RIP IDA: Policy as a Dashboard (PaaD)

No need to say it, it goes without saying, it should be obvious to all but,

just in case it isn't obvious to all,

IDA is dead.

IDA, now known as "GOV.UK Verify (RIP)",

is the Cabinet Office Identity Assurance programme.

And it's dead.

Here's a selection of GDS posts and a film in the week leading up to purdah:

24-03-2015	Janet Hughes	Introducing GOV.UK Verify
25-03-2015	Chris Mitchell	Ready for Live: Digital Self-Assessment
25-03-2015	Janet Hughes	Procurement 2: New identity suppliers to join GOV.UK Verify
25-03-2015	Janet Hughes	GOV.UK Verify and Mydex CIC
26-03-2015	Janet Hughes and Stephen Dunn	GOV.UK Verify: Objectives for live
26-03-2015	Mike Bracken	It’s people who make transformation happen
27-03-2015	David Rennie	Working with the private sector to verify identity
27-03-2015	Mike Bracken	Turning the tanker: digital transformation done right
27-03-2015	Mike Beavan	Looking back at the exemplars
28-03-2015	Mike Bracken	Not the HMRC of old
28-03-2015	Mike Bracken	Data as a public asset
29-03-2015	Mike Bracken	Government as a Platform: the next phase of digital transformation
29-03-2015	Liam Maxwell	Better for less
30-03-2015	Martha Lane Fox	The Richard Dimbleby Lecture (text) (text) (text)

Let's take a look at Janet Hughes's 25 March 2015 offering, New hopefuls join the cortège for GOV.UK Verify (RIP) ... something like that.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) have managed to appoint nine "identity providers" for the second phase of the GOV.UK Verify (RIP) obsequies. You could respond with the obvious objections yourselves.

But there is something new in Ms Hughes's post:

Procurement 2: New identity suppliers to join GOV.UK Verify We've completed our procurement exercise for a new framework for certified companies ...

Public Servant of the Year ex-Guardian man Mike Bracken CBE CDO CDO, executive director of GDS and senior responsible owner of the pan-government identity assurance programme now known as "GOV.UK Verify (RIP)", has strict rules for the vassals in his manor. "Be consistent, not uniform", for example.

You risk eternal damnation if you break these rules.

Not least in the case of: "Don't procure, commission".

What was Ms Hughes thinking of? Not only has she embarked on a procurement exercise, she admits (a) to having completed it and (b) to the fact that it's the second time – an open source of shame.

You may wonder what else she's supposed to do. How do you go about establishing an identity management scheme for 60 million Brits without doing a bit of procuring?

Shows how much you know.

In the new world of GDS you have to route round Whitehall. That's what Mr Bracken says. You have to change the organising principle of Whitehall. That's all there is to it. Don't argue, JFDI. Be agile. Don't let the law stand in your way. Think Estonia. Security is in the cloud and vice versa. Forget policy, make a dashboard. This is government as a platform. That's what the user needs. Write it on a Post-it® note and bake it into a cake. Because internet.

That is the superior wisdom. Now do you understand the error of Ms Hughes's ways?