Work Example: The Houston Plat Tracker Web PortalJane Chen 281-513-7115 chen.meijin@gmail.com

1. Summary

Plat Tracker was developed for the City of Houston Planning and Development Department and other agencies to regulate land development in Houston and the extra territorial jurisdiction; to review, investigate and promote land regulation policies for the changing demands of Houston’s growth and quality of life. Approval of development occurs on a 2-week cycle by the Planning Commission.

The multi-facet complex system streamlines the business processes from user and organization registration, street name reserve, plat submittal, CAD-to-GIS conversion, plat location verification, fee pay, plat review, reviewer assignment, agenda generation, plat name change, extension of approval, plat recordation, all the way to data analysis and reporting.

The new system fills in gaps as well as removes overlaps among business processes. The GIS functionalities and automation processes save time and effort for both applicants and planners. The Plat Tracker database normalizes the data structure, enhances the data integrity, and also removes inaccuracy and in-efficiency from the legacy Lotus Notes system. The user-friendly web portal provides much broader functionalities with more business intelligence.

Plat Tracker is an online work flow management system and collaborative platform. Microsoft Asp.Net, SQL Server, ESRI ArcGIS Server/ArcSDE/ArcGIS JavaScript API, Web Services....among the empowering technologies, Geographic Information System (GIS) is the cornerstone.

http://www.HoustonPlatTracker.orgPhase I launched on 02/14/2013, and Phase II on 02/07/2014.

2. Business problems to be solved

Plat Tracker is a replacement of the legacy Digital Review Cycle (DRC) system.

DRC was developed by a consulting company in 2000 using Lotus Notes technology. Its defects and disadvantages include:

a. Technology is obsolete, and the consulting company no longer exists. The system was unstable and often mal-functioned. Maintenance became a nightmare.

b. Lack of data normalization and integration between different components.c. Required many manual processes such as fee pay, location verification, agenda

generation, etc.

d. There is no consistent and standard land development plat format for CAD across the surveying industry. This made CAD-to-GIS automation impossible.

e. Discrete technologies make collaboration among applicants, review agencies, and planners very difficult. o Applicants use web pages to submit application. o Applicants had to come to the City in person for plat name change, extension of

approval and plat recordation. These processes were managed in separate Access databases.

o Planners use a desktop application to review plat.

To communicate with applicants and review agencies, planners had to rely heavily on emails, phones, faxes, maps, paper documents, spreadsheets, Access databases, etc.

Intensive requirement analysis triggered a business processes re-engineering and a new comprehensive web portal development. Many discrete or manual processes have been re-evaluated and carefully transformed into a restricted role-based, integrated, and GIS-centralized workflow management system.

3. GIS is the cornerstone

New GIS, database, and web technologies have empowered both citizens and government agencies to do many things impossible before and in more efficient and responsive ways.

Technologies for CAD-to-GIS conversion: • ESRI ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Server, and ArcSDE 10.1• ESRI ArcGIS GeoProcessing Models and Service, and Published Map Services• Python Geoprocessing Scripts• AutoCAD

Web Technologies:• Microsoft ASP.NET 4, AJAX Toolkit, and MVC4 WebAPI RESTful Service • ESRI ArcGIS REST API, JavaScript API, and Flex API • Secure HTTP and Secure FTP

Relational Database: • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database• Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Service• Microsoft SQL Server Database Replication

Among these technologies, GIS is the core.

a) Planning staff developed a multi-layer CAD file template called a “Registry Drawing” with instructions. The file is mandatory for land development approval.

b) To resolve the CAD geo-reference issues, GIS technical staff designed a secure web form for applicants to upload the Registry Drawing file, enter county (for projection) and scale factor for verifying the GIS location of the plat. The page renders a JavaScript map by calling an ESRI ArcGIS service to process the CAD file along with the parameters user provided.

c) GIS technical staff designed a process and executable to migrate the CAD Registry Drawing file into the Geodatabase. This is a two-part process.

It imports the CAD layers into Geodatabase features. The end resulting GIS layers such as lines/polygons/annotations are consumable as a service in both desktop and web tools.

It takes the resulting boundary polygon and intersects with over 33 GIS Enterprise features, such as city limit, city council, neighborhood, map grid, utility district, taxing parcels, etc., to populate a SQL table with the spatial components.

d) After completion of the backend CAD-to-GIS conversion process, the GIS layers are available online, and the GIS data is available for staff review from within Plat Tracker.

The results of innovative use of GIS technologies are substantial.

The Registry Drawing template allows for tremendous time-saving gains that only GIS can provide. The incorrect CAD files could cause days of setback involving email correspondence and staff time. By pre-validating the location of the plat in GIS before submittal, there is minimal delay caused by discrepancies in the CAD files between the City planners and the land developers and surveyors. This increased the plat approval time by days.

In the past, the department had to hire two GIS technicians to assist with locating CAD files and preparing maps for Planning Commission.

Now the automatic CAD-to-GIS process populates plat geo-location and creates GIS layers. Applicants no longer have to enter geospatial attributes, such as city limit, city council, and taxing parcels, for every application.

It also promotes transparency to the public.

Before, there was no easy way to notify constituents of development in their neighborhoods. Public had to read Agenda spreadsheets and documents online, searching for the correct address or subdivision references on location and relying on the manually entered spatial attributes.

Now, Public can enter an address or zoom to their location using a GIS viewer, such as MyCity Houston and turn on proposed and approved plat development as a layer in GIS. They can turn on and off labels and annotation to get more or less information about the plat. This functionality has never been available before.

4. Return on Investment (ROI)

Significantly increase user’s productivitySince Plat Tracker’s deployment in February 2013, City of Houston received over 50% more of subdivision plat applications while the number of review staff remains flat. But city staff can respond to applicants quicker with more accurate information.

Tremendously reduce time and human errors

Accessible anytime from anywhere, the online collaborative platform for city and county agencies, the commercial development Community, and the City’s Planning Commission, saves a huge amount of time and efforts for all different kinds of users.

Applicants no longer have to travel to planner’s office, to hand in application / documents/ fees, or just verify plat location and view plat activities. This saves the clients on average 10 minutes to several hours.

The automatic CAD-to-GIS conversion “fired” two GIS technicians. It reduces both staff and applicant’s time. It quickens the review process with less human errors and better service.

Potentially save city over a million dollars The Plat Tracker is a 100% in-house developed system. There is no similar third party software available from the market. If the project was outsourced, the city could be easily charged over a million dollars, plus additional 10-15% of the annual maintenance cost, and the response time to technical support, bug fixing, or minor enhancement could take much longer.

Sharpen developer’s skillsThrough the entire life cycle of the software development, the Enterprise GIS team have overcome countless technical challenges and accomplished many daunting tasks. Not only have they become more skillful in web/GIS technologies, but also they have strengthened their skills in business analysis, communication, collaboration, and customer service.

5. Testimonials: what the end users have to say

Following users benefit from the use of the application:• Applicants (Builders, Developers, Home or lot Owners)• Planners (Planning and Development Department, City of Houston)• Other city departments like Public Works and Engineering, Legal, Solid Waste, Parks, and

Aviation.• Appraisal Districts, County Engineers and Flood Control Districts (Harris, Montgomery,

Waller, Fort Bend, Liberty)• Other government agencies like transportation and emergency• Utility companies such as CenterPoint Energy.

• Citizens

Below are business user’s comments on the new Plat Tracker system.

• User/Organization registration and management module:Outside users can now manage their own accounts including adding/ deactivating users, retrieving passwords, etc. This saves the tremendous time of city planners.

• Applicant’s plat submittal module:Preparing draft application is easier because applicants can search the entire plat database for related applications and no need to enter location data. There is no chance to miss any required documents.

• Reviewer’s assignment and plat review modules:It allows supervisors greater flexibility in assigning applications to planners for review. Assignments are fast and re–assignments are error free. Other agencies can share their comments with planners online.

• Agenda generation module:Generating agendas for the planning commission is now done in 2-3 minutes with much fewer chances of human errors. It required 20-30 minutes in the legacy system.

• Plat Name Change and Extension of Approval modules:The two new components eliminated a trip to the City to submit and pay for a very simple application.

• Recordation request and review module:It allows applicants to upload required or missing documents from remote locations. This eliminates unnecessary meetings in-person with planners.

• Integrated online payment module: Much easier to pay, better record keeping, and more convenient for both staff and applicants.

• Advanced GIS capability:The more accessible GIS data reduces the amount of time staff spend retrieving and forwarding information, and helps planners do better analysis. Time spend on eyeballing the location of a plat, digitizing or geo-referencing a CAD boundary is now saved.

• Online document management:Sharing and searching for documents including planner’s markups within each plat is much easier.

• Change tracking, email log, and online reporting:Email log tracks public information requests and responses. Exporting data and running reports are a few clicks away. The change tracking table provides very telling statistics of planner’s performance.

• Work flow management:It is easy to check the moving status of an application without calling. The system analysis and warning messages help planners avoid many human mistakes.

Planners proudly told the development team that Houston is the only city in Texas has the fortune to own this kind of comprehensive tool for land development. Other city/county like Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and Harris County, have shown strong interest to adopt similar technologies to better serve their business.

6. Jane Chen’s contributions to the Plat Tracker

My roles with Plat Tracker project in three years were rolling and evolving: business analyst --> database designer --> application developer --> solution architect --> project manager.

In 2006, the city hired a GIS manager specifically for this project. But business users were disappointed about its progress. There were no deliverables in five years.

As the new project manager, I changed project management approach from waterfall to agile, took both proactive and corrective actions to turn things around.

o Redo requirement analysis, prioritize tasks, separate deliverables in different phases.o Make it a team project by conducting SWOT analysis and leveraging team’s

diversified skills.o Do both stakeholder register and risk register. Make actual doers - group of planners

and AppDev team as critical stakeholders, and engage them during the entire SDLC. o Create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and schedule development activities in

parallel when possible.o De intensive user acceptance test (UAT) whenever a module development is done.o Take Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach

Developed web services for CAD-to-GIS conversion, map generation, address geocoding, online payment, user authentication, etc. Heterogeneous components are seamlessly integrated but loosely coupled.

The failing project turn into a huge success within one year:

o It does more and better with less o It saved the City of Houston over a million dollarso It won 2013 Best of Texas Award