I needs some advice/guidelines for managing enterprise data

[ChristiNelson]

Hi all,

I work at a water utility and I've been put in charge of creating a process for GIS data change control and of then creating an easy way to get GIS data through change control and into Master ArcSDE.  We don't use versions, but we do use ArcGIS 10 (ArcInfo).  Im hoping someone can point me in the right direction to some already established guidelines for data management (and how to manage changes in that data efficiently).  Maybe there are some articles out there?  Maybe you've already established a successful process at your company that works?  I haven't had to much luck in my research so far.

Thanks so much,
Christi

[OvidioRivero]

Christi,

I think the basis for your data management should be an initial survey of your customers needs and current work processes and then based on that, a design of your database schema.  Once you know what customers you have and and how they use their data you can build a schema they can all use. Once you have that schema locked in place if you don't want to use versioning your updates can be as simple as getting a new copy of the data from your users, truncate the layers in the master and load the new copy.   For example if a department in your company  updates data outside of the SDE database as long as the schema in the Master database and their schema coincide you can set up a process where they update their data and it gets loaded in the master database on a schedule.  The key here is to build a schema that works for your customers and lock it in place. Then make the data producers responsible for the content updates.

For changes to the schema itself you can create a "Change Control Board"  the members would be users/producers of GIS data and they would meet to consider changes to the schema. This group would meet on an as needed basis.


Some good books I have found useful are below:

Buidling a GIS by David Peters
This is the link to the second edition I have seen only the first.

http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=209&moduleID=29

Designing Geodatabases: Case Studies in GIS Data Modeling
by David Arctur and Michael Zeiler
http://store.esri.com/esri/showdetl.cfm?SID=2&Product_ID=581&Category_ID=56

Thinking about GIS by Roger Tomlinson  - Older book but also good.
http://esripress.esri.com/display/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&websiteID=121&moduleID=29