Advanced GIS Project Management

Geospatial projects fail in ways that general project methods do not anticipate. Budgets are set before anyone has checked the quality of the source data. Data collection and conversion take far longer than planned. Coordinate systems, formats and standards differ between agencies. Users were not involved in defining requirements, so the system is not adopted. Once the project ends, nobody owns the data or funds its maintenance, and within a few years the investment has lost its value.

This programme applies current project management practice to the specific risks of GIS work. It moves from the business case and requirements, through planning and data acquisition, to quality assurance, integration and delivery, and ends with the governance, adoption and sustainability that decide whether the project delivers lasting value.

Built on recognised practice. The programme references the PMI PMBOK Guide, the ISO 19100 series of geographic information standards including ISO 19157-1 on data quality and ISO 19115-1 on metadata, the interoperability standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium, ISO 19650 for GIS and BIM integration, and the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework for national and institutional geospatial strategy.

Decisions this programme improves. Whether a GIS initiative has a clear business case; how much data acquisition and cleansing to fund; whether to build, buy or use cloud services; which data quality levels are fit for purpose; when to use agile or phased delivery; how to share data across agencies; and who will own and maintain the data after go-live.

How it is delivered. Twenty hours across five sessions, built around one running case: a municipal or utility GIS modernisation programme that combines field data collection, migration of legacy data, integration with asset and permitting systems and a public map portal. Participants prepare the business case, a data quality plan, a risk register and a governance model.

In-house option. For organisations, the programme can be tailored to your own geospatial strategy, platforms, data holdings and sector, whether municipal, utilities, oil and gas, transport or national mapping, and delivered to GIS, IT and business teams together.

Who Should Attend

GIS leadership: GIS managers, heads of geospatial units and spatial data infrastructure coordinators

Project and programme managers: managers leading GIS, digital transformation or asset information projects

Senior GIS professionals: GIS analysts, developers and surveyors moving into project leadership

IT and digital leaders: enterprise architects and IT managers responsible for GIS platforms and integration

Sector specialists: managers in municipalities, utilities, oil and gas, transport and planning authorities who sponsor GIS projects

Objectives

Build a business case for a GIS initiative that links outputs to measurable operational or policy benefits

Define requirements with users and translate them into data, application and integration scope

Plan a GIS project using an appropriate predictive, agile or hybrid approach

Estimate effort, cost and duration for data acquisition, conversion and cleansing

Specify data quality requirements and acceptance tests using ISO 19157-1 concepts

Manage metadata, coordinate reference systems and interoperability across systems and agencies

Identify and manage GIS-specific risks, including data, vendor, integration and security risks

Plan integration of GIS with enterprise systems, BIM and field mobility solutions

Design a data governance and maintenance model that sustains the investment after go-live

Report progress and benefits to sponsors and senior management in decision-ready form

Course Outline

Starting Right: Strategy, Business Case and Requirements

Where GIS projects fail: data, adoption, integration and ownership
Linking GIS projects to organisational and national geospatial strategy
Business case, benefits and success measures
Stakeholder analysis and user requirements workshops
Build, buy or cloud: solution options and total cost of ownership
Procurement of GIS software, data and services

Planning GIS Projects: Scope, Schedule, Cost and Risk

Work breakdown for data, applications, integration and change
Choosing predictive, agile or hybrid delivery for GIS work
Estimating data capture, conversion and cleansing effort
GIS-specific risk register: data gaps, accuracy, vendor lock-in and security
Resource planning: GIS analysts, developers, surveyors and contractors
Current PMBOK Guide principles applied to geospatial projects

Data as the Core Deliverable: Acquisition, Quality and Standards

Data sources: surveys, remote sensing, drones, LiDAR and existing records
Data models, coordinate reference systems and topology
Data quality elements and fit-for-purpose thresholds under ISO 19157-1
Metadata using ISO 19115-1 and data catalogues
Quality control, sampling and acceptance of delivered data
Data licensing, privacy and security classification

Integration, Delivery and Change

Interoperability using OGC services and open formats
Integration with ERP, asset management, permitting and customer systems
GIS and BIM integration through ISO 19650 information management
Web and mobile GIS delivery, cloud platforms and spatial data infrastructures
Testing, cut-over and migration from legacy systems
User training and adoption; managing organisational change

Governance, Sustainability and Value

Data ownership, custodianship and stewardship roles
Data sharing agreements between departments and agencies
Maintenance funding and data update cycles
Performance indicators and benefits realisation
Emerging practice: digital twins, GeoAI and automated feature extraction, with their limits
Action plan for the participant's current or next GIS initiative

Competencies

GIS business case and benefits planning

Geospatial requirements definition

GIS project planning and estimating

Geospatial data quality management

Metadata and interoperability standards

GIS integration with enterprise systems and BIM

GIS project risk management

Geospatial data governance and stewardship

Benefits reporting to sponsors

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