1. Saving Time And Money: Web Questionnaires from the "Assembly Line"
Moving
Saving Time And Money: Web Questionnaires from the "Assembly Line"
i n f o r m a t i o n
Wolfgang Koller
May 2004
© STATISTIK AUSTRIA
May 2004

2. Austria‘s leading information service provider
900 employees
60 Mio. € budget
total quality mgmt
data protection
objective
impartial
300 surveys
420 publications
300 billion data cells in ISIS (data warehouse)
May 2004

3. Federal Statistics Act 2000 . . .
Reduction of the respondents‘ burden
Data security must be ensured
No costs for the respondents
Broad access has to be enabled
Mandate to provide electronic data reporting options
„...the institute is obligated to ensure broad use of this facility.“
May 2004

4. Software development and maintenance . . .
. . . is expensive
. . . takes up more time than the traditional production process for paper questionnaires
May 2004

5. One technology alone will not suffice . . .
and/or
and/or
and/or
Nnnn
#####
+++
May 2004

6. The Concept
“Expensive software experts should only be used where they are really necessary”
SVY 1
SVY 2
to the XML production line
From hand-crafted questionnaires . . .
May 2004

7. Phases of data collection
Further processing
Survey preparation, -definition
e.g.
Survey, Version
Periodicity,
Observation unit types
Questionnaire:
content,
representation,
layout,
control flow,
validation
ST.AT
Incoming inspection
Resp. specific information
Resp.-structure
Initialisation data
The solution which we then implemented – we called it „e‑Quest” is based on the windows 32 bit platform because it had swiftly become clear that the integrated support for specific economic surveys demanded by the business sector could not be fulfilled as desired by a Web solution.
What is e‑Quest?
Hitherto we have only been speaking of „questionnaires“. In fact e-Quest implies a complete infrastructure which encompasses all phases of data collection.
Lets start with the Survey Preparation 
The preparation of a survey begins with the definition of metadata which describe – among other objects – the collector of statistical information (CSI), the survey and its version, the types of observation units, the possible hierarchical rela­tionships between them and the questionnaire types associated with them. Further­more, the questionnaire forms are designed. All this is done by statisticians with the e‑Quest Metadata Manager software. Finally, these „structural metadata”, as they are called, are exported as an XML file, compressed, encrypted and distributed to the respondents.
Metadata
Now lets have a closer look to the metadata
A questionnaire definition in e‑Quest consists of five parts: the logical structure and the properties of the questions, their representation by GUI[1] elements, layout, event-driven flow of control and intra- and inter-questionnaire validation.
Respondent specific metadata describe the Respondents (for example, name and address of the observation unit which will automatically be imported into actual questionnaire forms) must be prepared in XML Syntax too
This happens outside of the e-Quest system (e.g. at Statistics Austria the respondents of business surveys and their observation units are managed in the business register database on the mainframe computer).
Capturing Raw Data
The core component of the system, is the e‑Quest Questionnaire Manager, it must be installed on the respondent’s PC, either in stand-alone or in client/server mode. Apart from software updates, a one-time installation is sufficient, even if the respondent is obliged to report for several surveys. By the command „Load Survey” the meta-data are loaded into the system. The application then manages all aspects of questionnaire initialisation and presentation, data management and validation, response data encryption and transmission to the CSI.
A wide range of functions are provided, such as immediate or delayed input checks, visibility and activation management (the user only sees those questions that must be filled in) and an event-driven flow of control depending on user interactions with the questionnaires (e.g., implementing the auto­matic calculation of row and column sums in a table). Questionnaire data can be checked for plausibility against standard or freely defined conditions. An extensive help system comprising several levels of information supports the user when he/she answers the questions.
An export/import interface to and from a simply structured XML format is also offered.
Receiving Response Data
The “Receive” subsystem on the CSI side consists of programs to listen for incoming response packages containing the data from one or more questionnaires in a standardized XML format, to backup, decrypt, register, check and forward them to the responsible organizational unit and for their administration. For viewing and correcting the data if necessary, statistical experts use the e‑Quest Questionnaire Manager in an advanced mode
Complete questionnaire
Respondent
May 2004

8. Survey using e‑Quest/Web
[mainframe]
ST.AT
follow-up processing systems
e-Quest Metadata Manager
Respondent-
specific
(meta)data
(XML)
e-Quest
Receive Subsystem
Browser
optional
structural
metadata
(XML)
RDBMS
Metadata
e-Quest / Web
Data
Intranet
Generator
(WSA)
SQL
Respondent
Browser
Presentation
Business Logic
SOAP
HTML, JSP JavaScript, Java Web-Services
Internet
Web- and J2EE-Servers
May 2004

9. Creating a questionnaire with the Metadata ManagerB D C
May 2004

10. Well thats all from theory, yesterday we succeeded with the first prototyp and i would like to show you some screenshots from our very first result.
Here is the welcome screen where the user logs in with userid and password or as guest
May 2004

11. If the authentication was successful the User gets a list of respondents which he is authorized to report for
Here is a hint that a questionnaire is overdue to report
May 2004

12. Here is the selection screen for questionnaires and this is the Questionnaire which is overdue
May 2004

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18. Project implementation with the Web Services Accelerator . . .
WSA
Model Driven Architecture
May 2004

19. . . . Standardisation . . . General Components Questionnaire
Login procedure
Security
Control flow
Classifications
Application flow
Pattern for:
Authentication
Select questionnaire
Presentation
Fill in
plausibility
Send data
Layout
Content
Behaviour
Technical objects
. . .
Interfaces
Existing standards
May 2004

20. Architecture and Security
e-Quest/Web DB
IBM z/OS
Linux (1)
Security Domain
Presentation
Layer
SSL
DB2-Connect
WebSphere
Business Logic
LDAP
Repository
Webservices (SOAP)
IBM z-Series
Respondent
Linux (2)
Firewall
Authentication
May 2004

21. Wir bewegen I n f o r m a t i o n e n
Moving
i n f o r m a t i o n
May 2004