T Level Service agile development- BA, user-centred design, development/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 service is required to ensure we actively support our range of stakeholders and users in the delivery of T Levels. We have identified and commenced work on three priority service areas in the first instance which are at different stages in their respective delivery cycles. These are Marketing and Communications, including a campaign site to complement wider communications campaigns; matching providers and employers to facilitate industry placements for students; and issuing results and certification. In addition to this, discovery work is currently underway to review further potential support to providers as part of the T Levels journey. The successful supplier is required to continue design and development across the priority areas identified, and potentially implement the outcomes of the discovery work with the aim of delivering a minimum viable service for T Levels. Who Are the Users Our users are both external and internal, for example: As a student I need to easily access impartial information to understand and access T Levels, and to receive timely information on results. 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 sharing information with stakeholders, directly managing the issue of certificates to students. Early Market Engagement A Pre-Market Engagement call was held on 04/03. For a copy of presentation slides and Q&A please email with the subject title ' market engagement documents ' arron.egan@eduation.gov.uk . The subject title must be populated as above to receive a response. Work Already Done A discovery of the end to end T Level Service was completed in early 2019, with a further discovery focused specifically on Results and Certification Service completed in June 2019. Development of an initial campaign site to support marketing and communications to students launched in October 2019, with employer-focused content launching in February 2020. The alpha phase for our results and certification service completed in March 2020. Our industry placement matching service has moved into a business-as-usual phase, with requirement for ongoing maintenance. Discovery work is underway in the first quarter 2020 to explore number of other potential service areas. 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 Not applicable Work Location Primary location will be ESFA Cheylesmore House, Coventry. Occasional travel to the DfE/ESFA site in London along with travel across England for user research 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 (T&S) 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 last two-years have experience in successfully designing and delivering end-to-end digital products in government, demonstrated through passing Government Digital Service(GDS) assessments at every stage of GDS agile delivery framework Within last two-years have experience in successfully implementing User Centred Design Services(User Research/Service Design/ Content Design/Interaction Design/Business Analysis) demonstrated through successful project-delivery and achievement of key success measures for projects Evidence of demonstrable experience within the last two years in working on complex, multi-stakeholder programmes (both internal and external) within the public sector Evidence of delivering high profile, time critical services and ensuring effective management of risks to delivery Proven experience of using a range of agile techniques alongside stakeholders that may be unfamiliar with agile project management within government Proven experience of supporting customers to build in-house capabilities and ensure effective knowledge management and transfer Evidence within the last two years of experience in architecture services and ensuring products are robust, scalable, open, secure and align to wider organisational capabilities and strategies Experience within the last two years in scalable cloud-based web applications (preferably Microsoft Azure), detailed knowledge of the C#,.NET,ASP.NET MVC programming languages and 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 within the public sector, ideally in the Education sector Experience of delivering services similar to our priority areas, and an ability to identify and apply relevant knowledge to strengthen service design Experience of passing multiple GDS service assessments within complex digital programmes across government No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Demonstrate experience in end-to-end delivery of digital products from discovery through to live within Public Sector Demonstrate ability to deliver digital products/services to government Digital Service (GDS) standard across the GDS agile delivery phases Experience and methodology in approach to agile project using both Kanban and scrum Demonstrable experience of working alongside clients that are typically unfamiliar with agile project management, in co-located, integrated teams Demonstrate approach to knowledge and skills transfer to enable the transition of service delivery to the business Technical competence in a wide range of relevant technologies and agile practices including business analysis, project management, research, design, development, architecture and testing Ability to promptly mobilise expertise to scale up team and flex resource when needed and to respond to fluctuating resource requirements Ability to demonstrate flexible use of resources across multiple streams of work to maximise efficiency Value for money Demonstrate understanding of the challenges of implementing user centred design in a multi-stakeholder government environment Cultural Fit Criteria Work as a team – Collaborate, establish good working relationships, generate team spirit Integrate – Work closely with staff unfamiliar with agile working principles to align plans and activities Build capability – Encourage learning, share knowledge, address capability gaps, act on feedback Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 15% Price 35% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range these capability services are to be delivered over a contract period of 1 year, with the option to extend for a further 12 months and with an indicative contract value of approximately £5,000,000 – £9,000,000 for the full 2-year service delivery.