4.2. Moving into Beta

Once you’ve defined your MVP, you can start to move towards starting your Beta service.

4.2.1. Choosing technology for the Beta

You will need to outline the technologies that will be used to build the Beta service. Choosing the right technologies for your team can be a difficult decision.

You should choose technology that supports:

• an agile and multi-disciplinary working environment, where everyone can collaborate around the code
• automated testing, continuous integration, and regular production releases
• progressive enhancement, so that everyone can use the service
• being released as open source software, and ideally developed in the open

You should also consider the capabilities required in the team to support the technology choices, and the requirements to operate the service during the Beta and beyond.

4.2.2. Meeting the Digital Service Standard

A retrospective-style review of the team’s progress should be held with the assessors once ratings against criteria 1, 2 and 3 are green. Progress also needs to be demonstrated against all other criteria.

Assessors should confirm, in collaboration with the team, that the stage is complete. The assessors will draft a short report, using outcomes and information from the weekly check-ins, addressing the progress against all relevant criteria. The report should highlight areas of good performance, areas where further work needs to done, and the recommendations.

That assessment report will then be submitted to the Standards team for publication on the DTO’s Assessment reports page.