REFLECTIONS ON THE SUSTAINABILITY OF ARGUS Daniela Ichim and Luisa Franconi Unit on disclosure control for the release of statistical information Department of methods and IT Istat

Current situation SUSTAINABILITY OF SOFTWARE TOOLS ARGUS - and developed/implemented as part of several European projects free, maintained by CBS (Statistics Netherlands) standard tool for the SDC of microdata and tabular data coordinated approach to the SDC topic general applicability R packages sdcMicro and sdcTabular developed, implemented and maintained by University of Wien open and free immense potential of R not really tested on practical SDC problems no predictability in development

Cost of NOT migrating ARGUS to an open source Migration SUSTAINABILITY OF SOFTWARE TOOLS Cost of NOT migrating ARGUS to an open source Short-medium period: lack of resources to provide answers under pressure “to do” management problems Medium-long term period: rely on a single institution for European standards could be seen as a hazard risk of increase of the number of software/routines for SDC problems  inefficiency Any migration HAS a cost!!!!

Proposal: migrate using the best SUSTAINABILITY OF SOFTWARE TOOLS Feature ARGUS R sdcMicro and sdcTables Possibility to check/control/modify/adapt NO YES Coordinated development Predictable results Involvement of SDC community Documentation YES/NO Help NO/YES Modular architecture Personalisation User-friendly Programming skills required Free Open source Designed for official statistics Consortium Test reports … … … … … … … … see report

Proposal 1. ANY MIGRATION/CHANGE HAS A COST 2. USE ARGUS ARCHITECTURE SUSTAINABILITY OF SOFTWARE TOOLS 1. ANY MIGRATION/CHANGE HAS A COST 2. USE ARGUS ARCHITECTURE 3. CREATE AN ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE 4. OPEN ARGUS: ARGUS+ 5. MIGRATE ARGUS TO R 6. UPDATE THE DOCUMENTATION AND HELP 7. TRAINING COURSES

2. Use ARGUS architecture SUSTAINABILITY OF SOFTWARE TOOLS ARGUS is the software tool most known and applied by the SDC community no effort should be spent in designing new architectures or in creating new collaboration networks maintain ARGUS modularity

3. Organisational / governance structure SUSTAINABILITY OF SOFTWARE TOOLS Project Leader Core developers Developers Users

4. Open ARGUS: Argus+ key point SUSTAINABILITY OF SOFTWARE TOOLS key point in an initial phase, open ARGUS at least to the European SDC project partners Eurostat role: It would be nice to develop this as a European example of partnership in the field of open source; Use the lesson learnt from Demetra+ Eurostat could support and sponsorship the project Eurostat could delegate the (initial) project leader and the (initial) team of core developers Eurostat indication of priorities (Working Group on Statistical Confidentiality)

5. Migrate ARGUS to R SUSTAINABILITY OF SOFTWARE TOOLS Translate ARGUS code in R (not only the algorithms) Create an user-friendly interface Use case studies (start from SBS data for Eurostat course?) Test the compatibility of R and ARGUS

6. and 7. Documentation and dissemination SUSTAINABILITY OF SOFTWARE TOOLS Documentation/help should be adapted to the new SDC tool Training courses fundamental action for the success of any new software tool

The risks of the current situation Migrate: CONCLUSIONS The risks of the current situation Migrate: to an open source modular software with a clear governance structure with different levels of permissions Expected benefits predictable results, coordinated development share of duties/responsabilities, spread of knowledge improve expertise / develop innovative solutions Essnet on SDC harmonisation during 2011 will analyse users needs and deliver the description of the current architecture of Argus