A BUSINESS PROJECT APPROACH TO ASSESS SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURES

To promote the widespread use of geographic information systems and maximise access to geographic information, the concept of a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) has been popularised from the early 1990s onward. As a result of taking up the SDI initiatives there is a demand for outcome evaluation. The attempt to structure and organise the SDI evaluation is the multi-view SDI assessment framework, which acknowledges the multidimensional nature of SDIs and covers main purposes of assessing SDIs i.e. accountability, knowledge and development. This paper presents the concept of a business project approach and its evaluation as the proposition for the multi-view assessment framework. This approach concentrates on the organization's business goals, risk, but also costs and benefits of information technology, spatial data products and the organization changes. The objectives of this study is to develop an approach of assessing an SDI that focuses on a business project characteristics and describe a meta model of the effectiveness evaluation. The business project approach extends viewpoints of assessing SDIs and is appropriate for both exante and ex-post evaluation.