Embedding new capabilities for the Parliamentary Digital Service

Tender description

Summary of the work Help us develop new ways of working and to establish and scale product teams. Help to stimulate the creative process, provide leadership, challenge and quickly integrate with our product teams to help us embed new agile and lean working practices and lead and inspire small teams to rapidly deliver. Latest start date 29/07/2016 Budget Range There is a fixed cost budget of £100,000.00 (exclusive of VAT) – this is inclusive of all travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses. Why the Work is Being Done PDS was established just over 1 year ago to lead on digital at Parliament. Our vision is excellent digital services for a modern Parliament. PDS has gone through a large review and restructure and is now embedding new teams. The Digital Development team is one directorate within this structure, with a goal to build and develop a digital delivery capability to meet user needs and establish UK Parliament as a digital leader. Teams include: • Data & Search • Business Applications • Development • Content • User Research & Design The work is to be completed by 31st March 2017. Problem to Be Solved We’re looking for a supplier to: • Partner with us to develop new capabilities and help to establish and scale product teams. • Stimulate the creative process, provide leadership and quickly integrate with our product teams to help us embed new agile/lean working practices. • Lead, challenge and inspire small teams to rapidly deliver. • Help us demonstrate to users that we can deliver value at pace, using modern and sophisticated techniques. We're open to different approaches, but providing embedded active group work and non-classroom based training have worked previously. Some people may also benefit from a more individual approach. Who Are the Users As a member of the Digital Development Team, I need to build upon my skills and capability in the following areas: • Creative problem-solving • Prototyping & experimentation • User centred design and user research techniques • Product-based planning, prioritisation and road-mapping • Scoping and estimating • Agile practice and culture (at scale) • Engaging confidently and persuasively with non-digital stakeholders. This is so that I grow in confidence and deliver to my full potential, and help to demonstrate to our users both internally and externally that Digital Service can deliver real value at pace. Existing Team We are working towards cross functional product teams working at pace, using agile and user-centric methods. Teams will include a mix of people and roles (business analyst or delivery manager). Teams are building upon new and existing capabilities. Examples of work: Redevelop http://www.parliament.uk/. Our Alpha phase started 1 April and will complete in the summer. First sections of the new site live by March 2017. Delivering a data strategy to ensure digital services are data driven, findable and re‐usable. September 2017. Business application teams are working on new and existing applications mainly for our procedural and library areas within Parliament. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Have experience of facilitating the delivery of products at pace - 3% • Have experience of agile and LEAN practice and culture (at scale) - 3% • Have experience of user research and design - 3% • Be experienced facilitators to aid creativity and problem solving - 4% • Have experience of delivering coaching and training - 4% • Have experience of leading and inspiring teams - 4% Nice to Haves • Provide training certificates/accreditation from the Institute of Leadership and Management (https://www.i-l-m.com) - 1% • Provide training certificates/accreditation from the Knowledge Management Institute (http://www.kminstitute.org) - 1% • Provide training certificates/accreditation from APMG international training accreditation (http://www.apmg-international.com/en/home.aspx) - 1% • Provide training certificates/accreditation from NEF – The Innovation Institute - 1% • Provide training certificates/accreditation from the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange - 1% Work Location We would primarily like the supplier to work with us onsite at Westminster (7 Millbank, Westminster House, London, SW1P 3JA). Therefore any staff you propose for this engagement will be required to go through our security clearance process. We are also open to some work taking place offsite at supplier premises. Working Arrangments Working arrangements will depend on the approach proposed by the supplier. We want the supplier to be visibly working with us in our teams in our offices. Security Clearance All staff that you propose for this engagement will be required to go through our security clearance process. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 6 Proposal Criteria • The proposed approach and methodology - 3% • How the approach meets our business needs - 3% • Estimated timeframes to deliver this approach - 2% • Value for money - 3% • Team structure and organisational framework - 3% Cultural Fit Criteria • Works responsively to understands users’ needs - 4% • Transparent, open and inclusive when making decisions - 4% • Works in a faster, smarter way to improve the way they do things - 4% • Works efficiently to improve the way they do things and to save cost - 4% • Work collaboratively to achieve goals and priorities - 4% Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 40% Cultural fit 20% Price 40% Questions from Suppliers 1. Are you looking to coach your PDS customers (i.e. end-users of your service) as well as the digital team? This is not in the scope of the work, although we do invite our customers to come and be part of our product teams and therefore they will probably be influenced by the work the chosen supplier delivers. 2. Do you see this purely as a consulting piece, or are you looking for a supplier to collaborate in the delivery of exemplar projects? It is a training and leadership piece. We are looking for a supplier that can embed themselves into our teams and provide challenge and leadership at whatever stage of delivery and help us embed new agile/lean working practices. 3. Do you have a supplier team size and roles in mind? No, we are looking for the supplier to provide a proposed approach and team size. 4. Is the scope of this engagement focused on delivering coaching & training or are you including developing a capability strategy and plan? It is a training and leadership piece. We are looking for a supplier that can embed themselves into our product teams and provide challenge and leadership at whatever stage of delivery and help us embed new agile/lean working practices. 5. Have any milestones or deliverables for these services been defined? If so, please can you share them? Services will need to be delivered by March 31st 2017. No specific milestones have been defined. 6. How many of your stakeholders have already got a deep digital background (lean delivery, user-centred research, data science, development etc.)? The digital service is a new service. After staff workshops on our strategy and vision, it became clear that the majority of staff would like support developing in the following areas: problem solving, prototyping and experimentation, user research and design, product planning, agile practise and culture, scoping and estimating and engaging confidently with non-digital stakeholders. There are approximately 60 people in the Digital Development Team. 7. Your success criteria weighting seems somewhat granular - and would appear to only add up to 60% - can you please clarify or confirm if this an error? The technical competence and cultural fit account for 40% and 20% of the evaluation criteria respectively, with price accounting for the remaining 40%. Within these headings, sub-criteria sits underneath. 8. Can you explain the rationale behind the weighting and choice of accreditation organisations you have listed in 'nice-to-have' criteria? None of these bodies specialises in Agile/LEAN coaching or User Centred Design - so it is unlikely that leading companies in either field will have these awards. There are also plenty of other bodies which offer coaching and training accreditation not mentioned here? We made a decision based on researching a number of accreditation bodies who specialised in several areas that we have listed as problems to be solved; these include innovation/creativity, leadership and embedding new ways of working, as well as the specialisms referred to in the question. Our intention was that this ‘nice-to-have criteria’ would only be used for shortlisting, but the guidance is that a weighting must be attached. We have therefore gone for the lowest weighting possible, and would like to reiterate that having the listed accreditation is not essential for a supplier to be awarded the contract. 9. In regard to the previous question re accreditation organisations posted by another supplier, you have replied, "Our intention was that this ‘nice-to-have criteria’ would only be used for shortlisting....". This deeply concerns us and we echo the point that organisations who specialise in providing the ESSENTIAL criteria will unlikely have any of your nice-to-have criteria. We would strongly request not shortlisting suppliers based on your nice-to-have criteria and using the skills evidence templates as the basis to achieve a shortlist of 6 suppliers. Can this be considered? If a shortlisting process is required, we will use the process in accordance with the guidance on the Digital Marketplace website. 10. Regarding the various training certificates/accreditation that are under "nice-to-have", they name the accrediting organisation but not the actual certificates. Which certificates are they referring to? We are not prescriptive on the actual certificates and/or accreditation obtained by the accrediting organisations – any evidence of training courses completed or certificates/accreditation obtained through the organisations listed can be provided as evidence. 11. Do you anticipate that the supplier’s staff will be required every day, or on an as-needed basis? We want suppliers to be present and working within our teams as much as possible providing challenge, guidance and leadership but ultimately the working arrangements will depend on the approach proposed by the supplier. 12. Regarding the nice-to-have criteria which states "provide training certificates/accreditation from <various organisations>", it is our interpretation you wish the supplier to be accredited with one or more of the listed organisations so the supplier can provide accredited training as part of the services. The training accreditation organisations you have listed offer several training certifications. For example, APMG offer a wide range of training certifications, many of which are likely not relevant to this opportunity. Which specific training certifications from the organisations listed do you require the supplier to be accredited to deliver? We are not prescriptive on the actual certificates and/or accreditation obtained by the accrediting organisations – any evidence of training courses completed or certificates/accreditation obtained through the organisations listed can be provided. 13. Will there be a supplier briefing/teleconference for this opportunity? There are currently no plans to hold a supplier briefing/teleconference, as we are yet to shortlist to 6 suppliers as stated in our published requirements. At the evaluation stage, it is proposed that suppliers will be invited to meet the Parliamentary Digital Service to present and then discuss their proposal. 14. Has the Parliamentary Digital Service done a similar project before? We ran a two-day rapid prototyping event, with a supplier from the G-Cloud framework. The supplier facilitated the event, and participants got from 17 potential ideas to just 2. The point of the exercise was not only to make tangible progress on ideas, but to also look at new collaborative, agile and lean ways of working from which confidence in the ability of digital to achieve change grows. We maintained momentum with the two ideas with Parliamentary colleagues and facilitators from the supplier. For more information on our work, please go to pds.blog.parliament and filter by the category Digital Engagement. 15. The responses to 10 and 12 are not answering our intended question. To re-phrase, do you require suppliers, as a nice-to-have, to be able to deliver certified training from APMG, KMI, ILM, etc, to you? If so, please clarify what training courses from APMG, KMI, ILM, you require the suppliers to evidence they can deliver. The existing responses to 10 and 12 do not answer the above question, so please don't repeat it again. We apologise if you feel this question has not been answered previously. To be clear, as a nice to have we are asking suppliers to list any training certificates or accreditation they have received from the 5 bodies listed; we are not specifying the certificates or accreditation achieved, just asking suppliers to list them if they have any. As nice to have criteria, it is more about evidence of the skills of the employees from the supplier, and what they can offer; it does not automatically mean the supplier will be required to deliver training courses from these bodies. 16. In regard to questions 10,12 and 15, you have stated, " it is more about evidence of the skills of the employees from the supplier, and what they can offer; it does not automatically mean the supplier will be required to deliver training courses from these bodies." Thank you for that clarification which is a critical difference. It's unfortunate a supplier teleconference was not held which could have cleared this up a lot quicker. We therefore understand the nice-to-have questions are applicable to our planned team members and whether they hold the stated certifications/accreditation. If not please advise. We were not able to arrange a supplier teleconference due to the short notice of the request and availability of key staff. To reiterate, the nice-to-have questions are applicable to planned team members and whether they hold the stated certifications/accreditation, and also whether the organisation itself holds any of the stated certifications/accreditation.