Lifecycle planning is really a process of practical problem solving applied to all aspects of a GIS development project. Particular care is exerted in defining the nature of a problem or new requirement, estimating the costs and feasibility of proceeding, and developing a solution. This process should not be abridged; each step is important to the overall process. If this problem solving approach is applied to the design and creation of an entire GIS project a few additional subtasks must be addressed, as in the diagram below.
This does not mean that information technologies have been a failure. Rather, these systems allow users to accomplish a greater range of varied and complex tasks, but at a higher cost. Users are not so much doing their previous work at faster speeds, but assuming new tasks offered by the new technologies. Support staff once satisfied with producing in-house documents may now be tempted to issue them using desktop publishing software or on-line in the Worldwide Web. Cartographers once satisfied with producing discrete utility maps for individual construction projects may be tempted to create an encompassing map and GIS database containing maintenance records for an entire city.
It is generally recognized that, for the foreseeable future, most information technologies projects will have to be justified on the basis of a "do more, pay more" philosophy. This means that effective lifecycle planning is all the more important. In the past, projected existing costs could be used as a baseline against which improvements could be measured. If the cost curve for new information technologies is always above the baseline, then greater care must be exerted in setting goals, establishing targets, and estimating budgets. There is far too great a danger that, in the absence of such checks and balances, a project may grow out of control.
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