Reuse of Questionnaire Generator Based on DDI - ESSNet Sharing common functionalities in ESS

Insee, the French statistical institute, has been developing for some years a data collection platform which includes a number of components, in particular a graphical questionnaire design and specification tool and a questionnaire generation tool targeting different support (web, paper...).

This platform relies largely on DDI: the questionnaires are specified using the Data Collection module constructs, stored in a DDI metadata repository and fed into the questionnaire generator which produces the physical collection instruments. This is the most advanced example of active metadata used in production in the institute.

Insee coordinates since the beginning of 2016 a European project which aims at fostering the reuse of statistical services between NSIs. For this project, Insee open-sourced its questionnaire generation tool, which was reused by SURS, the Slovenian NSI. A lot of work was also devoted to improving the packaging and documentation of the generator in order to maximize its reusability.

The presentation will give more detail on the questionnaire designer and generator, and describe how the latter was reused by SURS. It will also detail the future roadmaps of the different tools and the prospects for further reuse.