https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Treasury could adopt Korean public-sector data quality model

18th March 2016

By: Schalk Burger

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

Font size: - +

South African National Treasury chief director Schalk Human visited the Korean National Information Agency (NIA) in November to learn about and possibly adopt its public-sector data quality framework.

The South Korea government aims to apply the framework to between 20 and 30 government organisations to govern how they curate data quality within their databases and processes, says Gangneung-Wonju National University department of industrial engineering head Professor Changsoo Lee.

The initiative developed a set of measurement standards and indicators which the organisations can use to apply data quality management to their processes. Good-quality data also improves any additional or ancillary uses of the datasets, such as for reporting, accounting, research, policy formulation and public use.

The key reason to implement data quality metrics for public-sector organisations is to enable measurement and quality control of every process related to these organisations, says Myongji University department of industrial and management engineering Professor Sunho Kim.

“In Korea, we applied the plan-do-check-act continuous improvement cycle (common to all International Standards Organisation (ISO) standards, including the broadly used ISO 9000 and ISO 9001 standards) to our procurement department and intellectual property registry. These databases contain sensitive information and it is very important to maintain the quality of the data at a required level for use in national and public processes,” says Lee.

The model links the ability of public-sector organisations to complete processes to specific measurement indicators. These indicators (discrete elements of a given process that can be used to measure it) are critical success metrics that enable the ranking of public-sector organisations by adherence to process execution.

The NIA model has four so-called capability levels – from Level 0 that indicates an incomplete process to Level 3 that indicates highly efficient processes – that are used to rank whether an organisation is not meeting, meeting or exceeding its process functions.

This allows for the development and inclusion of new processes, and progressive improvement of existing processes within a measureable framework, says Lee.

The South African National Treasury databases also contain sensitive information used in often-complex processes, which is also used by other departments or organisations for their processes.

“The first iteration of the NIA model used more than 200 indicators, which was unworkable in a real-field environment. We then worked hard to pare these down to 37 indicators for the highest ranking, 25 for Level 2, and only 17 indicators for Level 1,” notes Lee.

Further, the standards to implement a data quality system for public-sector organisations are readily accessible, as the ISO 22745 stan- dard, which details document standards, is an open technical dictionary that the organisations can apply to their documents for use in a data quality project.

“The most important thing required from the National Treasury is a commitment to apply these systems,” he says.

Despite the apparent complexity of the system, there is sufficient expertise within the Treasury and local data quality companies to roll out the system, notes CEO Pilog Group Dr Salomon de Jager.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Comments

Showroom

SBS Tanks
SBS Tanks

SBS® Tanks is a leading provider of innovative water security solutions with offices in Southern Africa, East and West Africa, the USA and an...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Magni SA
Magni SA

Magni SA is committed to developing the safest Telehandlers available to our customers for underground and surface mining, construction, forestry,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.076 0.129s - 137pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now