Wednesday 3 February 2016

RIP IDA – interview tips


That's a font, don't you know. A font called "Agile", described as "a pleasurable alphabet that is suitable for both headlines and longer body text; its spirited nature is evident in small as well as in larger point sizes". Available from Village.

In view of the Government Digital Service's love of all things agile, anyone responding to the tweet below is advised to apply with this Village font:


But which style of Agile to go for?

That would be a difficult question to answer if it weren't for GDS's recent discovery of the merits of boldness. Perfectly apposite, that epiphany was experienced by the GOV.UK Verify (RIP) Programme Director herself – so Agile Extrabold Italic on your application!

Candidates should know that the Aviation House day starts with a community rendering of the GDS corporate song, standing up by a wall and shouting it out while the traditional Post-it® notes are run up the flagpole in front of the digital-by-default icon. Learning the lyrics before your interview is an obvious user need.

There will be a certain amount of conversation at the interview. Probably best to avoid the pre-history of GOV.UK Verify (RIP). There's nothing bold about embarrassing the panel, even if you do want to demonstrate that you were born before yesterday.

You could ask the odd question about privacy and security but, in the end, no-one's interested and you don't want to look like a loser so keep it light. Extralight, even.

Far better to concentrate on the commercial aspects of GOV.UK Verify (RIP).

Do not be embarrassed by the fact that you have never created an ecosystem in your life and do not be embarrassed by the fact that you don't have a clue how to regulate a market. Your interviewers won't ask you about that and you shouldn't ask them about their experience either.

No, by "concentrate on the commercial aspects" we mean that you should ask for clarification about GOV.UK Verify (RIP)'s "identity providers".

GOV.UK Verify (RIP) had nine "identity providers" two months ago and the picture looked like this:

GOV.UK Verify (RIP)
"Identity provider" GPG45 service Applied for Granted ("no. of profiles")
.
Barclays Identity Assurance and Provisioning 28 September 2015
digidentity Identity Provider Service for Verify 30 April 2015 (4)
Experian IDaaS 21 October 2014 (4)
GBGroup ID3global 12 February 2015 (2)
Morpho secureidentity 19 November 2015
PayPal
Post Office IDA 24 February 2014, lapsed February 2015
Royal Mail
Verizon UIS 11 February 2015 (5)
.
Not an "identity provider" mentioned by GDS
Equifax Identity Verifier for IdP 10 December 2014 (2)

Now it looks more like this:

GOV.UK Verify (RIP)
"Identity provider" GPG45 service Applied for Granted ("no. of profiles")
.
Barclays Identity Assurance and Provisioning 28 September 2015
.
digidentity Identity Provider Service for Verify 30 April 2015 (4)
Post Office IDA 24 February 2014, lapsed February 2015
CallCredit?
.
Experian IDaaS 21 October 2014 (4)
.
GBGroup ID3global/CitizenSafe? 12 February 2015 (2)
Royal Mail IdP service 21 December 2015
Avoco?
.
Morpho secureidentity 19 November 2015
.
PayPal
.
Verizon UIS 11 February 2015 (5)
.
Not an "identity provider" mentioned by GDS
Equifax Identity Verifier for IdP 10 December 2014 (2)

We're down from nine "identity providers" to just seven, only four of whom are certified by tScheme.

Do not ask if the public are being properly informed. If a punter chooses Royal Mail as their "identity provider" and actually gets Avoco, that doesn't matter. Do not ask why PayPal haven't even applied yet for certification. Go-live date is April 2016, just a few weeks away admittedly, but you're agile and "you don’t have to go far to see digital teams doing the do".

GDS are being perfectly open about all this, please see Some ID providers may not be accredited by GOV.UK Verify go live. They want us all neatly registered for their revolutionary Government as a Platform and we consent to that every time we use GOV.UK Verify (RIP):


The point to make at interview is simply that GOV.UK Verify (RIP) is free. Agile Fat Italic free.

That is how to demonstrate your commercial acumen and that is how to get the GOV.UK Verify (RIP) job so that you can "help change the way citizens interact with government services":

Courtesy Companies House

No comments:

Post a Comment