PS-17-36: Build and Release Resource as a Service

Tender description

Summary of the work • Establish and manage a complete, coherent and verified software baseline. • Facilitate recoverability of the baseline and repeatability of code compiling and build deployments. • Implement policies in Software Configuration Management (SCM) tooling. • Provide user access management, support and maintenance for SCM tooling. Expected Contract Length 24 months Latest start date 27/03/2017 Budget Range Up to £700 per day (net) plus T&S Why the Work is Being Done In line with government policy, the Agency has set out to transform its ICT estate to a digital, cloud hosted, open source, multi-supplier environment within a cloud-hosted environment to deliver a transformed ICT estate and reduce total cost of ownership. This request is to support the DVLA pipeline of work providing Build and Release (Software Configuration and Tooling) resource as a service that will supplement the existing DVLA resources. Problem to Be Solved In order to support the pipeline of work the level of in house expert knowledge needs to be supplemented in order to continue support the delivery of the pipeline and enablement of the in-house team. The initial commitment is for 2 Build and Release (Software Configuration and Tooling) resources to be provided preferably by 20th March but no later than the 27th March. The contract will also be able to provision for a possible further 3 resources over the life of the contract to be provided as and when required. Who Are the Users Multiple both internal and external customers. The resources will be required to supplement the existing Build and Release (Software Configuration and Tooling) community staff. Scope is the software configuration management and associated tooling appropriate to the supported DVLA business services. Each call off will be supported by a predefined Statement of Work which will define individuals outcomes and success criteria. Existing Team A team of providing Build and Release (Software Configuration and Tooling) resources exist. This resource will bolster current skills on an as needed basis with an initial commitment for 2 resources to be provided preferably by 20th March but no later than the 27th March. The contract will also be able to provision for a possible further 3 resources over the life of the contract to be provided as and when required. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • A minimum of one year experience of a SCM tool e.g. GIT • A minimum of one year experience and use of Apache Maven or equivalent. • A minimum of one year experience of working with UNIX and Linux environments. • Must have day to day experience of working in a software build, release deployment and configuration management team. • A minimum of one year experience in taking ownership of work all the way to production. • A minimum of one year experience of applying SCM principles and best practices to ensure that build and release process and procedures are followed. • A minimum of one year experience in generating and maintaining configuration management records for releases and software builds. • Must be available to be on site 5 days a week. • Extensive knowledge of software configuration principles & practices, generating software builds and deploying releases in controlled environments. • A minimum of one year experience and use of software configuration management tooling and software build tooling . • To be available to undertake out of hours activities to support the service and weekend working. Nice to Haves • Amazon Web Services experience • Atlassian Stash (Bitbucket), Jira, Confluence • Jenkins • SonaType Nexus • Rational Clearcase • Rational ClearQuest • Weblogic • ANT • Perl • CA Gen / GuardIEn • CA Harvest Software Configuration Manager Work Location On site, DVLA Morriston, Longview Road, Swansea, SA6 7JL Working Arrangments 5 days a week (40 hours per week/8 hours per day) on site. And to be available to undertake out of hours activities to support the service. Out of hours working is done with prior agreement of individual when required. Hours will be paid at pro–rata of the day rate (£87.50 per hour). Weekend working may be required and will be done with prior agreement of the individual. Weekend work will be paid at: Saturday – time and a half, Sunday – Double time. Security Clearance BPSS is required as a minimum for site access. SC cleared and be able to evidence is desirable. DVLA will sponsor SC clearance so the candidate must have the ability and be willing to work towards obtaining SC clearance. Additional T&Cs T&S charges only apply for staff that commute over a 75 mile journey in each direction. This is based on the distance that would be reasonable to expect a person to commute to the principal location(s). T&S is only applicable at the following maximum rates (excluding VAT): i. For T&S including travel but no overnight stay: Suppliers plain day rate plus £45.00. ii. For T&S including overnight stay: Suppliers plain day rate plus £90.00. Suppliers will need to be available for telephone interviews between 13th and 17th of March. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 10 Proposal Criteria • Proposal • Value for money • Telephone Interviews Cultural Fit Criteria • Ability to demonstrate identifying and contributing to continuous service improvement initiatives. • 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 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. HMRC tax compliance - IR35 legislation You are advised that the contractual requirement contained within this document relates to DVLA posts. If the contractual period offered in this requirement commences after 6th April 2017, or contains a period post this date, you are advised that IR35 legislation on HMRC tax compliance will apply, and you will be responsible for ensuring that the individuals tax obligations are satisfied in accordance with this legislation. 2. The Supplier understands there is a requirement to work on-site at DVLA Morriston, 5 days a week (40 hours per week/8 hours per day). Is there any flexibility around this requirement for example 3 days onsite and 2 days working remotely from supplier site? Unfortunately not. Some flexibility with Monday (start times) and Friday (finish times) would be possible but in general the requirement is for availability on site across the full week. 3. Which AWS skills do you require? Is the environment deployed in AWS? No specific AWS skills are required, just general experience of the AWS platform (eg, VPCs, hosting services, availability zones, deploying AMIs, etc)Some Cloud environments are deployed in AWS, others are to be migrated to AWS over the next few months, other environments are hybrid (part on-premise, part cloud). There are also non-Cloud legacy environments which are hosted on-premise. 4. I noticed that DVLA re-tendered for this project, we did not tender as we were waiting on the IR35 confirmation.We now have this confirmation and are in a position to supply the team of the Software Build & Release engineers. Will there be an opportunity to tender for this project? This contract is currently out for re-tender under the above title.