Continuous development of Highways England's Technical Standards Enterprise System

Tender description

Summary of the work Development of Highways England’s Technical Standards Enterprise System which is an integrated platform for developing, governing and publishing technical documents designed on GDS Design Principles and the Digital Service Standard for Agile delivery to build and deliver software solutions including a full stack web development on Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform Expected Contract Length 8 months approximately Latest start date Monday 26 August 2019 Budget Range £600,000 approximately Why the Work is Being Done When Highways Agency became Highways England, a government company charged with operating England’s motorway and all-purpose trunk road network in April 2015, our statutory responsibilities (defined in Annex C of our Licence) required Highways England to undertake an initial review of the usability, structure and content of the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) by 2016 and develop a programme to totally refresh it during the first Roads Period. The Technical Standards Enterprise System (TSES) has been developed to accelerate the refresh of the programme. It provides an integrated platform for developing, governing and publishing documents. Problem to Be Solved TSES provides an integrated platform for developing, governing and publishing documents and forms part of Highways England’s Digital Road Vision, which will see the TSES interface directly with external engineering applications. At the heart of the TSES is an online component, CARS, collaborative authoring and review system which was commissioned by Highways England to provide a life-cycle portfolio management for technical standards. CARS was rolled out 1st April 2018 and is currently used by approximately 750 people and will continue to be developed and used by Highways England throughout RIS2 and beyond. Who Are the Users Highways England staff, supply chain. Staff in Devolved administrations (Scotland, Wales, NI) Early Market Engagement Highways England has previously worked with a supplier who has been instrumental in developing core modules for the TSES. Work Already Done Highways England has alreday worked with a supplier to utilise open-source technologies to architect a sophisticated and extensible data platform the TSES. Existing Team There is an in-house project team led by a project manager as well as a supplier who is onboard working on TSES and Highways England's SIAM suppliers providing 2nd and 3rd line support for delivered services, that includes formation of Service Support Documentation and Service Management oversight Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Extensive experience of full stack web development on the Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform, specifically in relation to building solutions utilising NGINX, Angular, Spring Boot and PostGreSQL • Experience of implementing agile DevOps lifecycle frameworks and CI/CD pipelines integrated with the Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform • Extensive experience of complying with Service Transition lifecycle to build and deploy IT services including the production of all mandatory design artefacts. • Experience of coaching Agile techniques and best practice within Government customer delivery programmes • Experience of designing to and complying with Enterprise Architecture Principles • Experience of working with business/technology stakeholders translating business problems into technical designs using iterative process, aligning user needs with system requirements, UX requirements and organisational objectives. • Experience of delivering systems and services inline with best practice Cyber Security principles such as UK Cyber Essentials and NCSC Cloud Security • Experience of making and guiding effective decisions across multiple customer projects, including the ability to understand and resolve technical disputes across varying levels of complexity and risk • Experience of delivering critical-to-the-business systems using recognised methodologies such as Scrum, Disciplined Agile Delivery and Axelos MSP. • Experience of delivering technology-focussed business change inline with structured frameworks and methodologies Nice to Haves • TOGAF certification • Experience and/or certification in the Prosci change management methodology • Experience and/or certification in UX requirements gathering • Relevant Agile qualifications e.g. Certified Scrum Master/Product Owner Work Location Bristol, Birmingham and Bedford Working Arrangments Application of agile development and delivery methodologies will be used. The development team will work in a two-week sprint cycle. Development time is bookended by the sprint ceremonies of Planning, Demonstration, Review, and Retrospective. The cross-functional capabilities of business analysis, solutions architecture and development, mean that you will be able to quickly produce working features to get feedback at end-of-sprint meetings. By performing business analysis and requirement elaboration alongside development, demonstration and review, you are able to deliver a usable system quickly. This level of engagement and the agile approach to delivery mean that HE get maximum value for money Security Clearance Highways England Cyber security clearance will be required No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • The proposed technical solution • The proposed approach and methodology • How well does the proposed approach and/or solution align with HE business and policy • How well does the proposed approach and/or solution meets with user needs • Evaluation of risks and dependencies aligned to approach and or solution and how it will be mitgated • Proposed Team structure, organisational make up and understanding of HE DMRB and MCHW technical standards • Value for money of the proposed solution Cultural Fit Criteria • Values and behaviours aligned to HE • Work as a team with HE and our nominated suppliers • Transparent and collaborative when making decisions • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes Payment Approach Capped time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 75% Cultural fit 5% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. with regards to the place where the work will be delivered, is the team expected to work in all the three cities of Bristol, Birmingham and Bedford or in either of them? The work can be carried out in any of the location cited in the application and alternative locations will be considered.