What you need to do in alpha

Meeting the Digital Scotland Service Standard

During alpha there are pieces of evidence you will need to collect to meet the Service Standards.

Alpha is an opportunity to fail fast and learn through trial and error. The evidence you collect is about trying things, learning if they work or not, and then changing to create something better. This is ‘iteration’.

The following sections explain what you can do to meet each Service Standard.

Understand users and their needs

You should:

• provide evidence of primary research activities you have undertaken in alpha – you should also plan on how you will do more user research in the beta phase
• do research and usability testing with a wide range of people, including users with barriers to using digital tools – have a clear idea of what you’re trying to find out through user research and who you need to involve
• make sure what you deliver is based on evidence – demonstrate how your user research has informed your insights and shaped your MVP
• test and learn as early as possible – testing with users will help you know you’re delivering the right thing, for example, showing prototypes to users before developing the service
• share your insights – communicate research findings and insights with your team, as well as other organisations who could use them

Solve a whole problem for users

You should:

• use what you learn about your users to scope your service – you should outline the scope for delivery in beta and demonstrate how this plan prioritises the most important user needs
• understand constraints – make sure organisational constraints like procurement, policy and legislation, are understood and communicated
• remove barriers that will affect the service – this might include working with policy professionals to understand legislation
• work with other organisations – understand where you fit together as part of a user journey and if any users needs are common to other services

Design and deliver a joined up experience

You should:

• demonstrate how what has been developed meets the needs of their different user groups
• make sure the online and offline experience is the same – the Scottish Government Design System has examples of consistent design patterns, such as language and style, to help people understand where they are and what they need to do

Help users succeed first time

You should:

• conduct usability testing – show how the service design changes in response to testing
• use automated end-to-end testing to ensure the service works as expected across different devices and operating systems– you should have a plan to enable automated testing during beta

Make sure everyone can use the service

You should:

• show all parts of the service are inclusive – explain how your design will help users with assisted digital needs
• include diverse perspectives – you can evidence this with user research outputs and an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA)
• do accessibility testing with real users and have a plan for further accessibility testing in beta

Have a multidisciplinary team

You should:

• have a resource plan showing how what specialist roles you require to meet your beta delivery plan
• outline how your service team has been allocated and utilised across the full service design
• provide access to expertise when needed - bring in specialist knowledge to cover gaps in the team, for example, domain knowledge, technical knowledge, subject matter experts

Iterate and improve frequently

You should:

• prioritise improvements – work with your organisation to focus on improvements that have the most value
• build using continuous delivery techniques – use technologies and tools like a delivery pipeline and automated testing that allow you to change and release your service frequently

Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy

You should:

• show that business and information governance stakeholders have been actively involved in the design of security for your service
• approach risk in a proportionate way – identify security and privacy threats to the service and have a robust, proportionate approach to managing fraud and security risks
• protect users’ personal information – this is through privacy and cookie policies as well as an Alpha Data Protection Impact Assessment

Define what success looks like and publish performance data

You should:

• you should show a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success criteria outlined in discovery – you should evidence how this data is being collected to capture insights and feed them into the backlog for continuous improvement
• publish data to help inform and improve future services – you should provide evidence of engagement with stakeholders responsible with performance data publication, for example statistics.gov.scot

Choose the right tools and technology

You should:

• understand the technologies needed to deliver the service –work out different components required to build and operate the service
• make technology choices that allow flexibility and be able to explain why you made those choices
• use open source and use open standards – when sourcing components open source technology can help you avoid becoming locked into contracts and using industry standards means systems and services can integrate more easily
• create a sustainable plan for procurement and contract management

Use and contribute to shared digital practices, processes, components, standards, patterns and platforms

You should:

• reuse national assets like service patterns and pre-existing user stories
• show the data standards being applied to your service

Operate a reliable service

You should:

• show how you are capturing non-functional requirements for the service
• carry out quality assurance testing regularly
• plan for major events, for example with a Disaster Recovery Plan
• show how the technology chosen for the service meets the reliability requirements from discovery

Ensure sponsor acceptance

You should:

• provide an up to date version of the Service Governance Framework, explaining any changes since discovery
• show that you are on track to meet the communication plan activities for alpha and provide a plan for communications during beta

Related guides

• Discovery
• Beta