Public procurement notice: Contract Notice
Published: 2016-11-30
Buyer: The Minister for the Cabinet Office acting through Crown Commercial Service
Country: UK
Region: UNITED KINGDOM
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Open procedure
CPV classification: 72590000
Estimated value: 110000000 GBP
Submission deadline: 2017-01-06
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Crown Commercial Service as the Contracting Authority is putting in place a Pan Government Collaborative Framework Agreement for use by UK public sector bodies identified at VI.3 (and any future successors to these organisations), which include Central Government Departments and their Arm's Length Bodies and Agencies, Non Departmental Public Bodies, NHS bodies and Local Authorities.
— QA & Test Delivery Ownership: responsibility for, and coordination of, all aspects of QA and Test across the business, programme and or project. Includes making QA and test rules, planning; choice of tools; and team leader.
— QA & Test Analysis: analysis, design and execution: covering a variety of test activities, test types and methods. For example, compatibility testing, accessibility testing, functional testing (including exploratory techniques).
— Test Engineering: developing and delivering test automation outlines and services. Typically working as part of a DevOps capability within an Agile development environment. Increasingly, QA & Test specialists are part of and co-located with the development and scrum teams.
— Non-Functional Testing: design and execution of tests to cover non-functional needs, including load & performance and operational acceptance.
— Integration testing: covering the strategy, planning and execution for complex, large scale technical integration testing.
— Assurance: to understand and mitigate risk during third party-led test activities, typically when working in waterfall delivery cycles or legacy contractual environments.
— Consultancy: to provide technical reviews at project, programme or departmental/business unit level to form best QA & Test practices.
Crown Commercial Service reserves the right for an electronic auction to be held by Public Sector bodies during further competition among the parties to the Framework Agreement(s).
Providing access to a flexible and cost effective pool of QA & Test specialist professionals bought ‘as a service’ capable of delivering services across the full life cycle.
To develop and implement text automation regimes, typically to support cost effective continuous release methods with an agile or DevOps environment.
To determine how systems perform against specific performance needs and comparative baselines, including under load & stress.
Establish and manage an appropriate level of testing in line with programme delivery plans, validation and verification of a system against specifications and requirements.
To determine whether system infrastructures are performant, including network provisioning and hosting across LAN, WAN and cloud infrastructures.
Focusing on operational readiness of the system, including Service Readiness Testing, resilience and disaster recovery.

Eligibility requirements: Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: Candidates will be assessed in accordance with Section 5 of the 2015 Public Contract Regulations (implementing the Directive) on the basis of information provided in response to an Invitation to Tender (‘ITT’).This procurement will be managed electronically via the Crown Commercial Service's e-Sourcing Suite. To participate in this procurement, participants must first be registered on the e-Sourcing Suite. If you have not yet registered on the e-Sourcing Suite, this can be done online at https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk by following the link ‘Supplier e-Sourcing Registration’. Please note that, to register, you must have a valid DUNS number (as provided by Dun and Bradstreet) for the organisation which you are registering, who will be entering into a contract if invited to do so. Full instructions for registration and use of the system can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esourcing-tool-guidance-for-suppliers Once you have registered on the e-Sourcing Suite, a registered user can express an interest for a specific procurement. This is done by emailing: ExpressionOfInterest@crowncommercial.gov.uk Your email must clearly state: the name and reference for the procurement you wish to register for; the name of the registered supplier; DUNS number; and the name and contact details for the registered individual sending the email. Crown Commercial Service will process the email and then enable the supplier to access the procurement online via the e-Sourcing Suite. The registered user will receive a notification email to alert them once this has been done. As a user of the e-Sourcing Suite you will have access to the Emptoris messaging service which facilitates all messages sent to you and from you in relation to any specific RFX event. Please note it is your responsibility to access these messages on a regular basis to ensure you have sight of all relevant information. For technical assistance on use of the e-Sourcing Suite please contact Crown Commercial Service Support Desk email: eEnablement@crowncommercial.gov.uk Responses must be published by the date in IV.3.4 Note that, this procurement is using SID4GOV to tender. You must register or update your account there to submit a tender. Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: Candidates will be assessed in accordance with Section 5 of the 2015 Public Contract Regulations (implementing the Directive) on the basis of information provided in response to an Invitation to Tender (‘ITT’). The ITT can be accessed at: https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk using the instructions detailed in III.2.1. Candidates will be assessed in accordance with Section 5 of the 2015 Public Contract Regulations (implementing the Directive) on the basis of information provided in response to an Invitation to Tender (‘ITT’). The ITT can be accessed at: https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk using the instructions detailed in III.2.1. The Contracting Authority may have regard to either or both of the following means in its assessment: (a) a description of the technical facilities and measures used by the supplier or service provider for ensuring quality and the undertakings digital development facility; (b) an indication of the proportion of the contract which the services provider intends possibly to subcontract.
Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if the requirements are met: Candidates will be assessed in accordance with Section 5 of the 2015 Public Contract Regulations (implementing the Directive) on the basis of information provided in response to an Invitation to Tender (‘ITT’). The ITT can be accessed at: https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk using the instructions detailed in III.2.1.
Candidates will be assessed in accordance with Section 5 of the 2015 Public Contract Regulations (implementing the Directive) on the basis of information provided in response to an Invitation to Tender (‘ITT’). The ITT can be accessed at: https://gpsesourcing.cabinetoffice.gov.uk using the instructions detailed in III.2.1. The Contracting Authority may have regard to either or both of the following means in its assessment: (a) a description of the technical facilities and measures used by the supplier or service provider for ensuring quality and the undertakings digital development facility; (b) an indication of the proportion of the contract which the services provider intends possibly to subcontract.