In 2006 the Data Collection Standards and Consultancy (DCSC) conducted a research project to identify and establish a set of generic interviewer best practice behaviours for Statistics New Zealand.

The research project recognised that while a number of quality assurance mechanisms were currently utilised within the Statistics New Zealand field collections business unit, they were employed on an ad hoc rather than systematic approach, which was not easily reported on or demonstrated to external parties.

These practices consisted of:

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The project set about compiling a set of standards brought together from a variety of sources including market research organisations, international statistical agencies and social science research. These standards were then presented to and endorsed by the Statistics New Zealand Standards Governance Board with a view that the implementation of these standards would:

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Increase confidence that official statistics are collected via sound methodology.

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The Best Practice Standards (BPS) for Interviewers initiative, which was part of the wider Best Practice Field Collections project, adopted the DCSC's standards as a foundation from which to develop a revised set of field interviewer best practice standards and practical quality assurance mechanisms, to address the issues raised by the research project.

The BPS initiative identified twelve recommendations to quality assure interviewing standards, of which the use of Computer Audio-Recorded Interviewing (CARI) was one. CARI provides the unobtrusive recording of verbal communication between an interviewer and respondent as the survey is conducted.