CSPA: The Future of Statistical Production Steven Vale UNECE steven.vale@unece.org

GAMSO GSBPM The Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) was released in 2009 and revised in 2013. The Generic Statistical Information Model (GSIM) was released in 2012 and revised in 2013 Between them, they provide the basis for the Common Statistical Production Architecture, also released in 2013. CSPA

What is the CSPA? A template architecture for official statistics A set of standard specifications for new statistical components (services) that can be used in a modular way A new way of developing statistical tools, with sharability as a design feature, not an afterthought

Problem statement: Specialised business processes, methods and IT systems for each survey / output

Applying Enterprise Architecture Disseminate

... but if each statistical organisation works by themselves ...

... we get this ...

.. which makes it hard to share and reuse!

… but if statistical organisations work together to define a common statistical production architecture ...

... sharing is easier!

Architecture Proof of Concept CSPA development Architecture Proof of Concept

The first proof of concept 5 countries built CSPA services 3 countries implemented them

Proof of concept outcomes The CSPA approach works It promises increased: sharing interoperability collaboration opportunities

2 Sprints 3 Assemble teams 5 Build teams 1 Working Group United Kingdom FAO 42 individuals

Implementing the CSPA

Services built in 2014 Seasonal adjustment – France, Australia, New Zealand Confidentiality on the fly – Canada, Australia SVG generator – OECD SDMX transform – OECD Sample selection – Netherlands Linear error localisation – Netherlands Linear rule checking – Netherlands Error correction – Italy By the end of the year we will have several CSPA-compliant services (or components) in use. There are 8 currently being developed. Some in collaboration between organisations, others within individual organisations, but the important point is that they will share common specifications.

Testing New Services in 2015 Classification retrieval service Probabilistic record linkage service Web dissemination service Testing Confidentialised analysis of microdata service In 2015, there were 3 services built in 2015. In addition, 4 countries implemented and tested a service built in 2015

Candidate services for 2016 Service name Designer / Builder Structured Validation Service Eurostat Transformation Service Content Validation Time Series ESSnet Questionnaire Generation Metadata Dissemination

CSPA 2015 project 7 task teams 50 task team members

Some features of CSPA v1.5 

Levels of architecture Business Architecture Information Architecture Application Architecture Technology Architecture

Business architecture "covers all the activities undertaken by a statistical organization, including those undertaken to conceptualize, design, build and maintain information and application assets used in the production of statistical outputs.  Business Architecture drives the Information, Application and Technology architectures for a statistical organization."  = What an organisation does

Information architecture “classifies the information and knowledge assets gathered, produced and used within the Business Architecture. It also describes the information standards and frameworks that underpin the statistical information. IA facilitates discoverability and accessibility, leading to greater reuse and sharing.” = How we manage our information

Application architecture “Application architecture is a description of the major logical grouping of capabilities that manage the data objects necessary to process the data and support the business - it details the structure of components, their inter-relationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design and evolution over time.” = How we do things

Technology architecture "describes the IT infrastructure required to support the deployment of business services, data services and applications services, including hardware, middleware, networks, platforms, etc." = The technology we need

Precision vs cost

Roles in CSPA

CSPA Governance Owner = HLG-MOS Maintenance agency = CSPA Implementation Group (representatives of national / international statistical organisations) Governance processes for: CSPA itself – updates and supporting material Candidate services – quality and fit for purpose

Templates Standard templates agreed for: Service Definition – conceptual level overview of what the service is and what it does – understandable by users Service Specification – logical level description of service capabilities, inputs and outputs Service Implementation Description – physical level description of how to implement the service

CSPA catalogue structure

A gradual transition to CSPA Phase 0: Before transition

Phase 1: Establish new components in local environment Interface Platform for Service Communication Establishing an integration layer Construct NEW systems using the new architecture Phase 1: Establish new components in local environment

Phase 2: Re-engineer old systems Interface Platform for Service Communication Connect old systems to the integration layer

Phase 3: Progressively replace old systems Interface Platform for Service Communication Replace old systems with new services as reengineering occurs Connect more old systems to the integration layer Old system, and connections are removed or reworked Phase 3: Progressively replace old systems

Alternative: Use CSPA services without changing architecture

Key Message We all have to modernise our statistical production systems The marginal cost of doing this in a way that supports collaboration and complies with CSPA is relatively low, but the potential savings from such a standard approach are high Statistical organizations already participate in many international engagement activities that facilitate sharing. Spontaneous, relationship driven engagements between statistical organisations, unable to articulate how efficient we have been The main opportunities that we can focus on: greater sharing of each statistical organisation's ICT portfolio investment and management plans finding and exploiting opportunities to align engagements with some vendors earlier collaboration on innovative and transformative approaches leverage modern technology development practices and tools to support physically dispersed teams What does CSPA offer to sharing? It broadens the types of sharing to smaller parts of IT solutions rather than the large grained, complex pieces that have historically been shared It builds on and enhances sharing of non-ICT dimensions of a capability Sharing of any dimension of a capability can occur with different degrees of maturity. With more maturity in sharing comes: more confidence in the sustainability of things being shared more clarity in roles of providers and consumers of the thing being shared greater visibility of the status of things being shared.

the Future of Statistical Production CSPA the Future of Statistical Production