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Statistical business process model
There are several business models in use in Destatis and the Verbund. The first is a Destatis business process model prepared by the administration department (fig.1). It highlights supporting and management functions that are not part of the METIS GSBPM-model. While management processes focus on strategic issues, support processes cover the functions needed to maintain operations. The core processes include the management of statistical activities and methodology development.
Figure 1
There is a different model in use in the Verbund that guides the SteP project (fig. 2). It has been approved by the heads of the statistical offices in the Verbund. Unlike the Destatis model, it focuses entirely on the core processes of statistical production.
Figure 2
The two models cover different aspects of the statistical life cycle but neither is comprehensive, leaving out especially design and to a lesser extent dissemination issues. When the focus of metadata management at Destatis shifted towards preparing the Census 2011, there was a need for a more comprehensive model. Since the Census 2011 is a new undertaking, especially the neglect of design issues in both models was felt as a drawback.
For purposes of the Census 2011, the metadata working group for the Census has therefore decided to use an adaptation of the METIS GSBPM-model as a starting point to capture the census metadata (fig. 3). If it is found useful in the Census, this model may be more broadly used. Obviously, the METIS GSBPM-model can be adapted to encompass all the elements that the previous two process models have. This should make it possible to profit from the work that went into these models while elements neglected so far can also be included.
Figure 3
Given that most of the SteP-processes are also covered by the census model, it is possible to draw a comparison between the two models, as presented below (fig. 4). (There is no comparison between the METIS GSBPM-model and our census model presented here since they differ only marginally.)
Figure 4
In the near future a working group of SteP will publish a handbook about the standardization of the statistical production which is entirely based on the GSBPM. In 2011 it is expected that Destatis and the German Verbund will adopt the GSBPM without any changes in the two top levels and use it in several areas.
Metadata used/created at each phase
So far, no process model has yet been used at Destatis to guide the collection of metadata across all statistical activities. Within the census, however, our adapted version of the METIS GSBPM-model will be used in this way (see 2.1). For each sub process we have established a set of metadata objects for documentation. Each documentation object can be structured, semi-structured or unstructured. Variables (as a general concept, including all object types in the Neuchâtel model), statistical units and rules for generating variables are seen as structured documentation objects. Other objects are essentially text documents, to be delivered as .pdf, word or excel files. So far, there are 41 of these textual documentation objects. Some of them result relatively straightforward from their respective processes. This is the case with drafts for new statistical laws (1.4 in the process model, there are individual laws for most statistical activities), business cases for IT-systems (1.4), technical specifications for IT-systems from the client's side (1.5) and technical specifications (plus handbooks) for IT-systems from the developer's side (2.1). In other cases, more general documentation objects were requested, like "description of output" which could be any document detailing the planned products for the census (1.1). Important aspects for the assessment of data quality were covered by documentation objects on sub-processes coding (4.3), data editing (4.4) and imputing missing values (4.5), with one object elaborating on the intended procedure of the respective processes and one consisting of after the factMetadata relevant to other business processes
In general, all metadata collected along the core process chain is also relevant to other business processes, albeit often on a more condensed level. The Destatis process model (featured in 2.1 as the first model) details these other business processes that are not always part of the METIS GSBPM-model.
The processes that need more detailed metadata are "management of statistics (statistical activities)", "methodology development" and (not mentioned) "quality and metadata management". Apart from the core processes, management and support processes also need metadata, although mostly either in a very general form or very detailed according to specific requests. To deal with this issue, the Statistikdatenbank will be made available to more users with the possibility to link to budget and accounting systems or other resource planning software.