Provision of Business System Analysis Service

Tender description

Summary of the work Gathering and analysis of system requirements/stories and design of solutions for a range of internal ICT services and products. Support of live systems involving defect analysis, prioritisation and solution design. Represent ICT to stakeholders and stakeholder interests within ICT. Collaborative solution design within and between multidisciplinary technical teams. Expected Contract Length 18 months Latest start date Monday 4 September 2017 Budget Range Initially SLC are forecasting volumes required from the service as between 2 and 12 team members. It should be noted that the actual volumes are estimated, project dependant and may be provided from across the supplier estate. For the purpose of evaluation, it is assumed that there will be a work package duration for a service of 120 working days with estimates based on the following mix of capability: 2 Senior BSAs and 8 BSAs. Why the Work is Being Done Our primary roles are: • deliver financial support to eligible students pursuing higher education; • pay Higher Education Institutions public contribution towards tuition fees for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; • supply information needed by HMRC to ensure repayments are collected on time those due to repay under the Income Contingent Repayment Loan Scheme; • manage direct collection of repayments for loans granted under former Mortgage Style Loan Scheme. We undertake specific tasks for individual Devolved Administrations e.g. payment of Education Maintenance Allowances. Also, we undertake administration and payment of bursaries and scholarships to higher education institutions throughout UK. Problem to Be Solved Whilst SLC has the core capability required to deliver the Programme of work it also requires an expert professional Supplier to provide a managed Business System Analysis Service to support the delivery of outcomes. Outcomes will cover all areas of the delivery of digital services in line with GDS design. Specific outcomes will be agreed case by case with the selected Supplier during the contract period via individual Statements of Work. Who Are the Users As a internal assessor within SLC I need to, on behalf of applicants, ascertain eligibility and entitlement for part-time maintenance loans or doctoral products, so that the appropriate loan and fees are issued in support of study. As a Delivery Manager within SLC I need a Business Systems Analyst service, so that the user stories/requirements are created, analysed and supported for the successful delivery of project work. Early Market Engagement No early market engagement has taken place with suppliers for this requirement. Work Already Done There has been some work undertaken and there are a range of projects streams that are inflight. Whlle Business Systems Analysts would typically be involved from the start of a project (Inception), requirements may arise for team augmentation at any stage of the development lifecycle. Existing Team The existing team comprises of SLC team members plus a range of other capabilities from other preferred suppliers. The successful supplier will be expected to work alongside existing capabilities as part of a a squad. Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Degree educated or other higher education qualified resources in a numerate discipline and/or equivalent experience within a commercial IT environment • Experience providing business analysis (or equivalent service) in a commercial IT environment, • Experience of delivering the full product lifecycle • Flexible approach to meeting the demands of the service • Familiarity with digital and web service solutions • Excellent communication capabilities with the experience working at all levels of an organisation and working as part of a multi-disciplinary software development team • Capability to rationalise complex information and make it understandable to a range of stakeholders – the ability to explain technology to the business and the business to technologists • Demonstrable persuasion and influencing capabilities • Excellent workshop, meeting, facilitation, communication and presentations capabilities • Capability in defect analysis in support of live systems Nice to Haves • Experience working with Agile methodologies (e.g. Scrum, Kanban or DSDM) • Experience of process modelling and systems design tools • ISEB certification in Analysis or other relevant profession qualification • Awareness of Open Source and cloud technologies • SQL experience (ideally Oracle) Work Location Glasgow (multiple sites), Darlington Working Arrangments Roles will be be identified as Glasgow or Darlington based up front and will be required to be onsite during normal office hours (09:00 to 17:00). Travel may occasionally be required between the Glasgow and Darlington offices for project or stakeholder engagement. For this SLC will pay travel and accommodation costs. SLC will not pay any expenses associated with working in the 'home' location for the role. Security Clearance The service provided by the supplier must conform to the appropraite security clearance requirements - Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS/DS) Additional T&Cs N/A No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • The service proposal must provide evidence of capability to deliver the following outputs in order to achieve business outcomes: • High level analysis artefacts - drawing on stakeholder management, eliciting requirements, documenting as is and to be, requirement packs/matrix (10%) • Detailed analysis artefacts - translating requirements into functional analysis (system requirements or user stories) (10%) • System design artefacts - developing functional/technical solutions to requirements/stories (10%) • An articulation of business outcomes through appropriate standard artefacts (e.g technical documents - functional specs - collaboratively developed user stories) (2%) • Effective business relationships - working with stakeholders/product owners/heads of service/SMEs (10%) • Defect management artefacts - supported by experience of BAU technical support (2%) • Estimation artefacts - actively calls out estimating or sizing as a typical activity in roles (2%) • Can describe an equivalent day to day experience of Agile working including appreciation of the ceremonies and practices and knowledge/experience of the INVEST principle for user stories (4%) • The Supplier must also provide the following evidence: • Evidence of previous engagements where the supplier has provided similar managed services, including how they have dealt with changes in demand (10%) • The supplier must demonstrate the availiability of capability that can meet the skill and experience requirements (40%) Cultural Fit Criteria • The supplier will be responsible for delivery in respect of provision of the service required by SLC and should describe how it will manage, track and report on this. (60%) • Give details of management processes and mitigations for poor service delivery, staff handover, turnover, quality maintenance and corrective actions. (20%) • Describe how good performance is incentivised to ensure milestones are delivered on time. (20%) Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 15% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. In the event that the supplier's team do not currently hold a BPSS, will you be willing to sponsor this? SLC would assist in sponsoring BPSS however would consider the holding of BPSS as a useful attribute of a supplier service 2. Is there an incumbent supplier for this piece of work or is this a new or fresh requirement? There are a number of incumbent suppliers however this is intended to focus on supply of outcome based services as opposed to supply of resources 3. This opportunity is marked as a service but there are items that look like you are recruiting individuals. Are you engaging a company with the capability to provide you on-going BA expertise or recruiting individuals into roles? Are the roles therefore under IR35 rules? This is intended to be a service where the SLC are engaging a supplier with the capability to provide an on going Business Analysis Service. The roles are outside of IR35 4. Can you provide guidance as to your budget range /day rate available for this piece of work e.g. min and max range. For guidelines a man day rate expectation would be between £400 - £600 5. Is there an opportunity to have a combination of on-site and off-site working patterns e.g. perform analysis on site and write up off site etc. It must be assumed that the service will be provided exclusively on SLC sites. 6. In the budget section is says that SLC has done some forecasting for a team between 2 and 12. Later it asks for 120 days for the mix of 2 Senior BSAs and 8 BSAs. In these estimates what were they daily rates assumed? The guideline of 120 days for a mix of 2 Senior BSAs and 8 BSAs is for estimation purposes. SLC would like the suppliers responding to provide a prices for such a profile and number of days to use for comparative scoring purposes 7. Does this project fall within I35 requirements? The services is not subject to IR35 8. Can you please confirm if there is any scope to offer a more flexible approach to the working arrangements for the BSA Service. For example it would be advisable to balance the number of days with onsite & offsite working to ensure you as a buyer get the best possible price. I must be assumed that the service will be provided exclusively on SLC sites. 9. You mention a mixed existing team. Would it possible to state the roles that are covered, e.g. Product Owner, Scrum Master, Technical Architect, Developer etc. How many resources it total do have/expect to have in this mixed team? Typically the other roles in a mixed team would be a Product Owner, Solution Architect, Developers, Testers, Scrum Master. The team sizes would vary depending on the particular project and/or system being worked on. 10. It would be helpful to have an idea of the number of consecutive projects you think might be running at anyone time. In order to flex do you have a time frame in mind to step up, step down resources for the BSA Service? For example are you looking for a supplier who can respond within a few days or a few weeks? There are number projects and teams working concurrently on a rolling programme of work within annual policy delivery cycles. SLC require a supplier who can leverage a service within a few weeks to respond to demand and provide assurance that the service delivered provides the outcomes (and quality) required 11. With regards to the questions on capability - would you like these answered in relation to 1 individual, demonstrating the type of people we could provide, or in relation to the business? SLC wish to see a response in the context of delivery and provision of a service. Examples of types of personnel however is useful to understand the capability and quality of that service. 12. Will these be handled as contract for services with defined deliverables, outside IR35? Each requirement will be contracted by a Statement of Work for the outcome required. This will be outside of IR35. 13. Some of the requirements are more focused to the provision of an individual resource as opposed to a business analysis managed service solution. Please advise on how to position answers to such questions for example degree/ higher level education essential requirement. The supplier should position these answers in response to "The supplier must demonstrate the availiability of capability that can meet the skill and experience requirements " under the proposal crieria 14. Can you confirm that a proposal is not required at this stage, only evidence to answer the essential and nice to have requirements. At this stage the supplier is only required to answer the questions stated as part of the evaluation criteria 15. You state that volumes required from the service are between 2 and 12 team members and that it is assumed that there will be a work package duration for a service of 120 working days. Do you anticipate all 12 BSAs being required from the outset of the initial engagement or do you anticipate the numbers required to vary during the course of the initial and subsequent engagements? There will be a staged requirement for ramping up this service. The service profile may vary over time. SLC require a degree of flexibility from the supplier in providing this service but will plan its requirements with the supplier 16. For those parties who are successful in moving past this Technical Competence stage, please would you confirm whether there will be any additional stage or stages prior to the contract award? If there is an additional stage(s), please would you indicate what is included in this stage(s) and whether an additional submission will be required? There may be additional stage(s) prior to contract award. These stages may require the supplier to provide additional submissions as part of the selection process. Subject to the number of applicants and quality of applications it is anticipated that there may be 2 further stages. The next stage may be a teleconference with suppliers of interest where SLC will seek further clarification on bid details. For the final stage the supplier may be asked to submit and present a proposal.