Modernisation of Statistical Processing at SURS Andreja Smukavec, SURS Rudi Seljak, SURS Workshop on Modernisation of Statistical Production Geneva, 15–17 April 2015

Old system Stove-pipe oriented production –Ad-hoc solutions were developed for a particular survey Survey methodologist‘s skills were crucial –Quality of results depended much more on survey methodologist‘s strive for improvement Process metadata were not organized –Difficulties when a survey methodologist resigns

Renovation An internal project started in 2012 –IT, General Methodology and subject-matter specialists –Build a global solution appropriate for most of the surveys –Solution which covers most of the parts of statistical production: Data validation Data correction and imputation Aggregation and standard error estimation Statistical disclosure control Tabulation

Renewed system Generalised metadata driven application –Database of process metadata Access -> ORACLE For each survey instance –General SAS code –Different microdata environments allowed, just some basic rules for the structure of bases Ad hoc SAS program for preparation of microdata

Schematic presentation of the renewed system Different microdata databases General SAS Ad- Database of process metadata Metadata repository Different kind of output … program Application for management Data on tables and variables Ad-hoc

New organization Old system: –Every survey had its own programmer and its own general methodologist Renewed system: –General methodologist and IT expert („support team“) help subject-matter specialist to insert and edit the process metadata (except for SDC) into the application run particular parts of the statistical process

Advantages Subject-matter personnel is much more independent (better knowledge) The process metadata can be changed easily and the procedure can be repeated in short time (flexibility) The rules for data processing are gathered in one place (transparency)

Drawbacks High risk of syntax errors in the process of the insertion of metadata expressions Subject-matter personnel has to learn some new skills An error during the execution can cause problem if the support team is busy or not available

Challenges for the future Introduce the application successfully into the production –Changing the thinking of general methodologists to more general level –Adjusting to changes by the subject-matter specialists –Building a qualified support team

Thank you for attention.