5. Vision, strategy and implementation

i.     statistical data
ii.    statistical processes
iii.   tools enabling production and use of statistics.

i.     those associated with statistical production (data collection, data storage, data evaluation, data dissemination); and
ii.    those associated with the statistical information system and statistical organization (planning and evaluation processes, supply processes, usage processes, total quality management and other management processes).

i.     they are carriers of metadata, passing them on to subsequent processes;
ii.    they use metadata;
iii.   they produce metadata.

i.     Development of common terminology for metadata elements across all processes in the statistical life-cycle;
ii.    Development of a common and consistent description of metadata elements allowing easy location, retrieval and exchange of data and metadata;
iii.   Development of standard interchange formats and tools allowing sharing of metadata and data between organizations;
iv.    Implementation of consolidated metadata repositories facilitating reuse of metadata;
v.     Introduction of a registration processes to promote the use of standard metadata elements and increase knowledge on metadata flows and statistical integration;
vi.    Improvement of metadata quality;
vii.   That the production process will be metadata driven;
viii.  Clear policies on how organizational and technical processes outside the SMS will change once it is agreed that the SMS is fit for purpose, and capabilities that allow these changes to take place. What constitutes "fit for purpose" (i.e. not necessarily perfect) should be agreed beforehand.

i.     When preparing the plan, the organization should consider its current capabilities. Available human and financial resources, as well as organizational and technical feasibility, should be carefully analyzed in order to make the plan realistic.
ii.    Goals defined in the vision should be transformed into practical steps to which priorities are then assigned.
iii.   Practice shows that different organizations often have similar priorities. This is especially true for the development of databases on statistical classifications and nomenclatures, aggregated output databases, and metadata models for the websites. Some organizations give priority to metadata models for microdata. Discussions and sharing of experiences between statistical organizations are therefore strongly recommended.
iv.    Quality of data and metadata should be considered a high priority.
v.     External cooperation should be clearly defined; categorization and priority setting for external users should be specified. The plan should take the existing working plans of all external partners into consideration.
vi.    The plan should be prepared in such detail that all partners will be able to commit their participation.
vii.   External projects to establish data and metadata warehouses, both on the national and international level, should be considered for potential impact on the SMS.
viii.  External activities on data security and data confidentiality related to the SMS should be considered.
ix.    An integral part of the plan should be activities dealing with the development and implementation of international standards.
x.     The plan should also consider activities to promote the SMS and create an atmosphere of cooperation with all stakeholders. To this end, prototypes for demonstration of SMS functions could be useful.
xi.    Research activities on feasibility studies and analysis of user feedback should be also taken into the consideration when preparing an SMS plan.
xii.   Transfer of know-how and training for participants in the SMS business case should be incorporated in the plan.

i.     User orientation - focusing on information relevant to usage such as finding and accessing data, understanding their structure and meaning, assessing their quality and relevancy, and using them correctly. This focus is dissemination oriented; and
ii.    Producer orientation - metadata driven approach focusing on the needs of information systems and electronic processing.

i.     Metadata management is a part of every project and should be considered alongside resource allocation and accountabilities, in the same way as business processes and data flows are considered.
ii.    The SMS management strategy should be specified in close alliance with the existing
managerial structure of the organization. With the lead role of the senior management in the SMS management model, clear links should also be defined in the middle management level and in the experts' level (methodologists, subject-matter statisticians, information technology experts).
iii.   Roles and responsibilities of all partners should be clearly defined, understood and followed. Where possible, automated workflows can be used to enforce agreed roles and responsibilities.
iv.    An SMS management board should be established. This board will take an ultimate, corporate view on all decisions dealing with the SMS development.
v.     A multidisciplinary team should be the major organizational form for the development of the SMS project. The "ideal" SMS Team(s) will include: statistical methodologists; subject-matter statisticians, dissemination specialists, end users, standards' experts, researchers, and information technology specialists in data modelling, business process design, architecture and applications development.
vi.    Implementation of the SMS management strategy may highlight some needs for changes in the job description of some experts (namely methodologists and subject-matter statisticians) as well as in the organization of statistical work. This will often be the case in statistical organizations where a corporate SMS did not previously exist. Many critical issues could appear. Such issues should be foreseen and reflected in the MS vision and strategic plans as far as possible.

i.     Development of the SMS vision.
ii.    A global plan for SMS development should be established and approved by all participants.
iii.   To ensure the efficiency and value of metadata-related work, an SMS Global Architecture should be developed. This should encompass all processes that will work with metadata. An inventory of all such processes and existing metadata tools should be prepared. This inventory should be developed in close cooperation with major stakeholders. The order of priorities should then be decided.
iv.    Specification of common components: Analyzing the inventory should reveal common metadata components. The possibility for these components to communicate with different parts of the SMS via a single interface should be explored. This should be considered a high priority.
v.     The impact of the corporate SMS on existing statistical production systems should be clear from the SMS vision. Any necessary re-engineering of processes should be considered and planned at this stage.
vi.    The metadata requirements associated with standard business processes are articulated, i.e. all the points of contact between the SMS metadata model and business processes, in terms of creation, update, and use activities, are described. For example, metadata associated with understanding user needs, frameworks and standards is acquired and used to inform later phases. To the greatest extent possible, the necessary input and output metadata should be captured in the collection strategy stage so that we know well in advance that the desired outputs are obtainable and fit for purpose.
vii.   Major partners in the design phase are the users (both, inside and outside the organization), methodologists, subject-matter statisticians and information technology experts.
viii.  Feedback and evaluation is an integral part of the design process and is supported by metadata, accumulated in all phases of the SMS development life cycle.
ix.    During the transition period, some "legacy" metadata structures and processes may need to be supported by the SMS to meet requirements of legacy components of the statistical information system. The SMS architecture needs to clearly and consistently differentiate such legacy aspects from the aspects designed for the future to ensure that the latter are always applied in preference to the former.
x.     Financial requirements for implementation phase should be detailed.

i.     An agreed set of definitions and terminology should be developed. Consideration of national and international terminology standards, such as the Metadata Common Vocabulary published by the Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) initiative, is of high importance.
ii.    Detailed and coordinated plans for all stages of SMS implementation should be prepared and approved by all partners at the beginning of the implementation phase. The basic framework of the SMS plan is defined in the vision.
iii.   Existing processes using statistical metadata should have been reengineered. If complete reengineering cannot be achieved in advance, then firm plans and project management for achieving it in a timely manner must be in place.
iv.    Outsourcing possibilities for the SMS implementation should be considered.
v.     It is recommended to implement an SMS as a technically coherent project. This will allow standard links between metadata objects and processes, standard metadata tools for searching, retrieval, exporting and downloading metadata and harmonization of technical administration. Standard operations for administration of diverse metadata can then be developed.
vi.    A crucial task in the implementation phase is to set up a corporate metadata repository. This is the physical implementation of the metadata model defined in the vision. The concept of the corporate metadata repository should be developed, although there could be a number of physical repositories. To develop an appropriate architecture is a demanding task and there is no blueprint for such an exercise. However, good practices exist that may be a useful guide.
vii.   Physical loading of metadata into the corporate metadata repository should be done by metadata owners. This is a resource-consuming task and the impact on subject-matter staff should be recognised. For many, capturing metadata is a tedious extra task that brings them no perceived benefit. A prerequisite of the 'system' therefore, is that as many metadata as possible are captured automatically, as a result of a computer process or as a result of a required business process undertaken by a person. Thorough management and planning of those activities is imperative. Management support and highlighting benefits to users (refer to Section 4) can help motivate them to provide the necessary metadata.
viii.  Regular monitoring of progress in implementation from the view of completeness and cost effectiveness is necessary.
ix.    Tools and processes specified in the vision should be developed and tested by all target user groups. User manuals and documentation should be developed. Testing should be conducted before making the SMS available. Training for all metadata users should be organized.

i.     Prepare, maintain and coordinate detailed plans of metadata use by all users to ensure the required metadata quality within the required deadlines. The coordination of plans developed for individual users is a major goal of the management.
ii.    The units responsible for statistical production should be accountable for the preparation and maintenance of plans related to the activities dealing with the production process. In this case, the SMS management should ensure that all activities dealing with the use of statistical metadata and metadata tools are planned and defined.
iii.   Oversee the availability of metadata and metadata tools and ensure the links between metadata maintenance and use.
iv.    Inform metadata users about all changes to metadata contents.
v.     Arrange for ongoing feedback from users about metadata quality and the availability and efficiency of metadata tools. Feedback mechanisms could be integrated into regular activities of metadata use. Specially organized surveys on user satisfaction are useful, but should be complemented by these ongoing mechanisms.
vi.    SMS management (in close cooperation with the SMS technical administrator) should be aware of the software and technological environment related to the use of metadata and metadata tools. As mentioned previously, metadata and metadata tools should be platform independent. However, it could be useful to maintain information about changes in the users' software environment (e.g. updates to web browsers, etc).
vii.   Statistical websites are an integral part of SMS implementation and the use of metadata.

i.     The major functions to be considered are those relating to the administration of metadata content.
ii.    Planning is an important instrument for managing the maintenance phase. Everyone participating in maintenance processes should approve a detailed plan of maintenance activities, which meets required timelines. Such a plan is an indispensable instrument for management for smooth and coherent monitoring of the phase of metadata maintenance.
iii.   Ensure timeliness and coherence of maintenance activities.
iv.    The concept of registration of metadata objects, ownership of metadata, what is the 'standard' for a particular classification or data item, what are the permitted variations from the 'standard' etc. should be all clearly defined, agreed and used.
v.     SMS management should oversee the definition and maintenance of all metadata stored in corporate metadata repository, although other units in the statistical organization will also contribute to its ongoing enhancement.
vi.    SMS management is responsible for definition of policies, procedures and protocols for the maintenance of the corporate metadata repository. A 'registration authority' manages all metadata entities in corporate metadata repository. The major partners for the SMS management are the "custodians" of metadata. The custodians are, according to the concepts of registration of metadata object specified in the vision, authorized to keep the metadata they are responsible for up-to-date.
vii.   Rules and guidelines should be developed for the maintenance of each metadata entity in the corporate metadata repository, identifying the responsible metadata owner. It is recommended that these rules and guidelines are approved by senior management and become official documents of the statistical organization.
viii.  Preparation of rules and guidelines requires joint work with metadata owners. Methodologists are also important partners in this process.
ix.    Training of metadata owners in the rules and guidelines prepared for maintenance activities will be required.
x.     SMS management should ensure maintenance of metadata history and updating of links between metadata in the corporate metadata repository.
xi.    All maintenance functions performed by metadata administrators and metadata owners should use a coherent/standard set of metadata tools. Such tools should be available especially for the following maintenance functions: search and retrieval, inserting and deleting of metadata objects and related parameters, changes and corrections, presentations and exports, metadata editing and consistency controls, checking and updating of metadata links, maintenance of metadata history.

i.     Specify the major targets of SMS evaluation and prepare a plan of evaluation activities and procedures based on these. It should be clear which functions and aspects of the SMS are to be evaluated.
ii.    Evaluation of user satisfaction should be an ongoing part of the SMS development life cycle. The most important object of evaluation is ultimately the external user of data and metadata produced by the statistical organization. For these users, it may not be appropriate to measure satisfaction with the SMS in isolation, as they are likely to see data and metadata as a single package. Incorporating questions on metadata and the external interfaces of the SMS alongside more general questions on satisfaction with data outputs may be more effective, and increases the potential for additional insights into user needs and satisfaction through cross-tabulation of results for different questions. It should be ensured however, that the satisfaction of other user groups, particularly internal users would also be evaluated.
iii.   Other important aspects for evaluation are cost efficiency, implementation of standards, organization of work, maintenance procedures and technological implementation.
iv.    In principle, there could be three major forms of evaluation: (\i) regular long-term evaluations (e.g. at 3 year intervals) that examine overall effectiveness of SMS functionality; (ii) regular short-term evaluations (e.g. annually) that primarily assess user satisfaction; and (iii) ad hoc evaluations as deemed necessary.
v.     Benchmarks should be established for all defined targets. Benchmarking parameters and evaluation methods should be specified and agreed. For some cases an efficient benchmarking method is to compare experiences and plans with those of a similar organization. International cooperation can be highly efficient in this respect.
vi.    Appoint evaluators for planned evaluation activities. The team of evaluators should include both staff from the statistical organization and metadata users. For evaluation of the project's efficiency and the overall technological solution, it may be useful to hire external evaluators to provide an independent view.
vii.   Document information on the user feedback collected in the phase of the SMS use.
viii.  Organize specific surveys on user satisfaction.
ix.    Report to the senior management of the statistical organization on the evaluation outcomes, including prioritized recommendations. Based on the conclusions made by senior management, organize improvement of and/or further development of the SMS.