Mini-Competitions Closed: Ten Development Teams Working on “Mein Bildungsraum”
The first components of the network infrastructure for education - announced as the “National Education Platform” - are due to be developed to minimal viable product (MVP) status by the end of September. To achieve this goal, a total of six mini-competitions have been organised under the dynamic procurement system (DPS) and nine development teams have been commissioned.
The resulting agile development teams develop five technical components to clearly demonstrate the functional scope: Digital Identities, Digital Certificates, Wallet, Data Space and the Showroom. These components form the basis of the network infrastructure. They will initially be used to implement six prioritised scenarios, including associated use cases, and to test the connectivity of initial digital education offerings. An additional development team has been contracted through an existing framework agreement, bringing the total number of teams working on the MVP to ten.
One of these teams acts as an integration team, supporting the developers with cross-sectional, testing and connecting tasks. It also supports the implementation of the technical components and networking of around 40 future funding projects that are in the implementation phase since the second half of 2022. Services are funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility.
A look behind the scenes: The “Wallet” development teams
Some of the development teams for the digital wallet of the network infrastructure have been active since November 2022. Their aim is to enable users to manage and share their personal data and educational records (e.g. learning progress and certificates) in a self-sovereign and end-to-end encrypted manner. After successful technical, functional and administrative familiarisation with the project, the development of the wallet functionalities based on the open source solution Enmeshed began.
One of the two teams is focussing on the wallet app, which is installed directly on the user's end device. The existing user interface of the app was analysed in a comprehensive evaluation and the switch to a different front-end technology (Flutter) was accompanied. In addition, based on an external and internal evaluation, improvement strategies were developed to adapt the app design and the connector, and a survey was designed with the funded projects. One of the goals for the next few months is to redesign the entire user interface of the app based on the selected front-end technology and the evaluation results, and to further extend the functionality of the app. The selected technologies offer maximum flexibility by allowing the education community to build their own wallet app. This promotes independence and innovation in the education sector.
The dynamic procurement system at a glance
Dynamics has proved its worth. After more than ten months of practice in six mini-competitions, the procedure has proved to be a suitable procurement tool for the efficient procurement of the modular components of the network infrastructure. The variety of companies that have been awarded contracts also shows that a wide range of bidders, from small to large companies, both domestic and international, have been approached.
