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Back Office Planning System (BOPS) Walkthrough

Step-by-step guide to exploring the Back Office Planning System (BOPS) used by UK councils

Try the Back Office Planning System (BOPS)

15 minutes to experience BOPS

Log in as a planning officer, review live applications, and see the public-facing applicants portal.
No technical knowledge required

This walkthrough guides you through BOPS as a case officer would use it. You'll log in, browse planning applications, and explore the public portal. Perfect for planning managers, digital transformation leads, and anyone evaluating BOPS.

The Back Office Planning System (BOPS) is the open-source planning case management system developed by the Open Digital Planning programme. It's used by councils including Lambeth, Southwark, and Buckinghamshire to process real planning applications.

What you'll do

In this 15-minute walkthrough, you'll:

  1. Log in as a planning officer — Find your credentials and access the BOPS dashboard (2 minutes)
  2. Browse planning applications — See 35 realistic applications across different types and statuses (4 minutes)
  3. Review an application in detail — Open an application to see the full workflow: validation, consultation, assessment (5 minutes)
  4. Explore the applicants portal — See what the public sees, with maps and consultation deadlines (4 minutes)

Before you start

Important You must have already requested the Back Office Planning System (BOPS) scenario via NDX:Try.

Deploy the BOPS scenario if you haven't already. Deployment takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Sample data check

Ready Sample data is pre-loaded and ready to use.

What you'll learn

For planning managers

  • How BOPS structures the planning application lifecycle
  • Dashboard views for case management and workload
  • The validation, consultation, assessment, determination workflow
  • What applicants see on the public portal

For technical staff

  • ECS Fargate deployment with Aurora PostgreSQL
  • Multi-service architecture (web, applicants, worker)
  • CloudFront HTTPS termination pattern
  • PostGIS spatial data and OS Maps integration

What's included

Your deployment comes pre-loaded with:

  • 35 planning applications across householder, prior approval, and lawful development types
  • 3 user roles — assessor, reviewer, and administrator
  • Varied statuses — applications at different stages from "not started" to "in assessment"
  • 10 published applications visible on the public applicants portal
  • Ordnance Survey maps showing site boundaries

Learn more about BOPS on the Open Digital Planning website

Start walkthrough

Takes approximately 15 minutes

Need help?

If you're stuck, check the troubleshooting section or contact us.