1. 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

2. 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

3. 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!!!!

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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)

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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