COVID-Safe Contact Tracing Application

GoSource partnered on the rapid delivery of the COVID-Safe back-end administration portal, enabling Australian contact tracing teams to operate at national scale during the pandemic.

Challenge

COVID-19 triggered a series of urgent regulatory responses in a context of limited information and rapidly changing priorities. In mid-March 2020, the Department of Home Affairs needed a means to manage self-quarantine of international arrivals. When the Australian border was subsequently closed and managed quarantine established, priorities shifted from quarantine management to contact tracing. The collaborative approach and rapid delivery demonstrated by AWS and GoSource on the initial quarantine prototype provided the confidence to keep the same team focused on the new problem, even as responsibility moved from Home Affairs to the Department of Health and the Digital Transformation Agency.

Solution

Since COVID was not a problem unique to Australia, the team first surveyed reusable international solutions. The Singapore government’s BlueTTrace framework was selected as the basis for the Australian solution. The Singapore platform comprised two separate native applications (Android and iOS) to maximise access to underlying hardware features such as the Bluetooth radio.

The delivery team was expanded to include CSIRO and other commercial partners who brought specific strengths. GoSource switched focus to the back-end administration portal for contact tracing officers and implemented a 24/7 delivery capability using staff from its European region. The customer team was strengthened with assistance from the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). Stand-ups were run twice daily to maintain pace.

Unlike the front-end app (a customised version of the Singapore solution), the back-end administration portal was designed and built from scratch by AWS and GoSource in record time to coincide with the release of the mobile app.

Outcomes

• Rapid delivery: Working prototype delivered within weeks; fully tested, security-hardened production system released to Apple and Android app stores before the end of April 2020
• Mass adoption: Approximately 5 million downloads within the first week, making COVID-Safe the most popular app in Australia at the time
• 24/7 delivery model: Successfully demonstrated a round-the-clock development capability using geographically distributed teams
• Multi-party collaboration: Established a replicable collaboration model for fast and effective delivery by a diverse group of partners (GoSource, AWS, CSIRO, ACSC, and others) across multiple government agencies (Home Affairs, Health, DTA)
• New benchmark for delivery speed: Set a new benchmark for the speed of delivery of a production-ready government system

Technologies & Methods

• BlueTTrace framework (Singapore open-source contact tracing protocol)
• Native Android and iOS mobile applications (front-end, delivered by partners)
• Custom back-end administration portal (GoSource and AWS)
• AWS Cloud infrastructure
• Agile delivery (twice-daily stand-ups, rapid iteration)
• 24/7 distributed delivery model (Australian and European teams)
• Security hardening with ACSC collaboration

Team Size

Multi-party team across GoSource, AWS, CSIRO, ACSC, and other commercial partners (GoSource contributed back-end development resources across Australian and European time zones)

Ethical Considerations

The COVID-Safe app was developed in direct response to a public health emergency, with the goal of protecting the Australian community through effective contact tracing. Privacy considerations were central to the design, with the Bluetooth-based approach chosen to minimise location data collection. The project required balancing urgency of delivery with security hardening and privacy safeguards, achieved through ACSC involvement and rigorous testing prior to public release.