Digital Services at the Border Programme – Business Analysis Capability

Tender description

Summary of the work Home Office Digital, Data and Technology (HODDaT), Borders IT require a Delivery Partner for Business Analysis capabilities to work on the following projects within the Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) programme Expected Contract Length 12 months + 6 month extension option Latest start date Sunday 1 April 2018 Budget Range Budget Range of between £3m-£4.7m over 12 months (excl VAT) Why the Work is Being Done Digital Services at the Border (DSAB) is a major Agile programme within the Border Systems Portfolio that is building functionality to transform the way the Home Office (HO) manages the United Kingdom Borders. The primary benefits of delivering DSAB are to: enhance the security of the UK; gather and act on data from those people and entities crossing the border, both inbound and out; and provide timely and accurate data to those who need to access/use it. Borders IT are looking to increase its Business Analysis capabilities to work across the Digital Services at the Border Programme (DSAB). Problem to Be Solved Borders IT require a Delivery Partner for Business Analysis capabilities on the following projects within the DSAB programme: Border Crossing (BX) Advanced Freight Targeting Capability (AFTC) Advance Border Control (ABC) You will join the team responsible for managing the build, deployment, and continuous integration of the project through development, test, and production. The Delivery Partner will be required to work to standards and practices set by GDS and the Home Office Centres of Excellence. Resources are expected to work as part of a delivery team focused on a specific outcome. They will be required to adopt common Agile practices. Who Are the Users Users include Border Force, Police and wider government agencies to secure UK borders, and detect criminal behaviour. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done There are currently resources in place on the programme. The projects are at various stages of delivery ranging from ramping up, in delivery and/or in live use. Existing Team The Delivery Partner will be working with the Authority’s incumbent development teams (both in house and outsourced specialists), with other areas of the portfolio and programme and with other Delivery Partners. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • • Demonstrate experience in designing and delivering outcome based services within complex Public Sector environment that meet both user needs and business requirements • • Experience in providing skills across various analyst roles including Senior, Junior and Specialists where required • • Working with the Business Owners, Developers and Testers, elaborate Epics into User Stories that are deliverable and testable and that provide business benefit. • • Experience of developing roadmaps and translating these into high level themes, epics and user stories. • • Maintaining the product backlog using tools such as Confluence and JIRA, ensuring it is prioritized accordingly with Business Owners Nice to Haves • • Evidence of resources that have existing SC clearance that will support the speeding up of on-boarding teams • • Demonstrate experience of handing over outcomes to another team, skills transfer to other teams and service transition • • Experience of working in an environment where legal, policy and security requirements, constraints and considerations need to be considered. Work Location The Supplier will be predominantly based at Home Office premises at Lunar House, Croydon, CR9 2BY, but may be required to attend Marsham Street, London, SW1; and MetroPoint, Croydon; Surrey; or other locations as necessary. Working Arrangments The service will be required to work to standards and practices set by (Government Digital Service) GDS and Home Office Teams. Resources are expected to work as part of existing delivery teams focussed on specific outcomes. The team is expected to be available during standard Home Office working hours. Expenses will conform to Home Office internal policies and will not be payable within the M25. The Delivery Partner is required to be physically on site Monday – Friday. Approximate hours are 08:00 – 18:00. Expenses will conform to Home Office internal policies and will not be payable within the M25. Security Clearance Personnel should have Security Clearance or must undergo Security Clearance. Evidence of existing SC will be requested at the written proposal stage with the selected supplier expected to show SC level clearance by the commencement of work. Current SC can be transferred from another Government department where there's evidence . Additional T&Cs These roles are deemed outside IR35 Intermediaries legislation scope, requiring SC clearance by the latest start date. The HO may support the candidate with this process. DV Cleared candidates will also be considered. Expenses conform to HO policies: not payable to Westminster/SE airports . Any applicable expenses will be additional to the day rate. Delivery partner will work primarily on-site with teams as required, reporting to management there, and expected to work across multiple sites as required. All assessment methods detailed may be requested at any time during this procurement , but will mostly apply in an RFP Process. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • • Value for Money 30% • • Approach to on-boarding of resources 5% • • Technical competence: Skills and experience 20% • • Technical capability 20% • • Governance 5% • • Working successfully in complex multi Delivery Partner public sector organisations 10% Cultural Fit Criteria • show : proactive one team approach • Ability to be transparent, flexible and collaboratively work as part of a team with existing delivery partners and services • Problem resolution Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 10% Price 30% Questions from Suppliers 1. • Are the current resources providing just a 'traditional' Business Analyst capability across the three streams or are they also covering off other Business Analyst associated roles such Systems Analyst, Data Analyst or User Researcher/User Interaction? If so would demonstrating the ability to resource multi-talented staff in these areas be considered an advantage? : The majority of the roles are traditional Business Analysts but we have some specialist roles such as Data Analyst and User Researcher. Providing multi skilled roles would be an advantage 2. • Will the new supplier be required to mirror the current team structure? If so will this require the new supplier to retain existing Business Analyst resource throughout the project, or will they only be required to stay for the initial knowledge transfer? Current requirements are to cover existing roles and also fill additional vacancies. The approach to existing resources can be agreed between suppliers once the successful supplier is awarded. 3. • What is the size of the current Business Analyst resource for each of the Border Crossing (BX), Advanced Freight Targeting Capability (AFTC) and Advanced Border Control (ABC) programmes? For programmes that are increasing BA hire numbers, what are their anticipated ramp profiles? : Approx existing numbers are 2,4,4 respectively and the ramp up expected is flexible in line with project requirements and turnover of resources. 4. • Will you wish to interview all candidates for the BA roles? Yes 5. • What handover period will be provided from the incumbent supplier ? To be agreed but will be at least 1 month 6. • You ask for ‘ Experience in providing skills across various analyst roles including Senior, Junior and Specialists where required’. What Specialists and/or Specialisms will you require? Current additional specialisms are Data Analyst and possibly User researchers 7. • Can you clarify the percentages allocated in the proposal criteria. They add up to 90% rather than 100% - is this correct? : Percentages will be as follows:• Value for Money 30%• Approach to on-boarding of resources 5%• Technical competence: Skills and experience 20%• Technical capability 20%• Governance 5%• Working successfully in complex multi Delivery Partner public sector organisations 10%• Cultural fit (10%) 8. Considering question the requirement “Experience in providing skills across various analyst roles including Senior, Junior and Specialists where required”, please could you clarify which roles you consider in scope when you refer to “various analyst roles”? For example, are you purely seeking Business Analysts at a varying level of seniority? Or are you also seeking other related roles that will support requirements elicitation and validation, such as User Researchers and Interaction Designers? The majority of the roles are traditional Business Analysts but we have some specialist roles such as Data Analyst and User Researcher 9. • Does the term service transition refer to transition form supplier to civil service teams or from supplier to supplier? From supplier to supplier 10. • In the 2nd Nice-to-Have criteria you mention service transition. Does this refer to handing the entire implementation of a new product or service over to a BAU team or are you referring to handing over between stages of implementation (i.e. handing over from discovery to beta or beta to alpha)? Service transition relates to handover to a BAU team, but the roles also include elements of handing completed work to another phase of the project such as discovery to build. 11. • Could you tell us how many Business Analysts are expected to be needed in the first 12 months? Approx 10-15 are required immediately to cover existing roles 12. • Can you confirm if there is an incumbent supplier for a Business Analysis Capability? Yes 13. • How many concurrent projects are running that need the Business Analysis capability? 3 14. • Looking at the budget, i would like to understand the Team strength (of Business Analysts) you are expecting. Approx 10-15 are required immediately to cover existing roles 15. • Are you able to provide a rough outline of the volume of resource required over the next twelve months to meet your expected demand from projects? Do you expect this to ramp up steadily, or is there an expectation of immediate availability and a steady consumption rate of that resource over the 12 months? Approx 10-15 are required immediately to cover existing roles. This will be the majority of the demand but will also need to cover turnover and flexible project vacancies