I don't have metadata in most of our feature classes (I know, BAD GIS person, BAD!). I'll keep the idea above in mind for when I get to that happy time where I am finally been able to work on our metadata. In the meantime, I figured I'd share what I've been doing. It's as clunky as can be, and tedious to keep up with, but I've been making do for now. ESRI, please come up with some sort of management software we can use that does this for us! 🙂
I use Excel simply because it's been years since I've used Access and don't want to spend time to re-learn it and design the database. My column headings are "Feature Class or Table", "Field", "Domain", "Affected Item", and "Item Location".
As an example, I have a feature dataset called "Roads" which has a field called "Status", which uses the "Road_Status" domain. For each item in our system that uses the Roads feature class and may be affected by a change to the Status field, and/or the Road Status domain, I have one row entry. So right now, I have 22 separate listings for Roads / Status. Each listing is one of the following:
- specific MXDs or projects that would need to be updated if there were a change to Roads / Status. For example, all of our pre-made political maps used by others in our organization have to be updated if there is a change. I list just one "Political Maps" item in the affected item and then the folder where the political map documents are stored in Item Location, because there are hundreds of maps and I have trouble keeping up with this as it is. In the perfect world I'd have one entry for each map, but that's not going to happen any time soon.
- vendor-specific items that have to be updated if there is a change to Roads/Status. This might be any 3rd party products you use, ESRI apps, etc.
- any automated scripts that run (such as data backups or copying data out for use by your police CAD system, things related to your data upload to the EGDMS or MSAG systems, etc.)
- I have a listing to remind me to update the metadata once I finally get to that.
- specific/special projects that always have to be updated when there is a change, such as our Road Atlas
- Each Data Reviewer check I have that in any way uses Roads / Status. This is where my list gets very long, as this particular item is used in 17 different Data Reviewer checks.
- Any procedure documents or other documentation where this appears.
So doing it this way has created an absolutely gargantuan Excel file. But what I do is just sort by whatever changed, and then I get a list of all the things that MAY be affected by a particular change. Downside is I've only managed to get items into this Excel file for NENA/NG-911 related feature classes since that has been my sole focus for going on two years now. Eventually I'll get everything else in there. It's also VERY easy to forget to update this file.
I would *love* a better/easier way. I hope this at least gives you some ideas, maybe somebody can take this and run with it and come up with something better.