DDaT22082 UKSA National SST Programme Public Beta Phase

Description

Summary of the work UK Space Agency is seeking to partner with a highly skilled, proven supplier with extensive knowledge of working to Government Digital standards to successfully undertake a public beta phase to build a digital service to enable the sharing of Space Surveillance and Tracking data between UKSA and industry satellite operators. Expected Contract Length The total contract length is expected to last 11 months Latest start date Friday 20 May 2022 Budget Range The total contract value shall not exceed £415,500.00 excluding VAT including all optional extensions. The initial commitment is for 11 months and the total value shall not exceed £332,000.00 excluding VAT. Why the Work is Being Done The UK Space Agency (UKSA) works with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to deliver Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) services to government users and to deliver new operational capability for the UK Space Operations Centre (UKSpOC). To support this, the UKSA is evaluating the products and services required by civil users of SST services. A new digital service to enable data sharing between UKSA and these civil users is being piloted. The service has been in private beta for a number of months and the UKSA now wish to move to public beta, and then into live service if successful. Problem to Be Solved Monitor, support, evaluate and continuously improve the service through the public beta phase, complying with Government Digital Service standards and Technology code of Practice. • Develop a set of post-MVP features of varying complexity that require user research, front-end and back-end development. • Develop front-end user interfaces for our remaining user groups. • Progressively onboard new users from across all user groups. • Engage with users to encourage use of service. • Maintain service accreditation to industry security standards. • Continue to research user needs (including accessibility). • Continue to gather data against success metrics. • Transition to live service if service is deemed a success. Expected timeline: End May 2022: Start of public beta phase and onboarding of new users End Dec 2022: Review of public beta phase with decision made whether to remain in beta or transition to live Jan-Mar 2023: Either transition to live service, or otherwise remain in public beta phase. Who Are the Users The existing users are, Satellite Operators (mainly commercial), who wish to protect their assets from collisions with space debris and other satellites. Additional user groups to be onboarded during the public beta have similar needs. Government (Emergency Response Teams, Regulators, Administrators) who may need to react to events happening on orbit where they could impact the economy, public safety, national security, or international diplomacy. Work Already Done UKSA have already completed a discovery, alpha and private beta phase. To be shared with the shortlisted suppliers, - User onboarding strategy - Current view of post MVP requirements - Technical architecture documents - List of 3rd party software licences that are required to be maintained by the supplier for the duration of this contract Existing Team The Supplier will be working with the UKSA SST team, including the Orbital Analysts who currently deliver civil operations in the UKSpOC. The UKSA SST Team will comprise a Product Manager, Service Owner, Business Analyst, Technical Architect and Orbital Analyst. The UKSA Team will be assigned on a part-time basis and will provide oversight, assurance, subject matter expertise and facilitate end user engagement. The Supplier is expected to provide a team with the skills required to lead and deliver the public beta. Current Phase Beta Skills & Experience • Experience of successfully taking a highly regulated digital service through public beta and in to live adhering to the Service Standard. [3pts] • Demonstrable experience of continuously improving a government digital service and creating a continuous improvement culture across all teams. [3pts] • Demonstrable experience of onboarding users from multiple external organisations and encouragement of user adoption [3pts] • Experience of developing digital services using GOV.UK PaaS, GOV.UK Notify, Terraform, Python, next.JS technologies. [3pts] • Experience of delivering complex data centric services that ingest data from multiple sources and maintaining data integrity. [3pts] • Experience of conducting user research and stakeholder analysis where knowledge gaps are identified, and plans produced and implemented to address the shortfalls. [2pts] • Demonstrable experience and approach to building government digital services appropriate to the data security classifications. [2pts] • Evidence of designing APIs that work across multiple external applications and details of how common pitfalls were avoided. [2pts] • Experience of delivering a beta service that users can access mon-sun 9-5 [2pts] • Experience and approach to successfully taking over a Government digital service from another supplier. [2pts] Nice to Haves • Demonstrate experience of working on solutions for space surveillance or orbital dynamics. [2pts] • Experience of delivering a service across different government organisations and how any challenges were overcome. [1pts] Work Location Remote whilst COVID-19 restrictions remain in place with meetings to be held preferably via MS Teams. Once restrictions are lifted you may be expected to attend meetings in London, Swindon or other locations as required. Working Arrangments Remote working whilst COVID-19 restrictions remain in place with meetings, daily stand-ups and show & tells to be held preferably via MS Teams. The supplier is expected to use appropriate project management / collaboration tools (such as Jira, Trello, Miro, Mural) and make these available to the Agency team. Deliverables to be stored on the Agency Sharepoint. Agency team working hours (09:00 - 17:00), Monday to Friday. Security Clearance Baseline BPSS for all team members required. SC clearance of at least one member of team is desirable. UKSA will sponsor the successful supplier through this process if SC clearance isn’t already in place. BPSS can be obtained directly by the supplier. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 3 Proposal Criteria • Approach, methodology and toolset for how the expected outcomes of this public beta will be successfully delivered. [3pts] • Proposed schedule for successful delivery. Clearly indicate key phases of activity and milestones to achieve the expected timeline and link it to each resource within the pricing schedule. [3pts] • Team structure and explain how they will successfully deliver this public beta. Include relevance of individuals and their expected contributions. [3pts] • Present the technical solution and your approach to how post-MVP features will be delivered and released. [2pts] • Approach to quality assurance and testing specific to this public beta, and how you will manage the Agency’s acceptance. [2pts] • Identify key risks and dependencies, and specifically how these will be managed. [2pts] Cultural Fit Criteria • Demonstrate how you will integrate with UKSA to work as one team. [2pts] • Evidence of transparent and collaborative decision making. [2pts] • Experience of taking responsibility for their work and resolving problems effectively. [3pts] • Demonstrate how you will actively facilitate knowledge transfer and information sharing with team members and the wider organisation and stakeholders. [2pts] Payment Approach Capped time and materials Assessment Method Presentation Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. UKSA have already completed a discovery, alpha and private beta phase”. Has the UKSA already been partnering with a procured supplier to complete these previous phases of work? "Yes the UKSA has procured supplier(s) to complete previous phases of work. We do not feel that it is appropriate to disclose the name of the supplier(s). This information is not essential or required by bidders in order to submit a response to this tender.Please note that information about previously awarded contracts is available in the public domain." 2. Who carried out discovery, alpha and private beta? "We do not feel that it is appropriate to disclose the name of the supplier(s). This information is not essential or required by bidders in order to submit a response to this tender.Please note that information about previously awarded contracts is available in the public domain." 3. Can you tell which suppliers delivered Discovery, Alpha and Private Beta please? "We do not feel that it is appropriate to disclose the name of the supplier(s). This information is not essential or required by bidders in order to submit a response to this tender.Please note that information about previously awarded contracts is available in the public domain." 4. Do you have a Security Aspects Letter (SAL) for this work? This is covered under the framework terms and conditions. 5. Are there any particular reasons why you would only like the service available between 9-5 Mon-Sun? This is aligned to the core operating hours of the UKSA capability during the pilot period. 6. Who is the incumbent supplier, when were they engaged and what outcomes have they been accountable for? "We do not feel that it is appropriate to disclose the name of the supplier(s). This information is not essential or required by bidders in order to submit a response to this tender.Please note that information about previously awarded contracts is available in the public domain." 7. When you ask about onboarding users from multiple external organisations are you referring to end users, or other workers/teams that need to use the service? End users from across all user groups. They can be from external commercial organisations and other government departments 8. Can you describe the maturity of the designs of the application developed so far? The service has been built to MVP level, has been deployed on to the government paas and has been made available to a small number of initial users 9. Based on the description, can we assume that development is yet to begin, or would the new supplier pick up development that has been started? The service has been built to MVP level, has been deployed on to the government paas and has been made available to a small number of initial users. The supplier is expected to pick up and iterate the developmet that has already been completed 10. Which roles are intended to be fulfilled by the supplier? The supplier is required to propose a team with the skills required to lead and deliver the public beta 11. Which roles responsible for supporting the delivery teams will be fulfilled internally by DDaT / UK Space agency? Details are given in the 'Existing team' section of the opportunity. The UKSA Team will be assigned on a part-time basis and will provide oversight, assurance, subject matter expertise and facilitate end user engagement. The Supplier is expected to provide a team with the skills required to lead and deliver the public beta