,880 You need to be ready to troubleshoot at all times 271 00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:12,750 and figure out innovative ways to play catch up 272 00:13:12,750 --> 00:13:15,360 when you get behind on the timeline. 273 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:18,830 It's up to you could develop file naming 274 00:13:18,830 --> 00:13:20,950 and metadata standards. 275 00:13:20,950 --> 00:13:23,520 I've displayed a couple of different examples 276 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:26,150 of the way that I work through different projects. 277 00:13:26,150 --> 00:13:28,590 Maybe that works for you and maybe it doesn't. 278 00:13:28,590 --> 00:13:29,800 Whatever the case, 279 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:32,450 you can't let individual team members make decisions 280 00:13:32,450 --> 00:13:35,840 about how and whether to document data 281 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:39,020 and how they plan to store that data. 282 00:13:39,020 --> 00:13:42,070 And then lastly, data storage and archival 283 00:13:42,070 --> 00:13:44,590 are critical, because you never know when you might need 284 00:13:44,590 --> 00:13:46,233 to come back to a project. 285 00:13:47,810 --> 00:13:50,190 Now, two other things to mention here, 286 00:13:50,190 --> 00:13:53,930 application development and creating maps series. 287 00:13:53,930 --> 00:13:57,550 Now, as the project manager, you might get to a place 288 00:13:57,550 --> 00:14:00,440 in the project workflow and decide that 289 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:04,350 the off-the-shelf software isn't necessarily working. 290 00:14:04,350 --> 00:14:07,210 And at that point you have a couple of different options. 291 00:14:07,210 --> 00:14:10,040 You could customize existing software packages 292 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:12,510 and we've seen examples of this already. 293 00:14:12,510 --> 00:14:14,600 Creating layer files, for example, 294 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:17,500 to define color schemes and class breaks 295 00:14:17,500 --> 00:14:20,683 for specific data sets that will be used in the analysis. 296 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:23,630 We recently learned about ModelBuilder, 297 00:14:23,630 --> 00:14:25,920 sequencing geoprocessing operations 298 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:29,190 to standardize geoprocessing workflows. 299 00:14:29,190 --> 00:14:31,220 You could also create custom scripts 300 00:14:31,220 --> 00:14:34,870 in something like Python or Visual Basic or Java, 301 00:14:34,870 --> 00:14:37,530 or even Pearl and build that 302 00:14:37,530 --> 00:14:39,763 into the geoprocessing workflow. 303 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:43,400 Sometimes maybe that's not enough 304 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:46,490 and you need to look more towards the development 305 00:14:46,490 --> 00:14:49,000 of a standalone software package. 306 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:50,920 I do encourage caution here. 307 00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:54,260 While a standalone software package does sound attractive, 308 00:14:54,260 --> 00:14:57,540 it does bring in a whole host of other difficulties 309 00:14:57,540 --> 00:14:59,300 that you might not have to face 310 00:14:59,300 --> 00:15:01,913 if you're using a more off-the-shelf solution. 311 00:15:02,810 --> 00:15:04,950 Most of the time you're going to build on top 312 00:15:04,950 --> 00:15:07,870 of existing open source software applications 313 00:15:07,870 --> 00:15:10,320 and you can draw on the shared libraries 314 00:15:10,320 --> 00:15:13,380 for things like file formatting support 315 00:15:13,380 --> 00:15:16,200 and geoprocessing operations. 316 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:18,270 At the extreme end, 317 00:15:18,270 --> 00:15:23,250 you would create your own standalone GIS software 318 00:15:23,250 --> 00:15:25,950 that's specific to the project that you're working on. 319 00:15:28,045 --> 00:15:29,830 And the last thing I'll mention here 320 00:15:29,830 --> 00:15:32,550 is this notion of a map series. 321 00:15:32,550 --> 00:15:34,200 We're moving away from this a little bit 322 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:35,860 because of all of the different methods 323 00:15:35,860 --> 00:15:39,640 for presenting results online. 324 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:42,580 But if you find yourself in a position 325 00:15:42,580 --> 00:15:45,430 where you need to create a set of paper maps, 326 00:15:45,430 --> 00:15:50,430 say for tax purposes or parcel mapping, for example, 327 00:15:50,970 --> 00:15:53,390 a map series would be the way to go. 328 00:15:53,390 --> 00:15:55,770 And again, you can use this to present intermediate 329 00:15:55,770 --> 00:15:57,680 or final outputs. 330 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:00,480 It's up to you to decide on the standardized map elements, 331 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:03,650 things like the north arrow, the scale bar, 332 00:16:03,650 --> 00:16:07,140 the scale of the maps themselves, titles, legends 333 00:16:07,140 --> 00:16:08,563 and so on and so forth. 334 00:16:10,530 --> 00:16:14,150 There are challenges when you have these large study areas 335 00:16:14,150 --> 00:16:15,980 or maybe linear study areas. 336 00:16:15,980 --> 00:16:18,390 You're working on a highway or a pipeline project, 337 00:16:18,390 --> 00:16:21,550 for example, or disjoint study areas, 338 00:16:21,550 --> 00:16:23,980 you're collecting field samples from all 339 00:16:23,980 --> 00:16:27,620 of the different national forests on the eastern seaboard. 340 00:16:27,620 --> 00:16:32,350 In this case, once again, a map series is the way to go. 341 00:16:32,350 --> 00:16:35,750 And you can use these tools within ArcGIS 342 00:16:35,750 --> 00:16:39,000 to generate a series of maps based on boundaries 343 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:39,923 that you define. 344 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:46,440 If you go into the layout properties of a map layout, 345 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:48,860 you see that map series is one of the options 346 00:16:48,860 --> 00:16:51,520 and you can define spatial boundaries. 347 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:55,750 So maybe it's quarter, quarter quadrangles 348 00:16:55,750 --> 00:16:59,350 or maybe it's county boundaries or town boundaries 349 00:16:59,350 --> 00:17:01,050 or state boundaries. 350 00:17:01,050 --> 00:17:02,820 You could also use bookmarks. 351 00:17:02,820 --> 00:17:04,170 Maybe you've just bookmarked 352 00:17:04,170 --> 00:17:06,120 all of your different study area sites 353 00:17:07,010 --> 00:17:09,030 within a single map project 354 00:17:09,030 --> 00:17:10,680 and you could use those bookmarks 355 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:15,003 as the basis of the individual maps of the map series. 356 00:17:17,030 --> 00:17:19,920 You select a layer that defines 357 00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:21,030 the map series. 358 00:17:21,030 --> 00:17:22,100 In this case, 359 00:17:22,100 --> 00:17:26,080 we have our USA States Generalized data set selected, 360 00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:29,070 and I'm going to use my state name 361 00:17:29,070 --> 00:17:31,810 as both the name field and the sorting field 362 00:17:31,810 --> 00:17:33,623 for generating those maps. 363 00:17:36,140 --> 00:17:37,460 In the map extent section, 364 00:17:37,460 --> 00:17:39,470 you have a number of different options 365 00:17:39,470 --> 00:17:42,250 about whether or not you want to standardize the scale 366 00:17:42,250 --> 00:17:45,760 or use the best fit for each one of those individual maps 367 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:47,773 that you create within the series. 368 00:17:50,380 --> 00:17:54,490 You also have the option to clip to the index feature. 369 00:17:54,490 --> 00:17:55,410 That just means 370 00:17:56,360 --> 00:17:58,420 the individual boundaries that you're using 371 00:17:58,420 --> 00:18:00,230 to generate the map series. 372 00:18:00,230 --> 00:18:04,110 So the town boundaries or the state boundaries, for example, 373 00:18:04,110 --> 00:18:06,010 in the example that we just looked at. 374 00:18:07,780 --> 00:18:11,343 And once you click okay, and generate that map series, 375 00:18:12,310 --> 00:18:14,860 in the contents pane of the map layout, 376 00:18:14,860 --> 00:18:18,780 you see sequentially numbered maps, 377 00:18:18,780 --> 00:18:21,030 one for each in the series. 378 00:18:21,030 --> 00:18:22,770 Double-click on any of those, 379 00:18:22,770 --> 00:18:25,723 and ArcGIS will take you to that specific map layout. 380 00:18:26,980 --> 00:18:28,920 Well, that's it for project management. 381 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:31,160 Join me in the next lecture and I'll demonstrate 382 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,163 how to create a map series using ArcGIS.