Performance Platform

Performance Platform
Name	Performance Platform
Developer	Government Digital Service
Released	2012
Programming language	Ruby (programming language), JavaScript
Operating system	Linux
License	MIT License

Performance Platform

The Performance Platform is a software project and public dashboard initiative created to collect, visualise and compare service delivery indicators across multiple public bodies. It aggregates time-series metrics from disparate sources to provide transparency for citizens, inform decision-makers in offices such as Cabinet Office and Department for Work and Pensions, and support analysts at organisations like the Government Digital Service and the Office for National Statistics.

Overview

The project presents dashboards that consolidate metrics from services run by entities including National Health Service (England), HM Revenue and Customs, GOV.UK, Transport for London, and local councils such as London Borough of Camden and Manchester City Council. It was influenced by transparency efforts exemplified by Data.gov.uk, UK Parliament, Ordnance Survey, and global platforms like data.gov and Sunlight Foundation. The Platform integrates with monitoring tools such as New Relic, Grafana, Prometheus, and analytics systems like Google Analytics and Piwik. Stakeholders include policymakers from No. 10 Downing Street, analysts at the National Audit Office, and product teams practising techniques advocated by GDS Service Manual and proponents like Tom Loosemore.

History and Development

Conceived within the Cabinet Office and built by the Government Digital Service and contractors including teams that had worked with Rewired State and Founders Forum, development started following digital reform agendas promoted by ministers such as Francis Maude and advisors connected to initiatives like Open Government Partnership. Early releases paralleled projects such as GOV.UK and drew on lessons from deployments at UK Trade & Investment and pilot dashboards in local authorities like Bristol City Council. The Platform evolved alongside measurement debates involving organisations such as Nesta and research from universities like University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and London School of Economics. Its roadmap was discussed at events including GovCamp and panels featuring speakers from European Commission digital units and United Nations open data working groups.

Architecture and Components

The architecture combines data ingestion, storage, processing and presentation layers. Ingestion connectors interface with APIs provided by services such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and source systems like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB. Message queuing and streaming patterns draw on technologies used in Apache Kafka deployments; batch and ETL processing reference patterns from Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark. Time-series storage options reflect approaches seen in InfluxDB and OpenTSDB; search and indexing borrow from Elasticsearch. The presentation tier uses web frameworks inspired by Ruby on Rails and client libraries like React (JavaScript library) and D3.js. Continuous integration and deployment practices align with tools such as Jenkins (software), Travis CI, and Docker. Governance and access control patterns mirror standards from ISO/IEC 27001 and procurement conventions used by Crown Commercial Service.

Metrics and Measurement Methodology

Metric selection follows practices advocated by organisations like World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Development Programme, and researchers from Imperial College London. Metrics are typically time-stamped, tagged, and categorised to align with service-level indicators used by NHS Digital, DVLA, and Ofcom. Collection methods range from synthetic monitoring (similar to techniques used by New Relic) to event-driven analytics comparable to Google Analytics instrumentation. Normalisation approaches draw on statistical techniques found in texts from Royal Statistical Society authors and methods discussed by analysts at Office for National Statistics. Data quality and provenance are handled with metadata practices akin to Data.gov.uk cataloguing and stewardship frameworks used by UK Statistics Authority.

Use Cases and Applications

Public-facing dashboards inform citizens, journalists at outlets like BBC News and The Guardian, and NGOs such as Transparency International about performance trends for programmes run by Department for Education, Ministry of Justice, and Home Office. Internal product teams at agencies including Department for Transport and Ministry of Defence use the Platform for operational monitoring, capacity planning, and incident response, integrating with incident management frameworks like those advocated by ITIL and practices from DevOps communities. Academics from University College London and think tanks such as Institute for Government have used exported datasets for research and policy evaluation.

Criticisms and Limitations

Critiques have come from auditors at the National Audit Office and commentators at Hansard and Public Accounts Committee who point to issues of metric gaming familiar from studies by Goodhart-influenced analysis and the limits discussed in Nudge-related debates. Limitations include variable data quality across suppliers such as external cloud vendors, integration challenges with legacy systems at bodies like HM Courts & Tribunals Service, and representational biases noted by researchers at Alan Turing Institute. Privacy advocates from groups like Privacy International and legal reviews referencing Data Protection Act 1998 and subsequent Data Protection Act 2018 raise concerns about personally identifiable information and compliance with standards set by the Information Commissioner's Office. Academic critiques reference measurement problems highlighted in work by Donald T. Campbell and surveillance critiques in literature from Shoshana Zuboff.

Implementation and Adoption Examples

Implementations were piloted within Ministry of Justice programmes, scaled for national services such as GOV.UK and HM Revenue and Customs performance reporting, and adapted by local governments including Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council and Brighton and Hove City Council. International interest led to exchanges with teams at Government of Canada digital service, Australian Digital Transformation Agency, and municipal projects in New York City and San Francisco. Training and community support have involved cross-agency workshops and conferences hosted by UKGovCamp, Open Data Institute, and collaborations with academic partners like University of Manchester.

Category:Open government software