Home Office Biometrics (HOB) – Application Development

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The Home Office has existing biometrics systems whose contracts come to an end in 2019. The HOB programme aims to evolve these systems to provide continuity beyond 2019 and enhance their capability through a number of phases. This procurement will support the HOB Programme evolution of its systems and services, including the introduction of new services through the provision of an application development capability. It will provide the development capability for the programme to deliver robust and resilient solutions to meet the user requirements. Problem to Be Solved The HOB programme requires application development teams to deliver and support a number of biometric services across a series of integrated and co-dependent projects delivered using an Agile methodology. The scope covers application development and system testing. Work packages will focus on: DNA solution, the Biometric Services (API) Gateway, access portal, and mobile solutions. The outcomes will be developed using a combination of core Java (including Spring Boot), JBoss Fuse, WebServices, Microservices, Postgres and workflow skills and experience. Who Are the Users Users include, but are not limited to, law enforcement, immigration, border force and HMPO staff who need to use biometrics in a number of situations and locations including custody suites, mobile locations, borders, passport offices and visa application centres. Early Market Engagement HOB have run two supplier days, with over 90 organisations in attendance. The approach to application development and potential use of the Digital Outcomes and Specialists framework was briefed to potential suppliers at the HOB supplier day in April 2016. Since then the HOB Programme have conducted market engagement events programme wide and for particular services and systems prior to procurements. Work Already Done The Biometric Services Gateway (BSG) is already live and is now in a production maintenance phase. There is a roadmap of new capabilities being developed for the BSG. These developments are in various phases across Alpha and Beta. The DNA database development is in the Beta phase. Other items are in the Discovery phase. Existing Team • The system (BSG) is in Live with a full development and support team currently in place. • The projects in Alpha and Beta have project management, business analysis and architectural teams. • The projects in Discovery have project management and are drawing on the programme Business Analysis and Architectural resource. Current Phase Live Work Location • West Midlands (11-14 personnel) – Home Office Site, Birmingham • London (23-30 personnel) – Home Office Site, Croydon Working Arrangments Working arrangements are expected to be flexible and best configured for the project and supplier teams. The HOB project team will be available during normal UK business hours. On-site testing and any collaborative working (e.g. design, requirements elaboration) will need to be conducted during these hours. Level 3 support needs to be provided outside of these hours. Each service and system has a HOB project manager, Business Analysis and Architectural team, who will work with the development team to deliver the IT solutions. All development will be conducted through the HOB Development Environment connecting both the Croydon and Birmingham sites. Security Clearance Supplier shall apply employee screening controls including verifying: - Identity - Nationality and Immigration Status - Employment history - Criminal History All staff must hold or be prepared to undergo SC Security Clearance to operate on this project. Some staff in Croydon and in Birmingham must also be NPPV3 clearable. Additional T&Cs DOS2 Framework terms and conditions apply subject to elaborations, clarifications, additional terms and conditions identified at ITT stage for shortlisted suppliers and: •Rate card and Travel & Subsistence. •Conflict of Interest/Ethical Walls safeguards (applies to all sub-programme and ‘spin off’ activities whether procured via DOS or other contracting route). Main charging approach: • Fixed charge per Story Point delivered, based on Supplier's costs for team and agreed Story Points to be delivered. • Delivery in fortnightly Agile Sprints for specified Epics/User Stories. • Story Points for specified Epics/User Stories to be estimated using agreed Baseline set of User Story examples. Skills & Experience Experience of providing a level 3 application support service with supporting ITIL processes operating in UK business hours and 24 x 7 out of hours support. The supplier has experience and can provide evidence of delivering development capability support at this level: across 5 projects and up to 44 development team members Team experience of development using an Agile Scrum methodology, operating in sprints and aligning their development activities with other parallel work streams across split sites, ensuring coding standards are maintained. Practical experience of working within a complex test environment aligning to the ISO 29119 standard. Credible and referenced proof of team and individual experience in object oriented programming. Experience of secure development practices for high integrity systems, working with mature and controlled software development processes and legacy systems. Experience in Java, up to 17 developers and Spring Boot, Activiti and Web Service Development Experience in developing on Public Cloud Hosting platforms and use of associated products (specify for all platforms and products). Experience in JBoss Fuse and Forum Sentry, up to 8 developers Credible and referenced proof of experience and excellent technical competence in object oriented programming with Postgres SQL database, Amazon RDS, Microservices and Workflow technologies and designing and running SQL queries Experience of development pipeline tooling, specifically Git source code repository, defect tracking systems (JIRA and Confluence), continuous integration tools (Jenkins) and automated testing frameworks Nice to Haves Demonstrate experience of ETL, data warehouse and reporting technologies and data migration from Oracle to Postgres Demonstrate container experience using Docker Teams should be self motivated, having an ability to work on their own initiative and without constant direction, but also be able to collaboratively with HOB staff. Experience in other programming and scripting languages (e.g. C++, C#, .NET Framework, Python) and some familiarity with legacy technologies; Oracle 10, Oracle Forms and Reports, Windows Services and C programming. Experience of working in relevant business domains i.e. immigration and law enforcement. Experience of working in a multiple supplier delivery regime whereby a separate supplier is integrating the application into the end user compute platform and operating the live service. Experience of working with an external “client side” technical design authority. Experience of charging for development on a fixed Agile Story Point basis. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria Tooling and integration Delivery Capability – Development & Test Support Capability - Level 3 support to production Resourcing table and CVs - core team roles Transition and Exit On-boarding new projects Cultural Fit Criteria Security Management Experience working with public sector organisations Ability to work collaboratively with key stakeholders Collaboration Approach Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method Written proposal Case study Work history Reference Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers Budget range the budget is expected to be £8m. the team is expected to flex in size to meet requirements. capacity will vary but is currently in the region of 34 developers, testers, release managers and project managers. depending on future demand it may drop down to 20 over the life of the contract.