May 22, 2025
GIS data is the cornerstone of planning decisions. It collects development project data and helps with project monitoring. Having GIS data in a project is a clear path to success when paired with a rigorous project management approach and a controlling process within the project team. GIS data helps us understand the relationships between a location and the surrounding environmental and social context. In sectors like utilities, environmental engineering, telecom, and others, GIS project managers use geospatial data to create accurate models and forecast possible risks. Project teams plan and oversee the completion of all major GIS-related projects. They depend on accurate field data to create timelines and allot resources. Because every stage must align with the team’s application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques, GIS project management is a complex job, with many moving parts. In addition to creating the overall workflow plan and timeline, the project manager also interacts with clients, oversees the budget, and supervises work teams.
What do project managers do?
The Project Management Institute (PMI) provides standards and resources for its 2.9 million members. PMI says project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations.” Within GIS, that mandate expands to include spatial analysis of geographic features and strict quality assurance controls for incoming data. A GIS project management lifecycle has several stages for complex projects. Each is vital to success, and the project manager oversees all project management tasks to guide the project to completion.
Initiation
In this phase, the manager crafts the overall strategy and approach for each individual project, building the framework that will underpin the entire project. The project manager must take everything into account, from zoning and regulatory standards, through design specs, to the availability of resources. A well‑defined project charter and preliminary risk register form the backbone of the controlling process.
Planning
At this point, the manager creates a detailed plan of work, breaking down all necessary tasks and creating a detailed outline of the workflow process. This outline assigns work, sets milestones, predicts risks, and allocates resources. During the planning process, the manager also establishes a baseline schedule, identifies the critical path, and specifies the drivers for project monitoring that will be used throughout execution.
Execution phase
During the execution phase, staff complete their assigned tasks under the oversight of the project manager. The manager supervises the completion of work, checking that all benchmarks are met. Resource leveling and earned‑value tracking help detect cost variance and time variance before they threaten project outcomes.
Monitoring and control
Few engineering projects are completed without hitches. The monitoring and control phase allows project managers to ensure those hitches are as seamless as possible. With regular, reliable monitoring, project managers can catch issues as they occur, and adjust the rest of the work plan accordingly. This extra layer of transparency—often delivered via dashboards that Provide Geospatial Solutions—is essential to prevent project failure and for each task to reach specific task completion times.
Project closure
Afterward, when the project has been successfully completed, the project manager reviews feedback. Careful analysis will surface any takeaways with an eye to future improvements.
GIS project management
Since GIS data is fundamental to major projects, the project manager must be fluent in its collection and use. First, the project manager must identify and prioritize the project objectives. To know how to apply the GIS data properly, the project manager must start by outlining which problem the project aims to solve. What is the desired result?
Next, the project manager decides which kind of spatial data is needed, selecting appropriate attributes, features, and parameters. Following this step, the project manager oversees data collection, digitizes results from other systems, and manages the resulting database. Then they carefully analyze the data and present the findings.
Let’s look at an example. Consider a municipality that wants to improve its water infrastructure. First, the project manager decides on the specific objective, say, replacing the oldest pipes. Secondly, the project manager oversees data gathering, adding attributes and features as needed. A robust DGPS survey minimizes scale error by tying each pipe location to sub‑meter coordinates. In this case, the age of pipes and connections will be of prime importance, along with exact locations. Best practice will have field teams tie photo or video evidence to each pipe location, along with valuable time stamps.
Further to this step, the project manager supervises the data collection process, along with the verification and quality control processes to ensure all the data is accurate. Finally, the project manager analyzes the collected data, to decide which pipes and connections need to be replaced, and in what order.
Meeting the challenges
GIS field projects come with their own hazards.
- Scope creep: Expansion of vision that arises as data rolls in. When coupled with the reality of budget constraints, scope creep can lead to hard choices. Accurate data means those decisions will align as closely as possible with the original objectives.
- Cross-team coordination: Big infrastructure projects require substantial personnel, not all of whom will be working on compatible systems. Additionally, project managers need to be able to communicate progress and results to shareholders along the way.
To fully leverage the numerous applications of GIS data, project managers require a seamless connection. Their data collection must take place on an agnostic platform capable of integrating with email, Esri ArcGIS, SMS, and other legacy programs. Field teams need the ability to connect and update instantly to ensure that everyone is working with the same up-to-the-minute information, facilitating efficient GIS project management. PERT‑style checklists and sequential tasks mapped to the project’s critical path keep every contributor aligned.
How Fulcrum figures in
Fulcrum is a SaaS, GIS-first, agnostic data collection platform that standardizes data collection while boosting data reliability. Project managers can customize the data collection process and produce reports tailored to their specific needs. Top-tier integrations with Esri ArcGIS, email, SMS, and other applications mean legacy systems can be harnessed to work together.
Fulcrum allows teams to instantly connect with one another, increasing the impact of spatial data. Updates happen in real-time, so all parties are working with the most recent and accurate information. Project managers can use collected GIS data for highly readable data visualizations, delivering a transformative solution for organizations striving to turn raw location intelligence into business value.
To enhance workflow efficiency, project managers must optimize the data collection process. Standardized collection practices ensure data quality, allowing project managers to efficiently allocate resources and stay on top of project timelines and budgets. Fulcrum’s advanced capabilities keep project managers on time, on track, and under budget, making it an indispensable tool for GIS project management.
Are you a project manager looking for a way to optimize GIS data quality? Discover how our technology can help you cut costs while keeping your project running smoothly. Contact a Fulcrum expert today for a free demo.