Part A - The Corporate Context
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A.7. Case Studies and Experiences
This section presents case studies on corporate governance of metadata. The studies demonstrate models of corporate governance in different stages of the SMS lifecycle. The Australian contribution, for example, deals with the phases of SMS usage, maintenance and evaluation. The Czech case study shows corporate management in the phases of SMS design and implementation.
7.1 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
What is the situation with corporate governance at the ABS?
The ABS is headed by the Australian Statistician - a statutory office. Administratively, the ABS is included in the Treasury portfolio, along with the Taxation Office. Although the Australian Statistician might occasionally work with the Treasurer (a very senior Minister in the Government), it is more usual for the Statistician to deal with a junior portfolio minister when interaction with the government is needed.
The Statistical Operations of the ABS are divided into two groups: the Economic Statistics Group and the Population Statistics Group. Each group is headed by a Deputy Australian Statistician. The staff responsible for the Technology Services, Methodology, Information Management, and Corporate Services Divisions, report directly to the Australian Statistician (known as First Assistant Statisticians).
ABS corporate governance arrangements ensure transparency in decision making and operation, and accountability to stakeholders by promoting strong leadership, sound management and effective planning and review.
An important element of the ABS governance arrangement is the Australian Statistics Advisory Council, established by the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975 to assist the ABS to fulfil its role. The Council is the key advisory body to the ABS and provides valuable input to the directions and priorities of the ABS work program and reports annually to Parliament. It is comprised of Federal and State government representatives, along with people from industry, academia and welfare constituencies.
An important feature of ABS corporate governance is the role played by senior management committees , which are active in identification of ABS priorities, ensuring appropriate planning and implementation to address those priorities, and effective monitoring of ABS activities. Those committees relevant to data and metadata management are:
- ABS Division Heads Committee which includes the Australian Statistician and involves the heads of Divisions (Economic, Population and Social, Methodology, Information Management, Corporate Services, and Technology Services (the CIO)) ie all the 'direct reports' to the Statistician. This group could be considered as the 'Board' and they usually meet weekly. They review and approve all policies related to data and metadata management, approve specific projects that related to metadata infrastructure, and approve all funding proposals.
- Information Resource Management Committee - the same group as in 1 above, minus the Statistician and including heads of the Technology Services Division branches, namely as Technology Applications (development), Technology Infrastructure (all hardware, software, communications services) and Technology Research (future tools and techniques). This committee focuses on the technology directions and proposals for the ABS, including data and metadata management. This group approved the detailed metadata management strategy, principles, etc.
- Standing Committees . The two major subject matter groups in ABS - Economic Statistics, and Population and Social Statistics - have standing committees to review, discuss and approve subject matter projects, including the development of metadata content and the standardisation of metadata. These committees provide the strong articulation of the business drivers for data and metadata management work. They comprise the senior executives of each subject matter group, along with the senior executives of support divisions eg technology and methodology.
In addition to the senior management committees, there are a number of other important parts of the governance arrangements. They are:
- Project Boards . Each major project in the ABS, whether a new infrastructure development eg our Input Data Warehouse, or a new survey, has suitable governance arrangement that would probably involve a Project Board. A Project Board is chaired by the owner of the project, ie the person who is ultimately responsible for achieving the outcomes and objectives of the project. They are assisted by senior people from relevant areas that are able to help the project deal with the tasks, issues and risks that arise. In terms of metadata, one of the roles of the Board is to ensure that corporate policies are followed and that the project solution follows metadata management principles.
- Architecture Panels . An architecture panel is usually convened for each project that has a significant IT component, with the view to determining the best technical solution for the project taking into account available development toolsets and the impact on the IT infrastructure eg storage capacity required, server and network load. One function of the architecture panel is to ensure that the solution proposed, in terms of metadata, makes appropriate use of corporate metadata facilities, and if any new metadata facility has to be developed that its potential use for other projects is assessed. Often, the Director of Data Management Section attends architecture panels to make this assessment.
- Line Management . Responsibility for data and metadata management has been made very clear at the ABS. Corporate units, like the Data Management Section, are responsible for developing policy and practices, as well as specifying, developing and maintaining the corporate data and metadata management systems infrastructure, and providing training and client support in data and metadata management. Subject matter areas are clearly responsible for the statistical data and metadata content - they 'own' the data and metadata and are responsible for the adequate documentation, confidentiality and quality of that data and metadata. Each of our major statistical groups - economic and population/social - has a Standards area which is responsible for defining and maintaining standard classifications and data element definitions. Often they play a role in ensuring compliance with those standards by being part of the approval workflow, for example when collection forms need to be approved before use.
A.7.2. Case Study - Statistical Office of the Czech Republic (CZSO)
Redesign of existing statistical information system (SIS) is currently the most important task for the CZSO. The aim of this exercise is to increase quality, timeliness and cost efficiency of statistical services. The statistical metainformation system (SMS) plays a key role in this process. Design and implementation of the SMS is under way.
This section presents a model of corporate management for the SMS design and implementation. It demonstrates the integration of this model in the framework of CZSO corporate governance.
The line management and responsibility for data and metadata in the phase of usage, maintenance and further development of SMS will be proposed and established in the framework of the SMS design and implementation. This proposal should comply with the business process of the CZSO.
Corporate governance of the Czech Statistical Office.
The CZSO is a central authority for all statistical activities in the Czech Republic. Administratively, the CZSO is an independent governmental body, which cooperates with other ministries. The CZSO is headed by the President ( chief statistician).
The statistical operations are organized in two sectors: Economic Statistics and Social Statistics. Each sector is headed by a Vice-President. The sectors consist of branches headed by the Director. The branches are composed of departments headed by Directors. The IT branch is included in the social statistics sector.
The administration, human resources and other issues dealing with corporate functioning of the CZSO are supervised directly by the President.
An important part of the CZSO governance arrangement is the Czech Statistical Council established by the Act of the State Statistical Service 1995 to assist the CZSO in fulfilling its role. The Council is an important advisory body to the CZSO. It provides valuable contributions to the directions and priorities of the CZSO program of work and to the conceptual issues dealing with the development of the state statistical service. The members of the Council are highly qualified experts from the research, academic and statistical fields.
Senior management bodies occupy an important place in the CZSO corporate governance model They play a crucial role in considering and making decisions on the work priorities, planning and implementation of statistical tasks. The bodies relevant to data and metadata management are:
- The Top Management Committee (TMC), which involves the Vice-Presidents and the Directors of the Methodology Branch, Administration Branch, Regional Authorities Branch and the Office of the President. The TMC meets weekly. It considers and approves all policies related to the data and metadata management, approves SMS architecture and all related projects. It considers and approves funding proposals related to the SMS. It oversees progress achieved in the SMS development and ensures a corporate cooperation on the SMS business case across the CZSO.
- The President's Board. In addition to the members of the TMC, the Directors of Departments on Macroeconomic Analyses, Analytical Methods, Methodology, Internal Cooperation and IT are the members of the Board. Furthermore, the research, academia and other experts may be invited to the Board meetings. The meetings are convened usually every three months. It considers and approves the key conceptual documents related to the SIS and SMS.
Corporate management of SMS project. Linking the senior management bodies and their role in the SMS management, the following management model has been established for the development and implementation of SMS (see Figure 8):
- The SMS Steering Committee (SC). It is composed of the Directors of the Methodology Branch, National Accounts Branch, Social statistics Branch, Production Statistics Branch, International Trade and Prices Branch, Analysis and Dissemination Branch, IT Branch and the chair of the SMS Task Force. The Vice-President of the CZSO chairs the SC. The SC meets regularly in the three-month interval. It controls the progress achieved in the SMS development, considers emerging problems, and recommends decisions to be taken. Furthermore, it approves composition of the project teams and the timetable for further work. The report from the SC meeting is submitted to the TMC for approval and decision-making.
- The SMS Task Force (TF) is composed of the Heads of the project teams and selected representatives of middle management. It is chaired by the Head of the SMS Unit. The TF monitors and coordinates the work of individual project teams. It considers and approves all key project documents prepared by the project teams. All approved documents are available on the intranet. The TF prepares a progress report to be considered at the SC. The progress report contains the evaluation of the previous three-month period of the work, indicates problems and proposes decisions.
- The Project Teams (PTs) established for the individual SMS subprojects. The PTs are composed of subject-matter statisticians, methodologists and IT experts. They prepare basic project documents (subject-matter and technical specifications) for the development and implementation of individual SMS subprojects. Those documents are submitted to the TF for consideration and approval. Each PT coordinates and organizes the work within the subproject. It also coordinates cooperation with subject matter departments and organizes workshops, seminars and training for statisticians and other staff of the CZSO.
Figure 8 Case Study of the Czech Republic - Management of the SMS Project
Major findings. The experience in the corporate management of the SMS development and implementation allows to make the following findings and recommendations:
- Permanent supervision of the SMS by the top management is necessary for the success of the project.
- Regular follow-up of the SMS development and reporting on the results of the SMS subprojects are an important part of the project management.
- Systematic cooperation with statistical subject-matter experts and methodologists is vital.
- Focus on the subject-matter topics and use of SMS tools in the statistical practice is advisable.
- Importance of training and transfer of SMS know-how. In this, the SMS methodology and organization of the work must be addressed. Users benefits should be clearly presented.
- Sharing information and knowledge between the PTs (via the intranet) and broad availability of information on SMS development to all statistical staff has brought positive results.
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A.1. Introduction
A.2. Target audiences
A.3. Corporate Value Proposition for Metadata Management
A.4. Metadata management strategies and policy framework
A.5. Core principles for metadata management
A.6. Corporate Governance Models for Metadata Management
A.7. Case Studies and Experiences
Glossary of terms and abbreviations
References