EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROSTAT
Directorate B: Quality, methodology and information
systems
Unit B6: Reference databases and metadata
Feasibility Study on the collection and
production of process related
metadata
APRIL 2011
1
1. Overview of the applied Methodology
In this section the applied methodology for feasibility study on process metadata is outlined.
The study was composed of the following stages:

Determination of target population
The target population was identical and was composed of the 33 NSIs that participated
also in the second phase of the assessment analysis. The NSIs that form the target
population are the 27 EU member states, the 3 EFTA countries and 3 countries that are
candidate for EU membership1.

Determination of needs for information
The use of statistical business process models and the availability of process metadata in
relation to the main phases of those processes have been defined as the main subjects of
the analysis.
The integration and the harmonisation of the statistical business processes is mainly
related to the 1) Use of a specific Model/Standard of statistical and 2) The documentation
of the statistical processes. For that reason, these two elements were defined as the main
areas of investigation in the feasibility analysis.

Data Collection
The questionnaire was sent to the 33 concerned NSIs on 16 December 2010 and replies
were asked to be reported by 21 January 2011.

Analysis
Finally, 32 out of 33 NSIs participated to the survey by filling in the questionnaire for
process related metadata and the statistical business process models.
1
Iceland is member of EFTA and constitutes also a candidate country since 2009. In the analysis it is considered as an EU candidate
country. Hence, in the 3rd phase of the assessment analysis the population of candidate countries that are monitored was enlarged.
The set of candidate countries is composed of Croatia, Turkey and Iceland.
2
2. Current Situation
In this section are provided the main outcomes of the analysis both for the Statistical
Business Process Models and also for the metadata that describe those processes. Within
the framework of the feasibility analysis were investigated the following aspects:
1) The role of the Statistical Business Process Models in the statistical business lifecycle
of the NSIs within the ESS
2) Process metadata in terms of current and future availability, content and their relation
to IT applications that concern their production, storage and dissemination. The analysis for
process metadata was conducted in relation to the 9 main phases of the Generic Statistical
Business Process Model (GSBPM).
2.1.
Statistical Business Process Models
The idea behind modelling the statistical process (through the development of statistical
business process models) is not really new, since in the statistical community, relevant efforts
towards this direction are made for more than ten years now. Moreover, the whole process
has reached a certain level of maturity, where the next logical step was the development of a
generic international model, such as the GSBPM.
A generic model can provide answers and solutions to many of the daily challenges that the
statistical offices have to tackle, such as:

Harmonisation of used terminologies;

Common framework for metadata systems development;

Facilitation of quality management procedures;

Software sharing and reuse

Enabling of process-based management, and other.
However, despite the importance and the added value of generic business process models,
as well as the resources invested on their development, it is estimated that the adoption of
such models by the statistical offices is by no means at the same level.
In the rest of this subsection, we will present and comment on the findings of the “2010/2011”
questionnaire survey of the project on monitoring of national metadata systems, which are
related to the issue of statistical business process models.
Use of models/standards in the statistical business lifecycle
The first important finding of the analysis is related to the fact that the European Statistical
Community is by no means homogeneous, as far as the use of statistical business process
models is concerned.
More specifically, 19 out of the 32 NSIs declare that they use a model/standard for modelling
their business process, but only 4 of them have adopted and use the GSBPM (See Table
2.1). Out of the remaining 15 countries which are using other models/standards, this model is
3
related to the GSBPM for 12 of them (See Table 2.2). Another 2 of them are using models not
related to GSBPM and for the last one no information is available.
Finally, about 40% of the NSIs (13/32) do not use any kind of model/standard.
If we focus only on those NSIs that have adopted some kind of a model for business process
modelling (GSBPM or other), then it proves that their maturity level is again much
differentiated among them.
In fact, only 5 out the 19 NSIs currently use their model to a large extent for their processes
and 8 use it to a small extent (See Table 2.3).
The picture is different when considering new/future processes. In this case, 5 out of the 8
NSIs which currently use the model to a small extent have plans to further extend its use
whereas the other 3 don't have particular plans. Finally, all the NSIs that are currently use the
statistical business process model at a large extent plan to preserve this policy also for the
future processes.
Table 2.1: Statistical Business Process Model
Do you have a Model/Standard for describing the statistical business
processes ?
Total
Yes, we have the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM )
4
Yes, we have other than GSBPM
15
No, we do not have a specific Model/Standard
13
Total
32
Table 2.2: Relation of the model to the GSBPM
Is the model related to the GSBPM ?
Yes
12
No
2
NA
1
Total
2
Total2
100
The Total concerns the 15 NSIs which use a model other than GSBPM
4
Table 2.3: Extent of use of the Statistical Business Process Model
Future Process
Use of the
Model to a
large extent
Use of the
Model to a
smaller
extent
We have adopted the
Model but we are not
actually using it for the
moment
NA
5
0
0
0
5
5
3
0
0
8
2
0
2
0
4
NA
1
0
0
1
2
Total
13
3
2
1
19
Current Processes
Use of the Model to a large
extent
Use of the Model to a smaller
extent
We have adopted the Model but
we are not actually using it for
the moment
Total
Obstacles in using a Specific Model/Standard
Another important objective of the questionnaire survey was to pinpoint the reasons, which
inhibit and discourage NSIs from adopting and using any type of generalised business
process models.
The majority of the NSIs that does not have a model (9/13) indicated as the main obstacle for
introducing models/standards the “limited human and/or financial resources” (See Table 2.4).
Concerning the "absence of (corporate) strategy for improving the degree of harmonisation
and standardisation of business process", it was mentioned as a reason for the absence of a
model by 2 NSIs.
Table 2.4: Reasons for not having a model/standard
Reasons for not having a Model/Standard
Total3
Absence of strategy for improving the degree of harmonisation and
standardisation of business processes
2
Limited human and/or financial resources
9
Other
3
3
The Total concerns the 13 NSIs which do not use a model/standard.
One country selected two answers, therefore the sum of the Total column equals to 14.
5
Future plans for the adoption of a Model/Standard
Another important target of the survey questionnaire was to draw the general picture
regarding the future of the statistical business process models and standards in the NSIs. In
order to achieve this goal, the NSIs that do not currently use any kind of model or standard
(13 in totals) were invited to provide information regarding their future plans.
Again, the results were multivariate (See table 2.5): 4 out of the 13 NSIs declared that they
intend to adopt GSBPM in the future, although the implementation has not started yet. The
same number of respondents (i.e. 31%) replied that it is their intention to use some kind of
model/standard, but they have not yet decided which one. Moreover, another 2 NSIs stated
that they are already running a project for incorporating in the organisation a model/standard,
although this is not GSBPM.
None of the NSIs mentioned a progressing project for the adoption of GSBPM.
Finally, one NSI reported that it has no plan for adoption of a model (GSBPM or other) and
one respondent did not provide any answer to this question.
Table 2.5: Future plans for using a model/standard
Existence of plans for the future adoption and implementation of a statistical business
process model
Yes, we plan to adopt GSBPM. The implementation did not start yet
4
Yes, but we do not know yet which model/standard we will adopt
4
Yes , a project for the adoption of a Model/Standard other than GSBPM is in progress
2
No, we do not have any plans
1
Other
1
NA
Total
4
Total4
1
100
13 NSIs that do not use a model/standard
6
Assess the contribution of GSBPM
Another aspect of the questionnaire survey addressed the issue of assessing the contribution
of GSBPM on various aspects of the statistical production. The respondents were asked to
evaluate the importance of the contribution of GSBPM on a selection of 8 main issues:
For the field of the "importance", a four-level scale was used, varying from “very important” to
“not important at all”.
The analysis revealed that NSIs consider that the most important contribution of the GSBPM
is on the issue of “standardisation of statistical processes”, since 23/31 NSIs (74%) selected
the option “Very important” for this one (See Table 2.6). On the other hand, the least
important contributions were found to be on the issues “impact on the organisation structure”
and "Measurement of operational costs" both selected as to be “not important at all” by
5/31NSIs (16%).
As far as each individual issue is concerned, we can also outline that the majority of the NSIs
considered that the GSBPM has a significant contribution (selected answers “very important”
and “important”) in the fields of:

“Development of statistical metadata systems” (10 and 17 respondents respectively),

“Quality assessment of statistical business processes”, (same scores),

“Description of statistical business processes” (18 and 11),

“Increase of understanding of statistical business processes” (17 and 12).
Table 2.6: Contribution of GSBPM
Importance of GSBPM's contribution
Issue to which GSBPM contributes
Very
important
Important
Not all that
important
Not important
at all
Don’t
know
10
17
4
0
0
23
7
1
0
0
10
17
2
2
0
Description of statistical business processes
18
11
1
1
0
Impact on the organisational structure
5
9
12
5
0
17
12
0
2
0
6
12
8
3
2
1
13
10
5
2
Development of statistical metadata
systems
Standardisation of statistical business
processes
Quality assessment of statistical business
processes
Increase of understanding of statistical
business processes
Provision of an input to high-level
corporate work planning
Measurement of operational costs
7
The entities of the NSIs that are involved in each phase of the
GSBPM
As a last step for this part of the analysis, the questionnaire focused on the nine phases of the
statistical business process, as these have been defined by the statistical community and the
way each statistical institute deals with each individual phase (central handling, handling by
production units, other entities or any combination of the three methods).
In total, 30 organisations responded to this question (See Table 2.7).
The results reveal that, in general, Statistical Production Teams are involved implied in most
of the phases of the statistical business processes, either alone or in cooperation with other
partners (mainly with central units/departments). In each phase of the statistical business
process (except Dissemination), the main responsibilities are assigned exclusively to the
Statistical Production Teams in about half of the participating countries. This is merely the
case for phases “5.Process” and “6.Analysis”. The role of the Statistical Production Teams is
also essential in phases “2.Design” and "9.Evaluation" (involvement in 29/30 NSIs and 25/27
NSIs respectively) during which Central Units/Dept are often collaborating.
The most centralized phase is Dissemination. This phase is exclusively under the
responsibility of Central Units/Departments by 37% of the NSIs (11/30). Moreover, the
proportion of the NSIs, in which dissemination processes are executed both by Central
Units/Departments and Statistical Production Teams, is also equal to 37%.
Table 2.7: Entities involved in each phase of the statistical business process
The entities of the NSIs that are involved in the different phases
Central
Unit/Dept.
Central
Statistical
+
Unit/Dept.
Central
Statistical
Production
Statistcial
+
Central
Unit/Dept.
Production
Teams
Production
Statistical
Unit/Dept.
+
Teams
+
Teams
Production
other entity
Other entity
+
Teams
Other entity)
1. Specify needs
3
3
7
14
2
0
Total
Other
NA
0
0
29
2. Design
1
12
1
13
3
0
0
0
30
3. Build
4
8
4
11
1
1
0
1
30
4. Collect
3
4
8
13
1
0
1
0
30
5. Process
2
8
1
17
2
0
0
0
30
6. Analyse
1
5
1
20
3
0
0
0
30
7. Disseminate
4
11
11
2
0
1
1
0
30
8. Archive
1
6
6
11
2
0
2
0
28
9. Evaluate
1
10
0
12
2
0
1
1
27
8
2.2.
Process Metadata
The main objective of the survey for process metadata was to measure the extent to which
the production and provision of process metadata within the ESS are feasible. Hence, within
the framework of the feasibility study the following issues were investigated:

The extent of current and future availability of process metadata in the ESS for each
phase of the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM).

The content of process metadata. The type of information that is currently provided or
is feasible to be produced in the future.

The identification of the phases of the statistical business process for which better
documentation is necessary.

The degree at which the existing IT infrastructure of the NSIs currently supports the
production, storage and dissemination of process metadata within specific phases of
the statistical production lifecycle.
Current availability of process metadata
Process metadata concern the description of the statistical business process. The main
reason for investigating the availability of process metadata for each phase of GSBPM is that
the structure of the model is considered as the proper basis for the compilation of process
metadata.
Regarding the results of the analysis, these indicate very clearly that process metadata are
currently available within each phase of GSBPM but the extent of availability differs among
the 9 phases (See Figure 2.8)
Phase “7.Disseminate” is the one for which process metadata are the most often fully
available in NSIs (61%). Furthermore, in 32% of the NSIs, information is also partially
available for this phase.
The same cumulated share (93%) of NSIs with available or partially available process
metadata can be found for Phases "4.Collect" and "5.Process", but the amount of NSIs where
the information is fully available for these both phases is lower than for the phase
"7.Disseminate" (52% and 42% respectively).
Among all phases, the availability of metadata for phases “8.Archive “and “9.Evaluate” are the
lowest. More concretely, 11/30 (37%) NSIs do not have metadata at all for these both phases.
Concerning the remaining phases ("1.Specify Needs", "2.Design", "3.Build", and "6.
Analyse"), one can remark that in about half of the NSIs, process metadata are partially
available.
9
Figure 2.8: Availability of process metadata in each phase of GSBPM
10
Future availability of process metadata
The feasibility for future provision of process metadata was investigated for the subset of the
NSIs that do not currently provide process metadata for the different phases of GSBPM. The
results of this analysis are provided in Table 3.9.
According to this table, phases "1.Specify needs", "8.Archive" and "9.Evaluate" are those
where the future collection of information seem to be the most feasible.
To a lower extent, information concerning phase "3.Build" could also be partially collected.
In opposite, it appears difficult for NSIs which don't collect any process metadata on phase
"2.Design" to get more information in the future.
Finally, uncertainty exists concerning the possible future collection of metadata related to
phase "6.Analyse" where 2 out of the 4 NSIs replying to this question can't conclude on any
possible improvement.
Table 2.9: Feasibility to collect currently non-provided process metadata
Feasibility to collect currently non available process metadata
Phases of GSBPM
Total
Feasible
Partially feasible
Not feasible
I don't know
1. Specify needs
Total
3
2
3
2
10
2. Design
Total
0
1
3
0
4
3. Build
Total
0
4
1
0
5
4. Collect
Total
0
1
1
0
2
5. Process
Total
0
1
1
0
2
6. Analyse
Total
0
1
1
2
4
7. Disseminate
Total
0
1
1
0
2
8. Archive
Total
3
2
2
0
7
9. Evaluate
Total
3
4
2
1
10
11
Types of process metadata currently available
Apart from the extent of availability, the content of process metadata that are currently
collected by the NSIs within each phase of GSBPM was also investigated. Therefore, NSIs
were asked to indicate to which of the following categories the metadata that they currently
collect do belong.
The proposed categories of process metadata were:
1) Methodological process metadata: Describe the methodological tools and
standards along particular statistical production process
2) Technical process metadata: Describe the workflow, IT tools and staff activities at
each steps of the production cycle.
3) Process quality metadata: Describe the quality of the statistical output and the
underlying statistical production process.
The distribution of the available types of metadata is provided in Table 3.10.
According to the replies, all the possible combinations of the 3 types of process metadata that
are currently available in ESS were mentioned.
The analysis revealed that Methodological process metadata are the most common
types of process metadata that are currently collected in the ESS. They are the
predominant type of metadata collected in most of the phases of the GSBPM. This is
particularly the case for phases "2.Build", "5.Process" and "6.Analyse" where their availability
is often combined with process quality metadata.
This latter type of process metadata is also collected for phases "4.Collect" and "7.
Disseminate" and can merely be found in phase "9.Evaluate" where 8 out of 11 NSIs
mentioned it as a type of available metadata.
In phases "4.Collect" and "8.Archive", the three proposed types of metadata are generally
available to more or less the same extent.
Finally, it should also be noticed that the proposed field "other type" has often been chosen by
NSIs when responding to this question (See footnote of Table 2.8)
12
Table 2.8: Types of process metadata
Total Number of NSIs by type of process metadata for each phase of GSBPM
Phases of GSBPM
1. Specify needs
5
Methodological
+
Technical
+
Process quality
1
Total
Methodological
Process
quality
Methodological
+
Technical
Technical
+
Process
Quality
Technical
Other
Types5
1
9
2
0
0
0
7
20
Methodological
+
Process quality
2. Design
2
6
6
2
2
0
1
6
25
3. Build
2
3
2
0
1
0
5
10
23
4. Collect
3
4
4
3
2
0
2
8
26
5. Process
2
6
4
2
3
1
0
9
27
6. Analyse
2
6
4
2
1
0
0
7
22
7. Disseminate
2
3
4
4
0
1
1
10
25
8. Archive
1
2
2
1
0
0
5
5
16
9. Evaluate
1
2
3
5
0
0
0
0
11
Other refers to very analytical descriptions of process metadata that cannot directly be classified into one or more of the main types (Methodological, Technical, Process Quality)
13
Improvement of documentation of statistical business processes
Another aspect of the questionnaire survey concerned the identification of the phases of the
statistical business processing for which better documentation is considered as necessary.
Table 2.9 indicates that among all NSIs that replied to this question (24 replies in total), more
than half of them consider that better documentation is necessary for all the phases of the
statistical business processing.
Phase "2.Design" is the one for which NSIs would require more documentation (83%)
followed by phase "9.Evaluate" and "6.Analyse" (79% and 75% respectively).
Table 2.9: Need for better documentation
Phases of statistical business process
6
% of Total respondents6
1. Specify needs
71
2. Design
83
3. Build
67
4. Collect
63
5. Process
71
6. Analyse
75
7. Disseminate
54
8. Archive
67
9. Evaluate
79
In Total 24 NSIs provided information for the need of improving the documentation within each phase
14
IT applications in the production, storage and dissemination of
process metadata
In the survey, the use of dedicated IT applications in the production, storage and
dissemination of process related metadata was investigated for the phases 4 to 7 of the
GSBPM.
The results from the 29 replies received are available in Table 2.10.
It shows that dedicated IT applications are mainly used for the production and the storage of
process metadata that are collected within phases "4.Collect" and "5.Process" (between 15
and 19 NSIs for the four cases).
Phase "6.Analyse" is the phase where dedicated IT applications are the least often used, for
production, storage as well as dissemination of process related metadata (less than half of
the NSIs concerned).
Logically, phase "7.Diseminate" is the one where IT applications are especially dedicated for
the dissemination of process related metadata (16/29). However, the use of these IT
applications for the production and storage of the process related metadata within this phase
concerns a similar number of NSIs (15/29).
Table 2.10: The use of dedicated IT applications
Dedicated IT Application(s) for:
Phases of statistical business process
The production of
process related metadata
The storage of
process related metadata
The dissemination of
process related metadata
4. Collect
19
16
9
5. Process
15
17
10
6. Analyse
8
10
6
7. Disseminate
15
15
16
15