GIS Management Resources

User Testimonials:

Marcus Harner, IT GIS Analyst, Shasta County, CA: “It took two meetings for staff to complete and was extremely helpful to assess where we are with our GIS program. When we explained and demonstrated the result to the Shasta County advisory committee as a self-evaluation tool, it was very well received!”

Eric Rizzo, GIS Administrator, City of Waltham, MA: “After completing the GISCMM, we identified some projects which are in need of improvement, both quick wins for the short term and some larger projects. I think the tool was extremely useful in actually quantifying areas where I suspected we needed improvement (i.e., stakeholder engagement, staff management, staff and user training, and formal documentation of some of our processes). There are some initiatives I have been working on which will hopefully improve the scores in those areas. I think for me the best way to utilize the CMM is both a planning and goal evaluation tool to help us prioritize projects and initiatives in our department. There may be some categories (especially those related to funding) where I have little control over improving them, but there are certainly areas where I believe we can realize measurable improvement. We are continuing to use the GISCMM. I have one GIS analyst that works with us on a part-time basis who mainly does data editing and field collection and I have asked him to complete the GISCMM from his perspective related to those areas. The GISCMM can be time intensive to complete but it really helped us identify areas we need to improve in and has also helped me identify areas that we can improve on using internal resources and also identify areas where we may need to seek outside assistance from a consultant. We are currently in the process of evaluating our application development procedures and documenting them (something we have not done prior to the GISCMM). I think the greatest benefit for us is that we now have a framework we can use to evaluate our effectiveness as a program which is something we struggled with in the past.”

Bryan Townsend, GIS Manager, York County, SC: “The conversations that took place as we completed and reviewed results for the GISCMM as a team were very fruitful. Our first use took place while onboarding a new staff member. We found it helpful to use the GISCMM as a structured checklist to make sure our entire team understood GIS program operations (such as backup and restore procedures, funding cycles). We created goals for the year around areas the GISCMM indicated our program needed improvement. These ranged from completing a project to simply taking a training course or having a conversation or sharing how something works.”

Joseph Sloop, Geographic Information Officer (GIO), Forsyth  County, NC: “The GMI assessment tool provides Forsyth County with a means to assess our systems across a wide range of characteristics which are key to organizational success. We can easily visualize areas where we are falling short and track progress over time.”

Geospatial Management Competency Model (GMCM) 

GIS Managers

The Geospatial Management Competency Model (GMCM) identifies 74 competencies within 18 competency areas for GIS Management.

It is a tier of the Geospatial Technical Competency Model, the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration’s (DOLETA’s) Competency Modeling Initiative.

Available for free self-assessment

GIS Capability Maturity Model  (GISCMM )

Organizations

Enterprise level GIS capability maturity model.

Spreadsheet available for free self-assessment.