GIS Management Institute

Promoting professional adoption and awareness of best practices and standards in the GIS profession.

URISA's GIS Management Institute serves GIS professionals and organizations that use GIS with resources, products, and services that focus on promoting the advancement and adoption of professional best practices and standards for the management of GIS operations.

URISA has nearly 50 years of study, experience, and intellectual capital related to GIS management. The GIS Management Institute (GMI) continues to build upon resources that URISA has already developed, including:

•GIS Capability Maturity Model - GIS in a municipal environment is a highly complex system. Because of this complexity, it seems useful to think about the ideal capability of a municipal GIS operation in theoretical terms and then analyze and measure individual GIS operations against a theoretical ideal state.

The purpose of this model is to provide a means for any municipal GIS operation to gauge its maturity against a variety of standards and/or measures, including:

A theoretical ideal end state of GIS organizational development
The maturity level of other peer GIS organizations, either individually or in aggregate
The maturity level of the subject organization over time
The maturity level of the organization against an agreed target state (perhaps set by organizational policy, budget limitations, etc.)

Maturity for the model indicates progression of an organization towards GIS capability that maximizes the potential for the use of state of the art GIS technology, commonly recognized quality data, and organizational best practices appropriate for municipal business use. The GIS Capability Maturity Model assumes two broad areas of GIS operational development: enabling capability and execution ability. View the current evaluation questionnaire.

•Geospatial Management Competency Model - URISA’s Geospatial Management Competency Model specifies 74 essential competencies and 18 competency areas that characterize the work of most successful managers in the geospatial industry.

The U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration (DOLETA) has incorporated URISA’s GMCM in its Competency Model Clearinghouse (http://www.careeronestop.org/competencymodel/). This endorsement follows a year-long effort to draft the GMCM by a task force of 18 contributors and a public review process that attracted 100 comments. Of the 20 industries that have published competency models, the Geospatial industry is the first to have specified management competencies. Dr. Jennifer Troke of DOLETA’s Office of Workforce Investment called the GMCM “a groundbreaking accomplishment.”

•Exemplary Systems in Government (ESIG) Awards - The ESIG awards, inaugurated in 1980 by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association, recognize extraordinary achievement by government agencies in the use of automated information systems. This achievement is defined as the effective application of computer technology that can be measured in terms of improved government services and increased benefits to citizens. The award competition is open to all public agencies at the federal, state/provincial, regional and local levels. A comprehensive history of these outstanding systems, can be found on the ESIG webpage.

•URISA Leadership Academy - First presented in 2007, the URISA Leadership Academy (ULA) has graduated more than 300 professionals. The entire five day program, the only leadership training program of its type, is tailored to industry leaders and practitioners faced with unique challenges of GIS leadership and management and who want to make an impact leveraging the power of GIS. The ULA, held at least annually, offers fiver days of targeted GIS leadership training…taught by GIS Leaders.

•GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) - URISA is the founding member of theGIS Certification Institute, the organization that administers professional certification for the field and is dedicated to advancing the industry.

•URISA's GISCorps is a philanthropic program of URISA that provides volunteer GIS support for underdeveloped countries (including mapping health care and educational facilities) and also supports disaster recovery efforts (Hurricane Katrina, Japanese Earthquake, Indonesian Tsunami).

•URISA is also a founding member of the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO). COGO was developed to provide a forum for organizations concerned with U.S. national geospatial issues that 1) improves communications among the member organizations (and others), 2) provides educational information on relevant issues for their respective memberships, 3) aligns and strengthens their respective policy agendas, and 4) facilitates development of strategies to address national issues.

The GIS Management Body of Knowledge (GMBOK) is the central unifying element of the Institute. The GMBOK will be a collection of peer-reviewed best practices and standards that can inform geospatial managers and operations in order to improve the effectiveness of their use of geospatial technology.

Programs are being developed based on the GMBOK to accredit the capability and maturity of GIS operations against the GISCMM. It will also develop a program to accredit GIS management educational programs against the GMBOK and GMCM. URISA has agreed to work in cooperation with the GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) to advance the future certification of GIS managers.

Greg Babinski, GISP, Immediate Past-President of URISA, explained the motivation behind the development of the GIS Management Institute: “The management of enterprise GIS operations requires knowledge, skills, and abilities that clearly set it apart from other management domains. GIS operations today are highly complex, critical for effective agency services, and have been proven to deliver tremendous financial benefits.” He further noted that, “Central to the GMI, is the theory that as GIS operational maturity improves, ROI (return on investment) from GIS increases.”

For more information about the GIS Management Institute, contact Greg Babinski, URISA Past-President. For more information about URISA, contact Wendy Nelson, URISA Executive Director.