Seamless GIS integration with other software applications
Integration goals
Single Update Process
Prior to the integration, the Assessor's Office maintained the assessment and GIS databases separately,
resulting in duplication of efforts. One of the primary goals of the integration was to eliminate the duplication
processes and instead create the ability to maintain and use a single process to update both assessment and GIS
data.
Use GIS to Calculate and Update Assessment fields
GIS systems have the ability to calculate a variety of data, such as land size (acreage or square feet). Prior to
the integration, fields such as those relating to land size were hand-entered into the assessment system. The
Assessor's Office wanted to create the ability to use the GIS to calculate and also update the assessment fields.
Ensure Assessment Data Used for GIS Analysis is not Out-dated
Prior to the integration, the Assessor's Office had to download extract files from the assessment database, and
then tie the assessment download to the GIS system. Because the download process was so cumbersome, the
download process was not run for each GIS application. Since assessment data such as ownership and mailing
addresses changes on a daily basis, the infrequency of downloads resulted in GIS analysis being run on data that
was potentially out-dated. Our goal was to have GIS analysis always based on current assessment data.
Automatic, live link from GIS to Assessment data
The entire download process mentioned above was not efficient. Our goal was to eliminate the download
process completely. We wanted to establish an automatic and live-link from the GIS to the assessment
database.
Better Utilization of GIS as Integrated Assessment Tool
GIS is a powerful analysis tool, but the Assessor's Office staff was not taking full advantage of its capabilities. The
only GIS users were those directly involved in the mapping of parcels. We wanted the entire staff, including the
appraisal and clerical staffers, to better use the GIS as an integrated assessment tool.
Requirements of an integrated system
Requirements Specification
Within this project, a requirements specification was created that detailed both the functional and user interface
requirements of the integrated system. In addition to provide a working "blueprint" of the system, the requirements
specification was used to identify specific tasks that were to be accomplished by the contractor. The following tables
depict an example of the requirements specification that was developed for this integration effort.
Figure 1: Portion of the Requirements Specification used within the Project.
Please note that this is a single section
of the document.
