University of Southern California Summer 2009

Stephen Koletty, PhD

Many people still hold a view that Geographic Information Science (GIS) is just about software design and development, computer hardware and data. A GIS project can't possibly be that different from any other IT project. While there is an element of truth in this statement,experienced GIS Project Managers understand that there is much more to it. This course provides a practitioner's perspective of GIS Project Management. The course takes a systematic approach to the management issues and methods necessary for developing a successful Geospatial Technology Project.

Organization

The courseintends to develop specific geospatial technology management skills through a critical understanding of the concepts, principles and use of contemporary project management tools, and how these can best be applied to GIS projects.Specific topics follow a logical sequence, which to an extent mirrors the stages which a project will go through from its inception to full implementation. This course focuses on four sets of management issues of particular relevance to GIS projects:

  • Issues in GIS project management – strategy, project environment, the investment process, appraisal methods and justification. Project constraints, influencing factors and project risk analysis. GIS project life cycle, project scope, objectives, plans, budgets, requests for change, risk analysis, and contract tendering.
  • Running a GIS project - fundamentals and levels of control, monitoring and control, control techniques, business and technical integrity, time and financial controls, earned value analysis, progress reporting, project meetings, exception plans and project closure.
  • People issues - highlighting issues centered on people in projects, project leadership, team building, motivation and development of team members, and also legal and ethical considerations of GIS project management.
  • Methodologies - overview of current GIS Project Management Methodologies.

Teaching and Learning Strategies

This particular course presents some unique challenges for me as an educator and for you as students. These challenges arise from the technical nature of GIS, the fact that this course is a graduate course, and that Geography 585 is a distance learning course.

Basically, GIS is just software and data, just computer code.However, the power, indeed magic, of GIS is what you do with it.This course is how you go about transforming an idea into a product using GIS. This effort is necessarily going to involve the collaboration of other people, yet, because of the technical character of GIS, there exists a tendency to focus on the software and data.

This a graduate level course, so you should expect this class to be both academically robust and intellectually challenging. A good graduate learning setting occurs within the heady cauldron of ideas, opinion, and analysis that describe our collective effort to thoroughly interrogate the subject at hand. Learning arises from active engagement with the knowledge found in our reading materials and with one another. My role as instructor should be that of a guide that keeps you on this path of discovery. The challenge for us is how we can replicate such an academic experience within the milieu of “distance learning”.

Perhaps, some of you may already have had experience with an online course. Inevitably, such courses seem to involve programmed readings and exercises, but not much interaction directly with the instructor and certainly none with fellow students. In the realm of computerized learning it is not really surprising that the default is to the solitary gamer. To counter this tendency I am deliberately incorporating specific methodologies to encourage and facilitate our interaction. These include:
Individual meetings: Over the next few weeks, I want to meet with each of you individually. I expect this meeting should not take more than about 20 minutes. For those on campus or nearby, contact me at to schedule a convenient time.My office presently is in Kaprielian Hall, Room KAP 448C. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons work best for me, but I can arrange a meeting at another time or after hours. For those off campus or at some distance, we will have our meeting online. For this you will need to acquire a video cam and headset. If you do not already have one, then we recommend Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000. After you get the unit working access Skype at and download the program (it’s free). Once you've installed it search for me: Contacts > Search for Skype Users... enter my email address: , my username is s.koletty, Los Angeles. Only one entry should come up. Add me as one of your contacts, then e-mail me to schedule a time for our online videocam meeting.

Video conferencing: I plan to schedule three class meetings over the summer. Attendance at least two of these meeting will be mandatory. In order for those off campus and at distant locations to be able to fully participate, we will set these up as videoconferences. I will be polling you as to what the best timing should be, but be aware that we might be constrained by the availability of facilities.
Team assignments: There will be at least one project in which you will be paired with another classmate.

Shared work: There will be some coursework that you will be doing also for the benefit your classmates. Specifically, each of you will be assigned one or more of the readings to summarize and distribute to the rest of the class.
Critiques: For certain assignments you will be tasked to analyze and critically review one another’s work.
Introductions: To get a start on getting to know one another, I want you to prepare a brief biographical statement (100-150 words) about yourself and your interest in this course. Include a recent photo of yourself and e-mail it to me at . Then, I will post the bios on Blackboard, so you can get introduced to your classmates.

Grading

Your grade in this class will be determined on the basis of several management exercises, 2short papers, a semester GIST management project, your participation in various assignments and your contributions to the class. Grades will be weighted according to the following schedule:

2 Short papers(45%)

Semester GIS Management Project–

Proposal & draft `(10%)

Final Report (20%)

Readings & other Assignments/participation (25%)

Course Outline

This course is intended to be self-paced. Still, there are time limitations to which we must attend. It is important that you maintain momentum in completing the course work. What follows is a course outline depicting the topics we will be covering with approximates dates. There will be, of course, be specified deadlines for the work that you turn in. Our semester ends officially on September 15, 2009. As many students enrolled in this course are continuing graduate students, I have set up a schedule so that you can complete this course by September 1, 2009, the week after on-campus classes begin in the fall.

Introductions week 1 (May 16 – May 30)

Section 1: Introduction to Geospatial Technology Management

Project Preparation weeks 2, 3 (June 1 – June 14)

Section 2: Getting Started

Section 3: The Green Light

Project Management Procedures weeks 4, 5, 6 (June 15 – July 5)

Section 4: Plans and Documentation

Section 5: General Management Issues

Monitoring and Controlling Project Progress weeks 7, 8, 9 (July 6 – July 26)

Section 6: Monitoring and ControllingProject Progress.

Real Project Issues weeks 7, 8, 9 (July 27 – August 9)

Section 7: Team Management and Other People Issues

Small GIS Projectsweeks 13, 14 (August 10 – August 23)

Section 8: Managing Small GIS Projects

Conclusion week 15 (August 24 – August 31)

Section 9: Conclusion

Readings

The course readings are listed below. These will be made available to you via Blackboard. This is the first time we have offered this course, so you can expect that there will modifications to this list. Additional materials appropriate to the specific topics will be identified as the course progresses, and I will consider any contributions you may suggest.

Books(recommended):

Obermeyer, Nancy J. and Jeffrey K. Pinto. (2008) Managing Geographic Information Systems. New York, The Guilford Press.

Tomlinson R F (2003) Thinking about GIS: Geographic Information System Planning for Managers.Redlands, CA, ESRI Press.

Book Chapters and Journal Articles:

Bernhardsen T (1999) Choosing a GIS. In Longley P A, Goodchild M F, Maguire D J, and Rhind D W (eds) Geographical Information Systems: 2, Management Issues and Applications.New York, John Wiley and Sons: 589-600

Campbell H J (1999) Institutional consequences of the use of GIS. In Longley P A, Goodchild M F, Maguire D J, and Rhind D W (eds) Geographical Information Systems: 2, Management Issues and Applications.New York, John Wiley and Sons: 621-31

Cho G C H (2006) GIS, personal privacy, and the law. In Wilson J P and Fotheringham A S (eds) The Handbook of Geographical Information Science.Oxford, Blackwell: in press

Ghose R (2001) Use of information technology for community empowerment: Transforming geographic information systems into community information systems. Transactions in GIS 5: 141-64

Hunter G J (1999) Managing uncertainty in GIS. In Longley P A, Goodchild M F, Maguire D J, and Rhind D W (eds) Geographical Information Systems: 2, Management Issues and Applications.New York, John Wiley and Sons: 633-41

Hendricks P H J (2000) An organizational learning perspective on GIS.International Journal of Geographical Information Science 14: 373-96

Guptill S C (1999) Metadata and data catalogues. In Longley P A, Goodchild M F, Maguire D J, and Rhind D W (eds) Geographical Information Systems: 2, Management Issues and Applications.New York, John Wiley and Sons: 677-92

Karikari I and Stillwell J (2005) Applying cost/benefit analysis to evaluate investment in GIS: The case of Ghana’s Lands Commission Secretariat, Accra. Transactions in GIS 9: 489-506

Kerski J J (2006) GIS in education. In Wilson J P and Fotheringham A S (eds) The Handbook of Geographical Information Science.Oxford, Blackwell: in press

López C (2002) Watermarking of digital geospatial datasets: A review of technical, legal, and copyright issues. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 16: 589-608

Obermeyer N J (1999) Measuring the benefits and costs of GIS. In Longley P A, Goodchild M F, Maguire D J, and Rhind D W (eds) Geographical Information Systems: 2, Management Issues and Applications.New York, John Wiley and Sons: 601-10

Onsrud H J (1999) Liability in the use of GIS and geographical datasets. In Longley P A, Goodchild M F, Maguire D J, and Rhind D W (eds) Geographical Information Systems: 2, Management Issues and Applications.New York, John Wiley and Sons: 643-52

Ramasubramanian L (1999) GIS implementation in developing countries: Learning from organizational theory and reflective practice. Transactions in GIS 3: 359-69

Sugarbaker L J (1999) Managing an operational GIS. In Longley P A, Goodchild M F, Maguire D J, and Rhind D W (eds) Geographical Information Systems: 2, Management Issues and Applications.New York, John Wiley and Sons: 611-20

Tulloch D L (2006) Institutional GIS and GI partnering. In Wilson J P and Fotheringham A S (eds) The Handbook of Geographical Information Science.Oxford, Blackwell: in press

Tulloch D L and Epstein E (2002) Benefits of community MPLIS: Effectiveness and Equity. Transactions in GIS 6: 195-212