Over the last few months, we’ve begun and completed several mapping projects. As our team has grown, we’ve needed clear guidance for the team to run a lead a mapping task from inception to completion in line with the best practices of mapping and ensuring the highest quality of contributions to the map.

Mapbox team during a mapping huddle

We have put together a simple guide to how the data team approaches a mapping project on OSM.

Broadly the guide provides a checklist for a project lead to work through during the different phases of a mapping project:

• Inception : Background research on the project and identify the Why? question.
• Getting Started : Capture scope, tools and mapping workflow on a ticket.
• Trial Workflow : Involve the community in a clear and effective mapping workflow. Do a trial run with a small team to find do's and don't.
• Scale Up : Train the whole team for scaling up the project.
• Mapping : Publicise the project on relevent channels and involving active members of local OSM community. Constantly monitor progress, and identify tools and process to improve the workflow.
• Wrap Up : Improve mapping documentation, capture statistics and publish a final report on the OSM diary.

We invite everyone to have a look at our Mapping Project Guide, and give us feedback, or track any of our recent and ongoing projects in the Mapbox mapping repository.