Home Office PPPT Reference Architecture Service

Tender description

Summary of the work Working with the PPPT CTO defining reference architecture, and supporting artefacts, which will shape future delivery of national policing technology. This encompasses delivery of architectures, principles and patterns to be used in assessing technical designs and aid communication. The supplier will work with CTO Function to deliver the outcomes expected. Expected Contract Length The contract will have a two-year term; the initial phase will be completed by 31st March 2021. Latest start date Monday 19 October 2020 Budget Range The budget in 2020/21 is up to £400,000 and will include all activity which will be required to deliver the services. Any expenditure beyond 2020/21 will be dependent on departmental budgets. Why the Work is Being Done This work is being performed in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Function within Police and Public Protection Technology (PPPT). It will enable the CTO Function to have an initial view against which designs, and technology decisions can be assessed and validated. It will provide the necessary integrations with the Home Office Enterprise Architecture, Reference Architectures and processes supported by integration with the Policing Digital Strategy and the Capability Model which has been previously delivered. Problem to Be Solved To work with the Home Office PPPT CTO Function to deliver architectural artefacts which will enhance the ability of the function to perform against objectives. Including but not limited to:- 1. As Is Assessment of architectural artefacts within the PPPT CTO Function; 2. Reference Architecture for PPPT; 3. Selection of strategic tooling for the portfolio and the definition of strategic technology choices to be enabled for the programmes; 4. Assessment and alignment of any artefacts with HO and Policing standards; 5. Assessment of current systems against the capability model to define the function each system enables; 6. Initial assessment of the suitability of PPPT systems to deliver National Policing Systems through a System of Systems approach; 7. High level roadmap to enact any necessary changes to deliver the technology solutions to support the capability model. Who Are the Users The user community will be the Chief Technology Officer function within PPPT. They will use the reference architecture, and supporting artefacts, to more effectively communicate to the programmes on architectural matters and to ensure more effective technical governance. Existing Team This will be the CTO function. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Provide demonstrable experience of your approach to the creation of a reference architecture. • Provide demonstrable experience of your delivery approach for the execution of projects to deliver a reference architecture. • Demonstrable experience of a project of this nature with indicative outcomes and deliverables which you provided as part of information on the effort required to deliver. • Please indicate your experience in the delivery of architecture projects within the Home Office, or similar public sector or commercial department, and provide examples to support your experience. • Demonstrable experience of ensuring alignment with existing architectures and principles within a public-sector environment or similar commercial environment. • Demonstratable experience of delivering architectural projects to national or local policing or similar critical national infrastructure. • Please indicate the duration of a project of this nature based on your experience and prior projects tied to the roles and outcomes which you believe would be required. Nice to Haves • Demonstrable experience of architecture frameworks used to deliver similar projects. • Demonstrable experience of roles used to deliver a reference architecture with focus on enhancement of the capability model, architectural principles and covering areas of data, solution, security and business architectures. • Demonstrable experience of a project of this nature with indicative outcomes and deliverables which you provided as part of information on the effort required to deliver. Work Location 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF or Fleetbank House, London EC4Y 8AE. Due to the COVID-19 situation work will be carried out remotely until further notice. Working Arrangments General office working hours, core 10-4, Monday – Friday. Expenses will conform to Home Office internal travel and subsistence policies and will not be payable within the M25. Occasional travel to other Home Office locations may be required. The team must use agile methodologies, with regular stand ups and show and tells. Security Clearance The Supplier’s personnel will be required to obtain SC and NPPV3 security clearance. Additional T&Cs Standard terms and conditions will apply. Any expenses will be payable within the Home Office Travel and Subsistence Policy. Travel outside of the M25 will be subject to this policy. No expenses will be payable within the M25. Team must work with their relevant professional communities in the HO – using their ways of working and sharing knowledge as set out by each community. Dependent on the outcome, the supplier may be awarded subsequent phases. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Technical solution • How the approach meets user need. • How the approach meets the organisation's policy or goal. • Estimated timeframes for the work. • How they've identified risks and dependencies and offered approaches to manage them • Team structure. • Value for money. Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrable experience of working as a joint team with commissioning organisation and operating within its governance. • Work in the open: be transparent and collaborative when making decisions. • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to experiment, iterate and learn from their mistakes. • Take responsibility for their work. • Share knowledge and experience with other team members. • Challenge the status quo and be comfortable standing up for their discipline. Payment Approach Fixed price Assessment Method • Case study • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 75% Cultural fit 5% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Is there a list of technologies/ platforms involved in this reference architecture? There are a number of technologies in use across PPPT depending on the needs of the various programmes and projects. As such there is no consolidated list and that is assumed to be an output of the work which will be performed by the successful respondent. 2. Can you confirm the indicated budget up to £400,000 is from contract award until 31 Mar 2021? The budget communicated is confirmed until the end of the financial year. However it is expected that bidders to the Invitation to Tender will propose in their responses ways in which the outcomes can be realised at a lower cost. 3. Do you have a stakeholder map or discovery analysis on existing issues to be addressed in the blueprint, short term, to support early business improvements? If so can this be shared? There are no artefacts which are available or can be shared at this time. 4. How many projects/programmes form part of the PPPT portfolio? The PPPT Portfolio consists of 5 sub-portfolios. Within this there are approximately 30 programmes and products with a number of projects running underneath these. 5. How are these projects/programmes orchestrated currently? Programmes and projects are run within sub-portfolios lead by a delivery director. Technical governance and assurance is provided by the PPPT CTO TDA. 6. What architectural tools does PPPT use? The preferred architectural tool is Sparx EA although Abacus has been used previously. 7. What architectural frameworks does PPPT use? The preferred framework is TOGAF. 8. Please confirm who the incumbent supplier is and how many FTE’s are part of the service. There is no incumbent supplier and as such no FTE. 9. Do you have a maturity matrix from a discovery exercise for the various architectural layers of a future blueprint and reference model? Or can you provide the architectural layers which are of the least maturity and the architectural layers exhibiting high levels of maturity? This does not exist at this time. 10. Do you require a governance or technical design authority setup/model as part of this work, or is this focus purely on the blueprint and future roadmap? There is an existing TDA in place. This work will be used to inform the processes which take place in that forum. In addition it is expected that should the respondent feel that proposing updates or changes to the existing process used for technical assurance are ineffective these will part of the delivery. 11. Do you have a stakeholder map or discovery analysis on existing issues to be addressed in the blueprint, short term, to support early business improvements? If so can this be shared? There are no artefacts which are available or can be shared at this time. 12. Can the business drivers behind this work be provided? The PPPT CTO would like to have a defined set of architectural documents and artefacts which can be used to inform, align and provide a baseline against which technical governance and assurance can be performed. 13. Are there any portfolio level blueprints (P3M/MSP)? These artefacts exist but cannot be shared at this time. 14. What level of assistance/integration is anticipated between the individual project architectures and the reference architecture? Due to the lack of Level 0 artefacts it is assumed that each programme has a reference architecture which is specific to their needs. There is a desire to provide alignment to the to be created Level 0 reference architecture within the programmes but this is likely to be an ongoing process of change for which roadmaps will be created within the programmes and outside the scope of this work. 15. Are there any users and key stakeholders requirements which can be shared from previous discovery exercises? No. 16. There are duplicate questions in the response, Q3 & Q10. Are suppliers expected to input the same response for both or provide two different evidential examples? This is an error. Please provide just the response in the essential skills/responses area. 17. Is there an incumbent external provider? There is no incumbent. 18. The third essential skill 'Demonstrable experience of a project of this nature with indicative outcomes and deliverables which you provided as part of information on the effort required to deliver.' is the same as the third nice to have skill. Please can you confirm if you require a separate example for each or just one example? This is an error. Please provide the examples as part of the essential skills and experience section only. 19. The background refers to Home Office Enterprise Architecture, Reference Architecture and the Capability Model related to the Policing Digital Strategy. Are these available? If so, can they be forwarded? These may be shared as part of the ITT as they are official-sensitive and hence cannot be released without suitable protection. 20. Please could you confirm whether candidates can undergo NPPV3 clearance in the role or whether this would be required before commencement in the role. Additionally, are you willing to sponsor SC applications? NPPV3 clearance can be granted as an interim application whilst full clearance is being performed. The Home Office are willing to sponsor SC clearance should that be necessary. 21. For the question at bullet point 3, can you clarify if the skills/experience you are interested in: (i) the upfront architecture design and roadmap creation effort to estimate the required outcomes and deliverables, or (ii) the effort to actually deliver the outcomes and deliverables? At this time we are interested in the effort required to deliver the expected outcomes of this opportunity 22. Can you clarify if the question duplicated at bullet point 3 and bullet point 10 is intentionally duplicated and requires two different examples or if this an error. (Demonstrable experience of a project of this nature with indicative outcomes and deliverables which you provided as part of information on the effort required to deliver). This is an error. Please provide just the response in the essential skills/responses area.