Data Hub Additional Development Team

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done Data Hub is the tool that DIT's staff use to manage their contact with organisations worldwide. Over 200,000 interactions are logged per year and many billions of pounds of investment/export projects are managed through Data Hub. There are currently three in-house multidisciplinary teams working on this project. However, additional capacity is needed on a Call-Off Contract basis to support business initiatives that existing teams are not in a position to validate and build. Problem to Be Solved The supplier will provide an agile development team which will work within the existing codebase alongside three in-house teams. Data Hub is primarily written in Django and React, and runs on GOV.UK PaaS (Cloud Foundry). The supplier will be working on missions from the product roadmap, similar to the other in-house teams. This will include known goals to help give exporting/investment support as well as new strands funded by the business. The supplier will collaborate on user research and shared design, develop new mission ideas, validate business hypotheses, review and create code, and analyse metrics. Who Are the Users The users are UK businesses and internal Data Hub teams. The internal users of this software consist of civil servants and contracted organisations. These civil servants will include account managers in DIT HQ looking after DIT's most important companies, sector specialist teams, regional teams, staff in embassies worldwide (who may be using FCO IT), marketing, analysts and statisticians. Non-civil servants across the UK include International Trade Advisers (increasing exports), Investment Services Team and Local Enterprise Partnerships. Early Market Engagement Work Already Done Data Hub is a mature product. There is an existing backlog from a prior phase of the Investment project, with some designs. There are hypotheses for future missions, and many stakeholders are full of ideas - some of which the supplier will help to validate. Full details on any pre-existing work cannot be shared at this stage and will be done so once the contract has been awarded. Draft deliverables for the first SOW and any accompanying information will be shared at the shortlisting stage. Existing Team There are currently 3 multidisciplinary teams working on Data Hub. These teams consist of a product manager, delivery manager, front-end developers (React) and back-end developers (Python/Django). There are performance analysts that will be shared between the teams. Furthermore, the supplier will supplement shared design and user research from their team. The team will report to the Data Hub Platform Lead and will also work with the internal Data Science and Data Workspace teams. Nearly all the code is visible on github.com/uktrade. The initial stakeholders will be from Capital Investment, Foreign Direct Investment, the Analysis community, and Growth Capital. Current Phase Beta Work Location Windsor House, 50 Victoria St, London, SW1H 0TL Working Arrangments The supplier will be expected to primarily work in DIT's London offices. Flexible working can be discussed at the commencement of each Statement of Work. The team will consist of Developers, a Delivery Manager, a User Researcher and Interaction Designer. DIT expect to provide Product Management and Technical Leadership, along with a small amount of content design. Interim product support may also be required. The User Researcher and Designer may be part time; if full time they will need to work with other teams. Security Clearance BPSS Clearance is mandatory, but SC is preferred for all team members. SC is mandatory for all developers or other staff with access to the production database. Additional T&Cs Skills & Experience Demonstrate experience collaborating with other development teams inside the same codebase on a complex product. Demonstrate the ability to work with stakeholders to refine and validate their feature ideas. Demonstrate the ability to achieve efficiencies and improve ways of working during a past project. Demonstrate experience in linking multiple loosely coupled systems, with different data models and data quality, as part of a production service. Demonstrate experience developing user centred Django/React applications in a Continuous Integration (CI) environment releasing multiple times each day. Nice to Haves Demonstrate experience of developing digital services or staff-facing digital tools to support international trade. Demonstrate experience delivering services to the Government Digital Service Standard. Demonstrate the ability to successfully deliver projects in a mission-led environment, using Objectives and Key Results to guide your work towards a business outcome or Key Performance Indicator improvements. Demonstrate experience of engaging with internal users to increase awareness of product improvements. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Detail how your team will successfully work on a shared codebase with other scrum teams. Detail how your team will work with stakeholders to validate the value and strategic intent behind their ideas and make appropriate prioritisation calls. Detail how you will balance user insight, business needs, and technical complexity. Detail how you will use different types of design and research to validate tactical ideas the team are working on and strategic ideas that may affect the wider product. Detail your plan for onboarding to the project and how the team will manage their work. Detail how you will staff the team flexibly based upon each mission, including onboarding new team members or dealing with problems. Cultural Fit Criteria Demonstrate how your approach to code development will minimise unnecessary conflict in a large team. Demonstrate how you will undertake evidence-led and risk-based decision making around feature ideas and prioritisation. Demonstrate how you will undertake a hypothesis-led approach to product development. Demonstrate how you will ensure open and transparent working. Demonstrate how your collaborative design and planning approach will minimise duplication. Demonstrate what your approach to co-located teams and any remote working will be to ensure high team performance. Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Case study Work history Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 15% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range up to £2m across two years on a call-off contract basis. there may not be a continuous workflow throughout the lifetime of the contract as statements of work (sows) will be formed based on business priorities at different times of the year. the contract value is non-committal and work will be let through agreed sows that are to be charged against a pre-submitted rate card.