United Nations Economic Commission for EuropeStatistical DivisionUnited Nations Economic Commission for EuropeStatistical Division

CSPA: The Future of Statistical Production

Steven ValeUNECE

steven.vale@unece.org

CSPA

GSBPM

GAMSO

What is the CSPA?

• A template architecture for official statistics

• A set of standard specifications for new statistical components(services) that can beused in a modular way

• A new way of developing statistical tools, with sharability as a design feature, not an afterthought

Problem statement:Specialised business processes, methods and IT systems for each survey / output

Applying Enterprise Architecture

Disseminate

... but if each statistical organisation works by themselves ...

... we get this ...

.. which makes it hard toshare and reuse!

… but if statistical organisations work together to define a common

statistical production architecture ...

... sharing is easier!

CSPA development

Architecture Proof of Concept

The first proof of concept

5 countries built CSPA services

3 countries implemented them

Proof of concept outcomes

The CSPA approach worksIt promises increased:

• sharing• interoperability• collaboration opportunities

United Kingdom

5 Build teams

42 individuals

2 Sprints

3 Assemble teams

1 Working Group

FAO

Implementing the CSPA

Services built in 2014

1. Seasonal adjustment – France,Australia, New Zealand

2. Confidentiality on the fly – Canada, Australia3. SVG generator – OECD4. SDMX transform – OECD5. Sample selection – Netherlands6. Linear error localisation – Netherlands7. Linear rule checking – Netherlands8. Error correction – Italy

New Services in 2015

Classification retrieval service

Probabilistic record linkage service

Testing

Confidentialised analysis of microdata service

Web dissemination service

Candidate services for 2016

Service name Designer / BuilderStructured Validation Service Eurostat

Transformation Service Eurostat

Content Validation Eurostat

Time Series ESSnet

Questionnaire Generation ESSnet

Metadata Dissemination ESSnet

50 task team members

7 task teams

CSPA 2015 project

Some features ofCSPA v1.5 

Technology Architecture

Business Architecture

Information Architecture

Application Architecture

Levels of architecture

"covers all the activities undertaken by a statistical organization, including those undertaken to conceptualize, design, build and maintain information and application assets used in the production of statistical outputs.  Business Architecture drives the Information, Application and Technology architectures for a statistical organization." 

Business architecture

= What an organisation does

“classifies the information and knowledge assets gathered, produced and used within the Business Architecture. It also describes the information standards and frameworks that underpin the statistical information. IA facilitates discoverability and accessibility, leading to greater reuse and sharing.”

Information architecture

= How we manage our information

“Application architecture is a description of the major logical grouping of capabilities that manage the data objects necessary to process the data and support the business - it details the structure of components, their inter-relationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design and evolution over time.”

Application architecture

= How we do things

"describes the IT infrastructure required to support the deployment of business services, data services and applications services, including hardware, middleware, networks, platforms, etc."

Technology architecture

= The technology we need

Precision vs cost

Roles in CSPA

CSPA Governance

• Owner = HLG-MOS

• Maintenance agency = CSPA Implementation Group (representatives of national / international statistical organisations)

• Governance processes for:• CSPA itself – updates and supporting material

• Candidate services – quality and fit for purpose

Templates

• Standard templates agreed for:• Service Definition – conceptual level overview of

what the service is and what it does – understandable by users

• Service Specification – logical level description of service capabilities, inputs and outputs

• Service Implementation Description – physical level description of how to implement the service

Knowledge Base

Investment Catalogue

Capability Catalogue

CSPA Service Catalogue

Built in 2015Focus on future

sharing opportunities

Built in 2015Focus on existing

sharing opportunities

Technical Repository

Built in 2013-15On UNECE wiki

platform

Several options

e.g. GitHub

Investment Catalogue

• We need to share investment plans where we are willing to collaborate

Strategic Investment Planning

•Sharing plans between organisations•Finding partners with similar priorities•Trialing an Investment Comparison Tool

Investment Catalogue

“The survey will be repeated on a larger scale in 2016 to identifyemerging priorities and common areas of interest” – CES 2016 Report

Investment Catalogue

What we are investing in? – Results from 2015

CSPA Service Catalogue

• Hosted by

• Wiki-based for now• New version with easier access and better

structure in preparation

• https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/cspacatalogue/index.php/Main_Page

A gradual transition to CSPA

Phase 0: Before transition

Phase 1: Establish new componentsin local environment

Interface

Platform for Service Communication

Establishing an integration

layer

Construct NEW

systems using the

new architecture

Phase 2: Re-engineer old systems

Interface

Platform for Service Communication

Connect old systems to the

integration layer

Phase 3: Progressivelyreplace old systems

Interface

Platform for Service Communication

Replace old systems with new services as reengineering occurs

Connect more old systems to the

integration layerOld system, and

connections are removed or reworked

Alternative: Use CSPA services without changing architecture

CSPA Service

Are we ready for CSPA?

Are our organisations sufficiently mature?• Maturity has several dimensions

(Just like capabilities!)• How can we measure maturity?

The answer: We are working on a Modernisation Maturity Model

MMM for CSPA

Draft prepared• Standard levels and dimensions

Currently being tested Final version – end of year

Initial Pre-implementation

Early implementation

Corporate implementation

Mature implementation

Business Methods Information Applications Technology

CSPA: Just for Services?

Can we apply CSPA principles to other capability dimensions?• Methods – e.g. Algorithmia• People – e.g. generic skills profiles• …..

To be confirmed!

We all have to modernise our statistical production systems

The marginal cost of doing this in a way that supports collaboration and complies with CSPA is relatively low, but the potential savings from such a standard approach are high

Key Message

the Future of Statistical ProductionCSPA