Rail Capital Delivery Data Discovery

Tender description

Summary of the work The winning supplier will be required to: • Deliver a Discovery report and presentation with analysis and supporting evidence. • Deliver clear, prioritised recommendations and a plan for how to proceed with the recommendations. • Pass the relevant internal and GDS assurance assessments relevant for a discovery phase project Expected Contract Length 6 - 10 weeks Latest start date Saturday 6 August 2022 Budget Range £40k to £75k Why the Work is Being Done Rail infrastructure investment decisions and governance requires timely, validated data and insight in near real time. There is a wealth of data available within the partnership organisations of Network Rail and the Department for Transport. These cover anticipated cost, milestones, minimum viable cost, financial profiling, actions taken to drive down cost and time, change controls, policy metrics (eg levelling-up/deprivation), regional metrics, balance scorecard metrics. For the refresh of rail infrastructure portfolio management to be successful and enable it to be strategic, we need to understand and share a robust evidence base, which will also put us in a good position for the data requirement for infrastructure in future. Problem to Be Solved We wish to understand the full scope of the data available across DfT and Network Rail, what it can and cannot tell us/do, why, and what we do need in place to answer key questions and maintain quality on a continuous basis. The key questions are: • How do we get to one version of real time data for NR and DfT? • What user needs and questions can one data model solve including analytics and visualisation (automated)? Who Are the Users Department for Transport - Rail Infrastructure Group (SROs, sponsor teams, policy team), Rail Infrastructure Analysis Team, Shareholder Team. Network Rail – Centre of Excellence Team, Regional Investment Directors, Capital Delivery Directors, Analysis Teams. DfT and NR need to be able to report using data both understand to programme, projects, and portfolio Boards; track, monitor and question/challenge schemes progress: milestones, costs, schedule; financial forecasting; profiling; maintaining enhancements inputs into NR National Scorecard; link scheme information to policy and regional activity and impacts. Early Market Engagement N/A Work Already Done There are existing datasets and models in place (e.g., NR’s fishbone) and working with PowerBI for presentational purposes. DfT’s approach is more manual. Overall where automated processes are available the main risk remains confidence and understanding of the inputs. Existing Team The Portfolio Team in Department for Transport’s Rail Infrastructure Group is providing a small proportion of its time to leading this work alongside the two other workstreams in refreshing our portfolio management. We anticipate a joint project team for the refresh with Network Rail Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • Provide evidence on the ability to understand a range of datasets and the decisions they contribute to. • Evidence of creating sustainable data models across organisational boundaries. • Evidence of mapping data and information flows. • Provide evidence of Identifying a data driven project that you have taken through discovery phase in line with GDS guidelines for a government department Nice to Haves • Provide evidenced experience of stakeholder management in a pressured environment. • Provide evidenced experience in conducting a data discovery for central government at an industry level. Work Location Remote / London office Working Arrangments Full time Security Clearance Basic Additional T&Cs All output will be owned by the Department for Transport, which may share it under a suitable Open Licence. All material/outputs derived from the contract shall be the property of the Department for Transport. [and NR?] No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 6 Proposal Criteria • Demonstrable evidence of the approach and methodology to the discovery project planning and delivery, identifying the main stages and activities proposed at each stage (20%) • Clear demonstration of how the approach or solution meets user needs (20%) • Describe how risks and dependencies have been identified and what approaches have been offered to manage and mitigate them (10%) • Estimated timeframes for the work (10%) Cultural Fit Criteria • Describe how you will recognise and balance a range of perspectives, opinions and requirements to reach conclusions and recommendations for non-specialists. (10%) • Describe how you will be transparent and collaborative when making decisions, being open with industry. (5%) • Describe how you propose to work with our team and suppliers (5%) Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Case study Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 20% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. For question “Provide evidence of Identifying a data driven project that you have taken through discovery phase in line with GDS guidelines for a government department”, are you specifically seeking a Government Department (e.g. DfT, DWP) or is an Agency/NDPB (e.g. DVLA, DVSA)acceptable as well? Evidence of working with a Government Agency/NDPB (e.g. DVLA/DVSA) will be acceptable. 2. How important to you is previous experience with rail infrastructure, compared to deep data experience in other domains? Is this something you’ll take into account with your scoring of questions? Having no previous experience of Rail infrastructure will not count against a potential supplier. 3. How have you determined the budget range for this engagement? This feels like a deep dive / detailed Discovery, but the budget range indicates something rather more lightweight? “We wish to understand the full scope of the data available across DfT and Network Rail, what it can and cannot tell us/do, why, and what we do need in place to answer key questions and maintain quality on a continuous basis.” DFT in this case refers to the Rail Infrastructure Group of DFT rather than the department (including all the other modes) as a whole. The budget reflects this. 4. For question “Evidence of creating sustainable data models across organisational boundaries.”, please can you clarify what you mean by sustainable? (For example, do you mean ongoing maintenance of the data model? Or adaptability to change? Or environmental consideration?) Here we are referring to ongoing maintenance of the data model and its ability to adapt if needed to in the future. 5. The contract notice mentions “near real time” and “real time”. Please can you clarify how often data would ideally be refreshed? How critical is fully live real time data? Data is produced from various sources throughout the periodic cycle. The desire is to have as close to real time information where possible, but accepting that some quality assurance will need to occur. 6. Have high level user requirements already been captured and documented such that they can be used as a starting point for this engagement? Or is the purpose of this engagement to create them from scratch? High level user requirements have been captured and documented. 7. Please can you elaborate on how many group of users you anticipate suppliers will engage with, and how many users you’re anticipating suppliers will need to engage with to provide sufficient depth of information in the findings from engagement? We anticipate circa 15 users who could be grouped into 4 /5 groups. 8. The first GDS assessment is generally at Alpha stage. Please can you clarify what assessments you are expecting suppliers to pass in the context of your requirement: “Pass the relevant internal and GDS assurance assessments relevant for a discovery phase project”. To confirm - There are no GDS/CDDO assessments for Discovery. 9. Are you able to provide access to stakeholders and users for the purposes of engagement and user research? We will provide access to a range of users and stakeholders for the purposes of engagement and user research. 10. Please can you confirm that “sustainable” in the second question within the Essential Skills and Experience section refers to models which last (single view of the truth, can sustain change etc.), rather than environmental sustainability? I can confirm that “sustainable” in the second question within the Essential Skills and Experience section refers to models which last (single view of the truth, can sustain change etc.), rather than environmental sustainability. 11. What are 3 key challenges you are trying to solve through understanding real-time data? DfT's 3 key challenges are:How do we get to one version of real time data for NR and DfT? What user needs and questions can one data model solve including analytics and visualisation (automated)? How can one version of real time data, or near real time data drive timely and effective decision making. 12. What streams of data do you currently collect? We currently collect cost, milestones, minimum viable cost, financial profiling, but part of the exercise is to understand, what else is out there and should we be collecting it? 13. “Across organisational” Do you see there being input from anyone other than DFT and NR? No we do not see there being any other entities other than DFT and NR. 14. What systems/technologies are currently collecting data? Ascertaining this will be part of the scope of the work. 15. Can you confirm if a case study is required as referenced in the additional assessment method? If so, where should this uploaded on the portal? Case studies will be required at stage 2 when proposals are submitted.