In October 2015, Azeus UK was appointed by a consortium including the UK and Scottish Parliaments and led by The Stationery Office (TSO, one of the UK’s largest publishers by volume), to provide software development services and develop a browser based tool for drafting and amendment of legislation. This is the first phase of a high profile project that involves the UK Government, the UK Parliament, the House of Lords, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament.

The existing legislation drafting practice involves producing bills and amendments with the use of Microsoft Word or Adobe FrameMaker, and collaboration and workflow are achieved via shared drives and emails. The project is building an XML-based editing tool that lies within an associated case management system that is available in the cloud and can be used through a browser.

Not only did Azeus UK provide software development services, but also Scrum agile development expertise and Scrum Master resource to the project, who was responsible for successful delivery of software across all partners of the consortium. The project and development has been successfully carried out using the Scrum agile development methodology.

In early September 2016, the minimum viable product of the legislation drafting and amendment tool had already been completed. Azeus has successfully finished this stage of the project which is a pure development phase.

The Parliaments will take a decision as to when they want to move into a production phase, and before that, there will be a pre-production stage. Azeus is looking forward to providing further services for the UK and Scottish Governments and Parliaments.