DSIT Codefest — Pathfinders Prototype

Challenge 4: Knowing Your Organisation

“The AI Programme spans 6 departments. Today it takes 2 weeks to answer a ministerial PQ about headcount and spend. Our tool answers it in 10 seconds.”

Monorepo structure

apps/
  api/          Node.js + Express — normalisation engine + REST API (port 8000)
  dashboard/    React + GOV.UK Design System + Recharts (port 3000)
packages/
  data/         Mock departmental CSV exports + field mapping configs

Quick start

# Install all dependencies
npm install
 
# Run everything in parallel (dev mode)
npm run dev

Or run individually:

# Terminal 1 — API
cd apps/api && npm start
 
# Terminal 2 — Dashboard
cd apps/dashboard && npm run dev

Then open http://localhost:3000

Turbo tasks

The demo

1. Open http://localhost:3000 → Overview + PQ Answerer
2. Type “How many civil servants are working on AI?” → 122 FTE, instant
3. Workforce tab → filter by programme → dept/grade breakdown
4. Spend tab → quarterly trend, £m breakdown by department
5. Gap Analysis tab → heatmap of under-resourced departments

The normalisation story: DSIT calls it Programme, HMRC calls it Priority_Area, DWP calls it Strategic_Objective. The tool knows they’re the same thing.