Request
Please could you tell me the total cost incurred, so far, in creating the document upload system called Transfer Digital Records (TDR) which The National Archive is building in-house as described here: https://www.dpconline.org/blog/wdpd/wdpd2021-arnold
Please include the total employment costs for all internal and external staff providing any work or assistance with the project, including (but not limited to) software engineers, user designers, testers, architects, data analysts, researchers, project managers, and also support roles such as team leaders and managers. Where someone isn’t working full time on the project, their costs can be assigned pro-rata, approximately if necessary.
Please also include any costs for purchasing software licences and support, engaging external consultants, testers, reviewers, assessors or specialists, and other expenses such as travel.
Please include costs from the beginning of the project, which I believe will date from at least 2019 if not earlier.
I don’t need a breakdown of these costs, just a single £ figure will suffice.
Outcome
Information provided
Response
The TDR product was developed between April 2021 and March 2023. The capital costs recorded for Beta development during the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years amounts to £991,004.56. This covers all aspects of development, including staff, software, infrastructure, external consultants and testing. The data we hold for the 2022/23 financial year also includes the cost of operation and maintenance, alongside development costs. We do not hold data on the specific amount spent on development during this financial year.
Prior to April 2021, we carried out exploratory, scoping and prototyping work (including stakeholder engagement, process analysis, product Discovery and Alpha phases, user research). We do not hold a figure for the cost of this work.
Please note that the TDR project has continued to incur costs since March 2023. We have interpreted your request as one for financial data up until the end of Beta development; the point at which a viable product was created.