Civil XLR8 Extra: Captaining the Enterprise

Glossary

New Words or Phrases or New Uses for Existing Words or Phrases

Efficiency Concepts

Cranial Single-Sourcing - when critical information or processes exists only in one person's head. The only way to access such information is by knowing that the information exists in a person's head, finding out who that person is, finding that person and asking that person nicely. Each step in that process in predictably unreliable. A recipe for disaster and waste.

Expertise - any valuable result of experience. Includes knowledge of process, engineering, constructability, political issues, financial issues, leadership, etc. It is what separates the grizzled veteran from the neophyte. Expertise enhances speed, quality and effectiveness. Unfortunately much of the grizzled veteran's expertise is Cranially Single-Sourced.

Expertise Leveraging - Expertise that is good for one person is very often good for the group or the enterprise. Traditional sharing of Expertise consists of face-to-face tutoring, apprenticeship, and collaborating; valuable but slow methods. Expertise Leveraging is the effort to share Expertise in more efficient manners.

Expertise Leveraging System - A system designed to efficiently share the varied and vast accumulated expertise within an enterprise across the enterprise. One strategy is to move Head-Based Content to Hyperlinked Content

Head-Based Content - Any information that is important but undocumented.

Hyperlinked Content - Any information that is available at a mouse-click.

Oral Tradition - the group mentality that it is okay if the primary source of getting information on standards, process or data is by getting up and asking somebody. This tends to be adequate only for the smallest groups.

Paper-Based Expertise - There is often a tremendous wealth of information in original notes; standards markups highlights, and sticky-tabs. Adding this expertise to electronic content or hyperlinked content can increase the leverage of expertise.

Enterprise Management Concepts

Spec Creep - similar to Scope Creep. Occurs continually throughout GIS, Engineering and Data Management System lifetimes. This is the enlargement of the data model to include additional object specification. There are a number of reasons for this:

Initial implementations tend to be somewhat conservative.
Objects are overlooked which need to be included in in the data model.
As users become more comfortable and discover the benefits of making all types of objects uniquely identifiable, they request a finer degree of segregation.
New workflows require additional object types to be included in the data model.

Standards Drift - the diverging evolution (or more likely: devolution) of standards between geographically- or organizationally-isolated workgroups. This must be actively managed to prevent the balkanization of standards.

Culture of Mass Empowerment (CME) - An environment that nurtures and encourages folks' inclination to enjoy success. Barriers to personal (and, therefore , organizational) growth are minimal. Pervasive Positive Managerial and Technical support systems foster individual and group "progress buzz."