Lessons Learned from GIS Application Development in a State Government Context Yueming Wu, Ph.D. West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection 2006 West Virginia GIS Forum & Workshop Morgantown, May 18, 2006

Contents  What is GIS application development?  Why is GIS application development needed?  How is a GIS application developed?  Case study  Lessons  Questions & comments

What is GIS application development? GIS application development or GIS customization development is not to rewrite a proprietary GIS package, but to incorporate users’ ideas to convert it into a usable and stable product.

Why is GIS application development needed?  There are no truly "off-the-shelf" GIS applications satisfying all organizations due to the variety of organizational business models. Business intelligent GIS applications are needed to address the issue.  Casual users, representing the majority in a government agency, prefer user-friendly and practical GIS applications.  Commercial GIS packages focus on basic and common GIS functions across industries. Power users need more complex GIS tools than a commercial GIS package could offer.

How is a GIS application developed? Bell D, Morrey I and Pugh J (1992) Software engineering: a programmingp approach. 2nd edn. Prenctice-Hall, New York

Case study  Establish requirements (use case)  Specify (requirements)  Design  Implement  Operate and maintain

Case study: establish requirements (use case)  West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) has been developing an Enterprise Information System (EIS), involving a variety of spatial and non-spatial databases.  Users in the Mining & Reclamation Program were looking for a convenient way to electronically link GIS data with data in non spatial databases.

Case study: specify (requirements)  Composite query: Electronically link GIS data with data in non-spatial databases (e.g., ERIS & EQuIS)  Facts:  Available in-house database applications didn’t offer such a function  Most employees lacked advanced GIS skills to take advantage of GIS packages (e.g., ArcGIS)

Case study: specify (requirements)  Streamline composite query processes  Provide easy access to GIS data  Provide easy access to non-spatial data  Improve spatial operation efficiency

Case study: design -- application model  Client-server architecture  Client side  SQL statements  API calls  Server side  Smart geodatabase  Procedures/triggers/views in databases  Programs to link spatial & non-spatial databases

Case study: design -- application structure  A toolbar integrated into ESRI ArcGIS/ArcMap platform  Four groups of functions  Access GIS data  Perform composite queries  Access non spatial data  Utilities

Case study: implement -- coding  Programming languages/techniques Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Microsoft ActiveX Data Object (ADO), Microsoft OLE DB provider, Microsoft Component Object Module (COM), ESRI ArcObjects library, Oracle SQL statements, etc.  Products COM based dlls (dynamic link libraries), each of which performs a specific task

Case study: implement – application setting  Toolbar integrated into ESRI ArcGIS/ArcMap platform  ArcMap running via a Citrix metaframe terminal services architecture

Case study: DMR Information Navigator

Case study: implement – application setting End Users DMR Navigator ArcMap/ArcGIS Citrix Server. ERIS/EQuIS/RIMS Databases ArcSDE Geodatabases ORACLE

Case study: implement – application testing  Functionality  Performance  Flexibility

Case study: operate and maintain  Document  Train users  Provide customer services  Upgrade on user feedback

Lessons  Administrative lessons  Technical lessons

Lessons: administrative lessons  Interaction with end users  Understanding users  From beginning to end  Budget consideration  Tight budget  In-house resources  Intra agency collaboration & cooperation  Across the Mining and Reclamation program  Across the agency  Inter agency collaboration & operation  Between WVDEP & the Feds (e.g. DOI-OSM)  Between WVDEP & universities (e.g. WVU-NRAC)

Lessons: technical lessons  Application development  Code as simple & reusable as possible  User involvement as early as possible  Application testing  Client side testing  Server side testing  Application deployment  Performance  Deployment model  Application maintenance  Customer service  Prompt updates

Questions & comments  Questions  Comments