ESS Vision 2020 Validation: Implementation of deliverables DIME/ITDG SG meeting Item 3 June 28th 2016

What is validation? ESS Methodological handbook on validation: "Data Validation is an activity verifying whether or not a combination of values is a member of a set of acceptable combinations." It is not: An activity to check or assess process metadata: validation focuses on data Editing or imputation: these are separate activities which may be performed based on the outcomes of validation The ESS.VIP Validation took as a starting point for its activities the following definition given by the UNECE: Data validation is "an activity aimed at verifying whether the value of a data item comes from the given (finite or infinite) set of acceptable values." Data validation is focused on checking the validity/consistency of data. Checking process or structural metadata is not within the scope of validation, though process or structural metadata may serve as input to validation procedures.

Focus of ESS.VIP Validation Member State Eurostat Validation can take place in several points of the ESS statistical production process

Current problems in ESS validation No clear picture of who in the ESS is doing what as regards validation: Risk of validation gaps Time-consuming validation "ping-pong" Subjective assessment of data quality Lack of standards and of a common architecture for shareable and reusable validation services: Duplication of IT development costs within the ESS Manual work due to low integration between the different tools

Medium-term goals for ESS validation Business Outcomes Goal 1: Ensure the transparency of the validation procedures applied to the data sent to Eurostat by the ESS Member States. Increase in the quality and credibility of European statistics   Reduction of costs related to the time-consuming validation cycle in the ESS ("validation Ping-Pong") Goal 2: Enable sharing and re-use of validation services across the ESS on a voluntary basis. Reduction of costs related to IT development and maintenance

To-be situation

ESS.VIP Validation The ESSC approved the ESS.VIP Validation project in November 2012 and gave the green light for the beginning of the execution phase in November 2014. The project ended in November 2015. Collaboration with the Member States was ensured through a Task Force during the course of 2014 and through an ESSnet (the ValiDat Foundation ESSnet) during the course of 2015.

Deliverables provided Dimension Deliverables Methodology ESS methodological handbook for validation Standards Standard ESS validation syntax (VTL) Processes/Governance Common validation policy IT Prototype for a validation rule manager Prototype for a structural validation service

Next steps: May ESSC conclusions In May 2016, the ESSC approved a set of follow-up actions to the ESS.VIP Validation. These actions focus on deploying into statistical production the deliverables of the ESS.VIP Validation.

Priorities for next steps Medium-term goal 1 Short-term actions (up until Mid-2017) Improvements to VTL 1.0 and piloting in statistical domains Implementation of methodological handbook in statistical domains Finalisation of Business Architecture Medium-term actions (Mid-2017 onwards) Decision gate on the suitability of the handbook and VTL for use in production. Implementation of the Business Architecture

Priorities for next steps Medium-term goal 1

Priorities for next steps Medium-term goal 2 Short-term actions (up until Mid-2017) Testing of available prototypes Definition of requirements for shareable ESS validation services Medium-term actions (Mid-2017 onwards) Development of shareable ESS services

Collaboration with Member States Two vehicles to collaborate with Member States Task Force under Methodology Working Group supporting the deployment actions for medium-term goal 1 ESSnet Extends deliverables for national implementations Develops standard for validation reports

Validation Task Force Validation Task Force crated by the WG Methodology in April 2016. First meeting took place on June 16-17 2016. Objectives of the Task Force: Monitoring the pilot implementation of the methodological handbook in statistical domains Monitoring the pilot implementation of VTL in statistical domains Finalising the Business Architecture

Pilot implementations in domains 5 pilot domains: Energy National Accounts Asylum and managed migrations International Trade in Services Short Term Statistics

Focus on VTL – a bit of history VTL 1.0 published in March 2015 (http://sdmx.org/?page_id=5096) In-depth assessment of VTL 1.0 carried out by the ValiDat Foundation ESSnet between April and December 2015 Several important comments raised on the design of the language, its user-friendliness and its implementability VTL 1.1 in progress Language extensions, reusability of rules, new features SDMX implementation also in progress Mapping of SDMX and VTL artefacts Messages for exchanging rules, registry for storing rules Web services for retrieving rules

Focus on VTL – next steps Next milestone for the development of VTL: VTL 1.1 Draft release foreseen for July 2016 (public review) VTL 1.1 will be improved in the following ways: Introduction of high-level constructs to allow statisticians to easily express the most common validation rules Delimitation and definition of a "core" of VTL A more inclusive governance structure

Focus on VTL - timeline July 2016: VTL 1.1 to be published for public review July-December 2016: "paper and pencil" pilots of VTL December 2016: Finalisation of VTL 1.1 based on public review Q1 2017: Decision gate on the use of VTL as a validation syntax for the ESS

Thank you for your attention! Any questions?