beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,329
compatibility testing not regression testing.
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Contact Tracing App
- Thread starter Perfidious Albion
- Start date
compatibility testing not regression testing.
Might be best to wait until it's released.
nicko31
Well-known member
Westdene you sound like you know your sh1t on IT stuff. Do you think the off the shelve Apple / Android solution could be up and running quickly?
Difficult one the answer really but I would expect it to have been sandboxed and regression tested ( or compatibility tested as I've been corrected to ) by Apple and Google. They have HUGE development teams with a proper development structure in place - the UK government don't.
Unless Apple and Google are going to break with commercial practice then obviously they won't make their code public which is a worry.
Point 2 about testing - the government have only used a very short test and on the Isle of Wight - the Isle of Wight !!!!! I suspect, but I don't know, that Apple and Google might have had big tests.
Finally, the political point, I'm still not sure why I have a civic duty to use the app ( whoever provides it ) when those in power, influence and authority don't seem to think the rules apply to them. Apple and Google can't solve that problem.
ADDITION : Within IT it's an unwritten rule for business, never be the first to test an upgrade, patch or service pack - let others find the issues, the suppliers to fix them and only then download the latest software. It's why my phone is always not connected to the power at night - it stops automatic upgrades.
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,329
Apple or Google are not providing an off the shelf solution. they offer an API (techy for rules to talk with) to use the bluetooth in a certain way (which is otherwise restricted), which devs can use to make a tracking app in a certain way.
NHSx didnt want to go with the approach on offer and wanted a different way to do it. thats another story. delivery of one approach or other is pretty much same, down to how good dev team and project managment is.
- Jul 10, 2003
- 25,925
When's that happening then ? (I'm assuming it's not mid May or end of May anymore)
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- Jul 10, 2003
- 25,925
Quite agree. Within suppliers, it's an unwritten rule to try and include legislative changes within Major releases. This ensures clients have to upgrade to the latest release by a certain date in order to remain compliant with the latest legislation
- Jul 10, 2003
- 25,925
And yet it always seemed so well planned and thought through 
https://www.ft.com/content/d33ec691-75e7-4cf5-889f-bd08c708cce9
NHS contact tracing app could be delayed until winter
https://www.ft.com/content/d33ec691-75e7-4cf5-889f-bd08c708cce9
NHS contact tracing app could be delayed until winter
I don't understand why we can't just buy in the app they use in South Korea or Germany etc.And yet it always seemed so well planned and thought through
https://www.ft.com/content/d33ec691-75e7-4cf5-889f-bd08c708cce9
NHS contact tracing app could be delayed until winter
Just turn ‘automatic updates’ to ‘off’ in settings ?
Because the Tory party don’t have any donors or relatives with financial interests in these apps?
Because it has to be BRITISH and WORLD LEADING, none of these foreign apps for our proud British smartphones.
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,329
internal politics of NHS/PHE etc, yes contrators with interests, and everyone wants an app tailored to their country. there was a push at one point for an EU app, didnt gain ground because each country wants to do things to suit local sensibilities. pretty special sort of cockup they've gone from something released to it wont be ready until winter.
- Jul 10, 2003
- 25,925
I said something similar when they first announced it
I think that we are absolutely desperate for a trace & trace system to help us out of this dreadful situation.It has been proven how effective the application in South Korea was in controlling their Covid outbreak and I definitely want one I can download is quick as possible to help.
So desperate that, instead of using one of the existing de-centralised systems, we award a contract to a small company, Faculty, to create a centralised application from scratch (and to add to the other 7 Government contracts that company has been awarded over the last 18 months).
A company that, purely coincidentally, is owned by the brother, Marc Warner, of a Political Advisor to the Government, Ben Walker.
The same Ben Walker who, purely coincidentally, was the one of the first two Political Advisors ever to sit in on a number of SAGE meetings in it's entire history of over 20 years.
Those two would be, purely coincidentally, Ben Walker and Dominic Cummings, who are not allowed to contribute to SAGE as they are not scientists, and not allowed to convey information from SAGE to ministers as they are Political Advisors and it would be against the rules governing political advisors.
That would be, purely coincidentally, the same Dominic Cummings who then decided it was within his remit to invite Marc Walker, owner of Faculty and brother of Ben, to a SAGE meeting.
And now, the Government have decided to start to look at some of the alternative existing de-centralised Track & Trace solutions instead, to overcome some of the issues with a centralised system ? https://www.ft.com/content/d44beb06-5e3e-434f-a3a0-f806ce06576c
Well it's good to know that this has been well thought through and the solution has been very carefully chosen on purely technical and scientific grounds
Just not so succinctly
And voila;
I'm guessing Cummings' mates still get to keep their money anyhow.
Hopefully this means we will see rollout of the app a bit sooner.
Another abject failure and humiliating u-turn from this Government wasting 2-3 months in the progress, in a move pretty much all of us could see was going to have to be made.
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