5.4 Organization and flow of work

An important item that is frequently overlooked is the testing of the organization and flow of work. As experience will confirm, it is often the overlapping of activities, lack of clear understanding of responsibility, or unexpected problems with no planned alternatives that can cause a major breakdown of the project. A flow chart of the entire operation is useful not only for understanding the entire function but also for pointing up gaps or other possible deficiencies in advance of the census. In observing various organizational aspects, the staff would watch particularly for places where the flow of work is at a standstill and there is a considerable backlog of unassigned work.

Additionally, the various control and report forms should be evaluated for usefulness and simplicity. The question should be asked of each form, "Is it more troublesome than it is worth?"

expanded considerably for the census undertaking. This can be accomplished in one of several ways. For example, it can be handled through temporary transfer from other government agencies to the NSO; by recruiting temporary workers on a short-term basis; or by contracting with individuals or data processing firms for the personnel with the necessary technical skills. In Providencia, it was determined that most of the positions could best be filled by recruiting from other Divisions of the NSO. Even though they were not new employees, they needed to be trained to handle the specific requirements of the 1975 Industrial Census.

6.1 Editor-coders

Editor-coders are needed primarily to perform the manual editing-coding operations and to carry out general statistical duties. For the most part, these persons should be semiskilled employees. If the statistical office must recruit additional editor-coders, the applicants should be given a qualifying test consisting of two major parts: (a) a clerical abilities test containing questions on arithmetic, alphabetizing, name and number comparison, and inspection of number and letter order, and (b) a verbal abilities test containing questions on vocabulary and reading comprehension. Examples pertinent to the questionnaires, with appropriate accompanying instructions, should be included in the test.

6.2 Key punch operators

The NSO has only a small number of key punch operators to handle current operations. Some of them will be assigned temporarily as supervisors or key verifiers for the 1975 Industrial Census. If additional operators need to be recruited, or if some present NSO employees are transfered to the operation from other positions, they should have certain qualifications. Key punch operators should have manual dexterity and be able to comprehend

In Providencia, the chief of the Data Processing Division will have many extra administrative duties as a result of the industrial census. Therefore, it will be wise for him to delegate to the most competent analyst the responsibility for many of the technical functions for the census processing. This person

will be known as the project analyst. In this discussion, the term "project analyst" is identical with the term "senior systems analyst" or simply "systems analyst." He is the person who will submit the final system design for the processing.

6.31 Develop a system. --The systems analyst must be able to develop a logical and practical system, or the volume of data will negate some of the advantages of speed and lower cost of the computer procedure. Editing and coding procedures, sequence of the tabulations, and the like, must be carefully planned.

In the initial planning stages for the data processing operation, it will be necessary that personnel from each division of the NSO work and plan together. The project analyst must be able to work in various phases of the overall project and he should be very familiar with the details of the various data processing areas. He must work very closely with the subject matter specialists to understand the tabulation requirements. He must translate

(e) Prepare test data; after the programs are written, use these data

to test the programs.

6.32 Prepare flow charts or block diagrams.--The project analyst should prepare flow charts for each system and subsystem, showing the input, the process involved, and the output. A flow chart shows the sequence of operations and the flow of work. It usually includes both machine and manual processing steps which can be identified by uniform chart symbols. A flow chart is used as a basis for writing machine or computer programs.

Flow charts, often referred to as block diagrams, are generally constructed in several stages--starting with a major block diagram which expresses the entire program in summary form. The diagram should be simple enough to fit on one page, but complete enough to show relationships between various types of input and output and the general processing steps involved. It permits the analyst and the programmer to establish the basic logic of the program before they become involved in voluminous details. The analyst (or programmer) can then break down the block diagram into subsystems which can be expanded into more detailed diagrams, or he can go directly from the block diagram to detailed procedures. After the basic diagrams are complete, they should be made available to all persons involved in preparing detailed diagrams or in developing procedures.

6.33 Prepare procedures and test materials.--The project analyst is responsible for the punch card design and for the preparation of detailed written instructions for such operations as the card-to-tape procedure, machine editing, key punching, tabulating, and control. Finally the analyst should prepare a comprehensive test for the computer programs, using a deck of cards containing either live data from a pre-test or data for

simulated establishments. The analyst should strive to have the test material cover all possible conditions that are likely to arise.

6.4 Programmers

Sometimes the role of programmer is not much different from that of the project analyst. In this discussion, careful differentiation will be made, but in actual practice these differences may not always be easily

identified.

Essentially, the programmer is a coder, to the extent that he converts a concept into a machine language system. He may also assume the role of systems analyst if he actually helps in the design of the system. In preparing the programs for a national census, undoubtedly more than one programmer will be involved in the actual coding process. The project analyst, in the course of his work, will arrange planning meetings with the senior programmer and the programming staff. The purpose of these meetings will be to present to the programmers the procedures for the census processing.

The analyst will have prepared card layouts, magnetic tape layouts, report formats, written specifications, and fairly detailed flow charts. From these, the programmers will prepare block diagrams and the actual computer programs. The coded programs must be key punched, translated to machine language by the computer (or assembled), and tested (or debugged), using the test data prepared for testing other processing procedures.

It is most desirable that the programs be written and debugged even before the enumeration begins. This will permit programmers to concentrate on day-to-day problems that arise when the filled questionnaires come in--free from the pressure of having to keep ahead of key punch operators.

An organized plan for training the census employees is essential. The duration of the census is relatively short, and poorly planned training, or lack of training where needed, will not only delay the operations but will cause trouble in later stages and produce results of poor quality.

Traditionally, training has been divided into formal classroom training and on-the-job training. There may also be a need for individual training, which can be a combination of the two. Training for census operations must be directed to specific needs. The bulk of the employees should be trained to perform a limited number of specific steps. A smaller group should become familiar with a number of operations so that they can make intelligent

It

decisions and know how such decisions will affect other phases of the operation. would be misuse of funds and time to train all employees in too many operational phases. Experience has taught that it is necessary to train more persons than are required for the job. It is expected that many temporary census employees will leave as soon as they have opportunities for more permanent jobs.

A small staff of persons who will supervise various operations should be trained in advance of the date the operation begins so they will be free to concentrate on day-to-day activities. Systems analysts and programmers should be trained and actively working on applications for a new computer long before it arrives; otherwise, there will be inefficient use of the computer for some time.

Formal training refers to a structured plan to teach the step-by-step operations. Usually, formal training is given to a group of trainees. The training should be practical; that is, it should have direct application to the job. Formal training is not sufficient; in each case, it must be followed with on-the-job training.

For editor-coders, the training should include the following elements: (a) brief background to introduce the basic census questionnaires and a summary of the enumeration procedures, with emphasis on skip patterns and codes, (b) discussion and explanation of those concepts (such as value added, unit of measure, type of product) which directly concern the editing or coding that will be performed, (c) practice exercises using the questionnaires which were prepared earlier when testing the editing procedures, (d) review of the practice exercises, and (e)

instruction on how to fill the required

control and report forms. The materials used in formal training should illustrate realistic cases and should include unusual as well as usual situations. In this respect, the formal training is superior to on-the-job training. During on-the-job training, an employee may work with a large number of cases before he will find examples of different situations.

For the key punch operators, the only formal training that is required includes (a) a brief description of the codes and the skip patterns of the basic questionnaires, (b) explanation of the various punch cards that will be used, (c) demonstration of the key punch equipment, and (d) instructions on how to fill the required control and report forms.

For the technical personnel working on the computer systems and programming, the manufacturers of the equipment or certain technical schools conduct training courses in this field of specialization. It is often overlooked that the programmer also needs some formal training in the subject area to assure his understanding of the specifications developed by the subject specialists. Again, the test data prepared for the procedures testing can be used as training documents. Supervisors of the three groups of employees should have the same training. In addition, they should have special instruction on how to supervise a group of employees--how to motivate the workers, how to review their work and how often, what action to take for below-standard performance, what reports to fill, and similar management duties.

7.2 On-the-job training.

Formal training has limited value unless it is followed or accompanied by actual job experience. Questionnaires filled during pretest operations would be useful for this purpose. If not available, early returns from the census itself may be used. Supervisors