[OSGeo-Discuss] Opensource Geospatial Job Tracking Software

[Landon Blake]

Robert,

You wrote: "I'll see if I can come up with any cases where proper process state
management is truly dependent on geometry.  Any one else?"

I'm not sure if this is what you are talking about. But I will shoot this over your bow:

Road maintenance department of City paves a section of road.
Two weeks later, the City utility department rips up new pavement to replace storm drain lines.

That timing stinks. If a GIS told a City manager that the two proposed jobs overlapped spatially the storm drain replacement could have occurred before the paving job, or as part of it, resulting in considerable savings in labor and materials.

The potential for this type of mix-up increases greatly when you are dealing with multiple agencies that may have overlapping jurisdictions.

That is one quick example I thought of.

Landon
Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268
Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658
 
 
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From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Robert Hollingsworth
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 12:42 PM
To: OSGeo Discussions
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Opensource Geospatial Job Tracking Software

I also wondered if the original question is much broader than the 
utility/telco cases I mentioned.  Your question is probably the most 
important to answer here:

"Is there really a spatial aspect in the requirements to track GIS related jobs ?"

My preference is that the answer be, largely, "NO."  I'm not well versed in 
business process state management software; my instincts tell me that 
in basic spatial data migration, the spatial aspect does not really 
introduce any wrinkles that cannot be handled.  Hopefully, in more 
complex scenarios where the answer might appear to be "Yes," one 
could data-model the exception case out of existence.

An exploration of the referenced ESRI job-tracker might be instructive here.  

I'll see if I can come up with any cases where proper process state
management is truly dependent on geometry.  Any one else?

Robert



Following this discussion I wondered whether I got the question wrong or I'm working too far away from utilities business area but isn't job tracking like any other workflow and therefore can be supported by standard workflow or business process systems ? Is there really a spatial aspect in the requirements to track GIS related jobs ?
>From my point of view an integration between a standard workflow tool and a GI System should be able to solve the problem, shouldn't it ?
This integration is development work and you are right there could be a standard solution for certain OS GI Systems in the form of an OS project ..
I too would like to stay in the loop discussing this topic further ...
Mit freundlichen Gruessen/Kind regards,
Andreas Paukner-Ruzicka
(Geschaeftsfuehrer/Managing Director)



Robert Hollingsworth wrote: 
I believe this has a lot of overlap with 'Work Mgmt' as expressed in the 
utillities and telecoms, which centers on the Work Order as the 
primary abstraction for tracking Create/Update/Delete both on database 
objects and the physical assets they model.  Usually involves specific 
states ('Proposed', 'Existing', 'Abandoned', 'Removed, etc.), version 
management, provisions for advancing the state of the Work Order 
when detached from the database, and so forth.

I'd be interested in discussing further, as this is one of the capabilities 
that would advance the cause of FOSS4G in utilities and telecoms.

Robert H.


> I am currently looking out for web based Open source Geospatial Job
> Tracking Software similar to Job Tracking for ArcGIS?
>
>  
>
> http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/extensions/jobtracking/index.html
>
>  
>
> Are there any open source projects  out there that you know of that
> cover these features similar to ESRI product?
>
>  
>
> Regards
>
> Kumaran
>
This is a good question and I'm very interested in any answers you
receive.  This sort of workflow/project management software is much
needed in the GIS industry sector and I've not seen any open source
options out there that met my specific needs when I looked previously. 
One that might help at least on the conersion/transformation side is
Talend studio with it's spatial component:
http://www.spatialdataintegrator.com/

But that's likely only one piece of the puzzle.  I believe that much of
what is required for job tracking and workflow can be developed through
some simple web interfaces, with open source apps sitting on the server
side.   I've taken several attempts on doing this but never devoted
enough time/focus to get very far.  If any else is interested in
developing such tools, I'd be interested in discussing it further.  I
believe these are necessary to streamline workflow and gain back
efficiency that has been lost during the industry's general move toward
using point-click GUI environments for everything.

Tyler
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