That’s not how agile software development works!
One week after the start of the digital driver’s license in Germany, the ID wallet app flew out of the app stores. The developers had relied on agile software development – but apparently made a few mistakes.
The federal government presented a first version of a digital driver’s license on Thursday. The digital identification document is saved in an app called the ID wallet. The ID wallet app is intended to act as a kind of digital wallet and make it possible to manage and use digital evidence on the smartphone. In addition to the digital driver’s license, since last week it has also been possible to have a so-called basic ID created from essential data on the identity card and to save this in the app as digital proof of identity. A digital identity card is to follow.
The problem with the app: It hardly works. Reports from users: According to the app, the app crashes as soon as it is opened, delighted with an animated loading screen or various, quite creative error messages. Even those who manage to store a basic ID or driver’s license in the app against all odds, have little of it. So far, the digital document has apparently not been accepted either in a police check or in a driver’s license test as part of a vehicle rental process. IT security experts also point this out in social networksthat the app has security flaws. The consequence: the ID wallet app for the digital driver’s license has been flying out of the app stores since Wednesday.
Tobias Plate, head of the Digital State Department in the Federal Chancellery, previously responded to the criticism with a tweet in which he wrote that the publication of the app in its current state was intentional. You can rely on agile software development and the principle #FailFastFailOften:
According to Redhat agile software development is about “making small parts of functional software available quickly in order to improve customer satisfaction. These methods use adaptive approaches and teamwork for continuous improvement. Agile software development normally takes place in small, self-organizing teams of developers and company representatives who meet in person at regular intervals throughout the software development cycle. An agile concept tries to welcome changes at any point in the software cycle instead of rejecting them. “
At first there is nothing wrong with this methodology. However, it assumes that a product is already fundamentally functional. However, whether the principle really means to start a half-cooked, barely functional product, which according to an initial analysis by experts also apparently has security deficiencies, to store such sensitive data in its current state can certainly be questioned. Fundamental, gross errors in design, functionality and security concept should, if possible, be corrected in an earlier phase in the software development cycle, and not after a product has already been delivered. Ironing them out afterwards goes beyond the provision of small features.
It can also be questioned why the development of the app – unlike that of the Corona warning app – was not or was not accompanied by the Federal Office for Information Security why their source code is not under a common OSS license was published – or why, with Digital Enabling GmbH, a company was entrusted with its development that no one had known before, that was only entered in the commercial register on April 11, 2021 and whose only product is the ID wallet app.
