GSIM Sprint 1 was hosted by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SORS) in Ljubljana, Slovenia from 20 February to 2 March 2012.

GSIM Sprint 1 as it happened

Genesis of GSIM Sprint 1

The Generic Statistical Information Model (GSIM) is a cornerstone of the strategic vision of the High Level Group for Strategic Developments in Business Architecture in Statistics to industrialise official statistics. It is, however, at a fairly early stage of development.

The Workshop on Strategic Developments in Business Architecture in Statistics (held 31 October - 01 November 2011) concluded that progress on the Generic Statistical Information Model (GSIM) needed to be accelerated.

HLG-BAS met immediately after the Workshop and requested that the Secretariat team prepare proposals for a "sprint" session to accelerate the development of the GSIM".

The GSIM Sprint Proposal was subsequently agreed by HLG-BAS members in December 2011. (It should be noted that several details not yet confirmed in December 2011, such as the venue for Sprint 1, have been confirmed subsequently.)

The term "Sprint" draws from the agile development process and has the following characteristics, including:

• Collaboration of multi-disciplinary experts
• A "time-boxed" period of work (ie to be undertaken within a set period of time), and
• A closely defined and agreed output, that is "potentially shippable" (ie stands in its own right, as a tested and useable output, even if it is recognised further work may be warranted to improve the product)

Objectives of GSIM Sprint 1

The objectives of the Sprint were:

• To design a readily understood high-level view of the GSIM, and reach a shared understanding of its scope, purpose, use and value.
• To build a business case and workplan for the further development of the GSIM based on agreed characteristics.
• To agree an approach to gaining broad stakeholder endorsement of the model.

Development of GSIM prior to Sprint 1

GSIM Sprint 1 reviewed, and built upon, past work on GSIM.

Significant past work has been undertaken by the OCMIMF (Operationalize a Common Metadata/Information Management Framework) collaboration within the Statistical Network

This group produced a set of draft working notes that provide further information on

• the background to GSIM
• other forums and initiatives relevant to GSIM
• a proposed broad structure for GSIM comprising
  • a Common Reference Model (CRM) layer at an equivalent level of detail to GSBPM, but for Statistical Information rather than Statistical Business Processes, and
  • a Semantic Reference Model layer providing an additional level of formailisation and detail related to objects, attributes and relationships required to support consistent operationalization.

In June 2011 the OCMIMF Collaboration released GSIM CRM V0.1 for review. Extensive feedback was received from members of METIS (Steering Group on Statistical Metadata) and a number of other individuals.

A summary report on progress on GSIM up to the end of September was provided to the METIS workshop in October 2011.

Timelines proposed in the summary report will be revised by the GSIM Sprints.

Contributing to GSIM Sprint 1

By their nature, Sprints require a manageable number of participants working intensively. The proposal reviewed by HLG-BAS envisaged around 10 participants. Invitations have been determined by the HLG-BAS Secretariat on that basis. The participants had a mixture of business, information, methodlogy and technology backgrounds.

At the same time, input is sought from the broadest possible range of interested parties prior to, during and after Sprint 1.

• A brainstorming page for GSIM has been established.
• Posters, presentations and other material to be used during the GSIM Sprint will be linked to this page as they become available. Feedback on existing material and suggestions for additional information will be welcomed.
• Progress reports during the Sprint will be posted to this wiki and questions and feedback will be welcomed.
• Following Sprint 1 there will be a comments period of around five weeks on the deliverables and ideas resulting from the Sprint.

Program for GSIM Sprint 1

The program can be seen as having three broad phases

• Days 1 to 3 : Reach an agreed definition of the problem, the requirements and the outputs Sprint 1 will deliver
• Days 4 to 8 : Develop the agreed outputs
• Days 9 to 10 : "Package and present" the outputs to facilitate input from a wider and more diverse audience over subsequent weeks

While a draft program is available, this is expected to be updated extensively prior to the Sprint based on discussions with participants and other stakeholders.