[donaltroddyn]

I wasn't sure whether to remove that as a gratuitous adjective. Even without that claim, it's an interesting development, especially as the app cost only €850k.

In contrast, our nearest neighbour scrapped their app last month after spending over £11MM (~€12MM) and are now rebuilding on the Apple/Google API: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53095336

The code is already up on GitHub: https://github.com/HSEIreland

[ericlewis]

I worked on this project a bit and have a deep understanding of how it went about, though, I am not sure how much I can talk about that.

edit: I guess what can be said was it was a highly efficient project, and there weren't so many fingers in the development pot so to say.

[donaltroddyn]

Thanks for working on this.

[ericlewis]

Appreciated, I did very small bits.

[Kinrany]

Is this HN-speak for "it was a clusterfuck and there were too many stakeholders with incompatible requirements"?

[a_paddy]

You can check the GitHub but it looks like there were only a max of 3 devs involved https://github.com/hseireland/

[ericlewis]

That isn’t exactly accurate but yeah- it was the work of just a few. Some of us were brought in to help with certain details.

Edit: the github history here is what probably happened after they cleaned it up and open sourced it. Which isn’t uncommon I think.

[ericlewis]

To add on, these core 3 people really were the folks who did majority of the work.

[IncRnd]

It sounded like the opposite of what you wrote.

[Kinrany]

Yes, but given the previous phrase:

> I am not sure how much I can talk about that

it genuinely seemed like it might be a way to list the problems without saying that there were problems.

I'm sorry that it seemed like I'm attacking the GP. I did not intend to, but I also knowingly ignored this interpretation, because wording is hard

[ericlewis]

I didn’t mean it that way, I’m just not sure how much I could talk about it. For one, because I was involved but only so much. And two, because it’s not really my thing to talk about per se.

As for problems, not really any problems. It was quite straight forward. I’m just not sure my company would appreciate me speaking on their behalf about details.

Edit: but I can answer like, general technical details and things like that.

[Sephiroth87]

I wouldn't put the focus on it being ONLY 850k, that seems a competent price, I would really like to know how in the world they spent 11M on the uk one...

[Someone]

I don’t know specifics about the UK version, but most of those costs likely weren’t on the app proper. They did run a field test, for example.

For comparison, the German version cost millions, too. That included multi-language support, setting up help lines, security evaluation, load testing millions of concurrent users and, IIRC, connecting to quite a few of different hospital computer systems.

Add in time pressure, and costs go up. Germany did get a quality system, judging by what the spokesman for the Chaos Computer Club said (paraphrasing: ‘we have the unfamiliar problem that there is so little to complain about’. They never endorse stuff, so that’s about as endorsing as their statements can get)

[donaltroddyn]

It also includes the DPIA, which in itself can be an expensive process. There was a lot of concern/press in Ireland pre-release about the privacy implications of the app. It's hot on the heels of a "mandatory but not compulsory" national ID card fiasco that was determined to be unlawful by the privacy regulator last year: https://www.thejournal.ie/psc-no-legal-basis-4766822-Aug2019...

[ericlewis]

You’re not wrong.

[ericlewis]

We ran a field test too. But again; I probably can’t talk about that much. Sorry. If you have more in depth technical questions I might be able to answer them.

[addicted]

That’s like 4 SV devs working a year.

And just in salaries, not including payroll taxes, office space, admins, QAs, etc.

850k sounds eminently reasonable for such an undertaking in such a short period of time.

[Sephiroth87]

That's what I'm saying, it's the 11M that's not reasonable...

[addicted44]

I wasn't intending on disputing your statement but merely adding to it. Apologies if it came across that way.

[ericlewis]

We had a team of great devs and designers who worked on this. What most would consider “par for the course” in relation to an MVP startup for instance.

[ericlewis]

this is the first I have learned about its price, and I will say- that seems about right given the resources.