Improvements to the governance and dissemination process of
StatLine, at Statistics Netherlands
Drs. Ran van den Boom
Statistics Netherlands
May 13-15, 2008
Starting-points, principles
1. All figures from Statistics Netherlands (SN) should be published on StatLine, the one-and-only database with all SN tables
Special requirements for organisation and IT
2. SN aims at everyone in The Netherlands and more
The level of visitors varies significantly We also aim at non-visitors
Starting-points, principles
3. Budget reductions and tackling administrative burdens (red tape) makes Public Relations (PR) for SN important
One of the means for PR is StatLine, the database of all statistics of SN
4. Earlier improvements (StatLine 4) did not succeed
Complexity was too large: new process, migration of meta and data, new database format, new software for complete process, coordination of terms at a high level in 1 project
Amongst the solutions
1. StatLine CoOP– Improve quality and efficiency– Improve accessibility– Make sure software is working up to 2012– Lessons learned from StatLine 4
2. PR through Statistics– Other visualisations– Dedicated websites
Improve quality, efficiency and accessibility
StatLine CoOP programme– Achieving Coordination level 1
Improve comprehensibility and uniformity of the statistics: quality
– Improving the Output (dissemination) processRedesign governance of the communication and the
dissemination process along with the tools: efficiency
– Improving the Presentation of statisticsRevise layer around the StatLine database (StatWeb
5) to make it more user-friendly: accessibility
CoOP stands for CooperationWithout it, we would not be successful
Achieving Coordination level 1 Problems
Problems for understanding table explanations– Abbreviations– Officialise, difficult, solemn and old-fashioned
words– Technical words– Statistical terms
Quality attention and procedures were focused on paper articles, webarticles; not on StatLine tables
Dissemination department served as Quality Police
Quality
Coordination levelsBackground: Model for levels of coordination
Level Meaning
1 All figures have a clear and correct label and explanation
2 Equal terms = equal definitions and vice versa
3 Relations between terms are defined
4 Standardisation of terms, preference for these terms
5 Standardisation of terms in tables, embargo on other terms
6 Consistent data between different tables
7 Combined tables
Quality
Achieving coordination level 1Project approach
– Facilitated by• Guidelines (level of audience = newsviewers)• Tools• Communication, newsletters each month, open
meetings• Overviews of parts of metadata such as titles• Strong cooperation with the seven statistical
departments, dissemination department, project team; bottom-up approach
• Awarding best effort with a pie each week– To reach level 1 was (and is) difficult: a lot of
stakeholders, communication, discussions
Quality
Achieving coordination level 1Project results
– 900 tables for which text was reviewed, improved and placed in 6 months time
– Better explanations– Hardly any abbreviations– More awareness for quality– New, supported, guidelines– Reference texts– Previewing a table before publication– Overview of meta in StatLine available
Quality
Achieving coordination level 1Goals not met
– Explanations sometimes too large– Guidelines not completely applied– Some inconsistencies still remain– Some statistical departments still busy as a
result of other priorities and being understaffed– Tools less successful
Challenge:
How to keep the focus and attention for quality? And how to improve quality?
Quality
Improving the Output (dissemination) process
Reasons to improve the process• Data was stored in > 10 places
• Inconsistencies appeared
• Administration cumbersome
• Uploading data to the website sometimes took too long
• Problems maintaining the software in the near future
Efficiency
Organisation of dissemination at SN
Efficiency
General Director
Communication
3 Divisions
7 Statisticaldepartmentsdealing withdissemination
Otherdepartments
Disseminationdepartment
StatLineWebsiteYearbookStatistical outputInt. courses
PRMagazineExt. courses
Improving the process; approach
1. Quick-wins without adapting the process• Preview of the adapted or new table
• Easier administration
• Copying deltas to Internet instead of all data
2. Long term improvements• New governance model
• New process, less steps
• New roles, quality checks at the beginning
• New and adapted tooling, only one administration and a minimum number of table storage locations
Efficiency
The new process
Design and build meta
Announce table and meta (PR & administration)
Build the table and store
Preview
Check, report ready
Check against guidelines
Final preview and check by head of department, report ready, publish automatically
Efficiency
DisseminationDepartment
StatisticalDepartments
End responsibility for quality
Challenges in implementing new governance model
People, responsibilities, roles– How to help them change?
Process, procedures– How to make it acceptable for all?
Organisation– How to change management?
Facilitating, templates, tools– How to organise without much budget, resources,
time?
We’re still busy, using lessons learned, Agile techniques, colour theory (De Caluwé), Prince2, and communication
Efficiency
Improving the Presentation of statistics
StatWeb 5 improvements– Part of the overall website– Icons, colours and layout have a modern looking
web application– Improves navigation and adds more explanations for
inexperienced users– Replaced the Java applet with a more commonly
available JavaScript/HTML solution– Performance and scalability– And more…
Accessibility
StatWeb 5 Entrance
Accessibility
StatWeb 5 ExampleClear what icons doExplanation
Change the selection
Accessibility
PR through Statistics
1. Several “special” dedicated websites:– Youth monitor (Jeugdmonitor – Dutch only)– CBS in your neighbourhood (CBS in uw buurt –
Dutch only)– Under development: CBS for companies and
organisations– Under investigation: StatLine maps
2. Visualisations, such as Business Cycle clock
3. Google maps
4. Google earth (English and Dutch)
5. Under investigation: banners (using webservices)
Youth monitor
Currently StatWeb 3 underneath
Plans to migrate to webservices and StatWeb 5
CBS in your neighbourhood
Uses Google Maps
Google Earth
StatLine
Coverage versus levelA rough indication;
Gaps to bridge? By us?
Press messages
Coverage of all details of all statistics
Level ofaudience,ease ofunderstanding
Googlemaps
Googleearth
BannersLinks
SN Website
Dedicated sites
Mic
roda
ta
Lessons learned: Things to do
Involvement of the management
Involvement of the end-user
Experienced team leaders
Focus on most important goal
Communication is two-ways
Bottom-up approach
Pro-active on risks
Guidelines, tools ready at the beginning
Improving quality and efficiency requiresmore than just guidelines
Thank you
Discussion, questions
– Does this process and organisation fit?– Would a “Quality Police” still be required?– How to keep attention on quality?– How to increase quality?– Would the results of Achieving level 1 have
been better if:– Each table was reviewed after it was improved? – The statistical departments could have been
“ordered” to spend more time on quality? At what costs?
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