Dia 1

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CORE Bringing the GSBPM to life! J. Linnerud
J.-P. Kent
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Main points

1. An ideal development process for a statistical
   system
2. Why this ideal usually is not met
3. How CORE aims at supporting this ideal
   development process

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Statistics How?

• Specify a statistic
• Design a process that will produce this statistic
• Build a system that will execute this process

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What is the product?

• Define a statistic
• What does it say?
• Measures, dimensions, explanations
• What does it look like?
• Tables, Press release, Analytic paper
• What is the input?
• Population, variables, data sources
• What is the relation between input and output?
• Methods to apply

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Statistics How?

• Specify a statistic
• Design a process that will produce this statistic
• Build a system that will execute this process

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How to produce the statistic

• Model the data
• Input, output, intermediary results
• Specify process steps to apply the chosen
  statistical methods
• Integrate these steps in a process flow

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Statistics How?

• Specify a statistic
• Design a process that will produce this statistic
• Build a system that will execute this process

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Let the machine do it

• Implement the data models
• Implement the process steps
• Implement the process flow

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Why is this approach good? (1)

• Variability vs. stability
• Statistical products are specific
• There is a great variety of products
• A given product will vary in time
• Statistical processes are generic
• The same method can be applied to many products
• Process steps implementing methods can be reused
• A significant change in the product can be
  implemented with some simple changes in some
  process steps

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Why is this approach good? (2)

• It allows a clean specification of the product
• In terms of what it is
• In terms of what is used
• In terms of what the relation is between input
  and output

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Why is this approach good? (3)

• It separates product design from IT
• The product is defined in terms of what it is
  (and not how it is produced)
• The process is defined in terms of what it does
  (and not how it is implemented)
• Only the system is defined in technical terms

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Why is this approach good? (4)

• It supports optimalisation of process development
• Possibility of developing standardised, re-usable
  process steps
• Generic process steps are not defined for an
  actual statistic, but for use in different
  statistics

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Main points

1. An ideal development process for a statistical
   system
2. Why this ideal usually is not met
3. How CORE aims at supporting this ideal
   development process

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The usual approach

• Statisticians present a project in which product
  and process are combined
• IT people specify and build a system that creates
  the product by performing the process

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Why is the usual approach inefficient?

• Complexity
• Process product are tightly coupled
• Rigidity
• Maintenance is labour-intensive
• Specificity
• It is not easy to devise a generic solution when
  developing for a specific product

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Main points

1. An ideal development process for a statistical
   system
2. Why this ideal usually is not met
3. How CORE aims at supporting this ideal
   development process

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Promoting the better approach

1. The CORA and CORE projects (Jenny)
2. Bringing the results into practice (Jean-Pierre)

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CORA ESSnet

• COmmon Reference Architecture (CORA)
• Financed by Eurostat under 2009 Statistical
  Workprogramme
• Countries involved it (coordinator), ch, dk, lv,
  nl, no, se
• Duration October 2009 - October 2010

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CORA deliverables

• Questionnaire
• Set of Requirements
• State of the Art
• Definition of the Layered Model
• Technical Annex
• Instruction Manual
• Commercial and Legal Foundations for the Exchange
  of Software between Statistical Offices
• Requirements Checklist for CORA Tools
• Recommendations for CORA Tools

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After CORA CORE!

• COmmon Reference Environment (CORE)
• Financed by Eurostat under 2010 Statistical
  Workprogramme
• Countries involved it (coordinator), fr, nl, no,
  pt, se
• Duration December 2010 - January 2012

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CORE Workpackages

• Design of the information model according to
  GSBPM and alignment with NSI's information models
• Generic interface design for interconnecting
  GSBPM sub-processes
• Research workflow solutions for process
  management
• Implementation library for generic interface and
  production chain for .NET
• Implementation library for generic interface and
  production chain for Java

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Practical usage of CORA / CORE

• Modeling a process in terms of services (CORA)
• Classifying services (CORA)
• Making services platform-independent (CORE)

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An example process

• A transport statistic
• Input
• Loading reports
• Unloading reports
• Date, time, place, type quantity goods, type
  vehicle
• Output
• Monthly transport data
• Same data also used for time series

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Modeling approach

• Use the CORA space grid

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Macrodata
Microdata
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Modeling approach

• Use the CORA space grid
• Display statistical services in the appropriate
  cells

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Modeling approach

• Use the CORA space grid
• Display statistical services in the appropriate
  cells
• Join services with arrows to show the
  dependencies

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A traditional service
Script (X)
Model (X)
Model (X)
Tool X
Input (X)
Output (X)
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A CORA service
Script (CORA)
Input (CORA)
Output (CORA)
Model (CORA)
Model (CORA)
Logging
CV
CV
CV
CV
CV
Script (X)
Model (X)
Model (X)
Tool X
Input (X)
Output (X)
CV Convertor