Wrapping up
Deciding whether to move on to beta
Alpha is finished when you've got a prototype that's substantial enough to help you make a decision about whether to move on to the beta phase or not.
To move on to beta you'll need to be confident that:
- you can create something that meets users' needs and is cost-effective
- you'll have the budget and people necessary to deliver what you need to - this includes having a budget for research
You should be able to explain how you came to this decision using the success metrics you identified at the end of discovery.
If you get to the end of your alpha and you're not confident you could do these things, you could stop altogether or decide to repeat discovery or alpha.
When you're confident you want to move on to beta, your delivery manager and service owner should start working on a beta business proposal. This should include information on who you'll need in your team for beta.
Other things to consider at alpha
There are a few other things that you'll need to consider at alpha. You'll need to show that you've started to think about:
- the sorts of programming tools you'd like to choose for beta and why you'd get value for money
- how you'll identify threats to your service, how you'll deal with them and how you'll stay up to date with threats
- how you'll open source your code - and with offline channels, how you'll share your methods and processes
- whether or not you're going to be using common platforms
- how your users would be affected if the online part of your service had technical problems
You should also continue to refine the metrics you'll use to measure how successful your service is.
If you've created any new design patterns - or learned anything useful about an existing design pattern - you should share what you've learned through the GOV.UK Design System.
Work in Progress!
This site is a work in progress and any opinions contained here are intended to spark discussion within each discipline's community of practice.
Created: 2023-07-26