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      Figure 1.2 Agile design process at the enterprise level This figure shows the agile design process with extra structure when applied to an entire enterprise. The box on the right includes four of the eight components shown in figure 1.1. The four boxes on the left side provide the enterprise context for the agile process. High-level requirements define the overall scope. The system architecture defines the deployment environment, such as which relational database management system (RDBMS) product will be used, who will have responsibility for system maintenance, where the hardware will be located, and other constraints. Proof-of-concept prototypes may be necessary to ensure that the system architecture will perform as expected under production loads.

      When you seek to apply the agile method to an entire enterprise, you need to break the project into deliverable components that fit within an overall framework. The enterprise framework allows the organization to balance the needs of various internal and external communities competing for limited development resources and to test fundamental aspects of the overall system architecture vital to major parts of the final system.

      It has not been assumed that the enterprise of interest is a transport agency. This book takes into account the fact that many transportation data users do not actually care that much about transportation per se. These users need transportation data as a reference plane for other information, such as situs addresses tied to relative position along a transportation facility (street address). Map making is generally placed in this category. Thus, this book will show how to build transportation-oriented geodatabases that can support the editing of data needed by a variety of applications. The focus will not be solely on the more extensive data models suitable for larger organizations. The book starts with simple problems and solutions, growing in complexity in response to application requirements until it reaches the most complex problems posed by large transport agencies and transit operators. Some chapters, such as those on navigable waterways and railroads, are actually directed to users outside these industries.

      Designing Geodatabases for Transportation also does not assume you are starting from scratch. The more common starting point today is the migration of a transportation dataset based on the coverage or shapefile structure to a geodatabase, often in the midst of making other changes. A common concurrent technology change is adopting a relational database management system (RDBMS) for overall data storage. Indeed, the migration to the geodatabase structure often marks the point where spatial data goes from being concentrated in workgroup datasets to becoming an enterprise resource available to the entire organization. In any event, you probably are not starting with a blank sheet of paper but rather are dealing with a number of prior decisions you need to identify in the requirements analysis and system architecture steps. You will rely on your agility to work within an existing data structure serving a number of existing applications and within a prescribed set of constraints and resources.