1. Quality at Statistics Austria Conference on Data Quality for International Organizations Helsinki, 6-7 May 2010 © STATISTIK AUSTRIA www.statistik.at Thomas Burg

2. Outline of Presentation Historical development Institutional Environment - Framework Quality Work Outlook – next steps

3. Historical development of quality issues at Statistics Austria 1998First project concerning quality measurement – SYSQUAST 2000New statistical legal act 2000Invention of TQM – Establishing of TQM Board Starting of projects for all piles of TQM 2001EFQM-Self assessment 2003Feed back talks based on standard documentations 2005Adoption of Code of Practice 2006Peer Review 2007-Ongoing work: Revision policy,..... 2010-Development of Quality Guidelines

4. 4 Institutional Environment (I) Organization of Statistics Austria

5. Institutional Environment (II) Role of the Statistics Council Statistics CouncilEconomic Council Statistics Austria Subgroup on Quality Subgroup on Program of work

6. Framework (I) Legal aspects dedicated to quality Austrian Federal Statistics Act Article 24: Special principles applying to the performance of duties 1. the compiling of statistics shall be objective and impartial; 2. statistical methods and procedures shall be applied using internationally accepted statistical principles and standards and shall be published; 3. statistics shall be subject to permanent control with the aim of improving quality; 4. statistics shall be kept as up-to-date as possible; 5. the burden on data subjects and respondents shall be minimised and they shall be provided with sufficient information; 6. there shall be compliance with the principles of publication set out in article 30; 7. personal data shall be strictly confidential.

7. Framework (II) TQM Customer/user orientation Communication policy Market strategy Product policy Marketing policy Availability of results Staff orientation Staff training Job enrichment, flexibility Co-operative management Team work Staff satisfaction Quality control of the products Relevance Accuracy Coherence Comparability Completeness Timeliness Availability Reducing respondents burden Use of registers and administration data whenever possible Sample survey preferred to census Voluntary co-operation preferred to obligation to provide information Electronic questionnaires Tailored questionnaires Efficiency Optimizing the processes Planning instruments Project management Controlling New IT instruments

8. Quality Work Product Quality (I) System of Standard Documentations serving as Quality Reports 1. Summary, important hints 2. General information 3. Statistical Concepts, Methods 4. Producing of Statistics, processing of data, Quality assurance 5. Publication (accessibility) 6. Quality

9. Quality Work Product Quality (II) Standard Documentations as basis for Feedback Talks Once a month a product is selected and audited by certain experts and the subgroup on quality of the Statistics Council ProductFeedback TalksPossible improvements

10. Quality Work Product Quality (III) Ongoing work on improving methods – using good/best practices Series of experience exchanges on several topics Active participation in research activities ESSnet FP7-projects Cooperation with university Strong focus on administrative data use Register Based Census 2011

11. Quality Work Product Quality (IV) Policies for important aspects when producing statistics Guidelines for Confidentiality Revision policy – draft version Quality guidelines – planning phase finalized, start of production

12. Quality Work Response Burden (I) use of administrative data and registers electronic questionnaire (e-Quest) voluntary surveys, tailored questionnaires Response Burden Barometer Co-operation with the Austrian Chamber of Industry and Commerce

13. Quality Work Response Burden (II) Response Burden Barometer For every mandatory business survey the time effort for a subsample is surveyed Efforts are monitored over time Broken down to medium of response (electronic, paper pencil)

14. Quality work Customer orientation (I) Dissemination policy: Release Calendar on the webpage Scientific Use files System of advisory groups User satisfaction Survey every 2 years Last in fall 2008 Review process for Statistische Nachrichten (Journal of Statistics Austria)

15. Quality work Customer orientation (II) Release Calendar Aim: Informing user on release dates Mandatory for producers to provide information about delays Information available: Release date Preliminary or final results Press announcement Relevance for SDDS 2 Versions: Sorted by date Sorted by topics

16. Quality work Efficiency Optimizing the processes Matrix organization Electronic data flow Planning instruments Project management Controlling

17. Outlook - Next steps o Restructuring the format of Feedback talks o Measuring quality of different product types - first step administrative data use o Finalizing Quality Guidelines o Next User Satisfaction survey: Fall of this year

18. Thank you for your attention ! www.statistik.at