Case study: Italian National Institute of Statistics - Istat

The Istat Unified Metadata System (Sistema Unitario di Metadati, SUM) is based on the following key concepts and objectives: data retrieval and usability (by associating proper meaning to data as well as, methodological and quality information); metadata reuse (in order to harmonise concepts and reduce documentation burden); traceability (with the objective of statistical process transparency and process automation); integration (with the aim of making the different sectors within a statistical institute speak with one voice and support standardisation).
The SUM system jointly manages the three following metadata categories:

• Metadata related to data structure and content include all that is necessary to give a definition and a meaning to statistical data, roughly corresponding to structural metadata;
• Process-related metadata describe the statistical business process in terms of methods (e.g. sampling, collection methods, editing processes) and quality (e.g. timeliness, accuracy), largely corresponding to reference metadata;
• Business-related metadata are useful for the management of an NSI, in planning, executing and assessing both statistical and support activities. These metadata allow stakeholders to connect data and processes with NSI’s strategic objectives (e.g. long-term goals) and with the different management plans of each Institute (e.g. methodological investments); to assign responsibilities and resources to the objectives; to plan schedules and timetables of different actions; to evaluate the achievement of objectives and to assess performance and efficiency.
  At present SUM is composed of two main subsystems:
• SIDI-SIQual which manages process-related metadata and quality indicators and is described in GSBPM case-study
• SUM-MS which manages structural metadata and is described in GSIM case-study