Introduction
[from the 2004 GIS Software Migration Plan]
GIS
technology and associated data models have undergone radical
changes in the last few years. The entire structure of geographic
data has changed from a limited proprietary format to industry-standard
RDBMS format, allowing GIS data to be tied much more easily
to business data. This key restructuring of the fundamental
GIS data format, along with related changes, has spawned many
new data models that can be used to describe and organize
GIS and business data. But the magnitude and number of changes
to software and data structure have resulted in increased
complexity, requiring more technical expertise on the part
of managers, analysts, and developers.
Organizations that rely on GIS to meet a wide variety of complex
business needs, especially those that interact with other
GIS practitioners, have little choice but to respond to the
new GIS technology and data structure. Many of the external
agencies that King County GIS works with have already migrated
to the new software, or are in the process of doing so. The
King County GIS Technical Committee has recognized the importance
of adopting new technology, and has identified migration to
ESRI’s ArcGIS platform as a key concern for the KCGIS
community.
The purpose of this document is to offer a comprehensive description
of the software and hardware transition environment, and includes:
- discussion of issues relevant to agencies and the enterprise;
- a recommended training path for GIS staff and end users;
- recommendations on application transition and support;
- discussion of data migration issues and a recommended
data migration path;
- a timetable, and identification of significant milestones
to measure success.
The plan includes the
scope of changes to
GIS business practices,
including changes to
data, data maintenance
tools, system
operations, license management,
and applications for
query, analysis, and
display.
This
document does not include
a
comprehensive
plan for migrating
the cadastral base.
This will be handled
in a separate work
plan.
Objectives
and Milestones [from the document]
There
are four main objectives of the GIS software migration. When
all of these objectives are met, the migration will be considered
complete:
- The primary data warehouse (except cadastral base) is
the read-only SDE geodatabase. The shapefile library is
maintained for “legacy” ArcView 3.x users. The
coverage library no longer exists.
- Data editing and posting takes place in the SDE geodatabase
environment.
- Enterprise applications are in place to facilitate data
access, management, and editing where necessary. Agency-specific
applications are migrated or their relevant functionality
integrated into other business applications.
- End users have been categorized and trained, and have
either migrated to ArcGIS, ArcIMS, or have been declared
as a “legacy” ArcView 3.x users.
To track progress toward these objectives, seven major milestones
have been identified. Milestones are in rough time order;
however, firm deadlines are not included as some may be completed
in parallel.
- Develop
training curriculum. Sort
all GIS users into
categories. Develop
a training curriculum
for each user category,
using
available, cost-effective,
and appropriate courses
from ESRI classroom,
ESRI Virtual Campus,
KCGIS Center courses
and modules,
and other sources.
- Complete
preliminary data review. Conduct
a fitness review of
every internally-maintained
coverage in the current
GIS
data warehouse (/plibrary).
Layers that do not
pass review should
be archived and deleted
immediately.
- Create
agency migration plans. Categorize
agency business and
technical needs into
functional groups and
prioritize
based on common needs.
Use this information
and that acquired from
agency needs assessment,
data design, and geodatabase
design and implementation
to create a migration
plan for each
agency.
- Implement
prototype SDE production
geodatabase. Implement and test
a prototype enterprise
SDE production geodatabase,
using copies of core
data layers. Ensure
that stewards can
connect to their data,
edit it, and publish
edited data to the
data warehouse. Devise
and publish methodology
and appropriate
guidelines for stewards,
developers and analysts.
Note that this will
not include the cadastral
data model, but will
assume
the presence of the
parcel layer.
- Optimize
and migrate internally-maintained
data to the production
geodatabase. Determine
layer dependencies
and prioritize
layers and layer groups
to migrate based on
agency needs. Design,
implement, and test
optimization processes
based on
a set of prototype
layers. Optimize and
migrate data. Remove
migrated data from
/plibrary.
- Migrate
front-end enterprise
applications
for data access and
management. For each
application included:
determine need,
design, implement,
test and deploy. Create
and publish user documentation.
- Migrate
users. For each user (or group
of users, depending
on the agency), determine
the best migration
path then implement.
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