Thomas Burg
Quality at Statistics Austria
Conference on Data Quality for
International Organizations
Helsinki, 6-7 May 2010
© STATISTIK AUSTRIA
www.statistik.at
Outline of Presentation
 Historical development
 Institutional Environment - Framework
 Quality Work
 Outlook – next steps
Historical development of quality issues
at Statistics Austria
1998
First project concerning quality measurement –
SYSQUAST
2000
New statistical legal act
2000
Invention of TQM – Establishing of TQM Board
Starting of projects for all piles of TQM
2001
EFQM-Self assessment
2003
Feed back talks based on standard
documentations
2005
Adoption of Code of Practice
2006
Peer Review
2007-
Ongoing work: Revision policy, .....
2010-
Development of Quality Guidelines
Institutional Environment (I)
Organization of Statistics Austria
4
Institutional Environment (II)
Role of the Statistics Council
Statistics Council
Economic Council
Statistics Austria
Subgroup on Quality
Subgroup on Program of work
Framework (I)
Legal aspects dedicated to quality
Austrian Federal Statistics Act
Article 24:
Special principles applying to the performance of duties
1. the compiling of statistics shall be objective and impartial;
2. statistical methods and procedures shall be applied using internationally
accepted statistical principles and standards and shall be published;
3. statistics shall be subject to permanent control with the aim of improving quality;
4. statistics shall be kept as up-to-date as possible;
5. the burden on data subjects and respondents shall be minimised and they shall
be provided with sufficient information;
6. there shall be compliance with the principles of publication set out in article 30;
7. personal data shall be strictly confidential.
Framework (II)
TQM
Customer/user
orientation
Reducing respondent‘s
burden
Communication policy
Market strategy
Use of registers and administration
data whenever possible
Product policy
Sample survey preferred to census
Marketing policy
Availability of results
Quality control of the
products
Voluntary co-operation preferred to
obligation to provide information
Electronic questionnaires
Relevance
Accuracy
Coherence
Comparability
Staff orientation
Completeness
Timeliness
Staff training
Availability
Tailored questionnaires
Efficiency
Job enrichment, flexibility
Optimizing the processes
Co-operative management
Planning instruments
Team work
Project management
Staff satisfaction
Controlling
New IT instruments
Quality Work
Product Quality (I)
System of Standard Documentations
serving as Quality Reports
1. Summary, important hints
2. General information
3. Statistical Concepts, Methods
4. Producing of Statistics, processing of data,
Quality assurance
5. Publication (accessibility)
6. Quality
Quality Work
Product Quality (II)
Standard Documentations as basis for
Feedback Talks
Once a month a product is selected and
audited by certain experts and the subgroup
on quality of the Statistics Council
Product
Feedback Talks
Possible
improvements
Quality Work
Product Quality (III)
Ongoing work on improving methods –
using good/best practices
 Series of experience exchanges
on several topics
 Active participation in research activities
• ESSnet
• FP7-projects
• Cooperation with university
• Strong focus on administrative data use
• Register Based Census 2011
Quality Work
Product Quality (IV)
Policies for important aspects when
producing statistics
 Guidelines for Confidentiality
 Revision policy – draft version
 Quality guidelines
– planning phase finalized, start of
production
Quality Work
Response Burden (I)
Co-operation with the Austrian
Chamber of Industry and Commerce
use of administrative data and
registers
voluntary surveys, tailored
questionnaires
electronic questionnaire (e-Quest)
Response Burden Barometer
Quality Work
Response Burden (II)
Response Burden Barometer
For every mandatory business survey
the time effort for a subsample is surveyed
Efforts are monitored over time
Broken down to medium of response
(electronic, paper pencil)
Quality work
Customer orientation (I)
User satisfaction Survey every 2 years
Last in fall 2008
System of advisory groups
Dissemination policy:
Release Calendar on the webpage
Scientific Use files
Review process for “Statistische
Nachrichten” (Journal of
Statistics Austria)
Quality work
Customer orientation (II)
Release Calendar
Aim: Informing user on release dates
Mandatory for producers to provide
information about delays
2 Versions:
Information available:
Sorted by date
Release date
Preliminary or final results Sorted by topics
Press announcement
Relevance for SDDS
Quality work
Efficiency
 Optimizing the processes
 Matrix organization
 Electronic data flow
 Planning instruments
 Project management
 Controlling
Outlook - Next steps
o Restructuring the format of Feedback talks
o Finalizing Quality Guidelines
o Measuring quality of different product types
- first step administrative data use
o Next User Satisfaction survey: Fall of this year
Thank you for your attention !
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