How do you enable your GIS Users?

[SaraRogers]

Calling all local gov GIS Managers with many GIS users! How do you enable your end users to utilize your GIS assets without having your hands in everything all the time? 

I am a team of 1 that oversees our organization's GIS program, and I sit within our IT department. I have end users from almost every department with heavy usage in Public Works, Engineering, Planning, Fire, and Water. I am developing a strategic plan that will ideally develop more capacity of our end users to be more proficient in editing their own data, developing new maps and applications, and navigating our content in an a la carte "atlas" via Hub Site. I need help on how to cross train super users without creating a runaway GIS train!

I'm specifically looking for any examples on how you: 

• Keep your end-users trained and knowledgeable (or what trainings you offer your end users)
• Enable super users to create their own data layers/apps
• Manage content clutter on your Enterprise Portal/AGO
• Develop SOPs and workflows to support consistency in your data
• Utilize an internal open data portal to make your GIS data accessible to all staff, not just GIS users

...or anything else productive that you'd like to share as a lesson learned or success story. Even if you have a tip for one of these bullet points, I'd love to hear your perspective. 

Thanks in advance!

[Joshua-Young]

I am also a team of one in the IT Department of the City of Kerrville for the last 13 years. To start with, I still struggle to get my coworkers more engaged in using GIS for themselves, but here are some things that have helped. We use ArcGIS Enterprise (AGE) internally and use ArcGIS Online (AGO) for public facing GIS.

• I used to do in person trainings that were just open for anyone to show up. Those were not very effective in attendance or information retention. I switched to doing more targeted in person trainings for specific workflows. Switching from desktop GIS to web GIS seems to have cut down on the requests for training on the basics of using our GIS.
• Most of my users do not want to create their own GIS layers. They view that as my job and I am still trying to change that mentality.
• The item reports in AGE and AGO are a great place to start to see what all clutter there might be. We are still working on developing a GIS governance policy to define how we are going to consistently manage our data. It did not seem important at first but now with many years of data to go through I wish I had created the policy before we uploaded anything to AGE.
• We heavily utilize attribute rules, domains, contingent values, and scripts ensure consistency wherever possible. For enterprise geodatabase data I would publish different services for different audiences that only exposes what that audience needs to edit. It is even easier with hosted feature views.
• Setting up AGE years ago greatly expanded the reach of GIS to my organization because it is so much easier to use than ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro. For people that just view our GIS I tried to keep things as simple as possible. I created department apps (Web App Builder and now Experience Builder) that is tailored to what is important on a daily basis to that department. Adding the Add Data widget to that made power users happy. Then I created a "Featured Maps & Apps" group and set that group to show on our AGE homepage. I would have to go back and review the permissions on how I got it so people only see their departments apps on the homepage.

One thing that I would add is that if you want self-service GIS to become the norm I would recommend on getting buy-in from administration. Change to self-service here has worked the best when the administration is driving the change instead of me.

[SaraRogers]

@Joshua-Young Thank you for the really insightful response! I feel lucky to have a few really ambitious super users from other departments that are happy to get their hands dirty on a solution build out. I love this, but it makes me a little nervous about consistency and the sustainability of support I can provide for those applications. 

You mentioned wanting to build a governance policy -- do you have anything built out for this yet? Our team has some governance and best practices established, but I am still figuring out how to apply it specifically to GIS. I'm curious to hear what you are looking to develop. 

[JeanettaWyman_Timmons]

Hi Sara,

There was a time when I was in state government and was a team of 1 in IT as well. It can be hard, so hats off to you! We eventually got fully restaffed totaling 3 and things became much easier to manage as a team.

There were some methods I started and others we discussed implementing (I no longer work for the state) to make our job easier and address some of the same challenges you're faced with - 

• Leverage your IT ticketing system as much as possible, if you have one. If your local govt doesn't have one there is an ArcGIS Solution in AGOL here: ArcGIS Solutions | GIS Request Management. This helped tremendously with managing the different requests that come to the unit.
  • People still love their paper maps and being able to tell people to submit a ticket for their map request was very helpful. As well as ensuring a full library of these maps in PDF format was made available through the AGE homepage and on the departments' website. Make AGOL or Hub available as a link on the local govt website.
• As previously mentioned, ArcGIS Solutions come in handy and are great for not having to start from scratch with new projects and initiatives.
• Create your own learning lessons in MyESRI for the users and direct them to those for learning and resources. Share these learning lessons on portal or AGE.
• Restrict publishing capabilities in AGE/AGOL. If users do want to publish items, make sure they know how to responsibly. Require learning lessons from MyESRI to be completed in order to obtain the privilege of the Publisher role.
• Utilize the Authoritative tag for items in AGE/AGOL. This capability is restricted to admins, or those you grant the ability to do so with a custom role.
• If you have project managers available to you, bring them in when another department asks for help with development of apps and resources they need. This will help take the weight off of you for these types of major requests.
• Automate what you can!
• As mentioned by @Joshua-Young, get the higher-ups and executive staff on board with GIS. Having their support and buy-in is invaluable.

Hope these little bits help you! There's a lot of other resources available for governance - GIS Governance: Standards, Policies, Roles, Data although sometimes they're not specific and tangible enough to put into action.

Jeanetta

[SaraRogers]

@JeanettaWyman_Timmons Thank you so much for your insight, as well! I did not realize that the authoritative tag was only available for admins -- this will be invaluable for me to manage our content. I will also take a look at the governance resource you shared. Thank you!