Procurement of Agile Development Services

Tender description

Why the Work is Being Done The ESFA require a development delivery specialist to deliver across a range of directorates. Data Science -We are looking at future system and business needs of the Department. Submit Learner Data (SLD), Further Education Data Improvement (FEDI), Forms Collections (FC) and Further Education Workforce Collection (FEWF) are Government Digital Service (GDS) platforms that underpin Department's needs for high quality business data. DfE plans to build holistic data collection services looking to exploit cloud services/automated data collections to GDS Standards. This will link into schools’ collections, aligning data items collected for individuals across the DfE. We expect the need for development work to run over the next 2 years. Funding Directorate - Responsible for delivering all School & Further Education funding in England. We require an agile partner to help our Service Delivery team, Calculate Funding Service (CFS), complete their digital transformation. The challenges will range from bringing new products to live as well as shaping mature systems to support transformation. Problem to Be Solved Data Science - As the organisation moves forward there will be a strong need to support the existing services and any new ones falling out of the Transformation Programme. For example, there may well be a need for the business to actively support a new range of stakeholders and users in the delivery of T Levels. Funding - As an internal funding modelling and calculation service, the CFS needs to be enhanced and developed to meet the evolving business and policy needs and interface with other ESFA systems to complete their digital transformation. This may require the spectrum of GDS agile roles. We are looking for a partner to transition knowledge, skills and experience to help build this. COVID 19 has placed extra pressure on existing platforms and applications. There is a strong likelihood there will be a need to continue to support these initiatives. Who Are the Users Our users are external (employers, training providers, end-point assessment organisations) and internal (government), for example: • As a provider I need to submit data so that I can be paid accurately and in a timely manner; As ESFA I need access to accurate and timely data so we can pay providers, produce national statistics and carry out audits • Users are internal and are responsible for calculating allocations. They need to interpret policy in order to model and calculate allocations to providers accurately so that integrated services can publish and pay funding to providers on time to deliver learning Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done Data Science - SLD is in Public Beta and is preparing for the transition to a Live GDS service assessment. FEDI and FEWC are both in the Alpha phase of delivery and FC is a mature product which is experiencing a significant demand as a consequence of Covid 19. Funding - The CFS is a live digital service. It is being continuously improved to meet ESFA evolving service needs. It has onboarded some funding streams and has various integration points to financial allocation, publishing and payments system. Existing Team Teams currently supporting ESFA with expertise to deliver similar services 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. Current Phase Not applicable Work Location Primary location will be ESFA Cheylesmore House, Coventry with working from home as agreed with line manager. Occasional travel to DfE/ESFA site in London along with travel across England for user research may be required may be required. Working Arrangments This will be a 5 day per week commitment as agreed within individual statements of work and detailed working arrangements, including team location, size and make-up, will be contained within each. 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. Security Clearance Personnel from the Service provider need to have both BPSS and an enhanced DBS check. Additional T&Cs Expenses must be pre-agreed and comply with DfE Travel and Subsistence Policy. Any expenses shall be submitted in line with DfE standard T&S policy. Primary work location stated in Statement of Work will not attract expenses. No parking is available on site. Skills & Experience Within the last two years have experience in delivery management and project support services such as agile, scrum, working in complex, multi-team, agile programmes Within last two-years experience in architecture services, ensuring new and updated platforms, products, transactions and system architectures are robust, scalable, open and secure, working within established corporate governance framework Within the last two years experience in building and supporting document libraries, work flow and case management systems (Microsoft Sharepoint O365, Microsoft Dynamics O365) Experience of successfully delivering backend development and Implementing APIs for internal and external use Experience in working with identity and access security in Microsoft Azure PaaS environment Experience in successfully building SaaS and PaaS services in Microsoft Azure Experience in successfully building scalable server-less cloud-based web applications using Microsoft Azure stack Proven experience of successfully supporting customers to build in-house capabilities and ensure effective knowledge management and transfer Within the last two years experience in successfully building front-end web applications (HTML/CSS/JS) Within the last two years experience in scalable server-side cloud-based web applications (preferably Microsoft Azure) detailed knowledge of the C#, .NET, ASP.NET MVC/Razor, REST API, Cosmos DB optimisation programming languages Evidenced experience of expertise developing software using modern engineering practices such as Test Driven Development and Continuous Integration & Deployment in an Azure DevOps environment Nice to Haves Understanding of DevOps services including running production applications and optimising existing applications Experience in building services to meet the UK government Digital Service Standard or appropriate similar standards within complex digital programmes across government Evidence of successfully delivering Minimum Viable Product solutions within compressed timelines No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria Demonstrate working experience in delivering digital products/services and understanding the challenges of implementing user centred design in a government agile environment, Demonstrate understanding to deliver digital products/services to Government UK Digital Service Standard or appropriate similar standards within complex digital programmes across government Experience and methodology in approach to agile project using both Kanban and scrum Demonstrable experience of working alongside clients in co-located, integrated teams Demonstrate approach to knowledge and skills transfer Technical competence in a wide range of relevant technologies and agile practices Ability to scale up team and flex resource when needed on-site Value for money Cultural Fit Criteria Innovate – Act on initiative, drive improvements, balance risks Build capability – Encourage learning, share knowledge, address capability gaps, act on feedback Approach to developing a "One Team" approach, Work as a team – Collaborate, establish good working relationships, generate team spirit Actively promote diversity and inclusion as per the public sector equality duty Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 30% Cultural fit 10% Price 60% Questions from Suppliers No questions have been answered yet Budget range the budget could range up to a maximum of £9.5m