Developer and Technical Architect Capability

Tender description

Summary of the work DIT require a supplier to provide developers and technical architects with experience to deliver and enhance the DDaT Directorate’s services, through a range of short and long-term projects in accordance with GDS standards. Expected Contract Length 24 months Latest start date Tuesday 10 May 2022 Budget Range The Buyer will issue a range of work packages. A maximum budget of £3,000,000.00 for a 24 month duration, exclusive of VAT. This budget range excludes any extension options. The value of the optional extension period is £750,000 excluding VAT. Why the Work is Being Done The DIT DDaT team builds and operates a variety of services to support the department's objective to become a data-driven organisation. It is focused on: • adapting and enhancing existing DIT and HMG services in order to better facilitate international trade and investment • ensuring that DIT staff have the secure technology and communications infrastructure necessary to deliver the new UK trading environment This includes a number of portfolios of work, including the below that are in scope for this requirement: • Export and Investment Services Portfolio • Trading Services portfolio • Employee experience portfolio • Data platforms portfolio • Technology platforms portfolio The team is constantly developing new services and infrastructure to meet emerging priorities. As our range of products grows, we need to supplement our in-house teams with other specialists able to deliver on our requirements, including: • Technical architect • Technical specialist architect • Software developer • Frontend developer • Development operations (DevOps) engineer • Site Reliability Engineer Role descriptions are in line with the DDaT Capability Framework ‘Technical Job Family.’ Details at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/digital-data-and-technology-profession-capability-framework. Problem to Be Solved We need to deliver both long- and short-term solutions , to meet emerging priorities for the department. At the same time, we need to ensure our existing services are maintained and enhanced to ensure they remain best-in-class. We have a range of services in discovery, alpha and beta phases of development. The supplier will work on a number of different statements of work across the portfolios mentioned above. This includes: - Predominantly customer facing services, such as those designed to advice, support and digital services to businesses in the UK and overseas. - Predominantly staff-facing services, for instance to help drive DIT’s transition to becoming a data-driven, intelligence-led organisation, allowing staff to intelligently manage business relationships Who Are the Users We are looking for a supplier to help our Digital, Data and Technology team deliver against its investment support priorities. DDaT is a growing function, and we need extra capacity to deliver new projects and transform existing services, identify gaps and build departmental capability as we help the Buyer to deliver against its priorities. We have a number of planned exploratory projects that would suit outcome-based teams. Our services include both staff-facing and public-facing products. Staff-facing services are used by ~4,000 of the Buyer's staff and partners around the world, enabling the Buyer to support UK investment and overseas investors and to inform UK trade policy. The Buyer's public-facing digital services are used by overseas investors and UK exporters to support them in their international trade journey Existing Team The Buyer's DDAT team consists of a range of multi-disciplinary teams, working across all areas. It is a fast-growing team. The supplier will support DDaT during this phase to deliver departmental priorities either by supplementing existing product teams or by taking forward new Discoveries, Alphas and Betas independently, under the leadership of the programme team. Documenting the work and handing over is a critical part of the contract to ensure that DDaT owns and retains the knowledge created during the work. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Experience working on user-centred, agile projects, following the Government Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice. (3%) • Experience delivering as part of a wider product team, under the leadership of a programme team, as part of a wider portfolio (3%) • Experience in linking multiple loosely coupled systems, with different data models and data quality, as part of a production service. (3%) • Range and depth of expertise of providing the required technical roles. (3%) • Experience of developing digital services or staff-facing digital tools to support transnational business activity. (3%) • Describe your ability to demonstrate keeping your workforce up to date with current and emerging technologies and toolsets(3%) • Demonstrate the ability to work with stakeholders to refine and validate their ideas. (3%) • Describe and evidence your ability to work with Cloud service providers (Microsoft and AWS) to manage and maintain infrastructure and platform services, working collaboratively to resolve platform incidents (3%) Work Location Department for International Trade Old Admiralty Building Westminster London SW1A 2BL Working Arrangments Typically, a substantial portion of the work will be performed on-site at DIT’s premises in Westminster, London, unless otherwise agreed. However, at the time of publication, government measures to reduce Covid-19 are in operation and as such, work should be done remotely and in observance of social distancing and shielding guidance. DIT will continue to observe all government advice in the coming months aimed at reducing the spread of the virus Security Clearance The majority supplier staff will be required to have SC clearance before they start; exceptionally BPSS clearance may be acceptable for certain roles. A copy of the clearance from the supplier will be required. It is the responsibility of the supplier to ensure clearance is received. Additional T&Cs All expenses must be pre-agreed between the parties and must comply with the Cabinet Office (CO) Travel and Subsistence (T&S) Policy. The initial SOW will be agreed with the successful supplier following award. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Please outline how much resource you will be able to provide to meet call-off requests under this contract, including the volume of parallel requests that you could meet. (7%) • Explain your approach to onboarding and retaining key resources within changing market conditions. (7%) • Explain how you'll meet DIT's need for skilled-individuals - what internal tests/processing will you undertake to ensure these specialists meet our requirements? How will you measure/manage the quality/speed of delivery?(8%) • Please provide outlines of the team profile / work history of the individuals who could be deployed to work on this DIT requirement. (7%) • Explain how you will ensure DIT staff are ready to take on operational control and support upon completion of work. (7%) • Experience in upskilling and mentoring junior members of staff, including from unrepresented groups, helping them in achieving their career objectives. (10%) Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrate your ability to work with multiple teams on the same platform, sharing components, reviewing each other's work, and promoting a collaborative working environment (5%) • Demonstrate your ability to deliver in an open, collaborative, agile way according to the principles outlined in the GDS Manual (5%) Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Work history • Reference • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. When referring to a Technical specialist architect, can you please clarify what domain this is? Multiple technical domains included Microsoft and AWS 2. Do you accept bid from private sector experience in delivering Agile programs ? All relevant experience would be considered as part of the assessment criteria. The supplier would be expected to demonstrate experience working on user-centred, agile projects, following the Government Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice 3. Do you accept bid from small and micro business who have architecture delivery experience and can ramp up a team quickly? Yes – DIT will consider bids from any type of supplier able to meet our requirements. 4. From the Stage 2 questionnaires, can you please let us know how Small Business can fairly bid against large players? What is your commitment to small business? DIT will consider bids from any type of supplier able to meet our requirements. SMEs are encouraged to submit a bid. We recognise that different types of company may mobilise resource in different ways – not all suppliers will necessarily have a pre-existing bench to draw from. 5. When answering the essential skills and experience questions, do the answers need to be from the perspective of the candidate(s) selected to go forward for this role or are they sample CV examples of how we have delivered and placed similar teams? We would expect to see sample CVs; the exact roles will be dependent on the content of the final SOW. 6. Could you please advise if there is an incumbent supplier, currently providing the Development and Technical Architecture services? There is no incumbent supplier for this piece of work. 7. Regarding ‘Please provide outlines of the team profile / work history of the individuals who could be deployed to work on this DIT requirement’. Small business do not hold a large bench strength due to operational overhead and only recruit based on Tender approval. Does this requirement support Small business in the bidding program or meant for large suppliers? As outlined above, DIT will consider bids from any type of supplier able to meet our requirements. The supplier will be expected to adapt to changing requirements and short-term need. 8. Regarding “Please outline how much resource you will be able to provide to meet call-off requests under this contract, including the volume of parallel requests that you could meet’... Does large supplier with huge offshore bench strength and count be able to score higher on this criteria? No. We recognise that different suppliers may mobilise resource in different ways – not all suppliers will necessarily have a pre-existing bench to draw from. However, any supplier would be expected to ramp up a team quickly. 9. Please outline your department s commitment for small and micro business bidding for the tender ? Regarding “Range and depth of expertise of providing the required technical roles. (3%)’. Can you please elaborate on this requirement? We recognise that different suppliers may mobilise resource in different ways – not all suppliers will necessarily have a pre-existing bench to draw from. However, any supplier would be expected to ramp up a team quickly. 10. From the description there are only 6 DDat roles being asked.. How many resources for each of the role are you looking and within what duration? Exact requirements will be determined based on business needs. 11. Please elaborate on ‘transnational business activity’. DIT’s objective is to secure UK and global prosperity by promoting and financing international trade and investment, and championing free trade. We would be interested in hearing examples of transnational work that might be relevant to the work DIT will do within this requirement. 12. Regarding ‘Please outline how much resource you will be able to provide to meet call-off requests under this contract, including the volume of parallel requests that you could meet’. The requirement specifies only 6 roles. Please clarify the volume and duration. Exact requirements will be determined based on business needs. 13. Is there an incumbent for this service? There is no incumbent supplier for this piece of work. 14. The Technical specialist architect – what speciality are you expecting, is it a business domain specialism or technical specialism in Cloud/Security/AWS/ Azure/Data etc.? Multiple technical domains including Microsoft and AWS 15. Please could you clarify which existing technologies are being used, and which technologies will be required/are expected to be used for builds? The technology stack bidders will be working with are: language: python (django) hosting: gov.uk PaaS db: postgresql sessions: redis search: elasticsearch tools: github, circle-ci, jenkins 16. Please could you clarify what percentage of work is required to be onsite, and what is the Department for International Trade’s approach to hybrid working? DIT’s expectation is typically that 40% of work will be completed onsite, though this will vary depending on business need. DIT policy is continuity to develop. 17. To help with the question “Range and depth of expertise of providing the required technical roles. ” could you please share more detail on your technology stack? The technology stack bidders will be working with are: language: python (django) hosting: gov.uk PaaS db: postgresql sessions: redis search: elasticsearch tools: github, circle-ci, jenkins 18. For the question “Experience of developing digital services or staff-facing digital tools to support transnational business activity. ” are you looking for services used in multiple geographies and languages? DIT’s objective is to secure UK and global prosperity by promoting and financing international trade and investment, and championing free trade. We would be interested in hearing examples of transnational work that might be relevant to the work DIT will do within this requirement. This could relate to services used in multiple geographies and languages. 19. For the question “Experience of developing digital services or staff-facing digital tools to support transnational business activity. ” are you looking for services that support business transactions the cross national borders? DIT’s objective is to secure UK and global prosperity by promoting and financing international trade and investment, and championing free trade. We would be interested in hearing examples of transnational work that might be relevant to the work DIT will do within this requirement. This could relate to services that support business transactions that cross national borders. 20. Can you please give an indication on the number of resources you are likely to need? There is no incumbent supplier for this piece of work. 21. Please can you provide dates for; down selection, presentation, and award/initialisation? The procurement timescale for stage 2 will be confirmed with the shortlisted Suppliers. Presentations are likely to take place mid-March with award at the start of April. 22. What specific technologies must the developers and technical architects be proficient in (i.e. Python, Apache Spark, Snowflake, Azure Synapse, Java, React, Elastic search) ? See previous answers on DIT’s technology stack 23. What technologies are incumbent and will be decommissioned as part of this programme? DIT has no specific plan to decomission any technologies as part of this programme. Please see previous answers for details of DIT’s technology stack.