Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Managing processes Core business of the NSO Part 1 Strengthening Statistics Produced in Collaboration between World Bank Institute and the Development Data Group (DECDG)

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Two levels of process The ‘super-process’ of NSOs is about making all functions work together in value chains Processes and sub-processes generate specific outputs The most important specific processes are to do with producing statistics

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Organization Institutional issues Managing resources ICT Registers and frames Methodology Integration frameworks Dissemination Data series Design of data collection Questionnaire design Sample design Data collection Data processing Data analysis Data dissemination Structure of processes

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Types of processes In national statistical offices, three types of processes can be distinguished: Management processes, including strategic and operational planning Operational production processes, constituting the core business Supporting processes, supporting the core production processes The operational processes of a NSO can be divided into: Data collection Data processing Data dissemination These steps can relate to either primary data collections or secondary data collections

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Types of data production processes Data collected from outside the own organization: Primary Secondary Primary: Censuses or sample surveys of households Censuses or sample surveys of business units Secondary: Administrative records: total count or sample Data collected from databases within the organization

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Process and Project A project can be decomposed into activities A project is a planned undertaking of some magnitude and duration A project consists of processes A process is a set of activities. Workflow is the mechanism to reliably repeat the same process. Workflow can be part of a project. Most statistical data collection processes can be called projects This presentation highlights a selection of processes and activities

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Statistical projects Most operational processes of an NSO are projects The management of statistical processes is project management The word project originally meant ‘something that comes before anything else happens’ In modern usage, a project includes both planning and execution. Projects can be large or small, but all have a beginning and an end date A project can be broken down into separate activities Breaking down a project into activities is key to project design In some countries only small projects are called ‘project’, in others the term is used for all projects The word project can be used flexibly

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Project planning issues Preliminary questions: who defines objectives, work processes, outcomes and their quality, who monitors, who evaluates? Next steps: Overall design of the project Scope and definitions Scheduling of process steps Costing and budgeting Quality control Planning organisation and human resources Establishing a communications structure Assessing risks Procurement as required

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Project design A pilot run may be envisaged Parallel running may be advisable Defining every step is needed Assigning responsibilities is required Appointing a project leader and possibly a steering group is needed Defining milestones is necessary Setting up a documentation system is recommended

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Survey design in more detail Statistical information is the product of a complex range of operations In most cases such a range of operations may be called a ‘survey’ Every survey consists of five phases: Exploration Operationalization Implementation Processing and analysis Dissemination

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Methods of surveys Several methods of data collection may be considered: Census Sample survey Administrative data Combination of administrative data and sample survey The examples of methods to be described for surveys particularly relate to business surveys Many of the described steps apply to household surveys as well

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Exploratory stage This includes: Exploring user needs Exploring the possibilities and constraints of respondents Translating user needs into concepts and tabulations Considering data availability and reporting burden Considering relationships with other statistics Considering requirements of frameworks, e.g. national accounts

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Coherence Coherence of statistics is a quality asset Aspects of coherence are: Possibility to add up data for different sub-populations Comparability of data on different aspects or themes for a certain area of the economy Comparability of data over time Comparability between structural and short-term statistics Comparability of regional and national data Data must fit in a framework, for example the national Accounts

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Population, units, classifications and variables Difference between ideal population and sample Importance of choice of statistical units Importance of use of classifications Use of appropriate variables and definitions

Copyright 2010, The World Bank Group. All Rights Reserved. Operationalization and implementation The operationalization and implementation stages of survey design include: Designing sampling strategy Designing of the questionnaire Further transformations of the ‘ideal design’ are needed in order to cope with: Imperfections of the sampling frame Possibilities of respondents to provide information