ABSTRACT
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Abraham Lincoln
As they say, failing to plan is planning to fail or, in the words of John F. Kennedy, “Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” The GIS strategic planning process has changed significantly since I began my career in the industry. Twenty-five years ago, an organization would simply hire a financial advisor to develop a geographic information system (GIS) plan. By the 1990s, the process had somewhat matured. It became a standard for a local government organization to request a consultant to develop a GIS implementation plan. As GIS software and information technology (IT) infrastructure evolved, and the number of GIS users within local government grew, we witnessed a corresponding change in the complexities of the planning process. Somewhere along the way, the words enterprise and strategic were added.
