When you’re trying to sell a product, borrow money, get a job, reassure Mom, or influence change in some way, They says you should prepare an elevator pitch—a short, simple description that captures the essence and leaves the listener interested enough to follow up. When you meet someone you want to connect with, you deliver your elevator pitch and ideally, the connection blooms.

Well, how do you explain GIS to Mom? Bless her, she loves her Spider Solitaire on the computer and she even has a GPS in the car. As a matter of fact, this spring “Sofia” incited some panic when she kept telling Mom to take an exit for Mexico while driving through Texas. Mom thinks of Sofia as a robot incarnation of Dear Abby. Her advice is not to be questioned…well, until the Texas incident.

But back to the challenge of explaining a fairly complex technology to the uninitiated. Can it be done elevator-pitch style? Fifty plain-spoken words or less? The word “map” probably features prominently. Other contenders might be software, database, interactive, analyze, find places, get information about an area, visualize how proximity to a river relates to population growth. One of the difficulties is, before you know it, you’re describing what people do with GIS rather than what it is. This is because examples are almost always easier to understand than technical definitions.

Is there a simple description or example that captures the essence of what GIS is?

• Google Maps on steroids?
• Data plus location equals information revelation?

Dr. Snow’s map of the 1854 London cholera outbreak is an oft-cited example, and it has the advantage of being easy to understand as well as a compelling human-interest story.

In the ArcGIS I: Introduction to GIS course, we define GIS thusly:

GIS stands for Geographic Information System. A GIS integrates spatial and attribute information, storing information about where something is with information about what something is. This integrated data is called geographic information. A working GIS integrates five key components involved in managing and processing geographic information: hardware, software, data, people, workflows.

That’s accurate but kind of a mouthful. The course goes on to discuss lots of examples of how GIS is put to use in friendly terms. Again, examples aid comprehension. Which brings us to…

How do you explain what GIS is to a neighbor, first date, or potential customer? Do you have an example or elevator pitch that resonates especially well? Share it with us at esri_training_matters@esri.com or in the comments. The person who submits the best description will win a code for a free Virtual Campus web course and be featured in an upcoming Esri Training newsletter.

The KISS principle is my preferred approach whenever possible; overcomplicating things makes it hard to get stuff done. I found a simple way to make a web map. Here’s a simple four-step process to craft a story map.

It goes like this:

1. Determine your story topic.
2. Plan and execute your data strategy.
3. Create a web map.
4. Share the web map as a story map.

Step 1: Determine Your Story Topic

A story communicates something. Being concise is one key to effective communication, so for a story map, it’s essential to choose a discrete topic and useful to narrow the topic down to a core message. Learning a new skill is often easier (and more fun) when you practice with a project that’s personally interesting. Once you’ve mastered the skill, you can apply it to work projects.

Visitors to the Esri Learning Center in Redlands get a printed piece listing local restaurants (with a map of course). That piece inspires an interesting story map topic (to me). The core message (inspired by the 3/50 project) is, despite being a fairly small town, Redlands has an impressive selection of local dining options.

Step 2: Plan and Execute Your Data Strategy

“Data strategy” may sound complicated, but all it means is decide which layers and attributes to include. It’s important to choose only the most relevant layers—overloading a map with extraneous data muddies your story (remember, be concise). For this practice project:

• Layers: Restaurant locations and a basemap for context are all that’s needed.
• Attributes: Restaurant name, address, description, and a web page URL.
• Basemap: One of the free high-quality ArcGIS Online basemaps will work great.

To execute the strategy, assemble the data and choose a geographic data format. The format depends on the tools at your disposal.

• If you use ArcGIS for Desktop and ArcGIS for Server, you can author and publish GIS services that are built from feature classes, imagery, or other geographic data. The advantage of using a service is that, as the underlying data changes, updating a web map is easy (you just republish the service, then refresh the map).
• If you don’t have access to tools to create a service, you can use the easy-button method: add data stored in shapefiles, text files, CSV files, or GPX files to the ArcGIS.com map viewer. You can also manually draw features in the map viewer.

Since this example showcases only 14 restaurants, it’s easy to create point features to represent the restaurants. I’ll just create a shapefile in ArcMap, then add it to the map viewer (here’s another useful learning strategy: practice with manageable datasets; otherwise, you risk getting derailed by data challenges).

• When creating a shapefile for use in a web map, select the WGS 1984 geographic coordinate system and the Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere projected coordinate system, the same coordinate systems used by commonly available basemaps. This will improve web map performance.
• The map viewer requires that shapefiles be zipped (for small datasets that don’t have detailed geometry, just zip the DBF, SHP, SHX, and PRJ files).

Step 3: Create a Web Map

When the data is ready, add it to the map viewer to create a web map.

• Go to www.arcgis.com and sign in to your ArcGIS Online public account or subscription account.
• Click the Make a Map link.
• Zoom to the area of interest and choose a desired basemap from the gallery.
• Click Add > Layer from File. Browse to the data file and add it. Depending on your data, you may choose to use generalized features or keep the original features. For a small number of simple points, keep the original features.

Point features display with a default single symbol. When you click a feature on the map, you see a pop-up window with a default display of attributes. You can easily change the defaults to suit your story map needs. To do so:

• If the story map will include a legend, make sure all layer names shown are easily understood. You can rename a layer in the Contents pane by mousing over its name, clicking the small right-facing arrow, then clicking Rename.
• For this practice story map, each restaurant should have its own symbol in the legend. I can accomplish this by clicking the layer arrow and choosing Change Symbols. In the drop-downs, choose Unique Symbols and the Name field.
• I want the same shape and size for all the symbols but different colors. To change the color of an individual symbol, in the Change Symbols pane, click the feature name, click Change Symbol, then select a new color. When you’re finished with all the symbols, click Done Changing Symbols.

With the symbols configured, it’s time to configure the pop-ups.

• In the Contents pane, click the layer arrow, then click Configure Pop-ups. In the Pop-up Properties pane, the pop-up title is already set to the Name attribute, which is good. To customize the pop-up contents, choose “A custom attribute display,” then click Configure.
• In the Custom Attribute Display dialog box, click the Add Field [+] button and choose the attributes you want shown in the pop-up. You can order and format them as desired.
• A nice feature is the ability to link an attribute to a web page. In this example, there’s an attribute that stores URLs. I can use the custom attribute functionality to display the same link text in all the pop-ups instead of individual (and long) URL strings. Here’s how:
  • In the dialog box, select the attribute that contains URLs, then click the Create Link button. In the Link Properties dialog box, select and drag the attribute up to the URL field. Enter link text (e.g., “View web page”) in the Description field. Click Set, then OK.
• After configuring the pop-up content the way you like, save the web map. You will be prompted to enter a title, tags, and summary. This information will be propagated to the story map, so give it some thought.

Step 4: Share the Web Map as a Story Map

Now you have the story map foundation. ArcGIS Online provides a collection of web application templates (including story map templates). Using a template simplifies the work. To use a template, you have to share your web map.

• In the map viewer, click Share.
  • If you have an ArcGIS Online public account, you need to share with everyone. If you’re using an ArcGIS Online subscription account (paid or free trial) and you have permissions to share content, you can share the map with everyone or with an existing group.
• Click Make a Web Application.
• Browse through the available templates. You can preview how the web map will look in different templates by clicking the down arrow next to Publish and clicking Preview.
  • If you like the template layout overall but want to make some changes to enhance your story map, you can download the template and use the readme file instructions to configure the changes. You will need access to a web server (and some basic HTML and JavaScript skills).
• I like the Two Panel template as-is. To use it, just click Publish.

In just a short amount of time, I have a link to a simple story map I can share with the world. More importantly, I’ve developed skills I can use in the future to create story maps on other topics.

Telling stories has always been an essential way humans communicate and share knowledge. A story told through an accessible GIS map lens is a new way to communicate, and a powerful medium to share geographic knowledge that informs and influences.

We’ve said before that the process to create a certification exam is rigorous and time-consuming. In fact, we get a lot of questions about how exam questions are developed. Who writes them? Who validates them? Why does it take so long?

To answer these questions, here’s a high-level overview of our exam development process. Like many IT certification programs, we use a third-party consultant for test development. For each certification, we hold a series of workshops, one of which is the question development workshop.

To this workshop, we invite a group of subject matter experts (SMEs) from across Esri, psychometrician facilitators from the consultant, and facilitators from our certification team who monitor consistency. The group gets together in a room to write and review questions, collaborate on appropriate wording and scenarios, and debate each question’s merits for measuring specific knowledge. For each item, a committee of 5-7 SMEs has to agree on both its technical accuracy and its congruency to the skill being measured (to make sure it tests what it’s supposed to test).

After the workshop, the collection of questions undergoes a psychometric review, a copyedit, a style edit, and is then assembled into the beta exam question pool. When the beta period is over, the psychometricians analyze the results and select questions that are proven to reliably measure the skills and knowledge a qualified candidate for the certification has. When you take an exam at a testing center, you are presented with 95 or so questions from a larger pool of the final questions.

So that’s the overview of how certification exam questions are created. Now here’s an inside view from one of the many smart people who’s participated in the exam development process. Nana Dei, geodata development technical lead with Esri Support Services, acted as a SME for the Enterprise Geodatabase Management Associate 10.1 exam. In an intensive four-day workshop, Nana wrote, researched, collaborated, debated, and discovered that creating exam questions is easier said than done.

What knowledge and experience did you contribute to the exam development process?

Nana: I’ve worked on a number of databases since early 2000 including MySQL and Oracle, which led me into SQL Server and ArcSDE. After joining Esri in 2008, I started working on SDE geodatabases, which helped me build a stronger foundation and in-depth knowledge into the workings of a geodatabase. This knowledge helped me effectively communicate and assess questions and answers in the exam development process.

Describe your experience with question writing. What was it like to have your questions debated during the process?

Nana: Placing myself in the shoes of the test taker was one of the things I thought about while writing questions. A question can be easier or difficult depending on how it is phrased. When writing a question, I thought about a test taker taking the exam under time constraints and feeling pressure. How would they react when reading this question and answering it? It was great to have the other SMEs think out loud during the question writing stage. Debating the questions was fun. It was important to gather different perspectives on particular concepts. It helped me modify the question or come up with stronger answers.

What were your expectations going into the certification development process and how did they change as the workshop progressed?

Nana: Initially, I thought it would be easy to write questions. Finding the correct answer to a question was pretty easy, but coming up with incorrect answers for each question was difficult for me. I think I spent a lot of time coming up with [psychometrically acceptable] wrong answers.

Has the experience of participating in the workshop influenced how you do your work today?

Nana: It taught me to be more conscious about not having any ambiguity when explaining a concept or scenario, to be clear and not leave things open to interpretation. In the geodatabase world, there are multiple ways to reach a destination; each method may have slightly different modes of operation even though they will all lead to the same destination. It is always important, I feel, to be on the same page with the person I am discussing a situation with. If we are not on the same page, the entire knowledge transfer will not be effective.

Knowing what you know about the exam development process, what would you say to those who want to achieve certification?

Nana: Study for the exam. Leave no stone unturned. Ensure that you know and understand the concepts being tested.

What was the most valuable or rewarding part of being a contributing subject matter expert?

Nana: During the exam development process, it was rewarding to have other SMEs value my input. I really enjoyed the collaboration with different SMEs. The input by all members of the team made it feel as if we were unified in our approach to reach the goal. The fact that I went through the exam development process and demonstrated my knowledge in the technology—you have to have a level of knowledge to come up with possible scenarios, questions, and answers—was very rewarding. After the exam development process, I feel other employees see me as a go-to person for that specific technology.

What value you do you see in Esri technical certification?

Nana: I think it’s a very good indicator that one is familiar with that technology and that a person can effectively communicate in that subject area when called upon to explain a concept or give help in a specific scenario. It would look good on a resume when applying for jobs because it shows the person really cares about personal growth in that area. The technology changes over the years, and we need to keep up.

If you’re going to the Esri Partner Conference or Esri International Developer Summit next week in Palm Springs, stop by the Training and Certification island for a chance to win a voucher for a free certification exam. You can also pick up your certification pin if you haven’t received it already.

Beta testing of the Enterprise System Design Associate 10.1 and ArcGIS Desktop Developer Associate 10.1 exams is complete, the psychometricians are hard at work, and public registration should open in May.

“As the pace of innovation accelerates, and companies look to expand their operations, employees should acquire more specialized skills and adapt to a workplace that grows more transient, mobile and self-serving – what we call the ‘borderless workplace,’” said Bersin by Deloitte’s Karen O’Leonard, lead analyst, benchmarking, Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Perhaps you will be attending a training class this year. Here’s a question to ponder before you start crafting your out-of-office auto-reply:

• Why are you going?

If you initiated the training request, you should be able to answer quickly with one or more job-related benefits because, for lots of us, submitting the request means providing a justification. At most organizations, gone are the days when you can take a class just because it sounds interesting. Typically, the justification documents how the training relates to your current job responsibilities (or references your professional development plan if your organization uses those).

If you can demonstrate a direct relationship between the training you want to attend and your organization’s strategic goals, your odds of getting approved go way up. Why? Because your position exists for a reason, and it costs a lot of time and money to recruit and ramp up employees—then cover ongoing costs of salary, benefits, and taxes. Your organization spends this money on you because your role is needed for their success. So it makes economic sense to train and develop existing staff as changes in technology disrupt and change the organization’s strategy.

On the pace of change, O’Leonard has this to say, “For U.S. organizations, that means committing more dollars to develop internal talent and to build the desired skills for competitive advantage.”

Documenting how a training class relates to your organization’s strategic goals doesn’t have to be a long dissertation on the state of the industry or even take a lot of time. Some basic research may be all that’s needed. Go to your organization’s website and check out the mission statement, recent press releases, and news articles featuring your organization’s projects and partnerships. If management periodically holds meetings or sends out e-mails to share the strategic vision, then you already know what they’re trying to accomplish. All you need to do is read the class description and map its content to the strategy.

Arming yourself with this information will go a long way towards convincing your manager that the training will help you build skills that align with what the organization wants to achieve—and that you’re committed to contributing to that achievement. You can call that a conversation about training ROI, but it’s much simpler than that—it’s connecting the dots.

When you’re a child, connecting the dots means drawing lines to make a cute picture. When you’re a working professional, connecting the dots means articulating how your unique combination of skills, experience, and work ethic align with strategic goals. Whether you’re an individual contributor, a manager, or a job seeker, your best bet for professional advancement is to develop skills that advance the organization.

And once your training request is approved, don’t forget the case you made. During class, keep the strategic goals in mind. You’ll probably pay closer attention and work harder to make sure you absorb and retain the new knowledge and skills. You’ll also be more likely to apply them in ways that count.

Suppose you determine the class you’re interested in doesn’t align with strategic goals. Should you try to attend anyway? If you believe the class will improve your job performance, then absolutely. The organization will benefit from your increased productivity and, by showing they value you enough to invest training dollars in you, they get to give you a morale boost. Employees who feel valued are less likely to leave. Organizations connect the dots on that.

If you’re someone who has mastered the fundamentals, you may be wondering what courses you should take next. You’ve learned the basics, you want to continue growing your GIS skillset, but you’re not ready to tackle 3D terrain analysis with lidar data. We get the what’s-next question a lot.

But what’s next does not have a one-size-fits-all answer. GIS has broad application and is often used in tandem with other technologies. ArcGIS has a huge number of tools and capabilities. So the learning path you choose to embark on depends on what you already do or what you aspire to do. A market analyst working for a national real estate firm needs to learn different things than a mapping specialist working for a county assessor’s office.

Once you’ve acquired knowledge and skills equivalent to what’s taught in the first two of our ArcGIS foundational courses, there are multiple paths on which to continue your learning journey. To figure out which path is right for you, start by asking yourself some questions:

• What GIS-related tasks do you most commonly perform?
• Do you feel like you’re doing some of these tasks “the hard way”?
• What kind of things would you like to be working on a year or two from now?
• What knowledge and skills are required for the work you want to do?

For ArcGIS 10.1 we’ve categorized our courses into four topical areas, all branching off the ArcGIS II: Essential Workflows course.

In each category, instructor-led courses are supplemented and extended by web courses and free training seminars.

• Web courses for ArcGIS 10.1
• Training seminars for ArcGIS 10.1

Suppose you’re intrigued by what you’ve learned so far about GIS, want to pursue it further, but aren’t sure for what end. Here’s a tip: check out the GIS Bibliography.

The GIS Bibliography offers access to thousands of papers, conference proceedings, journal articles, and more. Browse it when you have some free time and discover the many interesting things people are doing with GIS. You just might find inspiration that directs your GIS learning journey.

Of course, I could bring the Excel data into ArcMap and visualize it there, but I wanted to make a web map so I could easily share it with coworkers who don’t use ArcGIS in their day to day.

Lacking the ability to publish a map service myself, I opted to go the minimalist route—that is, use the free ArcGIS.com map viewer and ArcGIS Online resources. If your organization has an ArcGIS Online subscription, you can map your data right inside Excel since Esri Maps for Office is included with the subscription.

A viable alternative for those without a subscription is to add a .csv file (text file of comma-separated values) to the ArcGIS.com map viewer and save the map to their ArcGIS Online personal account. An Excel spreadsheet is easily saved as a .csv file. To be mapped, the spreadsheet must have fields that store location data—latitude and longitude values, GPX coordinates, or addresses.

I wanted to visualize the locations of individuals in the U.S. who attended the Creating Hosted Map Services with ArcGIS Online live training seminar back in October. Understanding the geographic distribution of our viewers is useful to evaluate seminar broadcast times. All I had to do to create a web map was follow these easy steps.

1. Open the Excel spreadsheet and save it as a .csv file.
2. Go to www.arcgis.com and click the Map link at the bottom of the page.
3. In the map viewer, zoom to the data’s extent.
4. Keep the default World Topographic basemap or click the Basemap Gallery button and choose a different basemap.
5. To the left of the Basemap Gallery button, click Add > Add Layer from File, browse to the .csv file, then click Import Layer. (If you’re using Firefox or Chrome, you can just drag and drop a .csv file into the map viewer.)

In less than two minutes, I’m visualizing my data as points on a pretty map. I can click each point and see the associated data from the Excel spreadsheet in a pop-up. Easy. Except…

I only want to show certain columns, and I don’t like the names of those columns. I’d also like to symbolize the points by self-reported industry.

I can address all of these issues right in the viewer.

1. In the Contents pane to the left of the map, click the arrow next to the layer name and click Change Symbols.
2. Choose Unique Symbols in the drop-down list and specify the field that stores the values you want to symbolize.
3. Choose a color ramp, then click Apply.

In the symbol preview, I notice an industry category named Other. For my purposes, Other is the same as no data. It’s easy to change the Other symbol label.

1. In the Change Symbols panel, click the label next to the Other symbol, then type a new label (No Information is more understandable for this map). If I wanted, I could click Change Symbol and assign a different symbol to distinguish this category.
2. Click OK, then Apply. Finally, click Done Changing Symbols.

• Takeaway #1: Explore your data and decide how you want to present it before putting it on a map. In the map viewer, it’s easy to change the display properties, but you can’t modify the data itself.

So, in just a few more minutes, I’ve mapped viewer distribution and self-reported industry. Next, I’ll configure the pop-ups.

1. In the Contents pane, click the arrow next to the layer name again and choose Configure Pop-up.
2. Enter a descriptive pop-up title.
3. Click Configure Attributes and uncheck fields you don’t want to display, then make sure the fields you do want to display are checked. You can also use the arrow buttons to reorder the fields. Be sure to type a friendly alias for each field that will display, then click OK.
4. At the bottom of the Pop-up Properties panel, click Save Pop-up.

Now when I click points on the map, I see only the information of interest. I also notice something.

When I zoom in to a large scale, the Topographic basemap gets very detailed. Building footprints and local streets display. Some of my symbol colors blend into the basemap features.

Switching to the Light Gray Canvas basemap is a quick solution. This basemap, with its subdued colors and less detail at large scales, is a better backdrop for my data.

• Takeaway #2: Before deciding on a basemap, explore it at large (and small) scales to understand the level of detail and assess its appropriateness for your mapping purpose. It’s important to choose symbol colors that will stand out against the basemap at various scales.

Finally, I want to show time zones on the map. I don’t have a layer of time zones but I’ll search ArcGIS Online content to see if anyone has shared this data.

1. Click Add > Search for Layers.
2. In the Find text box, type time zones, choose to search in ArcGIS Online, then click Go.
3. The search results include several time zone feature services. After adding one of them to the map, I change its symbology to unique values so each zone will have a different color and increase the layer transparency value so the time zone features don’t obscure the other data.

In less than 20 minutes, I’ve “mappified” my Excel data and added context to it. All that’s left is to save the map to my ArcGIS Online account. To generate a link to the map that I can embed in a web page, e-mail, or social media post, I just need to share the map publicly or with a group I belong to.

• Takeaway #3: There are lots of ways to create, save, and share a web map these days. If you don’t have access to software for creating GIS services, you’re not out of luck. Creating a high-performing web map with the ArcGIS.com map viewer really is an easy—and useful—method.

Colin (left) and David (right) in the studio.

Last week, over 2,000 of you tuned in to watch our live training seminar, Layout Design Essentials for ArcGIS 10.1, presented by Esri instructor Colin Childs, whose South African accent never ceases to please. David Watkins, Esri cartography product manager, joined in on the action as co-presenter to answer viewer questions. The seminar recording is now available for free viewing on the Training website.

This seminar is fast-paced and packed with information that spans basics like inserting a legend with attractive patches to more advanced topics such as adding dynamic text. Throughout, Colin shares tips to make your layout work more efficient and your designs more compelling.

Anyone who uses ArcMap to create layouts will take away something new from this one-hour time investment. The seminar title is actually a little misleading because many of the tips are also relevant to previous versions of ArcGIS for Desktop. Here are my top-three ”things I never knew” tips:

• You can tell immediately whether your printer paper settings match your layout page settings just by checking for a drop shadow around the page in layout view. If the drop shadow is there, you’re good—the printer and layout settings match. No drop shadow means you need to go into the Page and Print Setup dialog box and specify the correct paper and map page settings…before you start adding and designing all the layout elements.
• The Draw toolbar provides a lot of functionality that likely gets little use. Case in point: the Union tool allows you to combine two graphic elements on the page to make custom shapes (remember, almost everything on the layout page is a graphic). Just arrange the graphics the way you want, select them, then click Drawing > Graphic Operations > Union. The creative possibilities are delightful.
• Also available on the Draw toolbar, the Polygon Text tool is a lightning-fast way to create a text box. Some people actually thought you had to insert text, then create a rectangle graphic, then group the two, making sure the text displays on top of the rectangle without getting cut off. No one I know, of course.

In the demo below, Colin shows how to share a layout as a map package and export a layout as a georeferenced PDF that provides dynamic GIS functionality.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The ArcGIS Desktop Associate and Professional exams are publically available now. For those of you interested in obtaining one of the other 10.1 certifications, here’s the current 10.1 exam release schedule. As always, carefully review the Skills Measured section of the certification page to understand the exam scope. Skills Measured information for exams not yet in beta will be available when the beta exams release.

In beta release now, public release scheduled for February, 2013:

• Web Application Developer Associate
• Enterprise Geodatabase Management Associate

Beta exams available in mid-December or January, public exam release scheduled for March or April, 2013:

• Enterprise System Design Associate
• ArcGIS Desktop Developer Associate

Beta exams available in January, public exam release scheduled for April, 2013:

• Enterprise Geodatabase Management Professional
• Enterprise Administration Associate

First ArcGIS 10.1 Certification Awarded

We want to extend a big congratulations to Stefanie Obmann. Stefanie was the first person to achieve an ArcGIS Desktop Associate 10.1 certification since the exam was released. In fact, she was the first person to earn an ArcGIS 10.1 certification period.

Stefanie focuses on customer support and training at SynerGIS in Vienna, Austria, the Esri distributor for Austria since 1987 and for Slovakia since 1993. She decided to earn the ArcGIS Desktop Associate certification because, in her words, “‘Thinking I know is different than ‘knowing I know’. I wanted to be tested and test myself.”

Stefanie was inspired to learn GIS because she appreciates the broad range of study areas the field encompasses—from physical and regional geography to cartography, multimedia, and geoinformation. “GIS represented the possibility to combine all of these fields for me while staying in contact with the technological development of IT and applying GIS,” she said.

While preparing for the exam, Stefanie learned a lot and that clearly paid off. With the exam behind her now, she says, “I feel more confident in giving advice since I was able to answer the exam questions, and will be able to answer many more questions by our users now.” Welcome to the Esri technical certification community, Stefanie!

Those articles are directed to individuals, the ones who feel like knowing CPR isn’t enough to guarantee a good outcome in a scary situation. But the last five years have seen major technology-enabled shifts in expectations, and these have had a huge impact on organizations and their leadership. Lots of organizations are looking for ways not only to meet the new expectations, but also create new products and services and reach new customers.

Grow Your People, Grow Your Business

In their 2012 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement study, the Society for Human Resource Management says developing employees is an important way to increase job satisfaction and reduce staff turnover. Higher job satisfaction is associated with increased productivity, lower turnover, and higher customer satisfaction.

Despite the amazing technology that permeates modern life, humans remain indispensable. As far as I know, no gadget has yet invented a new gadget. No computer has ever created a web map all by itself, contributed to a white paper, or put together slides for an executive presentation (although Watson may be honing his animation skills as you read this).

Organizations who pay attention to motivating and retaining employees have leaders who understand people are their most important asset—the employees who execute day-to-day operations, engage with customers, and come up with new ideas that move the business forward.

In Esri Training Services, we’ve been preaching the value of staff development for a while. Note that staff development includes but is not training. It’s not about soft skills, learning how to chain together clicks to complete a task, or even adopting a programming toolkit to be more efficient. Fundamentally, staff development is a people-centric approach to achieving strategic business goals.

Like anything, to be done well staff development requires planning. The planning should encompass support for known projects and initiatives but, more importantly, help prepare staff to execute the unknown ones. Because Ben had it right: in the world nothing is certain except death and taxes. Or, as we say in the modern era, change is coming whether you like it or not.

Staff Development Planning Process

Here’s a high-level overview of the planning process we use when engaging with our customers. For the detailed process, check out this recording of our popular EsriUC presentation or contact us at GIStraining@esri.com.

The planning process starts with strategic alignment. By directly connecting staff development with achievement of strategic goals, you earn executive buy-in (and budget approval).

During this phase, we identify strategic business goals, which are often articulated in the organization’s mission statement. Next, we learn how the organization’s GIS program supports the strategic goals and which staff roles are involved with creating, managing, and using the GIS infrastructure and applications.

• What are the organization’s strategic business goals?
• How do GIS applications support the strategic goals?
• What GIS roles are in place to support the applications that support the strategic goals?

Next, we analyze which educational resources and delivery methods are most appropriate for the GIS roles. Timelines, priorities, and budget are discussed and documented in a staff development plan.

• What knowledge and skills are required for each role?
• Based on current and future plans, what are the staff development priorities?
• What resources are available to develop the required knowledge and skills?
• What’s the budget?

Once the plan is documented, managers execute it. It’s important to periodically review progress and the plan itself. If a key staff member retires or switches roles, a new role is created, or a new technology component is introduced, the plan can be modified. It’s critical to ensure that over time the plan stays aligned with the strategic goals and adjustments are made as needed. If that doesn’t happen, the plan becomes irrelevant.

• How are things going?
• Does the plan need to be modified?
• Is the plan still relevant?

So what are the outcomes of this planning process? Explicit outcomes are people developing the right skills at the right time, with an approved budget in place. With the needed knowledge and skills in place, day-to-day operations are performed more efficiently and projects are completed successfully. Just as important, managers are able to document how their team functions as a strategic asset, organizational leaders understand the strategic value of the GIS program, and employees feel valued and excited about contributing to new projects. Complaints about the breakroom coffee finally become a thing of the past (well, ideally).

If you’ve been wanting to take the 10.1 version of either the ArcGIS Desktop Associate or ArcGIS Desktop Professional certification exam, your wait is officially over. Registration for the 10.1 versions of both exams is now open.

At version 10.1 the changes to ArcGIS for Server are extensive. The same is not true of ArcGIS for Desktop—version 10.1 introduces few significant changes to the desktop environment (but note there are some nice usability improvements, additional data storage capabilities, and more ways to share your work and access ArcGIS Online resources). As a result, the 10.1 exams for both ArcGIS Desktop Associate and ArcGIS Desktop Professional are not significantly different than the 10.0 exams. Your knowledge of new functionality is measured, but overall the changes to most ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop workflows are minor when compared with ArcGIS 10.1 for Server.

But Here’s the Big News

If you have an ArcGIS Desktop Associate or ArcGIS Desktop Professional 10.0 certification or if you take (and pass) an ArcGIS Desktop 10.0 certification exam, you are eligible to receive the equivalent 10.1 certification. Yes, you read correctly. If you are a current ArcGIS Desktop 10.0 Associate or Professional or if you earn one of the 10.0 Desktop certifications in the future, you may submit a request to receive the 10.1 certification without taking the 10.1 exam. We will be communicating with all current Desktop certification holders in the near future about how to submit this request.

Why are we doing this? First, because the changes to the desktop environment are nominal and we want to provide new certification candidates an opportunity to make an informed choice between the 10.0 and 10.1 exams.  Our intention is not to encourage anyone to unknowingly take an exam that is similar to an exam they already passed (and paid for).

Which Exam Should You Take: 10.0 or 10.1?

If you are not currently certified but plan to achieve an ArcGIS Desktop certification in the future, perhaps you’re now wondering which exam version is right for you. Suppose you work for an organization that uses ArcGIS 10.0 and has no immediate plans to upgrade to 10.1. Which exam should you take?

The answer to that depends on your specific circumstances. Some organizations cover certification exam costs but only if the exam applies to software the organization uses. Other organizations may cover the cost of the 10.1 exam because they are planning to upgrade and understand that having certified individuals on staff can help ensure a smooth migration process. It’s a good idea to discuss certification with your manager to make sure your decision aligns with organizational directives and goals.

What if you’re pursuing a career change? Which version of the certification exam should you take? Once again, it depends on your specific goals and circumstances. Understanding that the software versions are similar may help, so the particular software version you have access to may be the greatest influence on your choice.

What Exam Preparation Resources Are Available?

This is still a popular question. Here’s the latest answer.

• We continue to offer two instructor-led skills review courses. These courses are now taught using ArcGIS 10.1 software in the classroom, but course content applies to ArcGIS 10.0 as well. Where there are differences between ArcGIS 10.0 and 10.1, the instructor will point them out and provide information for each version.
• We continue to offer the free sample question web courses that we developed for version 10.0. We will be updating them to include some sample questions specific to ArcGIS 10.1, but for now the questions apply to both the 10.0 and 10.1 exams.
• Watch one of our free training seminars on an ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop topic.
• Read What’s new in ArcGIS 10.1 and search the ArcGIS Resources website to learn more about specific functionality.
• If you have access to ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop, the tutorials that come with the software are useful to learn specific functionality that you may not use on a day-to-day basis.
• If you are not yet using ArcGIS 10.1 for Desktop at work, you can download free trial software or consider laying out $100 for ArcGIS for Home Use (includes an Advanced license at 10.1) and use it to get familiar with the new functionality. Note that ArcGIS 10.0 and ArcGIS 10.1 cannot be installed on the same machine.