Over the coming months, we will move into the next phase of the programme, leading to the connection of our early participants (pension providers, schemes and integrated service providers (ISPs)) to the pensions dashboards ecosystem. There are a few important steps along the way to reach this point.
Testing the CDA and connecting non-commercial providers
Now the central digital architecture (CDA) is complete, we will start to test it with real pensions data, which will be a significant moment for the programme. Our two non-commercial providers, the State Pension and the MoneyHelper dashboard, built by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), will be connected to the test environment in the autumn. This will involve a supported walkthrough to connect the State Pension and the MaPS dashboard, proving the connection processes.
Testing for early participants
Next, our early participants, who have volunteered to help us test and develop the service, will begin testing and working towards completing their connection journey in the new year. We will be providing participants with a test harness, that enables them to do automated testing to check whether their APIs work. This supports the testing of their own build activity prior to integration with the ecosystem. Early participants will need to validate that it is secure and will meet the needs of dashboard users.
Joining the live environment
Once early participants have completed their connection journey, they will be able to go through service acceptance into live.
The early participants will play an essential part in the process of preparing for compulsory staging, when pension providers and schemes will start to connect to dashboards in the order specified by the regulations and rules. Their experiences will feed into the development of the connection process and will help improve the experience for the rest of the pensions industry.
We want to thank the volunteer pension providers, schemes and integrated service providers (ISPs) for their contribution to the programme. To receive updates about our programme, sign up to our newsletter.