Antecedentes

NOTE: Signed Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability - https://www.ba.undp.org/content/dam/bosnia_and_herzegovina/docs/Operations/Jobs/Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx - Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability.docx - to be sent to e-mail ba.shared.hr@undp.org with Subject: Job ID 96230

The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has an information system that provides information support for its regular sessions. The current government e-Session system is developed mainly for document and agenda management purposes with the goal to reduce the paper stack and provide standardization of government sessions agenda and reporting.
The current information system does not support some processes that would add value to its main users i.e., ministers and the prime minister, government administrative service members, guests who participate in the government sessions. The emphasis is on collaboration, i.e., ministers should be able to provide comments and objections on the materials which are shared prior to the session, as prescribed by the relevant rulebook, have internal discussion on the specific session topic and provide their positions, as well as possibly vote beforehand and take part in the government sessions remotely. Sessions proceedings, decisions and proposals being automatically generated and shared with the public are not part of the current solution as well.
There is a need to develop a new system that would support those online work and collaboration and in general streamline the government decision-making process. The new e-Cabinet system should be a database and a scheduler of all relevant information, organized and updated in real-time, giving cabinet members a clear overview of each item under discussion. Well before the cabinet session begins, the ministers should be able to access the system, review each agenda item, prepare their position, or indicate whether they have any objections or would like to speak on a topic revealing their positions to the prime minister beforehand. The e-Cabinet solution should support continuous ministers’ work on government backlog, to optimize the flow of valuable information between cabinet members and support the improvements and joint movement toward common goals, while respecting and accommodating differences of opinion. That kind of work in the future e-Cabinet system would enable decisions that have no objections be adopted without debate on a formal meeting, saving considerable time and significantly reducing the length of cabinet meetings.
The future e-Cabinet solution should also be a web-based system integrated with a video conferencing software to enable ministers and their support staff to take part in fully remote / virtual cabinet session, which is essential for the efficiency of the government work. This would be important not just from viewpoint of the current COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic and specific epidemiological measures that needs to be observed, but also from a sustainable work practices viewpoint.
The aim behind the design and setting in place a new information system is to set an example of highly efficient and secure digital collaboration, documents, and government sessions management system, connected to other government systems, namely - the e-Government portal of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Parliament of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's information system, as well as the Public consultation system.
In addition, the underlying software platform of e-Sessions system is SharePoint 2013. Operating with outdated and unsupported environment comes at a cost. The current system has become difficult to maintain and almost impossible to upgrade with new features and functions, and naturally moving towards its end-of-life.
The need for a new e-Cabinet system comes with the sense of opportunity to develop a new digital solution with improved services that supports the work culture built around the values of transparency, balance, collaboration, citizens-focus, continuous workflow, leadership, understanding, agreement, and respect, enabled through digital environment.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The objective of the consultancy is to review the e-Sessions information system currently used by the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBIH), analyse the business stakeholders’ requirements, and, inspired by the state-of-the-art collaborative solutions for governments’ sessions worldwide, establish a backlog of requirements for the fit-for-purpose modern e-Cabinet system. The Consultant is expected to develop the Terms of Reference for the procurement of such an e-Cabinet solution development service, which includes detailed system requirements specifications. Following the award of the contract, the Consultant will be expected to engage as a business analyst/product owner with the designated implementation team from the General Secretariat of the FBiH Government, supporting the development of the E-Cabinet solution in an iterative and incremental software development process over the period of 5-7 months. 
The selected Consultant is expected to perform the following tasks, under this consultancy:
Task 1: Review the current e-Session system of FBiH Government, as well as the leading digital solutions for government sessions, especially in in the European Union (EU), and establish a detailed model for the fit-for-purpose e-Cabinet system.
In consultation with the project coordinator from UNDP and the project team from the General Secretariat of the FBiH Government, the Consultant will validate the primary purpose and goals of the future digital solution, define its value proposition, and evaluate the most relevant options of implementation (working on the existing solution or development of a brand-new digital product). The Consultant will: i) evaluate the available information on most advanced and future-looking online E-Cabinet systems on the market and exchange with the UNDP project staff on the possible business model and high-level system features that would be fit for purpose; ii) develop a model that will ensure a sustainable and scalable system that advances the digital work of the government; iii) review the current technological infrastructure to inform the design of the specification of the necessary software and hardware components to be procured . The estimated number of expert days for this task is 10.
Task 2: Develop Terms of Reference with System Requirements Specification for the procurement of the appropriate e-Cabinet system software development service and necessary ICT hosting infrastructure.
Based on the findings of the review process, the Consultant is expected to develop the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the future e-Cabinet system, which include product specifications and detailed stack of requirements, as well as the qualifications criteria for the prospective service providers. In particular, the document will identify all e-Cabinet user groups, explain all major functionalities and features (in the form of user stories with acceptance criteria) that the new system will offer to the identified users and assure compliance of the development outcomes with the identified purpose, goals, and system value proposition. In addition to the core e-Cabinet system features, the Consultant will specify requirements for a) development of the new e-Service on the official government web portal entitled as Register of cabinet office decisions and sessions proceedings, to allow public real-time access to all formal government documents and decisions; b) development of the web services that would allow document exchange between the FBiH Government e-Cabinet solution and the existing FBiH Parliament digital system, and c) ensure software components that would enable digital signing of the official documents by the prime minister and government ministers. Data migration, data integrity, availability and security requirements should be specifically designed, to ensure seamless migration to the new platform. The document should include all relevant technical details presented in a reader-friendly manner and in line with UNDP procurement requirements. Based on the previous review process, the Consultant is expected to provide technical specification of the necessary hardware and software components of the ICT infrastructure that would be appropriate for hosting and enabling appropriate performance of the future e-Cabinet solution and prepare a separate procurement ToR, if necessary. Final deliverable approval will be provided by the UNDP project coordinator in consultation with the FBiH Government designated representatives. The estimated number of expert days for this task is 13.
Task 3: Support the e-Cabinet system software development process. Following the selection of software development service provider, the business analyst will assist UNDP and the FBiH Government team in the management of product backlog during the software development phase. Key activities to be performed during the iterative software development process are:

• Communicating clarifications of the established system requirements, as required by the software development team and other project stakeholders, to make sure the vision and goals are clear throughout the product development process, as well as ensure full alignment with the business objectives identified in the ToR document. The business analyst will provide answers and clarifications regarding the product feature, in a timely manner, and make sure there is a buy-in from UNDP and the FBiH Government designated representatives on all decisions in the process,
• Facilitate collaboration among all stakeholders (users and sponsors representatives, software development team) throughout the software development process,
• Quality assure the process of testing product features during the development process so that the solution progress to the final product, which delivers highest possible value to all stakeholders, through iterative process, until its full setting in function.

The estimated number of expert days for this task is 12, envisioning 4-5 hours per week commitment over the period of 5 months.
The total number of expert days for this assignment will not exceed 35. The expected timeframe for the assignment is January to July 2021, with the estimated level of effort being distributed so that tasks 1 and 2 are delivered from January to March 2021, while task 3 is delivered from March to July 2021. The entire assignment will be delivered in the languages of the peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian); however the progress and final reports from the completion of each task should be submitted to UNDP in English language. 

The Consultant is responsible for the following deliverables:
Task 1:  The Consultant is expected to deliver a comprehensive report on the review of the current e-Session system of the FBiH Government, as well as the leading digital solutions for government sessions, especially in in the EU, and initial set of requirements for the fit-for-purpose e-Cabinet system. The review process should government internal information workflow and the work of the current e-Sessions platform, as well as map feasible digital solutions for inclusive and timely information exchange with external stakeholders (individual ministries and government administrative services, the Parliament of FBiH as well as with the public through services provided at the FBiH government e-Government portal) that are inspired by good practices worldwide and leverage modern digital technologies available (e.g. digital signature, audio-video streaming etc). The review should serve as foundation for conceptualising a next generation E-Cabinet digital system that streamlines and digitalises decision-making of the FBiH Government and connects the government with the public and the FBIH Parliament. The system requirements specification document, which is deliverable of this task, should identify the scope of the project and create the prioritized stack of requirements with enough level of details so that software development service providers are able to understand the purpose and scope of the project and estimate their effort needed.

Task 2: Based on the findings of the business analysis and user requirements, the Consultant is expected to develop the Terms of Reference (ToR) for e-Cabinet solution software development service, which will include project background, objectives, issues that are being solved, implementation methodology, product roadmap and customer journey maps, expertise required, reporting requirements and other standard elements of UNDP ToR. The initial system requirements specification document developed in task 1 would be finalized and become an integral part of the ToR. Besides the core e-Cabinet solution requirement specification, the Consultant would also specify requirements for development of the new e-Service - Register of cabinet office decisions and sessions proceedings, web services for automated information exchange between e-Cabinet solution and existing FBiH Parliament system, as well as prepare technical specifications for the procurement of necessary hardware and software components of the ICT infrastructure that would be appropriate for hosting and enabling appropriate performance of future e-Cabinet solution (including digital signature system).
Task 3: With the vision, strategy and requirements for the e-Cabinet solution being set and endorsed by UNDP and the designated FBIH Government representatives, the Consultant will support the software development process by overseeing the actual development of the product, providing clarifications, identifying areas for improvement, and working with all stakeholders to prepare the content required by the development team for the next iteration. The deliverables for this task are progress reports towards the release of a product, that would include work on identifying emerging customer needs and the associated features to meet those needs, provided clarifications and facilitation of work to support development process, identification and communication of defects, task, and new features towards their resolution and/or implementation.

The Consultant is expected to deliver progress reports once a task is completed with time sheets indicating the number of days utilised. Payments will be made based on delivery of the tasks.  To fulfil the required tasks, the estimated number of days to be invested by the consultant is up to 35 working days, with up to 10 working days per month. Meetings and visits to partner institutions in Sarajevo are envisaged The Consultant service delivery is home based.

Deliverables

Competencias

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards,
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP,
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability,
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism,
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional competencies:

• Demonstrates professional competence to meet responsibilities and post requirements and is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines, and achieving results,
• Results-Orientation: Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals, generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations,
• Communication: Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities, including the ability to convey complex concepts and recommendations, both orally and in writing, in a clear and persuasive style tailored to match target audiences,
• Teamwork: Ability to interact, establish and maintain effective working relations with a culturally diverse team,
• Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations.
   

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Academic Qualifications/Education

• Degree in computer science, engineering, management information systems, business administration, project management or other closely related field of study.
• Master’s and Doctorate qualification will be an advantage.

Experience

• At least 5 years of relevant experience in eliciting business requirements from business users and subject matter experts, analysing, defining, documenting, and prioritizing requirements in an agile software development environment,
• Experience as a digital product owner/manager working with user stories, managing user experience, product and release planning, bringing cross-functional groups together and working with the development teams to deliver the digital products,
• Experience in development of similar platforms is a strong asset.

Languages Requirements

• Excellent writing and oral communication skills in in the official languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Other Requirements

• Project management experience would be desirable.
• Professional certifications in agile software development, product management and business analysis would be desirable.

Longlisting/Shortlisting Criteria

Qualifications as stated in the ToR

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points would be considered for Technical Evaluation

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation

Individual  will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the candidate whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

• * Technical Criteria weight-70%
• * Financial Criteria weight- 30%

Interested candidated must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Personal CV, including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references.
• Motivation letter explaining why they are the most siable for heok.

Please scan all above mentioned documents and upload as one attachment only online through this website.

Note:
•For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
•Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.