Awarded to Redrock Consulting Ltd

Start date: Tuesday 13 December 2016
Value: £145,500
Company size: SME

Civil Service Human Resources (CSHR)

Recruitment Platform for Government: Alpha

0 Incomplete applications

17 Completed applications

13 SME, 4 large

• Published: Monday 24 October 2016
• Deadline for asking questions: Monday 31 October 2016 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Monday 7 November 2016 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Summary of the work: The alpha project is to define the user experience for people seeking work in the Civil Service and the technical architecture for the replacement of Civil Service Jobs.
• Latest start date: 30/11/2016
• Expected contract length: 4 months
• Location: South West England
• Organisation the work is for: Civil Service Human Resources (CSHR)

About the work

• Why the work is being done: Following a discovery project that uncovered unmet user needs, CSHR want to better meet our user's needs by modernising and improving the digital recruitment services we offer. We'll do this by designing a user experience optimised for jobseekers and designing a technical architecture to integrate modern cloud based recruitment systems. Our users are jobseekers, hiring managers, recruiters, departmental HR teams and central Civil Service HR teams. Our current customer facing service is called Civil Service Jobs.
• Problem to be solved: We need a technical architect, full-stack developer and front-end developer to join an existing team to define the jobseeker user experience and technical architecture for the replacement of Civil Service Jobs. ; The purpose of alpha is:; • Establish the viability, through proof of concept prototypes, of a technical architecture consisting of multiple cloud-based recruitment applications interacting at a data level with a bespoke candidate interface that we host and manage. ; • Design a new jobseeker recruitment experience that meets documented user needs.; • Test proposed solutions with real users.; • Properly understand and scope the delivery of a replacement system.
• Who the users are and what they need to do: As a jobseeker, I need to find jobs in the civil service, so I can progress my career.; As a hiring manager, I need an easy way to manage my vacancies, so I can get the right person and minimise time investment.; As a recruiter, I need an easy way to manage a large and complex set of vacancies, so recruitment can be quick, efficient and achieve good outcomes.; As CSHR, we want the technical flexibility to swap in and out recruitment systems, so we can meet future recruitment needs.
• Early market engagement: We have met with a number of cloud based recruitment service providers to understand how they can meet our user needs and support our proposed high-level technical architecture.
• Any work that’s already been done: We've completed a four month discovery project and have identified a detailed set of problem statements and user needs.
• Existing team: The supplier will be expected to work with the current internal team which consists of:; - Service Manager/product manager; - Delivery manager; - Head of UX; - User researchers; - Business analyst; - UX designer
• Current phase: Alpha

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: 101 Victoria Street | Bristol | BS1 6BU
• Working arrangements: The proposed team are required to be co-located with the current team in Bristol. Remote working will not be accepted. We work Mon-Fri with usual office hours.; We may require the individuals to travel to other locations but this will be the exception in most cases. T&S will be paid accordingly.; We operate a standard agile working methodology comprising of daily stand-ups, sprint planning, two-week sprints, fortnightly demos, fortnightly retrospectives and use both a physical Kanban wall alongside digital tools such as Trello and Pivotal Tracker. ; We would expect the proposed team to integrate with this way of working.
• Security clearance: Basic

Additional information

Skills and experience

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

• Essential skills and experience:
  • Expertise in solutions that utilise Service Orientated Architecture and micro services (10 points)
  • Expertise in cloud technologies: design, planning. security, integration, whilst remaining Cloud provider agnostic (10 points)
  • Highly experienced with using APIs (REST/SOAP) and defining data structures for applications that can scale and deliver high performance and availability (10 points)
  • Be able to architect robust systems and display knowledge about system security risks and how to pragmatically mitigate them (10 points)
  • Experience of the analysis and architecture of BI and data models (10 points)
  • Experience of effective identification and use of open source software components (10 points)
  • Experience in relational and non-relational databases in multiple formats (10 points)
  • Experience in using automated (testing) environments and continuous integration, delivery & (potentially) deployment, particularly GitHub and Jenkins (10 points)
  • Expertise in Agile delivery (e.g., Scrum, Kanban etc.) as outlined in the Government Service Design Manual using BDD and TDD (10 points)
  • Experience of delivery in Data Engineering and Data Management Services, especially in a sensitive data environment (10 points)
  • Expertise in coaching/mentoring less skilled people, leaving a legacy (10 points)
  • Experience of creating user experiences that comply to Gov.UK guidelines for design, interaction, accessability and assisted digital (10 points)
  • Experience of creating user experiences that are clearly and demonstrably meeting user needs and evidenced through interative testing and research (10 points)
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Experience of recruitment platforms would be desirable (5 points)
  • Experience of GaaP products: Verify/Notify (5 points)
  • Experience of working collaboratively with internal teams to deliver projects (5 points)
  • Experience of working with GDS Service Standards (5 points)

How suppliers will be evaluated

• How many suppliers to evaluate: 5
• Proposal criteria:
  • Provide experience of working collaboratively with internal teams to deliver projects and how it will help to deliver this requirement (100 points)
  • Outline how you will help CSR achieving VFM throughout the Alpha phase (60 points)
  • Outline the experience and skills of the proposed team and how these will help to achieve a quality outcome. Please include CVs (100 points)
  • Team structure approach; How will you ensure the skills and knowledge required will be maintained throughout the project and that staff changes will not impact delivery or continuity? (90 points)
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers (20 points)
  • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions (20 points)
  • Take responsibility for their work; ensuring a no blame culture and encouraging people to learn from their mistakes (20 points)
  • Share knowledge and experience with other team members and work with clients with low technical expertise (20 points)
  • Challenge the status quo and comfortable standing up for their discipline (20 points)
• Payment approach: Capped time and materials
• Assessment methods:
  • Written proposal
  • Presentation
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  50%

  Cultural fit

  10%

  Price

  40%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Do you have a preference as to technologies (Java, Scala, .Net etc) for any custom software that may be required?: As this is an alpha project to test out the underlying proof of concept of a front-end interacting with cloud services using APIs, we're open-minded about the technology used so long as it's secure, performs and is scalable.
• 2. Do you expect the user testing to be delivered by the same supplier or will you be running a separate requirement? 2) Is it possible to either share the names of the shortlisted suppliers or pass on contact details to them, in case they need additional test support?: We have existing capability for user research and testing and this is outside of the scope of this tender.
• 3. Please can you confirm the tech stack/expertise required for the developers, e.g. Java, .Net, Scala, Angular etc.: As this is an alpha project to test out the underlying proof of concept of a front-end interacting with cloud services using APIs, we're open-minded about the technology used so long as it's secure, performs and scalable.
• 4. Is there any particular reason why a near shore extended team model within the EU is not being considered? Price is 40% of your criteria. Such a model would roughly halve the cost. Many organisations have a single team split across 2 locations. Modern tools such as Jira and teleconferencing tool (Slack/Skype) facilitate this. Its a well proven model with many suppliers and buyers. UK and near-shore team members all attend the same daily stand ups and undertake pair-programming.: Our experience of previous projects, especially those that are investigative and exploratory in nature, is co-located teams are more productive as the team can discuss, sketch, debate and design as the needs arise.
• 5. What type of resource will be required for the Alpha phase?: The following roles are required:; - Technical Architect/Technical lead; - Full stack developer; - Front end developer
• 6. What payment mechanism will be used?: Capped Time and Materials
• 7. Are you looking for a supplier to propose a solution in consultation with the internal team or a supplier to provide resource to assist the internal team with the solution defined by the department?: The requirement is for a supplier to provide 3 roles to join an existing team to work on the project. The solution will be developed by the internal team which will define the jobseeker user experience and technical architecture required.
• 8. What are the timescales for Alpha?: The anticipated duration for Alpha is 4 months.
• 9. What are the Commercial timescales?: Closing date for initial applications is Monday 7th November.; A final shortlist will be developed and a written proposal will be requested from these listed suppliers.