Unified Projects Map Functional management for spatially dependent workflows.

The “Problem”: Company Growth  Teams complete work faster than communication network can transfer information about new jobs  Duplication of efforts  Multiple field maps for same site  Less informative  Clients don’t receive integrated information, therefore no impetus to hire company for work across spectrum of company’s sphere of competence

Background: Longevity & Growth  Impeccable pedigree  first private, for-profit environmental consultancy in North Carolina  Established, trusted relationships with state & federal regulatory agencies  Sterling credentials:  Company managers initiated licensing for soil scientists in N.C.  Company managers on N.C. regulatory and licensing boards  High percentage of consultants with post-graduate science degrees, professional licenses

Background II: Old Habits  Billable time in a budget-driven world  Consultants oriented toward “billable” time:  want increased income, less post-job time with clients  Clients concerned with bottom line and project completion  want limits on expenditures, no limit on consultant’s expertise

Background III: Wasted Profits, Inefficient Client Service  Wasted profits  Growth leads to less efficient exchange of information  Less information shared leads to more isolated teams  Isolated teams don’t know what other people are working on  Client service  Clients are forced to integrate information that the company’s consultants understand better  Lack of coordination between consultants means that managers spend more time working, less time managing or interfacing with clients

Toward a Solution  The problem is two-fold:  Informational  Too many projects and people for managers to coordinate  Too many managers and experts for regular, substantive meetings  Spatial  Projects are distributed in space  Project coordination faces classic geographic circumstances: friction of distance, spatial and informational diffusion

Mapping the Solution  Tracking projects spatially means tracking projects cartographically  Location-dependent data are attributes of a project site/polygon  Project manager  Client  Type of work to be performed  Contract/proposal date  For people whose work varies spatially, the map is the meeting.  If you can see where you’re working on a map, the map should also tell you who you’re working with, or near – and what they’re doing there.

The Map is the Meeting  Useful information to share with colleagues:  New project information:  Project name, tracking information, client/vendor names and contacts, proposal/contract date, expected completion date, type of work to be performed, project budget  Status of ongoing projects  Location of new, ongoing, completed projects

One Map to Meet Them All (And increased profits find them…)  If you can’t tell it to each person  Via , telephone, face-to-face  Tell it to the map  “Tell” it once, have it heard by everyone  Never have to repeat yourself  No schedules to coordinate or meetings to plan

How It Works  Input information  Project manager enters new information  Information added as records to master file  Display information  Symbology can convey job type, project status (new/active/completed), other important information  Query information  Spatially, or by attributes (e.g., type of work, client, project manager)

Input Information  With a parcel or site polygon selected, User will click “Add Project to Unified Map”  probably a UIButton that will open a User Form  Script will add these data, along with parcel/polygon, to master record  ArcSDE? Text file? Output to CSV?

Display & Query  A set of “default” display options can be created  UIButtons to alter layer symbology based on a few standard views:  Active projects  Projects managed by a particular consultant  Projects for a particular client  Standard queries can be modified  UIButton(s) to open User Forms to specify attributes  UITool(s) to query certain attributes of polygons  UIButtons to label features by a specified attribute

Extensibility  “Update Project” modification  Like “Add Project”, UIButton opens User Form  Fields already populated; modifications written to table  “Display Projects” modification  User Form to specify attributes; only features with specified attributes are displayed

Adaptability  Tool enhancements  E.g., ClassBreaksRenderer to display projects shaded by date, budget, etc.  Further modified to display projects managed by a certain person, shaded by date/budget/etc.  Security  Can record each map access  Can require password to open map with more or less functionality  Et cetera