Redevelopment of the Londonelects.org.uk website

Description

Summary of the work The work will involve the following: • Full user research exercise. • Discovery, ending with an agreed backlog and MVP • Development work carried out using Agile methods incorporating the Government Digital Service’s service manual • Support to GLA staff in the release of new code into the production environment Expected Contract Length 20 months Latest start date Monday 19 November 2018 Budget Range Between £100,000 and £150,000. However, we expect bidders to submit competitive bids, broken down by resource or skill, duration and day rates applicable to each. Why the Work is Being Done The current londonelects.org.uk website needs a complete redevelopment. Problem to Be Solved The current website was developed in 2012. As such it requires a complete overhaul and re-development using more up to date CMS and technologies. The next election for the Mayor and Assembly is in May 2020 and the website is expected to be ready in April 2019. The RfP (for info only at this stage) can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BwxQaoCgx4kPiM-y-HuCSlyMF_U5nK9LwaMy6xVhW68/edit?usp=sharing. Who Are the Users There are specific user personas that the website will be targeted at these include candidates and agents, the press and voters. Their needs will differ but in general, all will need timely, accurate, relevant and up to date information about the election of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. Early Market Engagement There has been no market engagement. Work Already Done The current website www.londonelects.org.uk will provide a rough starting point for the re-development project. Existing Team The GLA has an excellent team of officers who will be part of the team and two suppliers in particular who provide web development services (including support and maintenance services to London.gov.uk and microsites); The internal team consists of: • Product Owner for Londonelects.org.uk • Delivery Manager • Content Managers • DevOps engineers • Infrastructure engineers • Tester Current Phase Discovery Skills & Experience • At least 4 years’ experience of carrying out user research • Analysing and presenting outputs from user research in the context of digital development • Experience of translating user research outputs into stories and working with Analysts and Developers to ensure that user needs are reflected in the product. • At least 4 years’ experience in digital business analysis including requirements gathering, running discovery phases, producing stories and acceptance criteria, producing wireframes, prioritising stories into a MVP and testing. • Must have experience of at least one project which involved integrating the features, functions and content of one website into another. • Must have at least 4 years’ experience of working in multi-disciplinary Agile teams and preferably using the GDS service design manual. • Upto 5 years’ experience developing digital products, including full cycle release management from development/testing, pre-production/production environments using Drupal7 and upto 3years developing, supporting and managing Drupal8 modules (front/back end) • At least three code contributions to Drupal 7 or Drupal 8. • At 4 years’ experience of developing using MySQL and MariaDB databases underpinning Drupal websites. • At least two projects which involved the successful migration of content, data (on a MySQL or MariaDB database) and configurations from one Drupal website to another. • At least one project that involved migrating a Drupal 7 website to Drupal 8 (core, contributed and custom modules) • At least two projects which involved integrating the features, functions and content of one website into another. • At least one project that involved setting up, configuring and managing servers and associated hosting services provided by Amazon as part of AWS. • Must have at least 4 years’ experience of working in multi-disciplinary Agile teams and preferably using the GDS service design manual. Nice to Haves • QA and testing services: 4 years’ experience of website testing including code audits, acceptance, performance, regression and creating and carrying out automated testing. • Technical/solution architecture: 4 years’ experience researching, producing and, working with developers and others, implementing and/or integrating solution architectures for products such as authentication/search/ workflow integration, discussion forums and messaging/mail services. • Working with local / central government: At least one project in the past 3 years that involved successfully delivering a digital product for a government client Work Location Greater London Authority, City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA Working Arrangments We expect the work to be carried out from both the GLA’s location at City Hall as well as from the supplier location remotely. It is acceptable for the majority of the development work to be carried out from the supplier location but the supplier is expected to be present at City Hall for phases of work such as discovery, sprint planning, demos, retros and show and tell events etc. Security Clearance Bidders will be expected to meet the Baseline Personal Security Standard. Additional T&Cs - Prices quoted must include an appropriate adjustment to reflect travel to City Hall and subsistence costs. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • The proposed technical approach to building the new londonelects.org.uk website • How you will ensure that the GLA’s aims will be met and the problem solved • How you propose to stage the work, and a proposed timetable. Note that we anticipate launching a private-beta version of the site in February 2019 • The team of resources you propose • What team structure you propose, given the skills required and how each team member will contribute to solving the problem and meeting the GLA’s aims • Confirmation that the team you propose will be available for the duration of the work. • What risks you perceive in the proposed work and how you (and the wider team) can mitigate them to an acceptable level • What assumptions you are making and the services you need from the GLA • How you will ensure that the GLA gets maximum value for money by engaging your company Cultural Fit Criteria • How will you ensure that you work with the GLA team as a single team with a shared purpose? • What measures do you propose to ensure that you quickly understand the Mayor’s vision for London and apply it to your work with the GLA? • How will you ensure that you communicate with the GLA team frequently, openly, honestly and constructively challenging any pre-conceptions and involving them in decision making? Payment Approach Time and materials Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 50% Cultural fit 15% Price 35% Questions from Suppliers 1. The specification says that the expected contract length is 20 months, but the website redevelopment should be complete by April 2019.Is one of those dates incorrect? The website’s MVP is expected to be completed by around April 2019. However, there remains the probability that small scale changes may be required to the product up until the elections in May 2020. These are expected to not be significant and can be managed as planned changes, carried out in in co-operation with the GLA’s BAU partner. Beyond the launch of the website, the Supplier is not expected to provide a standing team of resources. 2. Must the final product comply with the GOV.UK design system? The Londonelects website has its own branding and must be politically independent and neutral, therefore it does not comply with London.gov.uk or GOV.UK brand. This is something that we would like the supplier to do a bit of user research on, as stated in the RfP.Regarding LGDSS standards, it is worth mentioning that this standard is covered by Agile and the Technology Group tech standards (to be supplied to shortlisted suppliers). 3. As this is a new development, why have you restricted the development platform to Drupal through the Essential experience questions? The GLA’s chosen CMS is Drupal (v8), which we have used in the majority of our digital products for the past six years or so. Therefore, our in-house Dev-ops capability and that of our support and maintenance partner is in Drupal as well. For this reason and because Drupal is an open source product which fits in with the GLA’s standards, our choice for the London Elects website is Drupal version 8. 4. We are a distributed company made up of Drupal experts based all over the UK and Europe. We would of course be on site for research, discovery, planning, etc. We would also be able to have a representative attend for most demos and retros, though we would not always be able to send the development team to physically attend – they would typically join via technology such as Google Hangout. Would this be an issue for you? Provided you are able to be on site during key events, remote working for part of the time does not present an issue. We would like the development team to attend sprint planning and story estimation sessions as well as backlog refinement/prioritisation sessions. Also, we have found that only the senior developers/tech leads attending these sessions to be unsatisfactory because our priorities sometimes tend to get “lost in translation” where the senior-developers communicate them to the development team assigned to carry out the work. However, the project team need not always be present on-site, provided we can video-conference the team. 5. When you say "integrating the features, functions and content of one website into another." do you mean A) Moving these from an old site and replicating the features, functions and content to another website OR B) Retaining the source site and drawing features, functions and content into another? With apologies for causing confusion, this requirement means drawing content / services from other sources into the site that the Supplier will be developing. This particularly includes bringing in XML feeds of the progress of the election Count into the website. 6. Who are the existing incumbent suppliers and are you seeking to move away from them for this redevelopment? Please ignore this statement – there is no incumbent supplier for this website. However, the GLA does have a technical support and partner who will provide “business as usual” services to the website once it is launched. 7. We are a company that specializes in providing services for clients with a wide array of technologies and tools for cloud based solutions including enterprise integrations. We have the skills and expertise to cater to any technology stack requested by a client.Therefore, with regards to essential skills and experience section in the application, if we present expertise in carrying out similar activities with other technologies/tools (eg. other CMS solutions deployed on cloud) will the proof be considered sufficient for our application to be accepted to the shortlisting stage? We would need to see sufficient evidence of the Drupal development experience. Capabilities in Drupal as well as non – Drupal development will be acceptable. 8. • In the RFP it states that you want to redevelop the website using a more up to date CMS and technologies. Have you already decided on what CMS you are going to use? Or are you still looking for a CMS solution alongside a partner?• There is a lot of mention about Drupal, is that your current CMS platform or is it your chosen CMS for this project?• If you have chosen a CMS, have you signed a contract or is there chance for another CMS vendor to come in and show you their value? The CMS that we require the Supplier to use is Drupal v8, which is the current platform for our digital products. 9. Apart from "integrating the features, functions and content of one website into another." will there be any additions of new features? It is always possible that additional features will be required on the new website, which will be decided on during the discovery phase of the project. 10. Will you be updating and reusing content from your current website? There will be a large amount of the content which is updated – especially the dates - and reused from the current website but there will also be a considerable amount of new content that is specific to the 2020 elections. 11. Could you please clarify the deadlines for the closing date of this tender. There are some discrepancies with the dates listed on the portal and those in the document. The dates on the portal relate to the shortlisting stage. The dates on the RfP relate to the written proposal stage. For clarity, the deadline for shortlisting applications is 23:59 Monday 22nd October. 12. Who would have access to this site? This would be a public site. The subject matter on the site would be specific to the London elections of May 2020. The discovery (user research) phase of the project seeks to identify the specific types of users e.g. voters, political agents, press etc who would have a particular interest in visiting the site. 13. What do you aim to learn from the private beta? The private beta will determine whether the site is accessible and performant in a live environment as well as provide the ability for colleagues in the London Local Authorities (and others) to determine whether the content, tone of voice etc are appropriate. 14. How would you expect the private beta site being used or progressing between Feb and April? We would seek to provide access to the site to a selected group of external stakeholders e.g. London Local Authority Electoral Services staff and engage with them in a structured way e.g. surveys, workshops etc to determine its suitability. We also expect to carry out a range of live environment tests e.g. vulnerability testing, live Count progress testing, performance testing etc. It is clearly possible that timescales may slip somewhat and that the private beta doesn’t commence until e.g. March, which will not be a serious issue.