Statistical Metadata Driven eForms

Oleg VolguineAssistant Director

Technology Services DivisionAustralian Bureau of Statistics

Background

• ABS 2017 strategic transformation program – modernise statistical infrastructure, using international standards and new technologies to be more responsive and efficient.

• In 2012, ABS made the strategic decision to transition its web surveys to the Blaise Internet eForm collection platform

(using Statistics Netherlands Blaise product)

• Currently Blaise Internet instruments are manually developed by programmers based on eForm specifications produced by business teams. This is a time-consuming and resource intensive process

Project • Investigate the feasibility of developing a system which uses a DDI

3.1 instrument specification to generate a functional production grade eForm on the Blaise Internet collection platform.

Key Outputs• Land Management Practices Survey (LaMPS) eForm generated

from DDI

• Instrument Authoring Tool

• DDI to Blaise eForm Transformation Service

Solution Overview

Designer uses Instrument Authoring Tool to create the instrument specification using a graphical interface (GUI is in business terms, complex DDI is hidden away)

Solution Overview

Instrument Authoring Tool registers and stores metadata in the MRR

Solution Overview Designer is able to generate and Preview eForm with a click of a button

Solution OverviewWhen specification is complete, designer clicks a button to submit form for review.Automated processes build and deploy the eForm.Reviewers/Approvers are notified.

DDI Instrument Sample for Land Management Practices Survey

• Land Management Practices Survey (LaMPS) as early adopter

instrument to develop DDI sample

• 56 questions with 345 data items

• 16,000 lines of XML

• Used DDI 3.1 and custom extensions

• Developing a sample which will be used to develop Profiles

DDI Coverage and eForm Generated

DDI Coverage and eForm Generated

DDI Coverage and eForm Generated

Key Challenges and Learnings

• Layouts for eForm Instruments– Challenge: Exact positioning of elements

on web page is difficult to achieve without specifying precise coordinates.

– Solution: Standardised corporate templates that specify eForm layouts (including typical positioning of elements).

• Grid/Matrix/Table Questions– Challenge: More complex structures and

DDI3.1 does not naturally support the structure or layout of these types of questions.

– Solution: DDI MultipleQuestionItems as column headers nested within other MultipleQuestionItems for rows. The DDI extension mechanism was also used to indicate whether the question was intended to be presented as a “Grid” question.

Project Results

• Project concluded in February 2014 and succeeded in producing an automatically generated Blaise eForm from a DDI instrument specification.

• Approximately 80% of Blaise eForm code was automatically generated and used as for the 2013-14 Land Management Practices Survey.

• Reduced the first round of the LaMPS survey development from 10 days to 2 days.

• Project demonstrated the use of the Instrument Authoring Tool to define instrument specification using DDI in a efficient manner.

Recorded Demo

Vision for the Future and Next Steps

• Vision for the Future• Instrument Authoring Tool (IAT) to search for and discover existing

survey metadata to quickly update existing surveys for new production cycles and to assemble entirely new survey instruments.

• Integrated IAT, SWM and MRR for automated execution of statistical business processes and storage and versioning of statistical metadata assets.

• Click of a button and fully automated execution to deliver results.

• Next Steps• Continuation of the development of the Instrument Authoring Tool and the

ABS DDI Instrument Profile to support survey instrument creation;• Continuation of the development of the DDI to Blaise eForm

transformation service which will support the automated creation of eForms beyond the capabilities developed for the LaMPS survey, for use by other ABS online collections;

• Analysis and re-engineering of existing business processes for eForm development, for implementation and automation in SWM;

Thank you.

and

Questions ?