GIS Governance Best Practices - June 12, 2025

GIS Governance Best Practices - June 12, 2025

This workshop provides a clear understanding of what GIS governance is intended for and how to structure GIS governance for successful GIS.

By GIS Management Academy

Date and time

Thursday, June 12 · 10am - 12pm PDT

Location

Online

Refund Policy

Refunds up to 14 days before event

About this event

  • Event lasts 2 hours

GIS Governance Best Practices for Successful GIS Managers and Operations

Goals and objectives of this workshop

An effective governance structure is a key success factor for a GIS organization and for the GIS manager who leads it. But often a GIS operation will take a ‘heads-down and hope nobody bothers us’ attitude and just focus on developing and maintaining data, developing a small set of apps, and responding to the occasional request for some analysis or a set of maps. Just as often the GIS shop will be overwhelmed by requests for new data, apps, and projects. Is this you?

A GIS manager with leadership and vision will likely hope to accomplish more than what available resources allow. An effective GIS governance structure with meaningful and supportive participation is an invaluable tool for a GIS manager.

This two-hour online GIS Academy™ workshop provides a clear understanding of what GIS governance is intended for, how to structure GIS governance, and how it can become a highly effective tool for successful GIS managers.

Audience

Current GIS managers, supervisors, and coordinators, and those who aspire to a successful career in GIS management.

Topics Covered

  • Introduction
  • Background to the topic
  • Mandates for GIS
  • Essential GIS Governance Elements
  • GIS Governance Structure Options
  • GIS Governance Membership and Motivation
  • GIS Governance Responsibilities & Key Functions
  • GIS Governance Troubleshooting
  • Sponsorship
  • Meaningful participation by the right people
  • Governance and your vendors (you know who I mean)
  • Case Studies
  • Open Discussion

Prerequisites and Recommendations

No prerequisites. Recommended for GIS managers and leadership teams interested in developing effecitive governance structures to support the enetrprise GIS for your organization.

What You Will Receive

Two hours of instruction from Greg Babinski, who is a subject-matter expert and workshop author.

A copy of the workshop presentation

Upon completion, a signed completion certificate which will indicate the CEUs (0.2) and GISCI points (0.05) earned.

An invitation to periodic GIS management Q&A sessions with the instructor and other workshop attendees.

Instructor

Greg Babinski is a GIS management consultant and founder of GIS Management Consulting Services LLC, located in the greater Seattle area. He holds an MA in geography from Wayne State University. Greg is a GISP – Certified GIS Professional. In addition to GIS consulting, he is a GIS researcher, author, and instructor. He has been invited to speak about GIS management across North America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Between 1998 and the end of 2021 he served as GIS Manager, GIS Finance Manager and GIS Marketing & Business Development Manager for the King County GIS Center in Seattle. Before that he worked for nine years as GIS Mapping Supervisor for the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland. Greg also taught GIS for Public Policy as an instructor at the University of Washington Evans Graduate School of Public Administration.

Greg Babinski is Past-President of URISA and founder and Past-Chair of URISA’s GIS Management Institute. Under Greg’s leadership the GIS Management Institute helped develop the GIS Capability Maturity Model, Geospatial Management Competency Model, and the GIS Performance Metrics Model. Greg also helped pioneer an objective GIS ROI methodology.

In 2005 he founded The Summit – the Washington State GIS Newsletter. He has published articles in the Geographic Information Science & Technology Body of Knowledge, as well as chapters in books about GIS ROI and GIS for counties best practices. In 2019 Greg was awarded an EthicalGEO Fellowship by the American Geographical Society.

In his spare time Greg likes ‘…hiking steep, narrow and dangerous trails that lead high above the clouds to awesome views’.


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GIS Management Academy

Welcome to the GIS Management Academy™ - the educational offerings of GIS Management Consulting Services.

Professional GIS management matters:

You have a large investment in the development of your GIS. The annual operating and maintenance costs for the typical geographic information system can be as much as 0.5% of an agency’s overall budget. But the effectiveness and return on investment for an agency’s GIS can vary dramatically. A recent study of more than a dozen agencies showed that the annual GIS ROI averaged 376% but varied from more than 1600% to a negative 11%.

What accounts for this dramatic difference? Why should you care?

Management matters. Two GIS operations with similar resources will likely have different levels of ROI and effectiveness, depending on how the operation is managed and operated.

Profession GIS management competency along with GIS operational maturity are key factors to ensure maximum effectiveness and return on investment for any agency. This is the focus of the GIS Management Academy™. Whether you are a professional GIS manager or responsible for overall operation of the GIS practice within your agency, GIS Management Academy™ workshops and training can help achieve superior effectiveness and ROI.

GIS Management Academy™ workshops can also help you as a GIS manager continuously improve your competencies to achieve a successful career.

The GIS Management Academy™ framework approach

GIS Management Consulting Services takes a framework approach to helping our clients. The core of this framework is the GIS Capability Maturity Model (GISCMM) and the Geospatial Management Competency Model (GMCM). These two framework models are the core of two foundational GIS Management Academy™ workshops. The GISCMM and GMCM are the only two peer-reviewed models related to GIS operations and management.

Individual elements of the GISCMM and GMCM will be the topics for additional workshops that will be introduced within the next 12 months. Each GIS Management Academy™ workshop will also cross-refence other important sources for GIS, IT, and project management best practices, including:

• The Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM), as developed by the US Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.

• The Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (GIS&TBOK)

• The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

• The Consortium for Advanced Management International (CAM-I)

• The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®)

• And other subject-specific best practices.

What you will receive

Each student in GIS Management Academy™ workshops will receive:

• Online instruction from a qualified subject matter expert

• Students who complete each course will receive a copy of the workshop presentation material

$125