3 Developers

Tender description

Summary of the work The Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) Reform Project is looking for 3 highly skilled developers to support the iterative design and build of the technical architecture for the vehicle first registration service, increase digital service integration, develop internal/external web and API based channels and promote the use of open source/standard products. Expected Contract Length 03/02/2017 Latest start date 29/08/2016 Budget Range Max £750 per day rate Why the Work is Being Done DVLA’s Architects Community has spent a significant amount of effort formalising the application architecture to be used to replace legacy systems. The ‘proof of concept’ testing of the architecture has been achieved and the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) reform announced in Summer ’15 provides a great opportunity to facilitate the transformation of existing ‘legacy’ first registration services to more flexible and responsive technologies. This project forms a significant part of DVLA’s strategic direction in terms of satisfying the VED reform commitments as well as facilitating the future delivery of user focused services and more timely policy implementation. Problem to Be Solved To date project has been successful in evolving the target architecture, defining the appropriate development processes within the VED reform team and familiarising the combined in-house and external development team with the agreed architectural approach and ways of working. While this has been successful in supporting the VED reform project to establish clear plans and an appropriate delivery mechanism, the level of expert knowledge needs to be supplemented in order to continue support the architectural development and enablement of the in-house team specifically focussing on domain driven design and the event sourcing pattern. Who Are the Users The key users of the first registration service are; • Motor manufacturers (build and sell multiple vehicles in the UK e.g. Mass produced, mass import, bespoke or multi-stage build) • Dealers/Traders (sell single or multiple new or used vehicles to customers in the UK) • Public (Import new or used vehicles into the UK and build, rebuild or restore vehicles for use on the UK road) Existing Team The successful candidate will be working within a product-centric environment utilising agile, and iterative development practices. There are currently 2 development scrum teams supported by the following roles; • Product Owner/Business SMEs • Scrum Master • Business Analysts • Interaction Designers • Developers • Testers • Domain/Solution Architects • User researchers Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Have extensive experience in domain driven design concepts and their implementation • Have extensive experience in the implementation of event sourcing patterns • Have extensive experience working on projects using open source technology within cloud hosted/virtualised environments; AWS preferred • Have ability to communicate complex technical concepts and ensure knowledge transfer to in-house development teams • Have experience building scalable server-side web applications and scaling high volume web services • Have detailed knowledge of the JAVA programming language • Have experience working with version control systems • Have experience of exposing APIs using REST • Have experience of integrating with external systems using REST • Have experience working in a continuous integration environment with tools such as Jenkins and Ansible Nice to Haves • Have knowledge of relational and non-relational database systems • Have knowledge of Java script libraries • Have system administration and configuration management skills • Have experience presenting work at user groups and agile ceremonies communicating technical concepts to a non-technical audience • To establish and drive team discussions to learn from experience and adapt organisational processes and plans • Have experience implementing monitoring solutions for developed services Work Location DVLA, Longview Road, Swansea Working Arrangments The Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) Reform Project is looking for 3 highly skilled developers who will be with the team 5 days per week. The day rate communicated excludes VAT and excludes travel and expenses which is capped at the Buyer expense policy permitted maximum. The specialists will be expected to work for 8 hours per day, 5 days a week onsite during agreed business hours. Security Clearance Disclosure Scotland (BPSS) Certificate No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 10 Proposal Criteria • Have evidence of experience defining and implementing domain driven and event sourcing solutions • Approach and methodology with particular attention to agile and collaborative delivery • How the evidence of experience aligns with DVLA’s policy, service and technology related strategic goals • Value for money in comparison to technical competence Cultural Fit Criteria • Experience working as part of an agile software delivery team, embracing collaborative working practices and contributing to a shared team goal • Supporting enablement of in-house development capabilities, engaging with staff and creating an environment of knowledge sharing Payment Approach Capped time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Please note that our start date has changed from 23/09/16 to 23/08/16 The latest start date for this requirement is published as 29.08.2016. Can you please clarify what your statement above means? 2. How many members are there in each of the existing 2 development scrum teams? There are currently 18 team members in the Transform Scrum and 11 team members in the MVP Scrum 3. Which version control system(s) are you using? Bitbucket, GitHub 4. Do the teams that the 3 developers will work in currently include both in-house and external staff? Yes, there are both in-house and external staff within the teams 5. If the teams that the 3 developers will work in include external representatives, how many different organisations are represented? There are approximately six external organisations represented 6. If the teams that the 3 developers will work in include external representatives, which organisations are represented? There are approximately six external organisations represented 7. Is the current project agile method "pure" Scrum? If not, please could you provide more information about the project method? A blend of Scrum and KANBAN methods are currently used 8. Please can you provide any additional information on the DVLA's policy, service and technology related strategic goals? Presumably, additional detail is available to the DVLA Business Plan 2016-2017. Further information will be available on on-boarding 9. What tools do you use for team collaboration and communication? Tools used include (but not limited to) CROWD, Confluence, JIRA, HipChat, Bitbucket, Skype, email, Yammer 10. What are the anticipated service volumes that the delivered services will be required to support? The advert relates to the Development of the Service, support is not included at this stage 11. Are there any specific JavaScript libraries currently in use or planned for use in the development work (ref Nice-to-have skills and experience bullet 2)? jQuery 12. Please can you provide more detail on the desirable system administration and configuration management skills referred to in Nice-to-have skills and experience bullet 3? Ansible, Puppet