8.9 Implementing a quality management framework

8.9 Implementing a quality management framework#

8.9.1 Appoint a quality management team and manager#

In an organization with a quality culture, quality is everyone’s responsibility. However, in order to sustain the culture and to provide the tools to support it, there is a need for a dedicated quality management team. The functions of the team include:

  • continually promoting a culture of quality, keeping everyone, senior managers and statisticians alike, on their toes;

  • developing, promoting and supporting the implementation of the QF;

  • providing incentives to follow quality guidelines and monitoring their use;

  • organizing and administering quality training;

  • developing or obtaining quality tools and making them readily available;

  • checking that quality gates are working as they should;

  • ensuring ongoing quality evaluation on a rotating and as-needed basis;

  • investigating serious errors in published outputs;

  • draw attention to quality gaps and potential quality gaps; and

  • following up on proposed quality improvements.

The functions of the quality manager are to lead the team and to liaise with senior management.

In large NSOs, the quality team may be a dedicated quality unit. In smaller organizations, there may be no quality unit per se, and the quality team may comprise one or more staff belonging to a unit with other core functions (often a methodology unit) that has been assigned responsibility for quality. In very small organizations, the team may comprise a single person nominated to handle quality, possibly on a part-time basis.

8.9.2 Identify quality management framework committee/champion#

To ensure that senior management is kept fully aware of quality initiatives, responds to quality concerns and dedicates resources to quality improvements, it is vital that the NSO has a high-level quality committee or, at the very least, a quality champion, amongst the top managers. Without such support from the highest-level decision-making committee in the NSO, quality concerns and initiatives are likely to take second place to more urgent but less important matters.

8.9.3 Establish a quality training programme#

Set up a quality training programme for NSO staff as the first step in introducing a quality management framework. The programme should cover general quality principles, statistical quality principles and quality tools.

Subsequently, the programme should be extended to other national producers of statistics.

8.9.4 Establish quality monitoring and evaluation programme#

Set up a programme for rotating evaluation of statistical production and infrastructure processes and for review and revision of quality and performance indicators and targets, and quality gates.

8.9.5 Establish NSS coordinating bodies#

It is imperative to be prepared to address NSS-wide quality issues. This requires an inter-organizational advisory board (or equivalent), sectoral committees, and other cross-agency bodies to:

  • prepare a national strategic plan for the development of statistics;

  • monitor survey design and coordinate data collection;

  • discuss and address common quality issues;

  • approve the adoption of common standards and methods; and

  • ensure adherence to regional and international quality principles.

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Links to guidelines, best practices and examples:

  • An example is the Statistical Clearing House (SCH), which was operated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) from 1997 to 2017. Its goal was to promote good survey practice and to minimise respondent burden by requiring the clearance of any business survey that was conducted by or on behalf of the Australian Government and that approached more than 50 businesses. It involved assessing methodology and survey materials. In its final years, the SCH was receiving submissions from around 150 surveys per year. It was reducing respondent burden by some 4000 hours per annum as well as improving the quality of the statistics for the surveys reviewed.

  • Another example is the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Statistical Survey Review and Clearance System (🔗).

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