HMCTS Civil, Family and Tribunals (CFT) Projects - Development Capabilities

Tender description

Summary of the work Development capabilities for HMCTS Digital Transformation services projects within the Civil, Family and Tribunals (CFT) Programme. Expected Contract Length 2 years. First SOW will be 3 months duration. Subsequent SOWs will usually be 6 month durations Latest start date 1st December 2016 Why the Work is Being Done HMCTS is undergoing an extensive reform transformation enabled by a technology workstream. Civil, Family and Tribunals (CFT) is one of the programmes of work enabling the transformation. Current HMCTS services are typically supported by high-volume, paper based processes. The CFT Programme’s main technology objective is to develop efficient, proportionate and accessible digital services delivering access to justice via appropriate modern channels. These digital services are being developed within a coherent architecture which maximises reuse across the services. Problem to Be Solved Current HMCTS services are typically supported by high-volume, paper based processes which are expensive, subject to frequent delay and often baffling to persons without legal training. The CFT Programme is designed to develop efficient, proportionate and accessible digital services delivering access to justice via appropriate modern channels. Who Are the Users 1) As a member of the public I need to submit and track my case online, be alerted to changes in case status, and access all relevant information to enable the case to proceed efficiently. 2) As an HMCTS admin I need to track and manage the delivery of CFT services so the process is delivered efficiently 3) As a member of the judiciary, I need to access all relevant information so that I can make a judgement 4) As another government department I need to submit/transfer the relevant evidence so that HMCTS have all the relevant information Work Already Done The wider programme has undertaken extensive planning and mobilisation as part of the 6 year transformation roadmap. Four CFT projects have now started, spanning Divorce, Probate, Social Security and Child Services (not included within the scope of this tender) and Civil Money Claims. Existing Team The current projects all have teams in place. Each existing team comprises; a Delivery Manager, a Technical Lead, a Business Analyst, a User Researcher, a UX Designer, one or more developers and a QA specialist. It is expected that the successful provider will augment some of these teams (excluding SSCS which already has agreements in place) as well as providing development capabilities for new teams yet to be formed, , either to extend the capacity on existing projects, or provide the development capability for the other CFT projects due to start during 2017. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Have demonstrable experience of working in blended, multi-discipline, multi-vendor team environments focused on meeting user needs using agile methodologies and delivering digital improvement outcomes 2% • Have demonstrable experience of successfully delivering high transaction (above 100k/yr) digital services working in complex and highly regulatory environments. 2% • Have demonstrable experience of Full-Stack development; HTML5, CSS 3, SASS, Javascript, Angular, SQL, Java 8, NodeJS, Java Message Service, Spring Boot/Drop Wizard and Apache ActiveMQ, using BDD and TDD. 1% • Be capable of deploying approx 5 resources with a specialisation in front end development (using HTML5, CSS 3, SASS, Javascript, Angular) by the start of January 2017 2% • Be able to deploy approx 5 back end developers experienced in BDD/TDD (using SQL, Java8, NodeJS, Java Message Service, Apache ActiveMQ, Spring Boot, Drop Wizard), by start January 2017 2% • Demonstrable technical expertise in integration technology (API's, protocols and standards), particularly developing and maintaining micro-services architectures. 1% • Demonstrable experience of agile testing strategies, behaviour driven development (BDD), and knowledge of test automation skills. Specifically testing tools such as Junit, WebDriver 2% • Demonstrable experience of handing over working/live services to buyer teams and/or other supplier teams – e.g. supporting in developing buyer capability and capacity and maintaining an exit strategy/handover 2% • Experience developing under DevOps continuous delivery using; Azure cloud services, networking and DNS, Jenkins, Ansible, Vagrant, Shell scripting (Python, Perl, Bash), and Linux. Handing over to/and supporting operational services 2% • Have capacity to dedicate approx 24 developers (12 front-end, 12 back-end) simultaneously to the CFT programme at peak (date and duration TBD) 4% Nice to Haves • Have experience of working on migration between different cloud vendor technologies. 1% • Have experience of testing technolgies (Codecept, Mocha, Chai, WebDriver, Sinon.js, RestAssured, SuperTest, CucumberJVM, Gatling, Pa11y) and session management (preferably Redis) 1% • Be able to host one or more multi-supplier development teams at a suitable facility provided by the supplier 1% Work Location 102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ (the 'Base location', although some UK Travel may be expected) The authority may consider suppliers hosting project teams at their own premises. Any benefits offered by suppliers in this scenario should be reflected in the value for money section of the written proposal. Working Arrangments The suppliers team will initially be required to work onsite at the base location working a five (5) day week. The Service is being delivered against the GDS Service Manual (e.g. agile delivery aligned to scrum methodology). For any work performed at a location different to that of the Base location (or the supplier's own premises) and London (outside of the M25), all reasonable travel and expenses costs shall be met in accordance with the rates set out in the MoJ travel and subsistence policy. All expenses will require prior approval from HMCTS before being reimbursed. Security Clearance Baseline Personnel Security Check (BPSS) which must be dated within three months of the start date. See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-baseline-personnel-security-standard for further guidance. Additional T&Cs Any expenses shall be submitted in line with the Ministry of Justice standard Travel and Subsistence policy. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Explain your overall Development Approach and Delivery Methodology 1% • Detail your method for attracting and recruiting and/or placing high quality and appropriately skilled developers into HMCTS whilst minimising HMCTS's effort in CV sifting, interviewing and recruiting. 5% • Explain how you plan to retain key resources for the duration of the contract and how you can commit to meet HMCTS's continuous need for developers. 5% • Provide CVs for the intial proposed team including details of relevant technical skills 10% • Provide up to three (3) cases studies as detailed in the Written Proposal Template 8% • Describe your approach to adding new developers to an existing team without reducing the existing team's delivery velocity. 2% • Describe how you intend to measure and manage quality and speed of delivery teams and individuals to ensure continuous improvement 4% • Propose your approach for enabling digital teams, delivering capability and ensuring that knowedge transfer is conducted during handover of project outputs to the HMCTS BAU maintenance team. 2% • Explain the Value Proposition; value for money, how the proposal will optimise costs, and generate savings. Demonstrate how discounts will be linked to volume and duration 4% • Give details of your ability (if any) to host development teams (including members from HMCTS or other suppliers) at your premises and how this approach will generate efficiencies. 1% Cultural Fit Criteria • Explain the approach for working with multi-vendor teams across multiple projects at different locations 4% • Explain how you will ensure collaboration at all levels of the project and programme delivery between users, team members, and management. Give examples of where you've taken this approach 3% • Explain how you would maintain a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes; provide examples 3% Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 10% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. Please can you confirm how this requirement relates to the parallel procurement on DOS for HMCTS Civil, Family and Tribunals (CFT) Projects - Development and Technical Lead Capabilities? The requirement seems very similar apart from the numbers of developers required and the tech lead roles The requirements are very similar. This tender does not include a need for Technical Leads but does include a preference for vendors that have the capability to supply a larger number of skilled developers and potentially to host development teams away from 102 Petty France. 2. Please confirm when you expect the supplier team to be in place as this will determine whether we can respond to this opportunity and which consultants we may assign? The Digital Marketplace brief Overview section states a latest start date of 1st December 2016. But the Skills & Experience section states the supplier must be able to staff their team by start January 2017 We expect the supplier to commit to being capable of deploying resources as stated in the Skills and Experience section (basic resources in place by the start of January with the ability to scale up). There is also an early requirement for 3 developers by the start of December. 3. Are HMCTS expecting to award this contract to a single supplier? Yes, the contract will be awarded to one supplier per requirement. 4. REMINDER FOR TELECONFERENCE - FRIDAY 28th OCTOBER AT 11am 0800 917 1956 (mobile 0203 463 9739) participant PIN 29004640# 5. Is there a budget range for either / both of these similar opportunities? HMCTS has not set a budget for this opportunity however suppliers should bear in mind that the evaluation criteria for price is set at 25% of the total score. 6. Will submissions still be accepted if suppliers are unable to provide resources until a later date? HMCTS require resources at the times stated in the criteria to meet the needs of the programme however alternative proposals may be considered 7. Do HMCTS require co-located teams or would other options be considered? HMCTS preference is for co-located teams however as stated in the published opportunity other options will be considered. 8. Are the requirements limited to one supplier or would partnerships be considered? Each requirement is for one supplier, however the DOS contract does allow for sub-contracting. A supplier would act as a prime contractor in this scenario. The contract is silent on partnership arrangements however HMCTS would be content with this approach. 9. What is the process after suppliers respond to the published criteria? Suppliers shortlisted at the initial stage will be sent a Skills and Experience template and should provide evidence of how they meet the essential and nice to have criteria. These will then be scored by an evaluation panel and the top 3 ranking suppliers will be invited to the next stage of the competition. The 3 suppliers will then be sent a written proposal template to complete which will include case studies. 10. AUTHORITY COMMENT - Skills and Experience Template The word count on the skills and experience template has been increased from 100 to 150 words. Suppliers should provide specific evidence and ensure the examples are relevant to our requirement. 11. Should the response focus on the experience of the individuals? The response should ensure that evidence is supplied to demonstrate the performance function of Developers against the criteria 12. At what stage should the rates be provided? The rates will be required when the 3 shortlisted suppliers are asked to submit their written proposal 13. So price is not playing a part until the last 3 suplliers are shortlisted? That is correct. 14. Are you more interested in actual examples of engagements (i.e. client names, dates etc) where we have used the technologies quoted or are you more focused on receiving technical descriptions of how the technologies have been used in specific situations to illustrate our experience? We will be looking for examples of engagements where the supplier has taken responsibility for delivery of digital transformation projects and examples of where the individuals being proposed have used the specified technologies. In the latter case we will need to see which specific roles have been undertaken by the proposed individuals. 15. As price is 25%, if a significant saving could be made would you consider 80% to 90% of the team being located near-shore within the EU? Not at this time and it is not likely during the anticipated duration of any contract arising from this tender. 16. Please can you clarify if there is a word limit for any case study included in the response? Case studies will form part of the written proposal. Instructions on the written proposal will be provided to the 3 shortlisted suppliers invited to the next stage. 17. Please can you confirm if the 150-word limit mentioned on the teleconference applies to each of the Proposal Criteria and the Cultural Fit Criteria described in bullet points on the opportunity webpage? The 150 word limit will apply to each of the essential and nice to have criteria which will form part of the skills and experience template. Instructions on the written proposal will be provided to the 3 shortlisted suppliers invited to the next stage. 18. Please can you clarify if, by 07/11/2016, and in addition to the initial webpage application, you will expect bidders to submit documents including the written evidence of skills and the proposal? Suppliers responses to the tender is next Monday 7th Nov by midnight in the form of the initial webpage application. HMCTS will receive responses the next morning. The sift will take place the same day and we will then send out the skills and experience template to the suppliers shortlisted. Suppliers will be given 5 working days to complete the template with responses due back on Tuesday 15th of November at 9am. The timescales after this stage are indicative as it will depend on availability of the evaluation panel and number of responses received. 19. The tender calls for a number of resources to have started by January 2017. Are the numbers of resources required in January fixed? The criteria in the tender specify an approximate number of resources based on the best estimates that we have at this point. Actual numbers of developers and their required start dates will be agreed during the creation of each Statement of Work under the contract. The initial Statement of Work will be defined as part of the contract.