T Level Service agile development- BA, user-centred design and delivery management services

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done Government’s plan to reform technical education, includes moving to a simplified system based on routes to employment, with T Levels as a flagship qualification. The new T Levels will be delivered in subjects including construction, creative and design, digital, engineering and manufacturing, and health and science, with the first T Levels being introduced in September 2020. A T Level digital service will help to support the roll-out of the qualifications, achieving a number of objectives including raising awareness and understanding; facilitating enrolment on the qualifications; enabling providers to source suitable employer placements; and providing timely results and certification to students Problem to Be Solved A new service is required to ensure we actively support our range of stakeholders and users in the delivery of T Levels. An initial discovery for a T Level Service identified potential service areas and user touchpoints. We have identified three priority service areas for the T Level Service in the first instance: Marketing and Communications; matching providers and employers to facilitate industry placements for students; and issuing results and certification. To address these needs, a range of GDS agile roles are required to either support existing teams or potentially form discrete delivery teams. Who Are the Users Our users are both external & internal As a student I need to easily access impartial information to understand and access T Levels. As an employer I need to understand T Levels and link with providers and students to offer industry placements As a provider I need to maintain relationships with students, employers and ESFA in the delivery of T Levels As an awarding organisation, I need to ensure that I can provide accurate and timely data on students' progress As ESFA I need to oversee effective delivery of T Levels, including directly managing the issue of certificates to students. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done A discovery of the end to end T Level Service was completed in early 2019, with a further discovery focussed specifically on a Results and Certification Service completed in June 2019. Development of an initial campaign site to support marketing and communications is now underway to launch in September 2019; the alpha phase for our results and certification service commenced in July 2019. Existing Team The existing teams are comprised of multi-disciplinary agile delivery skills. These teams are involved in service development for providing brand new digital services, going through the standard GDS phases. Typical team size is up to 8 with a skills mix such as product/service managers, delivery managers, business analysts, user research and design professionals. Teams are made up of managed service suppliers, supported by a small number of permanent staff Current Phase Alpha Work Location Primary location will be ESFA Office, Cheylesmore House, Coventry, CV1 2WT Occasional travel to DfE/ESFA site in London may be required Working Arrangments This will be a 5 day per week (Monday to Friday) commitment and detailed working arrangements, including team location, size and make-up, will be contained within each statement of work. Day to day delivery will be governed by standard agile delivery techniques. These could be either a Kanban or a scrum approach (depending on the work) but the standard agile ceremonies appropriate to those will be undertaken. These will be monitored by the Delivery Manager and the Product Owner will be responsible for prioritising backlogs in refinement sessions. Security Clearance Personnel from the Service provider need to have a BPSS check. Additional T&Cs Expenses must be pre-agreed and comply with DfE Travel and Subsistence Policy. Any expenses shall be submitted in line with DfE standard T&S policy. Primary work location stated in SoW will not attract expenses. No parking is available on site. Skills & Experience Within the last two years have experience in end to end deign, development and delivery of digital products/services to GDS standards within the Public Sector Within the last two years have demonstrable experience in User Centred Design Services (User Research, Content Design and Interaction Design, Business Analysis) Evidence of demonstrable experience within the last two years in working complex, multi-stakeholder programmes Proven experience of using a range of agile tools and techniques, working in multi-team agile programmes Evidence of strong verbal, written and visual communication skills with the ability to proactively influence and manage stakeholders and tailor to the needs of audience by collaborating on decisions Evidence within the last two years of experience in architecture services and ensuring new and updated platforms, products, transactions and system architectures are robust, scalable, open and secure Experience within the last two years in scalable server-side cloud-based web applications (preferably Microsoft Azure) detailed knowledge of the C#,.NET,ASP.NET MVC programming languages Experience within the last two years in building front-end web applications (HTML/CSS/JS) Nice to Haves Within the last two years experience of end-to-end design, development and delivery of multi-strand digital programmes in the Education sector, within the public sector Experience of passing GDS service assessments Understanding of DevOps services including running production applications and optimising existing applications No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Demonstrate working experience in delivering digital products/services within Public Sector Demonstrate understanding/ability to deliver digital products/services to government Digital Service standards Experience and methodology in approach to agile project using both Kanban and scrum Demonstrable experience of working alongside clients in co-located, integrated teams, together with representative CVs of key roles Demonstrate approach to knowledge and skills transfer Technical competence in a wide range of relevant technologies and agile practices Ability to scale up team and flex resource when needed on-site Value for money Demonstrate understanding of the challenges of implementing user centred design in a government agile environment Cultural Fit Criteria ork as a team – Collaborate, establish good working relationships, generate team spirit Innovate – Act on initiative, drive improvements, balance risks Build capability – Encourage learning, share knowledge, address capability gaps, act on feedback Focus on delivery – Focus on goals, set stretching targets, take responsibility for delivery Approach to developing a "One Team" approach Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Written proposal Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers Budget range the budget could range up to a maximum of £4m consisting of multiple sows, but that scope could expand or contract. dfe does not commit to any minimum spend at this point. a pricing template will be given at the proposal stage to those suppliers we shortlist.