This is the test and trace system for the worst pandemic this country has ever faced, six months in. I’m sorry Excel spreadsheets won’t cut it.
This is a management failure. PHE has capable coders. And if not, they could hire some.
The NHSX team has managed to write the dang COVID-19 app twice. Once not using the Apple/Google contact API (because management) and a second time properly. It’s all open source and it looks pretty decent.
As an aside on the Covid-19 app - it is open sourced in the "occasionally throw some code over the wall" kind of way - eg it looks like the github was last updated on 24 September vs the app which has more recent updates. It's not clear they open sourced everything needed to actually build the app either looking through the issues.
This is very very far from the only project doing that but disappointing nonetheless given the amount of public money which was spent on it.
This is a management failure. PHE has capable coders. And if not, they could hire some.
The NHSX team has managed to write the dang COVID-19 app twice. Once not using the Apple/Google contact API (because management) and a second time properly. It’s all open source and it looks pretty decent.