Quality assurance and checking
Quality is more than technical accuracy
A Māori GIS layer can be geometrically precise and still be wrong for the kaupapa. Quality includes whether the representation makes sense, whether names and relationships are treated appropriately, whether the right people have had the opportunity to check it, and whether the map claims more authority than it holds.
Do not treat a cultural validation step as something added after the technical GIS is complete. Meaning, mandate and tikanga belong throughout the work.
Technical checks
Check the things GIS is good at checking:
- spatial accuracy appropriate to the purpose
- coordinate reference system and scale
- geometry and attribute consistency
- joins, calculations and classifications
- source dates and versioning
- missing, duplicate or unexpected records
Technical errors damage confidence and can create real consequences. Fix them.
Check meaning as well as geometry
For Māori spatial information, also ask:
- Is this the right name, and whose usage is being represented?
- Does the point, line or polygon describe the knowledge appropriately?
- Is an indicative area being mistaken for a boundary?
- Has whakapapa or provenance been separated from the record?
- Does the map leave out context that changes its meaning?
- Is a Crown, council or research layer being presented as cultural authority?
- Is anything shown to people who should not receive that version?
A technically valid polygon does not settle a question of mana, history or relationship.
Return to the people who know the kaupapa
Where local knowledge is involved, checking should happen through the people and relationships appropriate to that knowledge.
That may involve whānau, kaitiaki, kaumātua, hapū, iwi, rūnanga or another mandated group. The right process depends on the kaupapa.
Avoid generic phrases such as community sign-off. A Māori collective is not a quality-control panel, and one meeting does not necessarily create mandate for future use.
Instead, be clear about what is being checked:
- factual or spatial accuracy
- spelling and naming
- interpretation
- suitability for a particular audience
- authority to publish or share
- whether the information should be held digitally at all
Different people may legitimately be involved in different decisions.
Leave room for more than one account
Not every difference should be resolved into one final value.
If sources or kōrero differ:
- preserve the source of each account
- record the context in which it applies
- distinguish uncertainty from disagreement
- allow more than one name, extent or interpretation where that is the most faithful representation
- do not choose one version merely because the database requires a single value
Sometimes the quality improvement is changing the data model rather than deciding who is correct.
Review before sharing
A practical review can cover four dimensions:
- Technical: does the GIS work as intended?
- Kaupapa: does the output actually serve the mahi?
- Meaning and tikanga: is the representation appropriate, and are relationships and restrictions intact?
- Publication: is this particular version suitable for the people who will receive it?
The same map may pass the first three checks and still be unsuitable for public release.
Be clear about uncertainty
Record known gaps, assumptions, dates, confidence and scale limitations. Where the information is indicative, say so plainly.
Uncertainty is not a weakness to hide. False certainty is usually more dangerous.
Final test
Before calling a Māori GIS output validated, ask what that word means in this case.
If it means only that the geometry passed a technical check and somebody from a Māori organisation saw the map, use a more accurate description. Say what was checked, by whom or through what role, for what purpose, and what remains unresolved.
Connect QA to the source and output
Use Provenance and source checking when validating evidence, Authoritative for what? when comparing datasets, and Publishing Māori GIS maps when checking the final audience-facing version.