Gridded Data User Interface

Tender description

Summary of the work To address the needs of our customers Met Office has defined a requirement to subset our data to meet customer needs. A technical capability is in development that will perform this data subsetting and a capability needs to be developed to allow the customer to interact with this back-end service. Expected Contract Length 2 years Latest start date Friday 1 November 2019 Why the Work is Being Done The Met Office has invested a significant amount of effort over the years to build a world class capability in weather modelling. However, as the complexity of models increases, so does the volume of the data exposed and the associated cost of data transfer. To address this challenge the Met Office has defined a requirement to break down, or subset, our model data to meet specific customer needs. A technical capability is in development that will perform this data sub-setting and a capability needs to be developed to allow the customer to interact with this back end service. Problem to Be Solved • Availability of Met Office Public Sector Data for re-use • Make available large-scale model data to our internal and external users, customers and partners. • Significantly reduce the human effort of the current team to increase throughput for data selection and consumption thereby improving internal user experience and increasing team efficiencies . • Grow market share for our data by making it accessible and consumable. • Research, define, develop, deliver and support a customer facing capability that will allow users to describe and retrieve subsets of our large-scale gridded datasets on request, via scheduled ftp and via API. Who Are the Users This solution is targeted at 3 key market areas which have been identified as part of a user research activity. These are; • Large weather services – take our data at scale and blend it with output from other sources to provide downstream solutions. • Consultant / Innovation partners – Require adhoc whole or subsets of current or historic data for exploration and discovery of new opportunities. • Sector-specific product developers – Require small to medium subsets of our data regularly to ingest or use in products for customers, or within their own solutions Work Already Done Work to refine and build the underpinning capability that will serve the data is underway and will run ahead of the user interface to that data. Targeted and ad hoc user research has taken place and is ongoing. Wireframe prototypes have been created and shared with sample customers as part of the research. Existing Team Project Manager, Business Analyst, Product Manager, Product Owner, Business Owner, Solutions Architect. (All development resources are expected to be provided as part of this tender) Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • • Demonstrate experience of the development of complex user facing interfaces. • • Demonstrate experience of customer facing API development including security, user metrics and onboarding • • Experience of developing data exposing capabilities on cloud platforms • • Evidence of a strong capability to deliver user experience design, ideally aligned to GDS principles • • Evidence of capabilities to engage with users via user research and testing throughout the development process and post MVP • • Strong capabilities in cloud solution design, ideally on AWS including AWS WAF • • Evidence of a capability to implement solution aware FINOPS optimisation for AWS • • Experience in building, deploying, managing, supporting solutions on public cloud, ideally based on using AWS capabilities including serverless implementations. • • Strong evidence of an ability to work using agile principles and techniques • • The ability to supply a capable technical leader who would be responsible for deliverables with assured continuity from outset to at least MVP. • • Evidence of organisational capability to integrate with 3rd party solutions, specifically MS Dynamics, ServiceNow and Azure B2C • • Strong evidence of expert level development skills in key languages, specifically Java, Python and any other relevant AWS and front end capabilities pertinent to the agreed implementation • • Skills in web services (RESTful APIs and microservices) • • The ability to reach back into the organisation for any skills identified by the solution approach or that may be required to overcome issues that are exposed during implementation. • • An ability to provide ongoing support and development outside of the initial delivery, • • The ability to offer 24/7 fix response for business-critical incidents. Nice to Haves • • Some experience of the weather market and gridded weather data specifically • • A strong and ongoing relationship with AWS • • An awareness of market trends and likely technologies in AWS and related technologies • • Experience of working with the public sector Work Location This work will be cloud hosted on AWS, therefore any location is suitable. Some research and liaison will be expected to take place at Met Office HQ at Exeter. Working Arrangments Several phases are envisaged Discovery - Supplier to review all current materials and work done so far to form a plan for delivery. This phase will include a costed proposal for the next phase which will be reviewed for variance from the original tender. Following a review Met Office may decide a) Withdraw altogether b) Revisit the discovery process with another supplier c) Retender for Phase 2 with the discovery outputs provided. D) Carry on to Phase 2 with appointed supplier Delivery to MVP delivered via agile sprints Support and iteration Post-MVP, the solution will remain with the supplier Security Clearance SC security clearance is preferred but not vital No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Overall perceived quality of proposed Technical Solution • Quality of evidence provided to support proposed solution and provide assurance of technical capability • Approach and methodology • How the approach or solution meets user needs • Value for money • Ability to meet security requirements included in Cyber Security Questionnaire • Good ability to communicate clearly with IT and non-IT specialisms to share their knowledge and experience with Met Office staff and other third parties • Quality of 2 Examples given and how closely they reflect capability to meet our requirements • Technical resources offered/quality proposed of proposed resources to meet requirements Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions • Share knowledge and experience with other team members • Have a defined knowledge transfer process and be prepared to share knowledge with internal and external individual at the end of the agreement Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 40% Cultural fit 20% Price 40% Questions from Suppliers 1. A supplier has asked a question about ‘Gridded Data User Interface’.They asked:Will you support the SC clearance? Yes, SC clearance is not mandatory and we will work with the supplier to get the appropriate clearance level. however, if for some reason the clearance request is denied, the supplier will not be eligible to carry out the contract. It is suggested that the application process is started by the supplier ASAP as this clearance is needed for many Govt. contracts. Details can be found on the gov.uk website. 2. A supplier has asked a question about ‘Gridded Data User Interface’.They asked:'Could you advise what the budget for this opportunity may be and if there is a potential team size that you have in mind?This will help us scope our response accordingly.Many thanks.' We do not have a set budget or team size for the discovery phase of this project. A guideline figure of between £60,000 - £100,000 can be offered but we are looking for the supplier to tell us what is necessary to fully scope the project, and how much resources are required. 3. Hello,A supplier has asked a question about ‘Gridded Data User Interface’.They asked:What level of support do you require for a "24/7 fix response" e.g. first, second or third line etc.? We would expect this to be third line support. 4. 1) The Met Office would like to clarify the response to question 2 we do have budget approved for both the discovery and implementation phases but we are open to discussion, vendor views and to test any assumptions. Further detail can be provided in the next stages of the procurement 5. 2) Are the existing team that is listed in the DOS advert, Met Office staff or an existing supplier? Met Office staff (or equivalent). There is no incumbent supplier. 6. 3) Please can you clarify if the existing team will be full-time allocated to the project? Most of the team have other responsibilities also, however this is a clear objective (and commitment) for everyone on the team. 7. 4) Under Existing Team the ad states "All development resources are expected to be provided as part of this tender". Does that mean the supplier is ONLY required to provide development roles, or does this include other related roles such as testing and possibly Cloud Platform Engineering? All related technical roles would be of interest. 8. 5) Please can you clarify the actual requirement? The "Why the work is being done" section concludes with "...and a capability needs to be developed to allow the customer to interact with this back end service" which implies the work is some sort of user front end. The "Problem to be solved" part builds on that information but potentially implies the work is to define data models – does the supplier also need to provide Technical or Data Architects? The outcome is a UI front end to gain access to user-defined subsets of meteorological data, there is no requirement to define data models per se. We would be interested to know if vendors believe access to technical and data architects may be useful but this is not an advert for these roles specifically. 9. 6) We understand from the description that this is for development of Customer and Internal UI work and related APIs. Please can you confirm. It is to research, define, deliver and support an externally facing UI (which could potentially be used internally as well) to configure API and FTP requests. 10. Working Arrangements" section of the ad explains that the Discovery phase will be for the new supplier to review all existing material and form a plan. However, the Stage 2 proposal evaluation criteria implies that shortlisted suppliers will need to submit a detailed "Technical Solution" – please can you clarify what further detail will be provided to permit this, or is the Stage 2 proposal only going to be a proposal for the Discovery work? Further detail will be provided in the next stage of the procurement however it is envisaged that an overview of, approach to and/or assumptions around a technical solution will form part of responses in the next stage of the procurement. It is also noted that information gathered in the discovery phase will directly impact any final designs.