Page 60 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 1

IPS57 Eric Rancourt
same or similar programs and how international colleagues have
approached the issues. It may also involve conducting descriptive
analysis using prior information from surveys or administrative files.
3. Hypotheses. Based on the evidence obtained from prior information,
from the literature, methods are developed and planned. This may
require development or extension of methods; it may also involve the
adoption of already-existing methods or an adaptation of these.
4. Check point. Once hypotheses are formulated and plans are
established, the approach / method is presented to a technical
committee and, when appropriate, to Statistics Canada’s Advisory
Committee on Statistical Methods (ACSM) for further guidance.
Depending on the impact and the reach of the method, it may also be
presented to a subject matter steering committee, a subject matter
advisory committee and/or a senior management committee. These
committees provide the breadth and depth needed for scientific,
practical, management, ethical and social appraisal.
5. Test / Do. It is part of our best practices to test the approach on a small
scale in order to gather further information that will be used to refine
the hypotheses. This could mean conducting a pilot, producing a beta
version of a computer program, or conducting simulation studies on
real or artificial data. If a first iteration of the scientific approach has
taken place, then this step is the actual implementation of the method.
6. Analysis. Study of the results takes place and decisions are made. At
this step a method is selected over other options and implementation
can begin.
7. Communication. The methods implemented are documented and
shared with colleagues as well as subject matter specialists. In some
cases, methods and findings will lead to an internal working paper, or
be submitted to a conference or a refereed journal. Similarly, research
studies will lead to an internal report, but may often become a more
official paper presented at a conference or submitted to a refereed
journal.
Communication is not limited to the “communication” step as it need
to pervade to the whole approach. For example, discussion taking
place with subject matter specialists may lead to new projects being
launched. Or, once a set of hypotheses have been formulated,
discussion among peers and external experts ought to take place. The
check point is, by definition, a communication process and the test will
involve planning requiring careful/effective communication.
8. Iteration. Normally the first loop is a test and the second one is the
implementation of new methods. However, there could be more than
one loop.

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