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Provision of Digital Service Project Portfolio Delivery 2021-23

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Summary of the work Provide challenge, support, insight and expertise in a multidisciplinary team delivering outcomes and building capability. DS are seeking to improve - user experience, Empowered collaboration, Innovation culture, Data Driven Decisions, Excellent Service & Enhanced security Deliver digital services/elements/phases passing governance gateways and working in line with governance frameworks and standards. Expected Contract Length 12 months Latest start date Sunday 8 August 2021 Why the Work is Being Done DfT’s Digital Service are looking for a supplier to support the delivery of their project and service portfolio and the associated outcomes. The supplier will work as part of a blended supplier portfolio. They will support DfTs delivery of improvements to transport users and policy makers, in line with the one departmental plan. DfT’s strategic priorities are: • Grow and Level Up the Economy • Improving Transport for the User • Reduce Environmental Impacts • Increase our Global Impact • Be an Excellent Department Problem to Be Solved DfT centre have a broad portfolio of Digital and Technology work and regularly support the delivery of urgent work to underpin the Governments response to emergencies/critical needs such as COVID and EU transition activities. The unplanned and often critical nature of demand, require a supplier to work at pace and meet user needs, in line with wider Digital Service Standards and assurances. In order to meet increasing demand quickly, we often need to call on a partners skills, support, challenge and experience for a short time to deliver the outcomes of projects and the general portfolio. Who Are the Users The users of the digital services which we build include Citizens, internal DfT staff, transport operators, data consuming/publishing organisations, Local Authorities and other Government Departments. All need to be able to use the service safely, to achieve their particular outcome, via the most efficient journey possible. Objectives of the projects and services are aligned to the DDaT priorities for Government. The portfolio could change over the course of the 12 month contract. We need to deliver the proposed outcomes from Digital products and services (delivered to the GDS Service Standard) and technology projects in line with the technology code of practice. Work Already Done The 2021/22 portfolio is already agreed. Blended teams are delivering across 16 projects/services. The successful supplier is expected to step in, supporting the delivery of these projects/services and their agreed outcomes, working closely with the DfT resources. The Digital Service portfolio of work is made up of 5 programmes; • Digital Services • Technology • Capability • Security and • Data Within the programmes are a mix of projects, services and business as usual activity. Alongside the planned activity is an amount of emergency and urgent work as well as a desire to continually promote DDaT good practice. Existing Team Lindsay De Bank (Head of Digital Project Delivery) will work with supplier to ensure expectations re outcomes in need of support, are clear. Rachel Nixon (Deputy Director) accountable for delivery of DS portfolio. Other key contacts include Delivery/Project/Development Managers. DS are a team of 120 staff, spanning a number of different skills/practices/capabilities, delivering the portfolio, aligned to the DS Strategic blueprints. Working with a number of suppliers and lines of business delivering portfolio using agile service teams, operational teams and more traditional waterfall project teams. The supplier is expected to flex and work with these teams to deliver portfolio objectives. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Demonstrate experience of delivering technology and digital services for central Government, adhering to all standards and governance, • Demonstrate experience of delivering digital services for central government as part of a blended team, alongside Civil Servants passing GDS service assessments at discovery, alpha, private and public beta phases • Demonstrate experience of working flexibly and at pace, across portfolio’s, delivering whatever skills/experience is needed to best meet outcomes and user need • Demonstrate experience of working in partnership to deliver outcomes, whilst at the same time building the capability of the purchasing organisation • Due to the time critical nature of this work, all staff working on live systems, must have SC clearance at the point of onboarding. • DfT expect to call on 20/40 roles at any time, to support delivery of the portfolio objectives. Supplier must confirm they can supply this volume of support to proceed. Nice to Haves • Provide evidence of experience of coaching teams/individuals with limited experience of agile methodologies • Provide evidence of experience of delivering a service across different government organisations, for example both a central department and an arms length body • Provide evidence of experience of working in a culture of continuous delivery and improvement • Provide evidence of experience in scaling agile to the portfolio level • Provide evidence of experience of drafting business cases in Government • Provide evidence of experience of working with a PROSCI change management methodology Work Location The majority of the work should be conducted at the supplier’s own site/ from home. However, we would expect the supplier to work at our offices when required. Exact days will be decided with the supplier, once the contract has been appointed. Address: Department for Transport, Great Minster House, Horseferry Road, SW1P 4DR Working Arrangments We expect that the supplier will have regular portfolio reviews with the Head of Digital Project Delivery to discuss progress against delivering the intended outcomes for each project and suggest/deliver interventions to ensure outcomes are delivered in fastest time, at lowest cost, realising value for the customer ASAP. Additional T&Cs The SoW (contributions of the supplier to the delivery of the shared outcomes, within the blended team) will be agreed for each project/ project phase in conversation between the Head of Digital Project Delivery and the supplier. Any roles not captured in the pricing schedule can be discussed between the successful supplier and DfTc. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Describe how will you ensure DfTc is supplied with high quality and appropriately skilled resources, including experienced developers, to compliment DS resources and ensure outcomes are delivered to benefit users • Explain how you plan to retain key resources and how you can commit to meet DfT's continuous need for support delivering portfolio objectives. • Provide a range of sample CVs to demonstrate the typical resource quality that will be provided to meet the requirements. • Provide up to three referenceable Government-focussed case studies where your organisation has provided the desired service capability. Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrate experience of working as a team with our organisation and other suppliers • Demonstrate experience of transparent and collaborative decision • Demonstrate experience of sharing approach, knowledge and skills with other team members and with the department by example Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method • Case study • Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 40% Cultural fit 20% Price 40% Questions from Suppliers 1. Please could you provide a list of roles/skills that might be expected within the 20-40 person service provision, to clarify if this is purely delivery management (PPM/PSO) or additional technical/business/other skills in support of delivery management. Technical Product Manager (TPM)Agile Delivery Manager (ADM)Solution ArchitectBusiness Analyst (BA)Software EngineersPlatform EngineerCloud EngineerTest ManagerTest EngineerUser ResearcherChange ManagerContent DesignerUser Interaction/Experience Designer Service DesignerCyber Security EngineerData Engineer Dev Ops EngineerInfrastructure EngineerInformation AssurancePortfolio Management For clarification it is any role required by a multidisciplinary team to support agile delivery of portfolio objectives/outcomes 2. Please can you confirm if you will sponsor SC Clearance? No, due to the time constraints and urgency of this, we will not look to sponsor SC Clearance 3. Please can you indicate the Budget range for this work? 2.5 to 4 Million 4. Is there a budget for the services you require within the scope of this tender? If so, what is the budget please? 2.5 to 4 Million 5. Can you confirm the budget range for this work? 2.5 to 4 million 6. Can you confirm the budget range for this work? 2 to 4.5 million 7. We note the prompt requirement to start and for SC clearance for speed are you willing to sponsor? No, due to the time constraints and urgency of this, we will not look to sponsor SC Clearance. SC Clearance is a mandatory requirement 8. Is there an incumbent currently providing these services to Dept for Transport? Yes 9. Regarding “Demonstrate experience of working flexibly and at pace, across portfolio’s, delivering whatever skills/experience is needed to best meet outcomes and user need” – Can you define what you mean by “delivering whatever skills/experience is needed”. We've a changing portfolio of work, with services, projects and products at various stages of development. As things change, we need a supplier working flexibly to complement the skills and experience of the DS resources ensuring we deliver maximum value, as early as possible. This means skills/experience across the portfolio or within projects, required in month 1, will be different to what is required in month 5 etc. We'll have regular reviews of the portfolio with the supplier to review each teams performance against the objectives, assessing whether the team has the required skills and experience, to deliver at pace. 10. Due to the time critical nature of this work, all staff working on live systems, must have SC clearance at the point of onboarding” – This isn’t a question, do we need to confirm our consultants will have SC Clearence? Yes you will need to confirm your consultants have SC clearance 11. Regarding “DfT expect to call on 20/40 roles at any time, to support delivery of the portfolio objectives. Supplier must confirm they can supply this volume of support to proceed.” – is confirming “yes, we can supply this volume of support” sufficient or are you looking for a 100 word example. Yes is enough 12. Who is the incumbent DFT’s Digital Service are supported by a range of suppliers to support the delivery of projects and portfolio outcomes. This includes Level 5, Go Reply, Independent contractors via PSR, Boxxe, FutureProof and Leonardo. 13. Is there a capped rate card per SFIA banding There is not a capped rate card. Evaluation for cost will be provided to shortlisted suppliers and will be evaluated at stage 2. 14. Are any specific agile methodologies being used Different teams follow different approaches/methodologies, such as scrum, lean and Kanban. We are flexible in the approach, allowing each team to agree their own team charter with the PMO. 15. What roles do you envisage needing, just developers or potentially every role title within a multi disciplinary team? Technical Product Manager (TPM) Agile Delivery Manager (ADM) Solution Architect Business Analyst (BA) Software Engineers Platform Engineer Cloud Engineer Test Manager Test Engineer User Researcher Change Manager Content Designer User Interaction/Experience Designer Service Designer Cyber Security Engineer Data Engineer Dev Ops Engineer Infrastructure Engineer Information Assurance Portfolio Management And potentially others as the portfolio changes and delivery of objectives and outcomes progress 16. Please can you advise whether there is an incumbent? Yes there is an incumbent 17. Please can you advise who DfT’s Digital Service currently use to support the delivery of their project and portfolio and associated outcomes? DFT’s Digital Service are supported by a range of suppliers to support the delivery of projects and portfolio outcomes. This includes Level 5, Go Reply, Independent contractors via PSR, Boxxe, FutureProof and Leonardo. 18. What is the current technology stack .Net core (C#)Asp.Net Core MVC2Google cloud platform using app engine flexGoogle cloud Biq query DockerMySqlGit hub SeleniumSpec flowHTMLCSSGDS frameworkGoogle analytics Sonar qubeMOQxUnitterra form scriptingDapperData engineeringPython ( for data engineers)BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub SubStack driver(we may require support on legacy apps) so may need Sql serverAzureaccess dbPhpPerl 19. Who is the incumbent that is already providing these services DFT’s Digital Service are supported by a range of suppliers to support the delivery of projects and portfolio outcomes. This includes Level 5, Go Reply, Independent contractors via PSR, Boxxe, FutureProof and Leonardo. 20. Please advise who the incumbent is and how long they have been delivering these services to Dept. of Education. DFT’s Digital Service are supported by a range of suppliers to support the delivery of projects and portfolio outcomes. This includes Level 5, Go Reply, Independent contractors via PSR, Boxxe, FutureProof and Leonardo. 21. Given there is an incumbent, will you be providing access to current work, plans and information to the Stage 2 short-listed providers to enable an effective response? We will provide details of the current work and portfolio as well as future anticipated work to shortlisted providers 22. Please can you provide the list of the 16 planned projects for this financial year? • Covid Bus Service Support Grant (Digital Services Programme)• Correspondence (Digital Services Programme)• Naptan (Digital Services Programme)• Security Improvement Programme (Security Programme)• In-housing of Digital Services (Digital Services Programme)• Transport Statistics (Data Programme)• Digital Service Improvement Plan (Capability Programme)• Confident collaboration (Capability Programme)• Future DfT (Technology Programme)• Egress and Extranets (Technology Programme)• Pensions Server migration (Technology Programme)• Short Formation Audit (Digital Services Programme)• On-boarding and off-boarding (Digital Services Programme)• DfT Service Evaluation (Digital Services Programme)• Digital Self Service (Technology Programme)• Data Visualisation (Data Programme) 23. Can you provide more detail on the shape of the work and core priorities please? The Digital Service portfolio of work is made up of 5 programmes;• Digital Services• Technology• Capability• Security and • DataWithin the programmes are a mix of projects, services and business as usual/ keeping the lights on activity. Alongside the planned activity is an amount of emergency and urgent work as well as a desire to continually improve the work of the team.The outcomes that DS are seeking to deliver are:• Improved user experience• Empowered collaboration• Innovation culture• Data Driven Decisions• Excellent Service• Enhanced security 24. Question 23 continued Here are some milestones we have committed to deliver in the next 12:Power BI & Power Apps Alpha completed; – 20/08/21 Delivered a DfTc internal data catalogue – 31/03/22Detect phase of cyber tools/monitoring improvements delivered – 30/09/21All Cyber tools/monitoring improvements in place – 30/09/22IDAM DfTc Discovery complete - 31/03/22Self-service upgrade delivered – 17/09/21CBSSG (covid bus service operator grant) delivered – 01/09/21Naptan replacement in Public Beta – 31/03/22Transport Stats part 1 replacement in Private Beta – 31/03/22Correspondence Service end Alpha – 31/10/21 25. What levels of security clearance will be required? BPSS is sufficient for most roles, however roles on the security improvement programme or roles where there is access to live systems or data such as Development, will require SC Clearance. 26. Does the security clearance requirement only apply to staff working on the live environments or does it extend to other staff working within the programmes? Staff on the security programme or in roles where there is access to live systems or data such as Development, will require SC Clearance. 27. Could you please provide guidance on your budget for the services, excluding VAT? £2.5-£4M 28. What technology stack would the roles be working across? .Net core (C#)Asp.Net Core MVC2Google cloud platform using app engine flexGoogle cloud Biq query DockerMySqlGit hub SeleniumSpec flowHTMLCSSGDS frameworkGoogle analytics Sonar qubeMOQxUnitterra form scriptingDapperData engineeringPython ( for data engineers)BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub SubStack driver(we may require support on legacy apps) so may need Sql serverAzureaccess dbPhpPerl 29. When you reference calling on 20/40 roles at any time, is this likely to be within one programme or across the portfolio? Across the portfolio 30. Please could the DfT confirm who the incumbent is currently delivering these roles / contract ? DFT’s Digital Service are supported by a range of suppliers to support the delivery of projects and portfolio outcomes. This includes Level 5, Go Reply, Independent contractors via PSR, Boxxe, FutureProof and Leonardo. 31. Do you have any more information on the 16 projects that make up the 2021/22 portfolio and what their objectives are? • Covid Bus Service Support Grant (Digital Services Programme); Improved efficiency, accuracy and automation• Correspondence (Digital Services Programme); Improved efficiency via automation, improved user experience and removal of legacy IT• Naptan (Digital Services Programme); Removal of legacy IT; improved user experience and better data• Security Improvement Programme (Security Programme); Security improvements• In-housing of Digital Services (Digital Services Programme); improved user experience, increased efficiency• Transport Statistics (Data Programme); Removal of legacy IT; improved user experience and better data driven decisions• Digital Service Improvement Plan (Capability Programme); improved user experience, increased efficiency 32. 32 continued • Confident collaboration (CapabilityProgramme); Improved user experience and Empowered collaboration• Future DfT (TechnologyProgramme); Excellent Service/improved user experience• Egress and Extranets (TechnologyProgramme); Removal of legacy IT, empowered collaboration, increased efficiency• Pensions Server migration (TechnologyProgramme); Removal of legacy IT, increased security• Short Formation Audit (Digital Services Programme); Improved user experience/data driven decisions/increased efficiency/ cost savings • On-boarding and off-boarding (Digital Services Programme); Improved user experience/increased security/efficiency• DfT Service Evaluation (Digital Services Programme); Improved user experience/increased efficiency• Digital Self Service (Technology Programme); Improved user experience, increased security/efficiency• Data Visualisation (Data Programme); Improved user experience/data driven decisions 33. For clarity, would the 20/40 people work full time or would this flex based on your demand/urgent requirements? It will flex based on demand across the portfolio including urgent requirements 34. Would the 20/40 people all come from one or many successful suppliers? One supplier; complemented by resources supplied into blended teams by DfT and other specialist suppliers as appropriate 35. To help deliver your DfT’s needs quickly, would you support fully formed supplier squads alongside blended? We may consider some supplier heavy teams, but expect that they would include some DfT resources in order to meet GDS requirements and ensure efficiencies and knowledge transfer occur naturally during the service delivery. This can be discussed further with the successful bidder. 36. When a request is made to mobilise a team what do you anticipate the ramp up time to be for that team? Some teams are already in place and the supplier would be expected to transition from the incumbent between 1-8th August. When new teams are ramping up, there is typically 1-4 weeks lead time between approval of the Pre-Project Exploration and the team being expected to commence delivery. 37. Do you anticipate the work to come in demand driven peaks of activity or are you looking to smooth this over the duration to bring continuity of support? Whilst attempts are made to smooth peaks in activity, urgent demands mean that this is not always possible, so there are often peaks. 38. Regarding “Provide evidence of experience of drafting business cases in Government” – can you please give an example or define what you mean by this question. The supplier is expected to work with DfT resources to draft business cases to secure new investment and headcount on behalf of the Digital Service, working in conjunction with the business. The exact format of the business case(s) will depend on the nature of investment/opportunity being considered/assessed. A supplier is sought who has drafted a business case using Government templates/processes and is therefore familiar with the exercise. 39. Regarding “Provide evidence of experience in scaling agile to the portfolio level” – What do you consider “portfolio level” within DfT Portfolio level within Digital Service at DfT (today) includes the 5 programmes, business as usual delivery of IT and digital services, emergency/urgent demand and continuous improvement. Much other digital delivery is procured and managed outside of Digital Service, though with some oversight/guidance. 40. Will DfT welcome consortium bids? Yes, providing that there is one lead organisation through whom the contract is managed (single interface for DS) and all interfaces between organisations are seamless to DS. 41. In your responses to questions 12 and 17, you refer to a number of companies currently supporting DfT’s Digital Services to projects and portfolio outcomes. Please can you expand on this in the context of this procurement. For example, is this procurement intended to supplement those suppliers because you need to increase the scale of your delivery capability, or is it intended to replace those suppliers because their contracts are coming to an end? Specifically, if the latter, will those suppliers also need to bid for this tender in order to retain their roles on your portfolio? This procurement will replace one current supplier whose contract is ending and is also intended to supplement most current suppliers because we need to increase the scale of our delivery capability. 42. Please can you clarify the budget? The expected contract length is 12 months but the title of the tender is “Provision of Digital Service Project Portfolio Delivery 2021-23” which suggests a duration of more like 24 months. You have indicated a budget or £2.5-4M. Is that for 12 months or 24 months and is it for a peak of 20-40 resources or an average of 20-40 resources across the 12/24 months? Thank you. It’s 12 months from contract signature, which will span the financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23. The budget is to cover the 12 month period. 43. Re ” Due to the time critical nature of this work, all staff working on live systems, must have SC clearance at the point of onboarding.” – are all consultants to be SC cleared or just those working on “live systems”? Just those working on “live systems” or the Security Improvement Programme 44. Canbyou confirm if the 20-40 resources will be needed as teams or as single ‘bodyshopped’ roles? Or maybe some indication of your rough expectations of the split? The 20-40 roles will fit within blended teams alongside DS resources. The composition of the teams are expected to vary from 20-80% from this supplier. 45. For the following question: “Provide evidence of experience of delivering a service across different government organisations, for example both a central department and an arms length body” Please can you confirm if the answer should include evidence of delivering a service for both bodies or one? Evidence of delivering services for at least one central government department is critical and evidence of delivering projects across other government organisations such as arms length bodies or local government, at the same time is also important. 46. Please can you provide details of the approach for commercial evaluation that will be applied during the second stage? Details will be provided to those who are shortlisted for second stage 47. How will price evaluation be calculated? This will be provided to shortlisted suppliers for stage 2 48. 1. Please could you clarify any specific standards and governance it would be useful for bidders to demonstrate experience of delivering against? 2. Please could you clarify what the term ‘scaling agile’ – is this regarding specific evidence of using Scaled Agile methodologies or is this regarding demonstrating how agile methodologies (in general) have been scaled? Digital products and services should be delivered to GDS Service Standard and technology projects in line with the technology code of practice. https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/service-standard DfT Digital Services have Architectural principles/Technology standards, which you’d be expected to work within, though not necessarily have done so before. (copy of which can be provided at stage 2)We have a mixed portfolio of agile and waterfall work and we would like the supplier to have experience of scaling (from delivering one project to a portfolio), using any agile methodologies

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3 years ago

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3 years ago

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