This is blog 3 of a series of blogs focused on helping you get back your time and grow your ArcGIS Pro skills. Read blog 1 on tailoring ArcGIS Pro to match the way you work or blog 2 on building better data management workflows in ArcGIS Pro.
Repetitive workflows are a natural part of GIS work, but they don’t have to consume so much of your time. Some repetitive work can be reduced by setting up better data management workflows. Other tasks require repetition again and again. Automating the work that repeats every day, every week, or every month can free up time for the GIS work you’ve been wanting to do, whether that’s sharpening your map design skills, diving deeper into analysis, or exploring data science.
ArcGIS Pro provides several ways to automate work, from guided interactive workflows and visual models to Python scripts and enterprise workflow management. The key is choosing an approach that fits the problem you’re trying to solve. Not every workflow should be automated, but for those that are stable, repeatable, and time-consuming, automation can create meaningful time savings while improving consistency, freeing up time to do those things that previously felt like a luxury.
Guide Interactive Workflows with Tasks
Automation doesn’t always mean removing the user from the workflow. Sometimes the opportunity is simply to make a repeatable process easier to follow, reduce unnecessary clicks, and improve consistency, and that’s what Tasks in ArcGIS Pro offers. Tasks guide a user through a workflow one step at a time, and they can be designed without writing any code. Depending on how the task is configured, some steps may require decisions or input, while others can run automatically in the background.
Think of Tasks as an interactive standard operating procedure (SOP). Instead of documenting the workflow separately, you build the instructions directly into ArcGIS Pro, where they can guide users through commands and geoprocessing tools while helping ensure the work is completed accurately. This makes them especially useful for capturing best practices, helping a new or non-GIS user complete a particular workflow, or documenting a process that an experienced user performs too infrequently to remember every step. Even better, Tasks can be written using business language rather than software terminology, making it easier for the user to understand the steps involved. Take the below example, you can tell users to “Select the hydrants” instead of instructing them on which selection tool to use.
Example: A team standardizes how new hydrants are added to the database. The task guides editors through each step: locate the correct work area, create the hydrant feature, enter required attributes, run a validation check, and save edits.
Tip: Use Record Commands to quickly create a series of task steps by clicking on the commands and tools used in the workflow. ArcGIS Pro then creates a step for each recorded command or tool, making them available in the Task Designer for further configuration.
Tip: Consider making appropriate steps optional so users can skip work they have already completed.
Note: Task items are stored in an ArcGIS Pro project and can also be exported as task files, shared online, or included in project packages, making them useful for onboarding and sharing repeatable workflows. Watch this short video on how to create a task.
Tasks are a good fit when the workflow still depends on a person moving through a defined series of steps. But sometimes the repetitive part of the work isn’t following the process. It’s running the same sequence of geoprocessing operations over and over again. When that’s the bottleneck, ModelBuilder is worth exploring.
Build Repeatable Workflows Visually with ModelBuilder
ModelBuilder is a visual programming language for creating geoprocessing workflows. You build a model by adding data and geoprocessing tools to a canvas and connecting them so the output of one process can become the input of the next. A model can accept parameters from a user or work with predefined values. Models are saved as model tools in a toolbox, so they can either be run from the Geoprocessing pane, called from Python, or incorporated into other models.
Example: A GIS analyst builds a model that clips, projects, and dissolves incoming datasets into a standard format. Instead of running three tools manually every time new data arrives, the model performs the sequence in a single run.
ModelBuilder can do more than connect tools in a straight line. Iterators allow a process to repeat across different data or values, while logical tools can add if-then-else branching logic based on defined conditions. Models can also be scheduled to run at a specific time or recurring interval.
Tip: The fastest way to add a tool to the model is to click anywhere in the Model view and start typing the tool name.
Tip: Use the Model Report to search for and change element names and values throughout your model. You can use Find and Replace to quickly update repeated occurrences in bulk.
If a workflow eventually needs more flexibility than the model provides, you can export the model to Python window or a Python script and continue developing the generated code.
Control and Automate Workflows with Python
As workflows grow more complex, Python can automate processes while giving greater control over processing logic, system integration, and execution timing. Python is the primary scripting language for ArcGIS, with two libraries supporting most automation workflows.
The first is ArcPy, a Python package included with ArcGIS Pro that provides access to geoprocessing tools and supports automation for data analysis, data conversion, data management, and map production. Through ArcPy, you can automate repetitive tasks, create custom geoprocessing workflows, and extend the capabilities of ArcGIS Pro.
The second is ArcGIS API for Python. It complements ArcPy by enabling programmatic access to web GIS resources in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise, including content, users, and groups. In a common workflow, ArcPy performs local data processing, while the ArcGIS API for Python publishes the results and manages the resulting web content.
Example: An analyst writes a notebook that checks the coordinate system of every feature class in a geodatabase, projects any that are wrong, and copies them into a new feature dataset. The notebook runs once, documents every step, and can be re-run whenever new data arrives.
Tip: Build your script in a notebook first, test it interactively, then move it into a script tool. The notebook gives you a fast iteration loop, and the script tool gives you a shareable, reusable result.
Note: If you regularly produce map products or reports follow a consistent layout or structure, the arcpy.mp module can also save time. It provides programmatic access to maps, layers, layouts, map series, and other project elements.
Example: A team produces weekly status maps for 12 districts. A Python script references the project, updates the data source for each district layer, changes the title text, and exports all 12 layouts to PDF in a single run.
Once you’ve decided Python is the right approach, there’s another practical question to consider: should the code run inside ArcGIS Pro or as a stand-alone script?
Options for running Python
It’s helpful to know that there are three ways to run Python in ArcGIS Pro.
- The Python window provides an interactive prompt for running short snippets and testing ideas directly in ArcGIS Pro.
- ArcGIS Notebooks combine code, results, and explanatory text in one document, making them useful for developing, testing, and documenting workflows.
- Script tools package Python scripts as geoprocessing tools with parameters, validation, and help so others can run the workflow from the Geoprocessing pane without working directly with the code. Watch how to make your first Python script in three minutes.
Scale Up with Workflow Manager
So far, we’ve focused on automating work performed in ArcGIS Pro, whether that’s guiding users through Tasks, streamlining geoprocessing with ModelBuilder, or using Python to automate data processing and map production. But what happens when the work extends beyond a single user or workflow?
That’s where ArcGIS Workflow Manager comes in. It extends the automation capabilities of ArcGIS Pro beyond individual workflows by helping coordinate repeatable work across people, processes, and applications. Work is organized into jobs that follow a defined series of steps and can be assigned to individuals or groups. Those steps can open maps, run tools, ask questions, send email notifications, or route work based on what happens along the way.
Example: An organization uses Workflow Manager to coordinate data updates. An editor updates spatial or attribute information, a GIS specialist updates the corresponding map, and a quality control specialist reviews the work. If a problem is found, the job can be routed back for correction. Different parts of the workflow can also take place across applications, such as field work in a mobile app, editing in ArcGIS Pro, and quality control in the Workflow Manager web app.
Where to Go Next
Tasks, ModelBuilder, Python, and Workflow Manager each solve a different automation problem. You don’t need to use every option, and you certainly don’t need to automate everything. Start with the work that genuinely repeats. Look for workflows that are stable, predictable, and time-consuming whenever they run, then find an approach that reduces the manual effort without adding unnecessary complexity. Every workflow you improve is one less workflow that depends entirely on manual effort. Over time, those improvements can create meaningful capacity for more valuable GIS work.
In the next blog in this series, we’ll look at one of the most valuable ways to use some of that reclaimed time: analysis.
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