00:01Thanks for joining us here. I want to get started on the Best Practices for Enterprise Data Management session. I'm Greg Pleiss. This is Don Hong.

00:06We're both from Esri's Professional Services organization, and we were asked by the conference team to give a little presentation…

00:13…on some of our experiences through Professional Services engagements and doing enterprise data management activities…

00:20…and present to you some of the best practices and the approaches that we're following today…

00:25…in our project work for enterprise data management.

00:29Quick look at the agenda here…

00:32…the topics we're going to talk a little bit about different procurement approaches for enterprise data management systems.

00:37We'll dive in a little more detail to the necessary features and what the commercial off-the-shelf, or COTS…

00:43…architecture looks like to support these enterprise data management systems.

00:48Don's going to jump in then to some deployment considerations…

00:52…the best practices and the things you need to think about when deploying a COTS-based enterprise data management system.

00:58We'll wrap it up with some summary and hopefully have some time for some Q&A at the end, if we can keep on track here relatively.

01:07So I wanted to start out by just kind of laying out the spectrum of different approaches for procuring enterprise systems…

01:14…and this truly is a spectrum. On one end, we've got the entirely custom-built systems. These are 100 percent custom code…

01:23…designed to meet very specific business needs.

01:26On the other end of the spectrum, what we're seeing emerging now is the ability to build a COTS-based system…

01:31…really contrasting the custom system. It's based on commercial software. It's configured with minimal development.

01:39In the middle of that spectrum, then, we have the notion of a component-based system.

01:44This is systems that use COTS-based components but still use fairly significant amounts of custom code…

01:50…to glue those pieces together and make a holistic system.

01:53So we wanted to really start to zero in on what we've seen in our experience is becoming more and more possible…

02:01…and more and more a best practice for building these enterprise data management systems…

02:06…and that's moving as far to the right of the spectrum as we can and really trying to embrace the COTS foundation and configuring, not customizing.

02:16[Audience question] What does COTS mean?

02:17COTS is commercial off-the-shelf. So commercial off-the-shelf technology, or COTS.

02:21And you'll hear me say COTS quite a bit, so thank you for asking for that clarification.

02:27As we compare these different approaches, again on the left here, the custom systems are really custom-built to meet specific business goals.

02:36Contrast that with a COTS-based system, where we're talking about orchestrating COTS technology to meet some business objectives.

02:45On the left, custom systems have a heavy emphasis on software development. We're building new software.

02:50We're doing software engineering to build this system.

02:54On the right, a COTS system has that emphasis on defining workflows and configuring the commercial software to work…

03:00Another real distinction here in the approaches. Custom-based systems really get into detailed feature function requirements to do their design.

03:01…to meet the end business goals.

03:13They're going to focus heavily on how things are done. On the right, with a COTS-based system, we really want to understand…

03:20…what needs to happen, what are the driving business goals, and how can we then configure the COTS and align it with existing COTS capability.

03:27So we're less concerned with how we get things done and more concerned with…

03:32…are we meeting the right business goals and doing it in an efficient way.

03:37Again, probably the biggest distinction here in the different approaches…

03:41…custom systems, we're talking about considerable development time, considerable development effort.

03:47It's a software engineering task to build a very focused system. COTS-based system…

03:51…we try to minimize that development time and effort and really rapidly get a system that's meeting business needs into the user's hands.

04:00And finally, probably the biggest distinction here, this last bullet…

04:05…custom systems end up being very static. They do what they're designed to do and they do it very well.

04:11A year later, when the business needs to change, when the process needs to change…

04:16…you can't adapt that custom system without inputting more, another round of considerable effort and time and development to upgrade it.

04:25A COTS system, on the other hand, can continually evolve with the COTS releases and take advantage of those incremental releases…

04:31…in the COTS software to be a much more dynamic system and a much more agile and adaptable system for your organization.

04:41So what is the COTS approach, where we talk about the COTS approach for building enterprise data management.

04:47It really is all about going with the grain. We want to maximize the investment in our commercial software.

04:53We want to meet business goals by leveraging that commercial software…

04:58…so that means configuring and extending the COTS base and avoiding developing new software as much as possible.

05:08Another hallmark of this is really its ability to provide immediate capability.

05:12We already have a foundation in the commercial software that can deliver capability today.

05:17So we're not talking about a year-long or a six-month-long requirement design phase before we even begin building the enterprise system.

05:25We're talking about leveraging that commercial platform immediately and getting it in the users' hands…

05:31…and then incrementally improving and continually improving that throughout the COTS life cycle.

05:37And finally, it does…another distinction here, and I kind of alluded to it just a second ago…

05:42…is that the COTS approach really engages users early and often to iteratively improve that system.

05:49So again, we're not talking about large, upfront requirement design initiatives before users have a system in their hands…

05:56…to start meeting business goals and providing feedback on where things can be better, where things should be different.

06:02So that really is a big differentiator for a COTS-based enterprise system.

06:09So this really is a different way of thinking for a lot of people and a lot of organizations.

06:15It's going to challenge the common procurement models. Requirements are going to be focused on business goals…

06:21…not the detailed feature function, you know. It's the what we need to accomplish, not how we need to accomplish.

06:27Let the business define what its goals are and then pair that with the COTS experts to understand…

06:34…how do we meet those goals without building a custom system that's static and requires a lot of investment over time.

06:41So we're really talking about selecting the commercial software that best meets those business goals and then…

06:47…implementing with the grain for the best results.

06:49So getting a good understanding of what the path of the commercial software is and aligning our objectives…

06:55…and our incremental delivery of this enterprise system with that road map of the COTS software.

07:03Another area that this can be challenging from a common procurement model is when we talk about scheduling…

07:08…and Don will talk about some of these aspects from a deployment perspective later.

07:13But one of the things we're going to want to do here is really schedule our rollout of this, linked with those commercial software releases.

07:21So again, we don't want to invest a lot of time and effort and money building a custom function that, six months later…

07:27…is going to be in the next commercial release of the software and becomes obsolete. So understanding that road map…

07:34…understanding what's coming next and what the future direction of the commercial baseline is…

07:39…is a real driver for how we schedule the rollout and what business goals we accomplish first versus second, versus third.

07:46The COTS approach really also asks users to consider new business processes…

07:54…so we don't necessarily just want to model the way we do things today.

07:58Again, we're not going to get focused on the detailed how things get done; we're focused on the bigger picture business goal…

08:06…what are we trying to accomplish.

08:08And then we're looking at potentially new workflows based on the COTS capabilities for implementing those.

08:13And that can be difficult. Individuals resist change, organizations resist change.

08:19So it really is a different way of thinking, and a lot of organizations require a bit of a top-down approach…

08:24…and top-down buy-in from executive management that this is worth the investment, this is worth changing our business process.

08:32We can still meet our business goals, but we change our business process in order to meet those goals in a much more sustainable way…

08:38…that we can grow incrementally and not sustain a long maintenance tail of a custom system…

08:44…that's continually being updated and redeveloped as the times change.

08:49And finally, a last bullet here, again, a different way of thinking. To implement a COTS-based system…

08:56… you really need to resist that change to overly customize.

09:00The best intentions of many people often start to spiral down into the, well, if we just change this, if we just change this, if we just change this…

09:07…before you know it, you're pretty far away from that COTS baseline…

09:11…and you've got all sorts of parts and pieces in here that aren't going to just incrementally evolve as the COTS platform does.

09:18So you really need to be conscious, continually conscious of the cost benefit here of customization versus configuration…

09:28…and be willing to look at how your business processes can change to meet your business goals…

09:34…in a more sustainable, maintainable fashion.

09:41So I think we've all seen this slide a number of times probably already this week and certainly in the past.

09:47But I really want to just kind of emphasize, from a technology standpoint, this ArcGIS system concept.

09:53It is the backbone for a COTS-based enterprise data management system.

09:59More so now than ever, we've got the pieces in place that really give us that foundation that we need with the flexibility…

10:05…to support a wide range of users and a wide range of uses, from desktop, mobile, to the web…

10:11…from local to enterprise to cloud-based services, the platform is there in all of these different fashions…

10:17…and we want to start looking at how we can now leverage that to very quickly and rapidly turn out…

10:24…enterprise data management systems that can evolve over time with the COTS platform.

10:31So before we dive into some of the feature functions and the real technology aspects of this…

10:37…I want to take just a view here from a user perspective, if you will, of that enterprise GIS pattern.

10:45Enterprise data management, users…

10:48…organizations that are really interested in enterprise data management are often what I would call authoritative content producers.

10:55They are the ones producing the authoritative content in their domain, in their region, in their area of specialty.

11:03They're getting data in from the fields or from VGI-type inputs.

11:08They've got a need to then produce data and map products of that authoritative content as well as…

11:13…services, map services, analysis services, et cetera.

11:17And they may be contributing to basemaps or be a consumer of basemaps, but really, they want to do all of this…

11:23…through a configurable and shared set of workflows, production tools, and business rules for quality control, et cetera.

11:30So, I just want to kind of jump in for a little bit here and look at some of the…

11:34…sort of the key features of an enterprise data management system as well as the COTS architecture that supports that.

11:43So at a very high level, we can really put this into three main categories, and what I'd like to do here is…

11:49…dive into each one of these a little bit, and then we'll actually kind of run through a little bit of a demo on each one of these sections…

11:55…to give you a view of a configured COTS-based system for doing end-to-end data management in line with what you see here.

12:03So at a high level, what we're talking about are production management capabilities, the ability to task the work force…

12:10…report on the status and progress of the data production activities that the work force is conducting…

12:16…and the ability to do some basic management capabilities…

12:20…job assignment, job scheduling, those basic types of capabilities.

12:25The center of that enterprise data management system really is geodata management and maintenance activities.

12:31This is the geodatabase and the workflows that support…

12:35…the user interaction with the geodatabase for geodata management and data update activities.

12:40And finally, we're all doing enterprise data management not for the sake of managing data…

12:46…but for the sake of ultimately providing content dissemination to our end users…

12:52…defining detailed information products and being able to disseminate those to end users.

12:55So that really is sort of the third key feature of an enterprise data management system here.

13:03So let's kind of start at the beginning and like I said…

13:05…I'd like to kind of sprinkle in here some demonstrations for each of these key areas and really kind of…

13:11…look at a bit of an end-to-end flow from tasking and reporting through workflow execution and ultimately…

13:17…out to the data content, the content dissemination piece.

13:22When we look at production management, again, we're talking about configuring…

13:26…the COTS platform to support that tasking reporting and management of the data maintenance activities that are ongoing.

13:32This is important. It provides transparency both within the organization and potentially it can be leveraged to do it…

13:39…external to the organization as well if you open these portals to the public.

13:45Again, through these production management applications, we're tasking and managing production.

13:49We're providing that status and reporting. We do that through utilizing role-based functionality.

13:55So I, as an executive manager, have a different set of needs for what I want to see from a production management application…

14:02…versus a line supervisor who's actually responsible for the day-to-day activities and doling out work…

14:08…to the individual data editors and keeping tabs on them.

14:12So we really want to target the user experience. Think about role-based functionality and how we keep it simple within those roles.

14:21And what this allows us to do is really extend the reach of those GIS workflows. We can start to…

14:26…through using simple web-based access, roll in the non-GIS users that are stakeholders in one way or another…

14:33…in the GIS activities that are happening in our organization, like I said, be it from an executive manager's point of view…

14:39…who just needs to have that immediate, up-to-date window of what's going on in my organization…

14:46…where are we on track, where are we off track, where are we doing work, where are we not doing work…

14:52…all the way down to a true line manager who, again, isn't a heavy-duty GIS user but is the personnel manager…

15:00…that's responsible for assigning work and balancing workloads amongst the GIS staff themselves.

15:08So we can start to really fold in those non-GIS users and extend the reach of our workflows across the organization.

15:16So I'm not going to spend too much time on this.

15:18I think it's better maybe to just take a quick look at a production management application and the types of capabilities that we can provide.

15:26The key technologies here, ArcGIS Server with the Workflow Manager extension, all being leveraged…

15:33…through the ArcGIS Server web APIs. So let me just kind of jump over here.

15:41So there's kind of three key things that I need to be able to do from a production management application perspective.

15:47I need to be able to visualize the location and age…

15:54…the status, if you will, of my current data holdings.

15:57I need to be able to see where I've got current data production activities or data maintenance activities ongoing.

16:05And I need to be able to task and report on the activities within my organization.

16:11So we look at the enterprise production manager web application here. On the landing page, right away I can see a data currency legend here…

16:20…that shows me all of my current GIS data holdings.

16:23In this case, each one of these represents a tile of GIS data symbolized by when it was last updated in our enterprise.

16:30So I get a real quick idea of where's my data current, where is my data not current.

16:35The next thing I want to do is be able to see, well, where do I have current production activities or data update activities ongoing.

16:43So I can turn on a production status layer here, hopefully. And what this is going to do is going to show me all of those locations…

16:54…it's not going to come back for me, though--all of those locations where I've got current activity, current data production activity happening.

17:02So quickly, what I can see from this view, if my production status layer would come up, is how old is my data…

17:08…how new is my data, where am I currently updating things.

17:11And I can now start to evaluate those customer requirements as they come in.

17:16I've got a need for updated data in a given location; I can quickly come here and see, well, how current is my data?

17:24Am I already doing work there? Or if I'm not already doing work there, I need to task some work versus expediting some existing work.

17:36So hopefully, this isn't going to continue for me here. I was having some problems with my VPN connection right before we started.

17:44Let me try something here. Definitely having some problems here. I'll tell you what. In order to keep us on track here…

18:08…I'm going to do a little bit of a fallback here. I've got some of these actually recorded. So let me just go ahead and jump in on…

18:18…instead of waiting for the Internet connection here to come up, let me just go ahead and do this…

18:23…play a short, little video demonstration for you here.

18:35[recording] [unintelligible]…production maintenance activities based on customer requirements…

18:41…and report on the location and status of ongoing data production efforts.

18:47In our example, each of these capabilities is provided by the enterprise production manager web application…

18:53…which leverages the web APIs provided by ArcGIS Server and the ArcGIS Server Workflow Manager extension.

19:01This easy-to-use web application can be accessed and leveraged by both the GIS and non-GIS stakeholders throughout the enterprise.

19:09This same application can also be deployed externally to provide the general public with visibility…

19:16…and input into the data production activities within the organization.

19:21From the landing page, I can quickly visualize the location and age of the organization's existing GIS data holdings.

19:28Each cell on the map represents a single tile of GIS data and is color coded based on the date it was last updated.

19:36I can turn on a production status layer to view all locations where data production activities are currently under way.

19:44Finally, I can select any given location to view more detailed information about the existing data holdings…

19:51…and any associated data production or maintenance activities that are under way. As a manager for my enterprise…

19:59…these tools quickly give me the ability to evaluate the new data requirement received from a customer.

20:04Now let's take a look at how I can use this application to task and report on data production activities.

20:11To task the workflow with a new data production or maintenance requirement, I simply launch the dashboard…

20:18…click on the Submit New Production Request tool, and enter some basic information about the requirement…

20:24…including the type of data required, the date the work needs to be completed…

20:30…and an e-mail address that will be used to communicate status updates and data availability information as the production activity progresses.

20:40I can also enter additional comments or descriptive information as needed to communicate details about the work to the production staff.

20:48Next, I specify the location of the work to be performed by drawing a bounding box on the map display.

20:56Clicking Submit Request will initiate a new production activity in a centralized workflow management system used throughout the enterprise.

21:04The user to whom the work has been assigned will be notified via e-mail that they have a new production activity…

21:11…that has been tasked for them to complete.

21:14At this point, a new production activity has been created and tasked.

21:19To keep tabs on this job, I can use the reporting functions provided by the enterprise production manager application.

21:26Here, the application is connecting to the centralized workflow management system to retrieve up-to-date information…

21:33…on all of the jobs I'm interested in, which it then presents geographically on a map.

21:38By selecting different report options, I can visualize production work in different ways.

21:44For example, here I've categorized activities by priority, showing me geographically where my high-priority work is taking place.

21:53Notice here that I can also see the newly tasked production activity indicating the immediate and up-to-date nature…

22:00…of the reports generated from the ArcGIS production mapping system.

22:05But the real power comes from the fact that we are working in standardized workflows that have been configured…

22:11…to match the business processes of the enterprise. Throughout the execution of these workflows…

22:16…status and progress information is automatically captured in the centralized workflow management system.

22:22This provides the ability to visualize ongoing work categorized by schedule status, for example…

22:29…so that I can quickly determine where production activities are falling behind their scheduled completion dates.

22:35To find out why a specific activity is falling behind, I can easily drill into the details.

22:42I can check to see if any relevant notes were captured during the workflow execution.

22:47I can view a detailed activity log, which gives me the full history of everything that's happened during the execution of this activity.

22:54And I can see if there are any holds associated with this activity. In this case, I can see that the job was placed on hold…

23:01…because the imagery needed to perform the GIS updates had too much cloud cover, so we're awaiting for new…

23:08…cloud-free imagery to be acquired and provided.

23:11We've now seen how the ArcGIS enterprise production mapping system can be used to quickly and easily task new production activities…

23:19…as well as how its centralized workflow management system can be used to manage and report status against those activities.

23:29[live speaker] So, sorry, I apologize to not be able to actually run that for real. Jump back in here.

23:41So now that we've created a job, we've tasked the production work force, I want to step in and talk a little bit…

23:47…about the geodata management and geodata maintenance feature of an enterprise data management system.

23:54The center of that enterprise data management system is the geodatabase…

23:58…and so I think it's important to talk a little bit about some of the best practices for geodatabase design in an enterprise setting.

24:05Our goal here, remember, is to deliver high-performance, application-ready geodata. We want the data to be usable right away by end users.

24:14They shouldn't have to jump through a bunch of hoops and do translations from one format to another to be able to get value out of our data.

24:21So we really want to emphasize our geodatabase design around end-user capabilities. Define those detailed information products…

24:29…and then build to deliver those information products. Avoid the what-if scenarios. We really want to focus on…

24:36…what is it that users want to be able to do with our data and how do we make the simple things simple…

24:41…and not get caught up in the 10 percent case or the 1 percent case that's always going to be there.

24:49Again, in an enterprise environment, from a geodatabase design perspective…

24:53…you want to embrace the notion of federated compilation and maintenance.

24:57Within any one department or organization within the enterprise, you need to be realistic about what your expertise is in that area…

25:05…and what your capability and capacity is within that area.

25:09And don't be afraid to let other parts of the organization collect pieces of data that you need but they're better suited…

25:15…better capable, better capacity to do so. And then you simply define information products for them of how you need to use their data.

25:24And you consume those, you integrate those, not at the RDBMS level but at the service level.

25:29We start doing web service-based mashups to get information content from different parts of the enterprise together.

25:35We don't need to do a single über database, über data model across the entire organization.

25:41As long as we've got clear data stewardship rules between the different parts of the organization and…

25:46…we've got good communication about how the data needs to be used or integrated between those organizations…

25:52…we can do that at the service level, not at the RDBMS level…

25:55…and start to let people really focus on what they're best at and contribute what they're best at.

26:02And then finally, we want to design for COTS usability, so this is again coming back to that COTS approach.

26:08Leverage the geodatabase concepts, feature classes, subtypes, et cetera.

26:12Really embrace the COTS capabilities that are there to ease your data collection and to ease your information product delivery…

26:22…keeping in mind as you do that that you will need to have some balance between the maintenance side of things…

26:28…and the dissemination side of things. It is difficult to get a single geodatabase that works perfectly for data collection activities…

26:37…and also perfectly for data dissemination activities.

26:39And so you do need to be constantly thinking about those tradeoffs and how do you come up with a best of breed…

26:46…that supports your data collection users as well as your end information product users.

26:54From a geodata management perspective, once we've got that geodatabase design laid out, the COTS software…

27:03…the ArcGIS platform really does provide you with a number of options for how you distribute those geodata management activities.

27:10A couple key things I want to get across here. One is this notion of a production database versus a publication database.

27:18One of these, the production database, is really tuned for data editing and has read-write access.

27:23The other, the publication database, is tuned for service delivery, content dissemination, and read-only access.

27:31We separate these two in the enterprise world. We've got authoritative content in our production side and then we've got…

27:38…a mechanism for providing approved content that's published out to the rest of the world or the rest of the enterprise to consume.

27:49So that's one kind of key concept is that distinction or differentiation between your production database…

27:55…and your publication database and the tuning that happens that's different to each of those.

28:00The other sort of key thing here is the notion of geodatabase versions and replication. So versions…

28:06…hopefully most everybody here is familiar with geodatabase versioning.

28:10It's been around for quite some time. It gives us that direct editing capability for a multiuser environment.

28:16Great for connected multiuser editing scenarios. But recently, in the past few releases of the geodatabase…

28:22…we've built on versioning to establish geodatabase replication, and this starts to open up a series of new patterns for us…

28:31…for how we further distribute those geodata management activities to both connected groups of users who, again…

28:39…just like the production database and publication database, are separate and can be tuned separately and have access control separate.

28:47There may be workgroups within your organization that want to carve off a specific geographic area or a specific set of features…

28:54…have their own sort of mini data stewardship group that manages those and then synchronizes just their changes up to the authoritative content.

29:02So there's a use for connected replication for two-way exchange of data. And then there's also the notion of disconnected replication…

29:11…and this is where we really open up the possibility for extending the geodata management activities not just inside the enterprise but outside.

29:19A lot of organizations that are doing large-scale enterprise data management and enterprise data production activities…

29:25…are leveraging a contract or work force or contracted agencies that are doing some of that work or specific areas of that work for them.

29:34And disconnected replication and check-out replicas give you two mechanisms to easily transfer sets of geodata…

29:42…outside of your organization for maintenance activities to occur and then just get transactionally the updates…

29:47…back of what that organization has done. So again, this is another one of those things that has evolved…

29:53…over the last couple of releases of the ArcGIS platform that starts to open up this notion of…

29:58…we can have a COTS-based enterprise data management capability here.

30:03There's a lot of the building blocks are actually in place, and we can start to leverage those now.

30:08From a data maintenance perspective itself, this is all about workflows and workflow-driven, rule-based production.

30:16We want to model both new and existing processes that are going to integrate the GIS and non-GIS aspects of the organization.

30:23The goal here is to standardize and streamline those activities; to define the best practices within the organization…

30:30…of how data maintenance occurs; and then do that in a way that, again, to contrast it with a custom system approach…

30:37…isn't static, isn't locked in stone, but can continually evolve both with the COTS platform…

30:44…and with the organization's needs as they change.

30:47So it really is all about configuring a common rule base of a number of different types.

30:53There's feature templates, new in ArcGIS 10 for the data editing so we can start to standardize how, what types of features we collect.

31:01We may come up with a geodatabase design and a data model that allows us to, from a number of combinations…

31:08…and permutations perspective, to have 300 different kinds of roads.

31:13But we really want to standardize within this area or within this project or within the organization.

31:18Here's the 10 different road classifications and combinations that occur 99 percent of the time in our area.

31:25We can define feature templates that have those 10 road combinations, distribute those out to the organization…

31:32…and start to standardize the way the data collection activities are occurring.

31:37Map templates, obviously, they allow us to start to standardize the way we look at and the way we share that information…

31:43…what the layers are, what the symbology is, what the labeling rules are.

31:48And then finally, another key one here in the enterprise data maintenance side of things…

31:52…is quality control rules and really standardizing the quality control aspects so that we don't have bad data…

32:00…or data of different quality coming in. Everybody's playing on a level field.

32:03We define a single set of quality control rules that live in the geodatabase and can be leveraged by all users of the geodatabase…

32:11…so that we've got consistent quality being applied by all data editors, by all data maintenance activities across the organization.

32:20So, again, kind of the pieces here that are at play--ArcGIS Desktop is going to be our primary foundation for our GIS professionals…

32:30…that are going to be doing most of this heavy lifting, leveraging the Esri production mapping suite, and again…

32:35…that centralized workflow management repository that Workflow Manager provides to guide those activities.

32:41But also, on the ArcGIS Server side, with the ArcGIS web APIs and mobile APIs, this is, again…

32:46…where we can start to reach out to either our field GIS users who need to be part of those overall data collection…

32:52…data maintenance workflows for the enterprise, or again, those non-GIS users who aren't doing the heavy lifting of GIS…

33:00…but need to be involved in approvals as the workflow progresses or need to be involved in routing the work…

33:07…from one individual to another in making some of those business decisions about our GIS workflows.

33:13So just a quick view here--yeah, I really have lost my Internet connection. Alright. So I apologize. I'm going to do this to you again.

33:21I'm going to--luckily, I had most of these recorded, at least. So just a quick view.

33:28[recording] …data production workstation, and I can see all of the production activities currently assigned to me for completion.

33:34When I select a specific job, I can view all of the same information that was provided to the production management web application…

33:41…including job assignment, job priority, dates, description, notes, holds, and more. In addition to these items…

33:52…the production staff is also provided with the preconfigured workflow window that outlines the steps required…

33:58…to complete the specific type of production activity tasked by the production management web application.

34:06This workflow window is much more than just a pretty picture, though. It is interactive.

34:09It actually steps the user through the workflow process. As the user executes each step in the workflow…

34:16…the workflow management system is preconfigured to automatically launch the necessary applications…

34:22…and log workflow execution progress and status.

34:26Once logged, this information is immediately visible to managers at stakeholders for up-to-the-minute reporting.

34:33Each of these workflows is configured to model an end-to-end data production process…

34:38…from source data acquisition through data compilation and quality control and, ultimately, content dissemination.

34:49[live speaker] So the main take-away there, right, is that this is all powered by that centralized workflow management system.

34:54If I could have been running this demo for you live, you'd see all of the, you know…

34:59…the job we created on the web is now available to me as a GIS user on the desktop.

35:05Again, all that information that was put in from the production management staff is available to me--attachments, other things.

35:11And now I'm guided, step by step, through my workflow. What applications do I need to use…

35:16…and I don't have to do anything special beyond executing that workflow to communicate back to my management…

35:23…and executive staff what the progress is and where we are along the way. That's all built-in, configured as part of the workflow…

35:29…and is just automatically providing that real-time status back to that web dashboard…

35:35…that executive viewer window that we were seeing previously.

35:45So each one of those steps--and I apologize 'cause it was kind of hard to see up there…

35:50…but every one of those boxes in that workflow has the notion of, what percent complete am I when this step is done?

35:56So simply by marking a step as complete, the workflow management system is now saying, okay, I'm 10 percent done…

36:02I'm 15 percent done, I'm 25 percent done.

36:04And that's again, you know, when we talk about configuring COTS to meet your business processes…

36:10…that's where a lot of the work comes in, is defining those workflows and making the decisions about…

36:15…once I've reached this point, I can say I'm roughly 50 percent done or 80 percent done.

36:21That's all configuration and that's all stuff that is flexible and can change on the fly as your workflows change…

36:27…and as you build a historic basis of, well, we thought we were halfway done when we got to this point…

36:33…but history is showing us that there was still three more months of work left on almost every project once we hit this point.

36:39Well, let's go update the workflow to say we're actually only 25 percent done.

36:44And so that's that very dynamic and nonstatic nature of configuring workflows versus building custom systems.

37:00So kind of stepping through here to the--like I said, none of us are into data maintenance for the sake of data maintenance.

37:08We're all doing data maintenance activities because ultimately, we want to serve end users…

37:12…and provide content dissemination services to end users. And this is, again where…

37:18…the COTS platform has evolved now to a point that we've got a variety of ways to meet end-user needs and provide end-user applications…

37:28…that deliver a variety of diverse information products, from visualization information products, map services…

37:34…be they basemaps or dynamic overlay services, to analysis services, the publishing of geoprocessing rules…

37:41…and analysis tradecraft that leverages your data and your expertise, to geodata services themselves.

37:49So the geodatabase replication has web service end points that actually allow us, through a web services perspective…

37:56…to distribute not just images of the information products but the raw data behind it.

38:02That's true for the vector data with a geodata replication service, and that's true for image services with a data download option…

38:11…as you may have seen during the plenary yesterday, as well. So we really can, at a COTS level, provide a very rich…

38:16…and very diverse series of information products. They enable search and discovery, both from a standards-based…

38:25…OGC-based search and discovery mechanism, using something like the geoportal server, to the more lightweight…

38:32…ArcGIS Online tags and description searches that are enabled now. And again, the COTS platform also allows us…

38:41…to support both the internal and external user. So web services clearly connect all of our internal or connected users.

38:49But as I said, through these geodata services and other mechanisms, we can easily put transactional updates onto traditional media…

38:58…that get carried over to a new network to an offline, sort of LAN environment, and we can stand back up all of that geodata content…

39:05…and all of those content services within a local node, and then manage through traditional media updates or…

39:15…if we're in a sometimes connected mode, through these web service-based updates, transactional updates that says every month…

39:21…this publication node is going to connect back to the mother ship, update with all the data maintenance activities…

39:27…and then be able to reoperate in an offline mode with the most current data as of our last connection point.

39:34So a lot of these things are there. The foundation is there in the COTS platform, and, like I said…

39:41…they're leveraging ArcGIS Server, the Geoportal extension, and really, you know, as we drive forward, they're also leveraging…

39:49…you know, just the straight ArcGIS Online and this notion of being able to publish your services directly to the cloud…

39:56…sharing them with private groups. We saw--for those of you that were in the plenary yesterday, you saw Scott Oppmann…

40:02…give a demonstration of the portal, the Esri-hosted portal configured for the City of Louisville.

40:07So when you logged in with the City of Louisville account, you didn't see all of the generic, Esri-produced content.

40:13You actually saw focused content that was all contributed by and relevant to the City of Louisville.

40:19So there's cloud and managed, hosted services capabilities in ArcGIS Online that you can take advantage of.

40:26And coming at 10.1, there's also the notion of being able to have ArcGIS Online on-premises with what we're calling ArcGIS Portal.

40:33And what we see here is an example of--this is no longer an ArcGIS.com URL, but this is a privately hosted…

40:35So planning the rollout is a key in COTS approach, and we need to include software releases, with us or with other vendors…

40:41…privately run version of ArcGIS Online that, again, has been configured. This is no customization. This is all configuration around…

40:48…what are the main things we want to do? Our users--we want to be able to visualize, we want them to be able analyze…

40:53…we want them to be able to access the data. And these just become all--yeah, of course, I'm offline…

40:59…these just become all configuration of that ArcGIS Portal, and the queries that the ArcGIS Portal is running to filter the content…

41:07…and this is now running local, on your private cloud, on your own internal infrastructure…

41:13…as opposed to externally on the public ArcGIS.com site.

41:21So really, just to kind of wrap up here with that first simplistic diagram--kind of blown out a little bit here.

41:28What did we look at? We looked at production management, feeding the geodata maintenance…

41:34…and geodata management activities of the organization--those are performed primarily by the GIS users…

41:41…and the field users and rely heavily on this notion of configured workflows, adaptable workflows, and a common…

41:46…rule-based and template concept that standardizes and streamlines those activities.

41:52There's a variety of geodata management options available for how you distribute those activities…

41:57…both within and outside of your organization. And ultimately…

42:01…that is what feeds the visualization analysis and data access web services that reach out to your end users…

42:08…both in a connected and disconnected fashion. So the pieces are really there from a COTS perspective to build this…

42:15…end-to-end tasking reporting production dissemination system without having to do a lot of heavy, custom development.

42:25So as we talk about how to do that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Don…

42:27…and let him talk through some of the deployment considerations here.

42:33Thank you, Greg. That was a lot of stuff.

42:45And I have to tell you, you know, that demos are real and I've seen them.

42:50So if you're interested, then come up and see us and we're more than happy to show it to you.

42:55So in the previous two sections, Greg can show you, what is a COTS approach…

43:01…and he also showed you what are the necessary features and architectures as associated with that approach.

43:07I hope that you get a better understanding of the COTS approach…

43:10…and I hope that you think it's beneficial to your project and to your organization. Maybe you still, you know…

43:17…think it's a good idea but you still have doubts on how to get it done, right, how to put it into my organization.

43:24And in this section, we're going to talk about that and talk about how you're going to implement as a project management…

43:32…or as a techie. So before I start, I want to have a show of your hands, and how many of you consider yourself techies…

43:39…you know, program? Good portion--thank you. And how many of you think of yourself as a project manager…

43:49…executive level…decision makers? Good. The rest of you, that didn't raise your hand…? Alright, so just listen to me.

43:59Okay. So I think--where's my remote control? Thank you. So…

44:12…I think it's not an understatement that COTS approach has greatly impacted the software development life cycle in a good way.

44:21And when we look at software development, I think it's best to compare the COTS approach to a…

44:29…traditional approach to get a better understanding what we are talking about.

44:34There are many, as you know, many software development life cycles out there--waterfall, spiral…

44:42…iterative process, or recently, the more agile type of development approach.

44:49If you notice, there is a common thread among these development processes.

44:55It's a set of common activities in the development life cycle, and some of them are on the slides.

45:03We plot them onto two scales so that you can compare them. On a more traditional development approach…

45:09…you look at the planning, requirements, design, development, testing, implementation--the development is fairly large…

45:17…'cause we are developing software and we need to gather requirements and we need to plan the testing activities and deployment for it.

45:28As you look at the COTS approach, the fundamental assumption is that we're leveraging COTS functionality.

45:35So consequently, you see that you have much shorter life cycle and you have a quicker, accelerated delivery schedule…

45:46…which means a quick turnaround time. And how does the benefit being realized is through these…

45:53…shortened phases in that life cycle. You spend approximately same amount of planning and deployment effort, although shorter.

46:03And most of the benefits are realized in the requirements design and testing. We cross out development…

46:14…because we don't do a whole lot of development. We do configuration. We leverage existing functionalities.

46:23We involve a lot of users upfront. So we interact with the user because we can. We have COTS-based product.

46:32We can show them what we are talking about, rather than on a piece of paper. And remember this diagram.

46:39This provides a lot of insights on a COTS implementation approach. There will be a quiz at the end.

46:46No, just kidding. It's supposed to be a joke.

46:52Planning. So as we start planning our GIS system, COTS approach puts a lot of focus on business process and objectives.

47:03And not to say traditional approach does not emphasize that--we do. But the COTS approach allows you to do more…

47:11…because you have less time to worry about the development, right?

47:17And you're really just leveraging what we currently existing functionality that we offer to you.

47:24So you can emphasize--the typical goals that we're trying to achieve--improving productivity, increasing revenue, reducing costs…

47:34…supporting regulatory requirements, and one of the key things that I found, myself…

47:42…very hard to do in a COTS implementation project is the temptation of customizing.

47:50There's a lot of things that I want to do specifically for my organization that COTS doesn't offer, okay.

47:57So it's that temptation that you need to resist, not because you can't do it; it's what the business really needs.

48:06And how many times that we actually develop something without asking whether the business truly need them.

48:14But it's because we can do it, and it's cool. So we need to pay attention to that.

48:24Because releases of COTS software continues, they offer new functionality, in turn, help us building our system.

48:50…in your project schedule, and we need to work with them as a partner, right.

48:55And you need to work closely with us, say GIS, that we include you in our holistic testing.

49:02We solicit your input to our COTS-based functionality so that you can do your job better.

49:09Then, that is what we call there in the rollout, using multiple phases and iterations of software, the COTS software functionality…

49:21…which enabled heavy user interactions and validation as the releases evolved through time. Because user is part of this…

49:32…as we're going show later on. User interactions start from the beginning, unlike traditional approach…

49:39…that you have to put things on paper and you quickly go and build them…

49:44…and then you come back and show that and time has passed.

49:48By the time you finish all your functionality, there's a new releases coming out, and you have to catch up on that…

49:54…and you have to put in new code again. So it's an endless cycle, right? And so you carry that baggage throughout.

50:01So plan that ahead in the COTS approach that we do those things for you. But we need to talk. We need to do things together.

50:12So it's a partnership, it's a true partnership that we're talking about. And also, understand, there's a tradeoff between COTS.

50:22It's not, you know, the beautiful day, like outside--it's perfect--because there's a tradeoff.

50:28We talk about COTS cannot meet a hundred percent of your needs, and you have to be ready to sacrifice certain things.

50:35And that is the change that we talked about. Embrace the change.

50:40Maybe we spend 80 percent of our time developing 20 percent of the functionality that is critical to the business…

50:48…but can they change their process to save maybe 50 percent of that 80 percent?

50:55So that requires this upper management buy-in, the top-down approach, and rather than…

51:03…I've very seldom to see a very successful implementation from the bottom up from that perspective.

51:13Planning is about developing detailed work breakdown structure, and we know…

51:18…project managers know those detailed activities are critical.

51:22And this is the diagram to show you the COTS approach. The first phase is out of box…

51:31…put your hand off the coding and focus on configuring the tools and quickly deliver those functionality to the user.

51:40You'll get their buy-in, right, and get them talking to you, and this is what I like, this is what I don't like…

51:46…this is what I need, and to do. And then you have a list of things that you can start negotiating with them…

51:50…and that would be the refinement in the second phase. And talking about those things and say, well, how important is it to you?

51:57If I offer slightly different functionality, would you die tomorrow? Probably not. And so, and you can still operate as you go.

52:07So that's sort of the negotiation. Phase 2 is multiple phases, not just one. It's phase N, really.

52:16It's the iterative process until a point, and then you say, Yes, I'm finalizing it and I'm deploying it.

52:24Now, it's very simple to say that I'm ready for deploy in a traditional approach because, once you deploy, that's it.

52:33It is static. People sign off on it, and it's going to be there for six months, a year, or two years. But in a COTS approach…

52:42…it's less nerve-racking, because we know it will continue to evolve. COTS releases will come out.

52:51We can continue to configure the tool. It requires less effort to do that, alright. That's the benefit that we are talking about.

53:02In a COTS system, the requirements are satisfied by COTS functionality design around best practices…

53:09…and it's been tested by many organizations before we release them, right? And so, really…

53:18…understand the COTS capability and how it impacts the system business process.

53:23And it's critical for you to efficiently implementing with the grain of the software, so you need to understand…

53:30…what the software provides to you, so that you can tell your user and you can make intelligent decisions.

53:38And also, really, because we have time to focus on what this software can help the customer achieve, and we don't need to…

53:52…we have less time to worry about how to deliver them, because we have the COTS software behind your back to help you to do that.

54:00What I have seen many successful user used to do is to use COTS to demonstrate a vision of the system early on…

54:12…and instead of talking about modifying the technology to meet the business needs. In other words, you lead rather than you follow…

54:24…right, and you need to paint a vision. And because COTS products allow you to do that, you have the tools.

54:31In the old time when we need to custom develop these tools, it takes time. And so leverage that, and that is very, very powerful.

54:44Iterative and demo-based implementation approach sort of merge the requirement and design together.

54:55So as we develop requirements, we're really showing people how the system works and at the same time designing the system…

55:06…and then they provide feedback and I come back and revise my application. So these two actually are being combined…

55:16…and just imagine in your requirements workshop and design workshop that you are sitting down with the users.

55:24And I am the COTS expert; I can configure things. You have business users sitting down with me in the same room…

55:35…and as you say, I want to do X and Y and Z, I can quickly configure the tool and show you…

55:41…you can accomplish maybe 80 percent of that X and Y and Z. And that's very powerful.

55:47You deliver something to the user instantaneously, right?

55:51And maybe the 20 percent let me go back and talk to my technical staff. Maybe I do custom or maybe I talk to Esri.

55:58We provide additional--there may be other tools that you can leverage. So that is what we see the gain.

56:05Again, remember the chart up front. The small blocks of design and requirements are being realized because of this.

56:19In my view, this whole process of design, as requirement, gathering, planning--it's like a user feedback-driven machine, right.

56:30The key components are--there's prototypes, there's designs, there's configuration.

56:37Any of these component terms and the other goes, right? It's all running together. It propels and is moving forward.

56:45It's very dynamic. It's very iterative. So if nothing else in this implementation approach that you remember…

56:53…please remember iterative. Please remember user interaction, and this is what it's all about in a COTS implementation approach.

57:05Develop--this is where you actually develop something. And we like to say you configure rather than developing.

57:16The difference between the COTS and the traditional approach, it's most dramatic in this case, and we have a rule of thumb.

57:25If you do more than 10 percent of coding in your system, you're not truly doing COTS, and we want to resist that temptation…

57:35…again, to do custom code because we can. We provide a lot of those APIs for you to do that…

57:43…but just think about kind of the benefits that you get or the less trouble you get into…

57:49…by maintaining those code in the future, right. Not only quickly turn around a solution to your user if you use COTS…

58:00…you also save money in the long term. You don't need to maintain that.

58:03You don't need to carry a group of programmers or contractors or yourself to maintain it moving forward.

58:13Testing--this is another area that is significantly different and benefit people who implement COTS…

58:22…because we don't develop code. The testing in the common, the traditional approach sense…

58:30…it really is for testing a specific business case. You pull out a use case, all written nicely in a table…

58:41…and you test one by one and check off them. In the COTS approach, you don't…you don't do that.

58:48What you do is you test the configuration. If I have a problem, I just change it.

58:54So less effort goes into this rigid testing, and in turn, that you gain benefit on time and cost.

59:06Implementation is the last phase. It really, truly is a deployment, and as you're getting ready…

59:13…I have my system, I need to deploy into my IT framework. One of the real strengths of COTS-based system…

59:22…is that it will continually evolve and improve, both by configuration and by releases. And…

59:30…and that's why the decision to go into deployment, it's a lot easier, 'cause I know that I have support for my back…

59:38…that someone will continue, will have new functionality for me to continue to improve my system…

59:45…and I need to work with them to do that. So the deployment--the typical consideration on a deployment are, you know…

59:53…leveraging, sort of the human elements of the deployment is, you know, get your user buy-in, get them trained…

1:00:00…now, that's another side benefit of COTS is you get them involved early on in your project, so they already know the system.

1:00:08They already got trained, right? And it's really, the testing and training should be sort of coming together.

1:00:15You're actually doing one thing and benefit both, right. And so user has better buy-in, and my view is that as they go through this…

1:00:25…they know how to use it and they know the aerial pointers, so there's less learning curve going on.

1:00:32The other thing is probably about the same. You may have to look at, you know, IT standards, security…

1:00:38…you look at the demonstration side once you deploy--who's actually managing my geodatabase, who's my system administrator, how…

1:00:45…how to keep your data up-to-date. And there are oftentimes, people put the system out and they…

1:00:53…forgot that I need to keep my data up-to-date. And very quickly, people say, well, your tools are great…

1:00:59…but my data--your data is outdated. It doesn't mean anything to me, so they're not going to use the system.

1:01:05So we need to avoid that, and that's actually common on both sides.

1:01:09So this is the last slide on the implementation.

1:01:16Iterative--COTS approach is an iterative process, and you see these circles and the pilot…

1:01:25…deployment, phase 1, phase 2--the pilot being the bigger circle because it requires you to do more as you change.

1:01:35The people--so the paradigm within the organization, how to implement a system, and you have to get the buy-in…

1:01:43…you have to configure things, and you build from scratch.

1:01:46It will become easier in the deployment phase 1 because you are refining. You are not creating anything from scratch.

1:01:55Phase 2 is slightly bigger because we think it is a learning experience for you to work with the COTS vendor…

1:02:03…and you need to include more of their input or they will need to include your input. So as you learn, you'll get better.

1:02:12To conclude my session on this, I want to give you a quote.

1:02:17It's from one of my favorite organization management author, Jack Welch, a CEO from General Electric.

1:02:27He says about organizational change, quote…

1:02:31…"Getting it right is iterative. You get better at it with experience and observation, and eventually, after some time passes…

1:02:42…you notice it's not getting harder anymore. It's just what you do."

1:02:47And I think he's talking about COTS approach through software development, as well.

1:02:54Alright. Thank you, and now I hand it back to Greg for summary.

1:03:08So we just wanted to wrap up to kind of, you know…

1:03:11…make sure you get what we think are some of the key take-aways of this COTS approach…

1:03:17…and what are the benefits of trying to adopt a COTS approach to your enterprise data management needs.

1:03:24And they really summarize down to this: It's minimized cost to implement. You're not building and procuring and paying for large…

1:03:31…custom development efforts that then incur maintenance over the long run. You're leveraging your existing investment.

1:03:39You're shortening the schedule. You're immediately involving users and immediately having the users…

1:03:44…exercise the base platform capabilities that are there, getting real capability into their hands much faster.

1:03:52You're reducing your risk. As Don talked about in sort of a testing side of things here…

1:03:57…the technology that you're implementing on is proven by a very wide user base.

1:04:01Thousands, tens of thousands of users across the world that are leveraging that same COTS platform and are running through…

1:04:07…those same COTS capabilities and functionalities really reduces your risk and increases your testing work force, if nothing else.

1:04:18Again, it is lowered maintenance costs. We're not continually redeveloping or re-upgrading custom developed pieces…

1:04:27…every time a COTS release comes out. We're simply riding the coattails of and implementing the next release of…

1:04:33…the COTS technology without having to do COTS maintenance plus separate custom development maintenance.

1:04:41Like we said, this really allows your system to evolve with future COTS functionality. It's not a static system.

1:04:48It's a very dynamic system that has a known update schedule, with several times a year…

1:04:54…you can expect updates to the COTS baseline to come out.

1:04:58And ultimately, what this gives you is a wider range of qualified people to use and maintain the system.

1:05:02It's not a one-off system that you have to get special training on.

1:05:06It's a COTS platform that people are getting trained on through their school and education backgrounds…

1:05:13…they're getting trained on with other organizations before they come to your organization. It is…

1:05:18…it is just the standard COTS platform that they need training on, not a bunch of custom widgets and custom system pieces.

1:05:26So, in summary here, we think COTS configuration is a more efficient way to approach system development…

1:05:34…when you look at it in the long run and the big picture.

1:05:37The COTS approach redefines the system development process with a focus on the mission needs.

1:05:44Instead of building software, what is it that the business needs, what is the business trying to accomplish…

1:05:49…not what kind of software can we build. And finally, ArcGIS, and really at ArcGIS 10…

1:05:56…provides that platform for configuration and rapid development…

1:06:01…and we think that's really what's starting to make this COTS approach viable and something that can compete with…

1:06:08…maybe the more traditional mentality of large, custom system developments that's been much more pervasive in the past.

1:06:18So, I want to thank you guys all for attending. I appreciate the turnout.

1:06:24I've got some links here for those of you that might be interested in some more information on this.

1:06:28We did have an ArcNews article around this topic. The link is here. There's also a white paper that we published…

1:06:36…out to esri.com if you're interested in getting some more detail on this COTS approach and some of the concepts and ideas behind it.

1:06:44You're certainly welcome to send Don or myself an e-mail offline if there's any other questions or things we can answer for you.

1:06:51And then, last thing, I want to encourage everyone to fill out the online evals we are doing.

1:06:57No one's passing out papers this year; we're all doing them online, so if you get a chance, please fill it out.

1:07:02Give us some feedback. We'd really appreciate kind of your thoughts on, if this is a viable approach or not…

1:07:09…and other ways that we can make this session or this topic of more interest and more use to you all. So thank you very much.