GOV.UK
Performance Platform
Performing accountability
In the summer of 2017, I joined the GOV.UK Performance team responsible for the Performance Platform: the centralized publisher of metrics for all UK government services. With much of the team focused on designing a new service, the Performance Platform itself (which served many thousands of people a day) needed some attention.
Originally built as an avant-garde ‘isomorphic’ Backbone app, I took the opportunity to sharpen my frontend skills on some cutting-edge JavaScript. Overcoming a healthy amount of grief along the way, I finally fixed the damn thing:
- I updated the node engine by several major versions
- I refactored hundreds of unit tests
- I patched all the legitimate vulnerabilities
- I wrote for future developers the docs I wished I had had
As lead frontend developer on the Performance team, I worked alongside some great people, I overcame some fairly sticky challenges, and — ultimately — I refreshed one of the Government Digital Service’s flagship products.