Met Office Space Weather Programme Delivery Partner 2020-22

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done Space weather is a medium-high risk on the UK Government’s National Risk Register and the Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre (MOSWOC) is a key component of the UK’s approach to mitigate the space weather risk. The IT capability at the heart of this contract is the mechanism by which MOSWOC forecasters access, visualise and manipulate observational data and models, as well as the delivering products and services to a wide range of expert and non-expert users. This contract will provide continuity, whilst developing and supporting (DevOps) of the operational Space Weather service. The delivery partner shall undertake all evolving space weather BaU activities, alongside lifecycle management including migration of the current operational service to AWS. The purpose of this is to reduce operational costs for the service and reduce cycle time for changes. The space weather development project will continue to adhere to standard assurance processes with regular architecture reviews etc. Regular communication will be maintained with key projects to ensure consistent approaches and integration, where possible. Problem to Be Solved The Met Office owns the UK space weather risk on behalf of BEIS.  Space weather is a risk high on the National Risk Register and describes changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space. Magnetic fields, radiation, particles and matter, which have been ejected from the Sun, can interact with the Earth's upper atmosphere and surrounding magnetic field to produce a variety of effects. In our increasingly technologically dependent society, the impact of space weather events can disrupt power grids, radio communications and satellite operations including GPS.  As part of the National Risk Assessment mitigation strategy, BEIS fund the Met Office to provide a 24/7 operational service, through the Space Weather Operations Centre (MOSWOC) to ensure government and critical national infrastructure providers receive the vital forecast information needed to help mitigate the effects of space weather.   This work will undertake migrating the main components of the Met Office’s own operational Space Weather (SW) service from its own internal IT infrastructure to AWS. This project will also enhance the existing Met Office space weather forecast system and service delivery to customers. Who Are the Users Met Office Space Weather forecasters use the system to visualise and manipulate forecast model data, create alerts and warnings and deliver these to a huge range of customers from the Government, to businesses, the general public, armed forces, researchers and other organisations. Early Market Engagement Work Already Done We have a 24/7 365 service, which has been operational since 2014. We are working towards migrating the service to AWS, operationalising new models and making our data available to a wider range of customers. This has been done in conjunction with the incumbent partner. Existing Team For the last six years IT development has been delivered in conjunction with a software development and testing partner with requirements set by Met Office Technical Lead, Project Manager, Product Owner and Solutions Architect.  Members of the Met Office Science and forecaster teams also assist in the translation of requirements and refining of deliverables. Current Phase Live Work Location During on-boarding the partner’s team will be expected to work onsite at the Met Office’s HQ based in Exeter before switching to work predominantly at their own corporate offices, with regular 2 weekly (subject to change) meetings taking place in Exeter to fit with the scrum sprint process.  Quarterly formal service/contract review meetings will also take place (either on-site or via teleconference). Met Office HQ Fitzroy Road Exeter UK EX1 3PB Working Arrangments Regular face-to-face meetings in Exeter encompassing demonstrations and reviews of new functionality and reflection on progress and planning for the next fortnight. There will be daily stand-ups. The partner’s senior software developer will meet with the Met Office project team to review the backlog and priority of work. We expect our partner to attend these face-to-face or via collaborative communication methods, as appropriate. Our partner will work with the Met Office release management team, agreeing regular release dates. They will also work with other Met Office teams to deliver some work packages where additional support is required. Security Clearance The partner’s development team must be capable of successfully progressing through the security clearance process. Met Office can sponsor clearances if required. It is desirable to have access to readily cleared developers and possibly with higher classifications, as and when required. Additional T&Cs All expenses must be pre-agreed between the parties and must comply with the Met Office Travel and Subsistence (T&S) Policy. We will use a credit reference agency (CRA) to assess the supplier's economic and financial standing and reserve right not to award a Call-Off Contract to a supplier. All staff who access our assets must agree to our non-disclosure/confidentiality agreements and other Met Office compliance standards. Skills & Experience Tech/Team Lead Developer: (Reference level: SFIA 5) Developers: (Mix of Reference level: SFIA 3 and 4) Recent proven ability of delivering solutions with cross-functional teams in an Agile way, including Scrum and Kanban Demonstrate recent experience of engineering secure full stack web solutions using technologies: Java, Python, Javascript/Typescript, HTML5, CSS3/SASS Demonstrate recent experience of engineering solutions with AWS managed services (S3, DynamoDB, Lambda, IAM, API Gateway, SQS, SNS) Demonstrate recent experience of building complete deployment and CI automation using technologies such as Jenkins, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodePipeline, CloudFormation, CDK Demonstrate recent experience of supporting applications using Open Source, IDL, Java, Dojo, MongoDB, Mongo Atlas, Apache Camel, ActiveMQ, Bitbucket, Jira, Maven, Jenkins Experience of creation and maintenance of Documentation; training of users Experience of working with and transforming large and frequently updating data sets Demonstrate experience of secure coding compliant with Cyber Essentials Plus Proven ability to define and create testing strategies and automate the testing of code Experience of providing 4th line support Recent experience migrating platforms to AWS Demonstrate experience of being able to adapt and align to other organisational ways of working to enable successful project delivery Evidence of working with academic/research personnel Demonstrate ability to explain complex technical information to non-technical stakeholders Nice to Haves Knowledge in the space weather domain Ability to bring in team members with DV security clearance as and when required Experience of developing on a shared on-premises platform Experience of cross-organisation collaborative working Ability to call on User Experience skills (Reference level: SFIA 3 or 4) Ability to call on Business Analyst skills (Reference level: SFIA 3 or 4) No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria Technical solution Approach and methodology How the approach or solution meets user needs How they've identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them Team structure Value for money Ability to meet security requirements included in Cyber Security Questionnaire Cultural Fit Criteria Demonstrate alignment with Met Office collaborative working practices Have a defined knowledge transfer process and be prepared to share knowledge with internal and external personnel Possess demonstrable experience of working in an Agile collaborative environment to deliver similar project(s) to a customer Demonstrate four key Met Office behaviours: Drive, Integrity, United, Vision coupled with Clear and Inspiring communication Demonstrate a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion Demonstrate a commitment to sustainable working practices Payment Approach Time and materials Assessment Method Case study Work history Reference Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 55% Cultural fit 20% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range £1.5m - £2m over the contract period