4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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1.1.1. Project Approach
The project was designed to be implemented in 3 Releases. These releases will be achieved through five Work Packages . The project releases are as outlined below.
1.2. Project releases
1.2.1. Release 1: COTS Products& Data Delivery
This release provides PACI Field Follow-Up Team with the full suite of ArcGIS Desktop and Server applications in addition to the Kuwait base data and converted maps.
1.2.2. Release 2: Public Website and Internal Services
This release delivers the Public and Non-Public GIS Web Applications in addition to the configuration of the non-public web services to support other departments and external agencies.
1.2.3. Release 3: System Customization and Integration
This final release delivers mainframe integration and mobile app customization to PACI and implements the complete end-to-end solution.
1.3. Project Work Packages
The Work Packages that will lead to the three releases are as follows:
Business Process Analysis and High-Level Design,
Data Conversion,
COTS Product Training and Delivery,
Website and Service Design and Delivery, and
System Customization and Integration
The work packages are elaborated in the sections below:
1.3.1. Work Package 0: Project Plan
Prepare a comprehensive project plan document and shall submit it to PACI for its approval.
1.3.2. Work Package 1: Business Process Analysis and High-Level Design
This Work Package shall provide the foundation for the project by confirming the needs and activities of the PACI Field Follow-up Department. These requirements will then be translated into a high-level system design, and a series of business workflows to be implemented.
The deliverables from this Work Package are:
a. Business Process Analysis and Design Document. This document describes the activities of the PACI Field Follow-up Team and identifies and articulates the recommended workflows to be implemented by PACI.
b. High-Level Design Documentation. This document provides detail of the design and configuration of the solution and recommends a suitable spatial database structure. The document also provides guidance on the implementation of the business workflows, identified in the Business Process Analysis and Design Document described above.
1.3.3. Work Package 2: Data Conversion
Work Package 2 Data Conversion in parallel to the Work Package 1. This Work Package represents the actions needed to convert PACI’s existing hardcopy and electronic maps into a suitable electronic format for storage in the spatial database delivered as part of the Enterprise GIS solution. In addition to the conversion of mapping, quality control and assurance measures will ensure that the converted mapping is of sufficient quality to meet PACI’s requirements whilst also ensuring that there is consistence between the spatial data being generated and the relevant information held within the mainframe database, ADABAS.
Key deliverables from this Work Package of activity are:
Implemented spatial database.
Integrated geo-database containing both PACI’s converted map holdings and the commercial Kuwait mapping dataset.
1.3.4. Work Package 3: COTS Product Delivery & Training
Work Package shall deliver the required and requested training courses in addition to the installation and initial configuration of the COTS ESRI software products.
1.3.5. Work Package 4: Website and Service Design and Delivery
Develop a web based GIS application for Public and other Agencies (Non-Public). This Work Package shall provide the design and delivery of the Public GIS Web Application, the non-Public GIS Web Application and the Non-Public Web Map Services.
1.3.6. Work Package 5: System Customization and Integration
The System Customization and Integration Work Package deliver’s the integration and customization of applications within the Field Follow-up Team. This includes the customization of the mobile devices and the implementation of the mainframe integration processes.
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5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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• Field Follow up Department – PACI Internal
• IT department – PACI Internal
• Data preparation department – PACI Internal
• Statistics department – PACI Internal
• Public Authority for Industry - External (Government)
• Ministry of Water and Electricity - External (Government)
• Ministry of Justice - External (Government)
• Kuwait Oil Company - External (Government)
• Postaplus - External (Private)
• Mcdonalnds - External (Private)
• Ministry of Health (Emergency) - External (Government)
• Kuwait Fire Services Directorate - External (Government)
• Openware Information Systems Consulting (CO-implementer) - External (Private)
• Public – External users
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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• The direct Financial Cost for the project were around 548,000 KWD (1.8 mio $)
• Project Implementation period was 2 years, started in 2011
• Project Human resources were as follow:
o Project Management team = 2
o Data conversion and processing = 10
o System administration = 2
o QC/QA team = 5
o Development team = 6
o Business Analysis, and requirement gathering team = 3
o Project steering committee = 6
o Project sponsors = 2
• Software and licensing, esri ArcGIS products were procured as part of the project
• Hardware, PACI virtualized cloud was used to host the different environments, as the projects was divided to different environments (internal, government, external, and staging)
The project was funded by PACI as part of the strategic projects funds
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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• State of Kuwait GIS basemap, a comprehensive detailed basemap up to the parcel level, and linked to units inside buildings (more than 200,000 parcels, 600,000 units).
• GIS – Mainframe link, a comprehensive link between GIS, and Mainframe data with a confirmed link of 99.75% of records between GIS, and Mainframe.
• An operational GIS-Based Web, Desktop, and mobile Workflow application to handle PACI building, and establishment registration business processes, Integration between GIS, and PACI demographic, and socio-economic data
• More than 10 government, private organization are consuming PACI GIS service through online, secured, and updated Web services.
• Public Web, and mobile application (Kuwait Finder), with total downloads of more than 350,000 downloads, more than 220 mio hits/2 years, and more than 600,000 hits/day
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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• Project Management institute (PMI), and CMMI standards were followed during project execution.
• Day-to-Day teams followup meeting were conducted.
• Bi- Weekly project status meetings were conducted.
• Monthly steering committee meetings, and presentations were conducted.
• Microsoft Project software was used to monitor, and update project progress.
• System acceptance testing procedures were prepared, and followed for project output testing.
• QC/QA check lists were used to measure quality of project output.
• SourceSafe software was used to host developer code, and collaborate between developers.
• Enterprise GIS database using esri SDE, and SQL server was used to host data versions, and consolidate data operations.
• System administration tools (Solrwind, ArcGIS Server) were used to monitor system performance.
• Microsoft Visual studio load testing was used to test system capacity, and system load
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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• Stakeholders, the project involved with many internal departments inside PACI, and external agencies, having all these departments caused to have many stakeholders, which led to difficulty in getting the right requirements from the right people, and some time getting conflicting requirements.
This obstacle was solved by collecting the requirements from the various stakeholders, Conducting presentations for stakeholders groups to explain the project, and the requirements collected was used to validate the requirements, and gain buy-in
• Technology, using state-of-the-art GIS technology was one of the obstacles as some times the know-how was still not available, which involve having more testing, and benchmarking for implementation.
• Data, having different type of data sources (CAD, paper, and digital) with different specifications, and less metadata led the project team spend lots of time collecting, converting, and consolidating data to reach the specified quality targeted by the project QC standards. Data evaluation, and testing was done in order to produce work manuals for the data processing team in order to streamline the data conversion, and processing.
• Integration, integrating with Mainframe data was a challenge due to the need to understand the Mainframe data structure. Deep analysis for Mainframe data structure was conducted, and a proposed web service integration model was introduced to identify the integration points, and define service inputs, and outputs.
• IT Culture, as the project was supposed to integrate, and provide data with other government, and private organization, an IT culture of having local data copies was dominant. Sessions with the various organization to explain, and introduce online GIS data services were conducted.
• Human resources, having qualified people to work in the various GIS operations was a problem, getting people and train them on the required operations was done, and qualified staff were built during the project to support ongoing project operations, and maintenance
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