The wisdom of this choice became evident as another partner in the project, WSU, added computer science members (software knowledge) to its team. The best example of subject knowledge vs software knowledge impacting the project was the first draft of route development based on the water system. The routes had been built based on pipe size instead of service areas. The computer science majors did not understand the types of analysis to be conducted on a pipe network, and using pipe size seemed to be logical. The problems with this data structure were obvious to the Data Management Specialist and appropriate corrections were made.

The parcel base map is a very good example of the differing needs of receiving agencies. A community that is approaching build-out is unlikely to have any significant changes in topology, and annual updates may be all that is required. Whereas a developing community can have significant changes in topology every month. The City of Novi is a good example of a rapidly developing municipality, with over 600 and 300 new home starts in 1996 and 1997, respectively. If these new home starts were distributed evenly throughout the year, this is between 25 and 50 property splits per month. Due to these vast differences in topology changes between communities, updates should be triggered by events other than time. Two triggers that should be considered are the addition of a platted subdivision and/or a specific number of splits and combinations within a municipality.

One of the data sets that was slated for development early in the implementation of GIS for Novi was Act 51 information. However, this data was moved down the priority list based on a State of Michigan decision. The annual Act 51 (roadway related legislation) report map information must be provided to the State on the maps provided by the State. This is a time consuming exercise in hand tracing that produces an inferior product. If the state would accept GIS map output, the City of Novi could produce highly accurate Act 51 maps with little effort . These maps could be provided to the scale and color code required by the State. The maintenance of this information could be integrated into the daily work flow and reporting could be streamlined. When the State of Michigan's GIS development reached the point of integrating Act 51 data, Novi could easily provide the digital information to the State.

An example of the protective nature organizations have when it comes to topology development and vertical integration occurred in the gypsy moth spray program. The City of Novi is participating in the County spraying program. The City Forester provided the County with a map of the area to be sprayed. This map utilized the rectified digital ortho-photography and parcel basemap line work, provided by the County, to identify the area. Instead of utilizing the polygon line work already extracted by the City of Novi, in their project, the County insisted on recreating the line work themselves.

Will these issues be resolved over time? The answer to that question is a resounding yes. How, is a different question all together. The solution will most likely come with good meta data and interagency experience. In some cases it will take providing the data in multiple forms, until the receiving agency is secure in the quality of the GIS data being provided.

Basic data sharing can become a major stumbling block when data resides in multiple departments. Information has been seen as a source of power through out history. Today, the information owned by a department is seen as a way of capturing scarce budget dollars. A mentality of information is power, don't share your power, is pervasive. Overcoming this attitude is necessary for successful integration of an enterprise GIS. The basic concepts of GIS rely heavily on the sharing of information. The benefits of GIS to the day-to-day operations of a department must out weigh the fear of expending/losing budget dollars.

One of the other issues in the integration of information into an enterprise GIS is data redundancy. The same piece of information may reside in multiple departments and may be handled in a different manner by each department. Choosing which data set to use in the conversion effort and who will maintain the information once converted can be difficult. Each entity has very good reasons for wanting to use their data set and update methods. One solution is a single update application utilized by all departments needing update rights to the data. This application should address the data needs of all departments and should include data locking, revision and update control so multiple edit sessions do not corrupt the data set. Another solution is to determine which department has the largest stake in the data set and funnel all updates through that department. The solutions to these types of problems will be as diverse as the users themselves.

The City of Novi is dealing with these issues on a case by case basis. Multiple cases of the same data maintained (actually not maintained) occurred with the owner address data. The issue was between the Building Department, the Assessors Office and the County. The data general had been the City's repository for a majority of its information before the Lan and Windows were installed. The City assessor stopped maintaining the database on the data general, in favor of maintaining the data within equalizer, the City's assessing software. However, the City's Building Department which uses the name and address database to prepare Public Hearing Notices didn't have access to Equalizer. Due to the legal implications of Public Hearing Notices, utilizing the data general left the City at risk. The Building Department has been provided with access to Equalizer. The data from equalizer can be exported and with some manipulation can be joined to the parcel database. And within a month of the final parcel coverage being delivered by the County, the equalizer data could be directly linked to parcel basemap. This would be accomplished using a third party piece of software, Equalink. To further complicate the issue, the Assessor is only responsible for a portion of the address information maintenance. The rest is done by the County, from whom the City Assessor purchases quarterly updates. It has been determined that for the purposes of public hearing notices the updates should be done monthly. The funding mechanism has yet to be determined for purchasing the additional updates, but is currently being discussed.

The decision to utilize the parcel basemap provided by Oakland County was the first real delay to the project. The initial three phase plan called for a parcel development time of three months. The first draft from the County was received after seventeen months. The final version of the County coverage, including regions, is still not available. The second impact of this decision was to delay all topology development until the remonumented section points were available as control which was concurrent to the delivery of the first draft of the parcel coverage. These points are specified as control for the City of Novi as-built ordinance as well as, all GIS projects developed for the City. During the 14-month delay, attribute definition and data collection continued.

There are two issues associated with utilizing an educational institution. The first is the demands of the educational process. Fact: Final Exams Slow Development. Know the schedule of the institution. Avoid project deadlines that fall in the three week period around final exams. Do not assume the students working on your project won't be working through semester or holiday breaks.

The second issue and probably the one that has the most impact on the project is changes to the Senior Graduate Research Staff. In the course of the project with Novi the lead Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) has changed three times. This created delays in the project as critical personnel were brought up to speed, a period that lasted from two to four months before operations were back to normal. This has been a positive experience for both the City of Novi and WSU. However, the experience could have been enhanced if the following conditions had been set: the implementation is the case study for the lead GRA; and completion of the GRA's doctoral thesis requires completion of the project. This will encourage continuous work on the project.

The City of Novi has a broad base of infrastructure data. It is a rich database that will be well utilized. As applications are designed and the database is optimized, this data will provide information for a robust set of analysis tools. However, the data will require a significant amount of tuning before the application design process is completed. At this time, the best utilization will be thematic maps. If application design had been undertaken before database design and data collection, the data base would have been optimized in the design process.

Another benefit of doing application design first is that individual databases can be brought online as development proceeds. This allows knowledge and function to grow steadily throughout the system. With this method of development, there is little or no lag time between data collection and data update. The tool to update the data can be debugged during the implementation and conversion phase of the project. This will reduce the frustration a new user feels when attempting to use the tool. When the City of Novi brings many of the databases online, the data will be more than two years old and will require immediate updates. However, the update tools and protocols are not yet developed

The tier II users will do 90% of the operational and production type work. Current methodologies for performing these tasks are time and labor intensive. There is little time for training in the hectic schedules that must be met. These employees often dread training because of the work load they will face when they return. In addition, general GIS training may not provide the tools for doing day-to-day operations efficiently. Providing easy to use, intuitive GUI and menu driven applications, along with task driven on-site training, will increase productivity. The end result is increasing the time available for other tasks. Some of this time should be reallocated for more generalized training. With more time, staff members will be able to apply this generalized training to make other parts of their job more efficient.

The tier I users to the system will need generalized training as their are data sets brought online. They may also require some application-specific training if high-end modeling and analysis tools have been developed as part of the project.

Tier I users are the ones most likely to develop into power users. However, do not overlook tier II users that show interest or prowess. These users may become one of the most valuable resources for a successful implementation. With limited budgets, staffing is often the most limited resource and power users can help to relieve the stress of technical support duties. This will allow the GIS staff to concentrate on data acquisition and development.

Data development should be aimed at the highest end-user. Aiming the initial database design to meet the low-end user application needs limits the expansion capabilities of the system. Though this seems to contradict the last section of this paper, it does not. Optimization is not about minimizing the number of items in your database, but about organizing the data for efficient use.

The first lesson in this section is: if the GIS development team is not part of systems MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE SYSTEMS TEAM!!!! Development of this enterprise GIS required state of the art equipment, including a UNIX server, as is the case in many enterprise GIS implementations. The systems requirements of GIS can make even the most patient systems manager resentful. This is especially true if the GIS and network development is being managed by separate departments. The moneys expended for hardware and software are seen as moneys that should belong to systems. The data that must be included is intensive and the files are very large. This effects system performance, an issue the systems manager must address.

The second lesson in this section is: Don't let department mangers play the GIS development team against the systems team. When a department head or other staff member asks for technical advice, consult with systems. In attempts to capture budget dollars, both the systems and GIS departments will be asked for computer-related solutions. Make sure when questions are answered, the answer includes a disclaimer. Such as _______is a solution to but that does not necessarily mean it is required by your department. Also indicate that a discussion with the systems department may be appropriate.

I would also like to thank Dr. Datta, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Wayne State University, for providing support throughout my educational experience and the opportunity to work on the Novi project from its inception.

Director GIS Technical Services

Finkbeiner, Pettis & Strout, Inc.