https://dataingovernment.blog.gov.uk/share-driving-record-service-assessment-2/
Share Driving Record - Service Assessment
Share Driving Record is a new service that will allow driving licence holders to share their entitlement and endorsement information to Third Party users and will act as an enabler for DVLA to abolish the paper element of the driving licence. The aim of this service is to provide users who currently use the paper part of the driving licence with a new digital version that can be easily accessed. The service will display the information currently available on the paper counterpart and make it available to share to those who have a requirement to see it.
Department / Agency:
DfT / DVLA
Date of Assessment:
15/4/2015
Assessment stage:
Beta
Result of Assessment:
Pass
Lead Assessor:
J. Hughes
Service Manager:
D. Ashford
Digital Leader:
O. Morley
Assessment Report
The Share Driving Record service is seeking permission to launch on a service.gov.uk domain as a Beta service.
Outcome of service assessment
After consideration the assessment panel have concluded the Share Driving Record service has shown sufficient progress and evidence of meeting the Digital by Default Service Standard criteria and should proceed to launch as a Beta service on a service.gov.uk domain.
Reasons
The service meets all the required elements of the digital by default service standard for a beta service. In particular, the panel noted the following points of strength against the standard:
- The service has been built in response to a clear demand from users in response to the existing View Driving Record service, as evidenced by the quantity of feedback asking for this service to be provided.
- The team has researched needs and tested the product with a range of users, and made changes based on the results of the research.
- The team has now implemented an approach of observing task-based research rather than leading people through the journey.
- The team is reducing its reliance on external contractors in a managed way.
- The team has changed and developed its ways of working based on learning as they go along.
- There is evidence of improvement over time in the design and quality of the user experience.
Recommendations
The panel makes the following recommendations, which the team should act upon before a live assessment.
- The paper counterpart is due to be abolished in June 2015. It is likely that users will start to rely on this service once that happens. The team should therefore work to bring the service for a live assessment as soon as possible.
- The team should continue to develop its approach to research, as it has already started to do, to identify and test improvements through the observation of task-based research
- There is work required during public beta to make sure the team takes ownership and fully understands decisions about design in respect of security features (so that the security features are appropriate and not excessive for the service, given the risks that pertain to it). For example the team should continue to investigate the usability of the check code and related parts of the process for giving and activating permission to view a driving record, to make sure there is an appropriate and usable level of protection in place given the specific risks relating to the service.
- The team described an API approach based on trusted third parties gaining access to data without use of user generated check codes, with the third parties agreeing to strict compliance policies, and using an API separate from the service. This creates a significant barrier to entry for what is a very simple check, which could be provided as an open API, without any required compliance policies. The team should consider providing an open API as part of this service in line with guidance in the service manual.
- Review their infrastructure requirements in the light of the changes in rules about security since the contract was last let, and ensure the results of this review are reflected in the next procurement of infrastructure
- The team has made a commitment to publish more of its source code - this should be completed before the live assessment.
- There are opportunities to improve further the design and UX during the public beta, particularly in respect of security features and how users respond to those features (including in the telephone and other assisted digital channels). In particular, the team should continue to research questions to establish what security features are needed and how they can best be designed so make them as straightforward for the user as possible.
- The team should carry out more specific research and analysis of assisted digital needs during the public beta, including the need for support outside the current working hours of the call centre and through channels other than the phone.
- The team plans to schedule any releases that require downtime during times when there are no users of the beta service (in the ‘early hours’ of the day), and to keep the timing of releases under review so as to minimise the impact on users of releases. This would mitigate the impact of downtime on users, but it risks acting as a disincentive to doing frequent releases to iterate and improve the service (because of the cost and inconvenience of overnight releases). For the live assessment, the team will need to demonstrate that it has continued to iterate and improve the service, and that its measures to prevent downtime affecting users have been effective.
- As users come to rely on the share driving licence service, particularly once the paper counterpart is removed, it will be important to make sure that planned releases don’t disrupt people’s use of the service. The team should be planning towards implementing zero downtime deployment for this service before it moves from beta to live. The service manager stated that, according to DVLA’s principles for the digital services platform, there should be zero downtime deployment in place. We would agree and expect to see this in place in time for the live assessment.
Digital by Default Service Standard criteria
| Criteria | Passed | Criteria | Passed |
| 1 | Yes | 2 | Yes |
| 3 | Yes | 4 | Yes |
| 5 | Yes | 6 | Yes |
| 7 | Yes | 8 | Yes |
| 9 | Yes | 10 | Yes |
| 11 | Yes | 12 | Yes |
| 13 | Yes | 14 | Yes |
| 15 | Yes | 16 | Yes |
| 17 | Yes | 18 | Yes |
| 19 | Yes | 20 | Yes |
| 21 | Yes | 22 | Yes |
| 23 | Yes | 24 | Yes |
| 25 | Yes | 26 | Yes |
