Quality at Statistics Austria

Conference on Data Quality for International Organizations

Helsinki, 6-7 May 2010 © STATISTIK AUSTRIA

www.statistik.at

Thomas Burg

Outline of Presentation

Historical development

Institutional Environment - Framework

Quality Work

Outlook – next steps

Historical development of quality issues at Statistics Austria

1998 First project concerning quality measurement – SYSQUAST

2000 New statistical legal act

2000 Invention of TQM – Establishing of TQM Board

Starting of projects for all piles of TQM

2001 EFQM-Self assessment

2003 Feed back talks based on standard documentations

2005 Adoption of Code of Practice

2006 Peer Review

2007- Ongoing work: Revision policy, .....

2010- Development of Quality Guidelines

4

Institutional Environment (I)Organization of Statistics Austria

Institutional Environment (II)Role of the Statistics Council

Statistics Council Economic Council

Statistics Austria

Subgroup on Quality

Subgroup on Program of work

Framework (I)Legal aspects dedicated to quality

Austrian Federal Statistics Act

Article 24:

Special principles applying to the performance of duties1. 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.

Framework (II)TQM

Customer/user orientationCommunication policy

Market strategy

Product policy

Marketing policy

Availability of results

Staff orientationStaff training

Job enrichment, flexibility

Co-operative management

Team work

Staff satisfaction

Quality control of the products

Relevance Accuracy

Coherence Comparability

Completeness Timeliness

Availability

Reducing respondent‘s burdenUse 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

EfficiencyOptimizing the processes

Planning instruments

Project management

Controlling

New IT instruments

Quality WorkProduct 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

Quality WorkProduct 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

Product Feedback Talks Possible improvements

Quality WorkProduct 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

Quality WorkProduct Quality (IV)

Policies for important aspects when producing statistics

Guidelines for Confidentiality

Revision policy – draft version

Quality guidelines – planning phase finalized, start of production

Quality WorkResponse 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

Quality WorkResponse Burden (II)

Response Burden Barometer

For every mandatory business survey the time effort for a subsample is surveyed

Efforts are monitored over timeBroken down to medium of response (electronic, paper pencil)

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)

Quality work Customer orientation (II)

Release Calendar

Aim: Informing user on release dates

Mandatory for producers to provide information about delays

Information available:Release datePreliminary or final resultsPress announcement Relevance for SDDS

2 Versions:Sorted by dateSorted by topics

Quality work Efficiency

Optimizing the processes

Matrix organization Electronic data flow

Planning instruments

Project management

Controlling

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

Thank you for your attention !

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