Issue link: https://resources.esri.ca/i/1313392
44 | GEOSPATIAL STRATEGY ESSENTIALS FOR MANAGERS MATTHEW LEWIN Chapter 8 Geospatial Governance: Decisions and Decision Making Good governance can be the difference between effective and ineffective strategies The CIO of a medium-sized city government was concerned. The City was in the midst of a large-scale digital transformation that promised to reinvent how services were delivered to its citizens. The City had committed millions to revamping department systems and investing in critical smart infrastructure. Early results were promising: the City had enjoyed a high-profile win by integrating road disruption notifications with social media. The ability to be notified of planned and unplanned disruptions on a map in real time was a hit with residents. However, the CIO noticed a concerning trend—the demand this win created for new map-based solutions was stretching his team's ability to deliver. In the past, GIS had been acknowledged as an important system of record for City assets as well as the home for most of the City's mapping information. This new demand was pushing expectations for location-driven applications to new levels. But without a way to manage demand, set expectations and nurture development of these apps, the CIO recognized he was facing failure. Without strong geospatial governance, could he deliver on the promise to reinvent the City through digital technology? This premise is not unusual. Much of the success with GIS comes not from implementation of the technology but the ability to build a geospatial capability. This means marrying geospatial technology with the science of geography and ingraining it in the organization's DNA. A well- developed, robust geospatial capability is the foundation on which the dreams of a location- based digital transformation are built. To do this, good governance is critical. By governance, we mean the system of control. This control extends to the applications and infrastructure that drive your location platform, the data at the heart of your maps and information products, the people who build and support the platform, and the capital used to grow and sustain your location capability. In short, governance is one of the most important factors determining the long-term success of a geospatial program. Without good governance, plans stall. They are doomed, as W.H. Auden put it, "each to his own mistake". In this chapter, we discuss some of the reasons why organizations fall short in this regard and look at a comprehensive framework for geospatial governance. Where Do Organizations Go Wrong? Geospatial governance often falls short for several reasons. First, governance is generally a poorly- understood topic in geo circles. It's not uncommon to hear managers say that they know they need governance, but they don't know exactly what it means. This speaks to a lack of shared understanding of why governance exists in the first place. What results are often piecemeal, unstructured attempts at implementing governance in a single area such as data access or application ownership. A fine starting point but not comprehensive when