Maintaining and developing world-leading apps in multi-agency partnership

Introduction

The Met Office is the UK’s national weather and climate service, originally established to inform mariners 170 years ago. Today, its world-leading public weather forecast apps are used by millions of people every day. Calvium has been responsible for maintaining and developing these apps for the past three years. Taking an agile, flexible approach and using a blended team model has been key to the project’s success to-date.

Background

We were approached by public sector technology delivery experts, Made Tech, to partner on a bid for Met Office digital services in 2022. Together we won the multi-million pound bid – which started a fruitful, positive partnership with Made Tech and Met Office.

Brief and approach

The initial brief was to maintain and update the Met Office’s existing mobile apps. The first step was to understand the code bases – one on Android and one on iOS. Although the apps look almost exactly the same, the way they were made was different, for example, the Android app was written in the Java programming language, with some Kotlin, and the iOS app was written in Swift. Calvium’s developers then examined the apps and fixed any immediate issues. The next step was to develop both apps further, adding the new features that the Met Office wanted, such as beach-specific forecast information including tide times & safety advice.

As part of the onboarding, Calvium developers aligned working practices with the Made Tech and Met Office teams, sharing daily catch ups, workflow tools and suggestions for process efficiencies and improvements. 

An example of this process alignment included application of our robust development process, which requires all changes to be reviewed and carefully tested prior to inclusion into the application. For this work it was agreed to streamline the previous approval process of everyone on the team providing a brief review, down to a detailed review by two other developers and the product owner. 

This type of peer review is a fundamental part of Calvium’s development process, as it allows for a ‘no-blame’ and high-quality culture; issues are caught earlier, knowledge is shared and there is collective responsibility in delivering fault-free code.

In addition, we took on the role of testers as well as developers – whenever we made any changes we recorded the requirements and the results. Meticulous documentation processes ensured best practices were adopted, whilst also supporting audits and the smooth onboarding of new team members across the partnership.

Accessibility audits and improvements

As a public sector organisation, any apps or websites that the Met Office puts out in public must adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which describe how web content can be made more accessible for those with additional needs, such as low eyesight or motor skill impairments.

In theory, these guidelines are also applicable for apps, but in certain places they are specifically about website technology and functionality, which either doesn’t exist or apply for apps.

As Calvium has its own WCAG compliant products, we already had a thorough process for identifying how the guidance could be applied to mobile apps. Therefore, we used our existing expertise to test the new features in the Met Office apps.

The Government Digital Service (GDS) conducts accessibility audits of all government-owned websites and apps. When they tested the Met Office apps, we supported them by sharing our own experience and processes for applying WCAG and accessibility best practice to apps – which GDS then added to their audit process.

GDS were also positive about the accessibility of new features we had developed, which was a great acknowledgement to receive.

Security and privacy considerations

Being a public sector body, the Met Office prioritised the security of the apps. This came naturally for us, having many years’ experience working with DevSecOps development practices, as well as certifications such as ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus. For this service, we incorporated several methods for ensuring security, including regular, automatic checks for security vulnerabilities at multiple operational levels.

Another significant priority was privacy; emphasis was placed on protecting users’ personal data, building trust and ensuring compliance with legal standards and best practice. For example, the app requires users to consent to data collection for advertising purposes, as has been the case since Apple introduced iOS14. We developed additional privacy measures, including making sure there were options for users to reject all ads and updated the app’s privacy policy to reflect data processing and user consent requirements.

The team also implemented automated monitoring tools to automatically detect missing data and notify the team of any reported issues.

Conclusion

Our partnership with Made Tech and the Met Office demonstrates the strength of a collaborative, agile and quality-focused approach to developing public sector mobile apps. By combining deep technical expertise, strong accessibility practices and a commitment to security and privacy, Calvium has helped to maintain and evolve two national apps, used and trusted by millions.