Product owner for digital apprenticeship service (SFADAS03-01)

Tender description

Summary of the work The SFA require a product owner to lead a multi-disciplinary team to deliver a digital service in a fast-paced agile environment. The right candidate will be led by user needs, experienced in agile methodologies and able to deliver to the Government digital service standard. Specialist role Product manager Latest start date 29/07/2016 Who Speclialist Work With The Product Owner will work as part of a SCRUM team composed of team members from multiple suppliers and civil servants. What Specialists Work On 1. You will be a product owner responsible for the creation, prioritisation, and updating of a product backlog for a digital payments service. 2. You will undertake knowledge transfer, coaching and mentoring a civil servant assigned to shadow you as a product owner. Skills & Experience • Have substantial experience of product ownership, with proven ability to understand user and government needs and convert them into a product vision, goals, and backlog • Provide a clear vision and set the direction for an agile team • Have substantial experience of working in a multidisciplinary team in an agile development environment, and therefore at ease with rapidly changing deadlines, workloads and goals • Encourage a culture of innovation focused on adding value – give people space to think creatively • Spot warning signs of things going wrong and provide a decisive response to significant delivery challenges • Bring together views and perspectives of stakeholders to gain a wider picture of the landscape surrounding activities and policies • Confidently engage with stakeholders and colleagues at all levels to generate commitment to goals • Actively involve partners to deliver a business outcome through collaboration that achieves better results for users • Clarifiy business priorities, roles and responsibilities and secure individual and team ownership • Has been responsible for delivery and ongoing product management of high quality, digital products • Demonstrable knowledge and passion for user centred design practices for public facing and internal services and applications • Able to understand user needs by analysing user research findings and analytics data. Confident in writing user stories to meet those needs • Understand how a digital service should address the needs of all possible users so that no one is excluded, with particular reference to accessibility and assisted digital • Exceptional skills in convincing people that user needs should guide how the product backlog is shaped. Pragmatic approach to balancing user needs with government needs • Ensure that individual and organisational learning and talent development opportunities are fully exploited in order to enhance organisational capability Nice to Haves • Experience of working on UK central government services • Strong understanding of the Government Digital Service Standard and Service Manual • Experience with legacy systems integration • Experience building digital services for banking or financial sector Work Location Skills Funding Agency, Cheylesmore House, 5 Quinton Road, Coventry CV1 2WT, with occasional travel to other locations nationwide. Working Arrangments Full-time with the majority of the time working co-located with the rest of the team at the SFA offices in Coventry. Occasional travel to other BIS or SFA (or partner organisation) offices may be required, subject to SFA travel and subsistence policy. This programme is being delivered using agile methodologies. Successful application of agile principles and techniques requires that the teams are co-located and able to work directly with colleagues representing digital delivery, operational and policy requirements. Security Clearance The successful supplier must be able to demonstrate that he/she has been subject to Baseline Personnel Security Standards checks as set out in the SFA Baseline Security Policy 2014. Additional T&Cs Standard DOS framework and call-off terms and conditions. Expenses as per the SFA travel and subsistence policy. No. of Specialists to Evaluate 3 Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrate commitment to excellence and improvement, for example through seeking actionable feedback, setting targets etc. • Show a commitment to ensuring a team understands the user need over simply delivering work • Transparent and collaborative when making decisions and recommendations • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes • Demonstrate courage (for example, express controversial views, confront reality, make tough decisions, question actions inconsistent with group behaviours, candid about progress/estimates) • Demonstrate vulnerability (for example, declare uncertainty, fear, recognise mistakes, apologise, acknowledge weaknesses) • Demonstrate responsibility (for example, act like a leader, serve your team, provide solutions to problems, engage in external/internal environments, seek the best for the organisation beyond your team) • Demonstrate simplicity (for example, take simple steps to goals, do less but better, mitigate failures, talk straight with respect) • Demonstrate excellence (for example, seek actionable feedback, set challenging targets, know users, deliver cost effective high level customer satisfaction) • Demonstrate enthusiasm (for example, bring whole self to work, celebrate success, share passion and energy with others, optimistic) Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. We note no maximum day rate is stated however can you advise of a target rate range? We are looking for a supplier that can provide a competitive rate and value for money. Ideally, we would expect a day rate of less than £1,000. 2. If the specialist is not located within commuting distance of Coventry, should the day rate include travel expenses to/from Coventry or will these be covered under the SFA travel and subsistence policy? All supplier resources will be required to be based out of the Coventry SFA offices. As such, travel and subsistence to the base location is not covered by expenses. If the specialist is not located within commuting distance day rates should be inclusive of any costs of travelling to and working from the base location. However, the cost of travel to other locations while performing SFA work will be covered as per the SFA travel and subsistence policy and will need to be invoiced by the supplier with supporting receipts. 3. What is the expected contract length? The call off contract will be in place for 24 months. We will commission work using Statements of Work (SOWs) for the actual durations required. We expect to need to commission a minimum of 6 months. 4. You're asking for "Experience with legacy systems integration". Can you expand on the amount of experience, the type of systems and what you're integrating with/into? Thanks Delivery of the digital apprenticeship service will require a significant amount of integration work with existing funding and contracting, data collection, payment, management information reporting and ID assurance systems. The PO will work with a technical team so the actual experience does not need to be technical but more about understanding requirements and how these can be delivered either using existing systems or building new systems. The PO must be able to work with technical/architecture teams and know from whom/when/how to seek advice. 5. Can you clarify, what percentage split, you’d like to see between the 2 following Nice To Have’s.. "Experience of working on UK central government services" "Experience building digital services for banking or financial sector" Which of the two, would you like more recent experience of ? A 50/50 split would be ideal but all experience will be considered, ideally within the last 5 to 10 years (the more recent the better). 6. What is the likely duration that the Product Owner will be required for? The call off contract will be in place for 24 months. We will commission work using Statements of Work (SOWs) for the actual durations required. We expect to need to commission a minimum of 6 months. 7. Could we ask what the possibilities are of the Product Owner working 1 or 2 days remotely per week? Working 1 or 2 days per week offsite is possible. This will be discussed and agreed upfront based on the person’s experience. 8. Is the Skills Funding Agency expecting the Product Owner to act as a proxy Product Owner representing the real Product Owner on a day to day basis or they you expecting the individual to take on the full role of a Product Owner The individual will be expected to take on the full PO role. He/she will work closely with subject matter experts from the business. 9. Where the requirements state “Spot warning signs…” bullet 5, “Responsible for Delivery…” bullet 10 plus experience with legacy systems and integrations … this infers that there is some accountabilities typically associated with a Delivery Manager… can you explain how this dovetails with the Delivery Manager role? Thanks This is a classic product owner role working alongside a delivery manager. 10. We note the requirement states, "You will undertake knowledge transfer, coaching and mentoring a civil servant assigned to shadow you as a product owner." Will the specialist transition their role to the civil servant over a period of time or is this to enable the civil servant to be the Product Owner for another team? We want to make sure that permanent staff have the capability and knowledge to work on digital products and services in the future. It's not necessarily intended that the role will be handed directly to a permanent member of staff. The intention is for the knowledge transfer, coaching and mentoring to be part of their overall development. 11. “The call off contract will be in place for 24 months. We will commission work using Statements of Work (SOWs) for the actual durations required". After the first SOW is completed, will the call-off contract allow for a different specialist with equivalent skills and experience to deliver any subsequent SOWs? Or must it always be the same specialist for the whole 24 months? Under the terms of the framework there is provision for a supplier to swap, for this role we would allow a supplier to swap after an agreed period, e.g. after an initial 6 month period, to be discussed and agreed. 12. “The call off contract will be in place for 24 months. We will commission work using Statements of Work (SOWs) for the actual durations required. We expect to need to commission a minimum of 6 months". Is the first SOW expected to start on 29/7/16 or is that only the start of the call-off contract, and the first SOW could be later? We will commission the first SOW as soon as the new contract is in place, currently expected from mid to end July.