topic Re: My Boss Wants Resources To Learn More About GIS in State & Local Government Questions

My Boss Wants Resources To Learn More About GIS

JonathanKolterman52 — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 22:46:54 GMT

My boss who does not have any GIS experience is looking for resources to learn more about the capability's of GIS. She doesn't want to know how to use software and do processing but more what can be done. All the GIS basics course I could find are not what she is looking for. Is there an executive GIS overview class so she can work though to better understand what the GIS department is capable of?

Re: My Boss Wants Resources To Learn More About GIS

AndreasHall — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 07:44:07 GMT

Could these web pages work as a starting point for her?

What is GIS? | Geographic Information System Mapping Technology

Capabilities of ArcGIS | Geospatial Capabilities for Mapping & Analysis

Re: My Boss Wants Resources To Learn More About GIS

AyanPalit — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 14:41:52 GMT

@JonathanKolterman52 Thanks for reaching out to the Esri Community as GIS is a vast and diverse technical discipline. Resources mentioned by @AndreasHall are a good starting point.

It would help to know what are the focus areas of your department. What are the responsibilities of the manager and what challenges are to be tackled? This context will offer focused resources on key interests.

Few additional resources focused on managers and leaders who oversee GIS at large government and commercial organizations. Perhaps, you can review and curate some of the case study articles that are most relevant.

https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/wherenext/overview

https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/arcnews/how-to-lead-with-gis

https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/state-local-government/overview

Re: My Boss Wants Resources To Learn More About GIS

JonathanKolterman52 — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 14:48:37 GMT

Thank you for this! We are a small Local government with a pop. of ~26000. The GIS office here does everything from utility mapping, to 911 address addition, to emergency management assistance. We support all spatially aware data used across the city. She is just looking for an overview so she can better utilize the resources we have and find places to integrate our tools.

Re: My Boss Wants Resources To Learn More About GIS

SaraRogers — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:24:52 GMT

Hi @JonathanKolterman52 ! Another idea may be to look at communities that post their GIS assets on a Hub Site. We are constantly looking for ideas on how to expand our GIS usage, and a lot of the examples are found from other communities. In my experience, we see the most momentum built when we show department leaders a real-life example or a proof of concept.

If you find something interesting/applicable, I'd also suggest reaching out to that community's GIS coordinator/manager to set up some time to talk through success projects and lessons learned; I have found most professionals would love to share their experiences with peers.

Some examples I find myself going back to include:

..and ours, of course! Town of Normal - Open Data

Re: My Boss Wants Resources To Learn More About GIS

AyanPalit — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:19:25 GMT

@SaraRogers Good point in harvesting the GIS Community! Thanks for the great examples.

Adding @AdamCarnow for input and visisbility.

Re: My Boss Wants Resources To Learn More About GIS

JonathanKolterman52 — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 17:25:40 GMT

This is a great idea! Thank you.