The steps described in the DESIGN phase are those described in the guidelines "Modelling a Statistical Domain for Data Exchange in SDMX".

It is recommended to model everything using SDMX 2.1 artefacts, regardless of the limitation of some specific dataflows which may still use older versions of the standard for data exchange (i.e. SDMX 2.0 or SDMX-EDI) or which are disseminated with other formats (e.g. SDMX-JSON, CSV...). Additionally it could be envisaged to include agreements on integrity rules or if possible validation rules into the package coming out of the design phase.

The design of the supporting artefacts is not described in detail in the modelling guidelines. Depending on the use cases for the project, the following artefacts may be considered:

  • Category scheme(s) for organising the dataflows in categories such as transmission programmes or exchange agreements;
  • Provision agreements for defining who is sending or disseminating specific dataflows;
  • Structure set mappings for example for multi-domain DSD projects to document the link to respective existing single domain DSDs.

The results of the design phase are subject to a content review and a technical review. Thus this phase might be run through several times depending on feedback collected through the issue log. More information on review phases are described under the pilot review topic.

Tool(s)