Service assessments

What to expect

Find out what happens before, during and after a service assessment, including the kind of questions your team will be asked.

Before an assessment

If your assessment is organised by the Ministry of Defence, you’ll be invited to meet the assessment panel before your assessment.

The panel might also share some recommendations with you in areas like technology, content and accessibility.

Ask for specific feedback

The panel is there to help your team in all areas of research, design and delivery.

Identify the things you need the most help with and tell the organiser or panel members before your assessment.

For example, you might want to know if there are existing patterns you can reuse or how other services manage SECRET information.

What you should be doing at each phase

Remind your team what they should be doing in your phase of delivery to meet the GOV.UK Service Standard.

Check how to apply the GOV.UK Service Standard in Defence.

You can also check GOV.UK guidance on what to do during:

Who needs to be at the assessment

Make sure the right people from your team are available for the assessment.

Who needs to be there depends on your service and the phase you are in. You’ll get advice when you book your assessment.

Find out more about who should attend on GOV.UK (opens in a new tab).

Questions your team will be asked

Your team will be asked different questions depending on the phase you are in.

As a team, run through example questions for:

During an assessment

Assessments are run by a panel of experienced specialists from the Defence digital community.

The panel are not there to catch you out. They will do a peer review of the work you’ve done and help you understand anything you need to change or improve.

Panels are normally made up of 4 or 5 assessors, including a:

  • lead assessor
  • user researcher
  • designer
  • technical lead

Assessments take place in person or remotely on a video call.

Who can observe assessments

Any team members who are not presenting to the panel, should join your assessment as observers. People training to be service assessors might also observe your assessment.

During an assessment, observers do not ask questions or give feedback.

After an assessment

Your service will be assessed as met or not met.

A met means that the service can continue to the next phase of development.

A not met means the service needs to be reassessed against the points the service did not meet.

You’ll get a report with your result and any recommendations within 5 working days of your assessment.

Assessment reports

For openness, all assessment reports are published online.

You might find it useful to see what is covered in previous assessment reports.

You can check:

Applying the GOV.UK Service Standard in Defence
More guidance on assessments on GOV.UK (opens in a new tab)

Published March 2023