In recent years, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen has taken on a leading role in the field of e-government. The modernization of the administration is the responsibility of the Senator for Finance. The Bremen authority is taking the lead in implementing the "Vergabe" project throughout Germany in the context of the Online Access Act (OZG).
By means of prequalification, companies participating in public tendering procedures can prove their suitability in advance, independently of the tender, and register in official directories.
The aim of the digitization project is to carry out suitability tests in a way that is both user-centric and more efficient and legally secure. Workload and costs for companies are to be reduced and the submission of incorrect or incomplete award documents, which could lead to exclusion from the bidding process, avoided. State contracting authorities are to benefit from the timeliness and completeness of submitted documents and no longer have to review all submitted evidence.
neusta enterprise services was initially commissioned to design a lean, digitized prequalification process that takes into account the legal framework of the Online Access Act. The neusta project team, which initially consisted of four members, gained insights into the current process, which was still largely analog. A major challenge was that the prequalification process is neither subject to a uniform procedure nor is it controlled by a superordinate body with overall responsibility.
Relevant stakeholders, including consulting agencies, companies and public procurement agencies, were identified and interviewed in a structured manner. Legal bases were consulted and findings were enriched with more in-depth research. To ensure that the future online service focuses on the users, user models (so-called personas) were developed using methods from the agile design thinking approach and a user journey was defined that maps the future interactions.
On this basis, functional and technical requirements were finally documented and prioritized in close cooperation with the person responsible for services at the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. The implementation recommendation included a concept for the Bremen reference implementation, the roll-out to other federal states and two expansion stages.
In the implementation phase, team neusta's initial task was to develop a minimum viable product (MVP) with the most basic functions within six months using agile project management methods and then successively expand the digital service within the scope of several releases.
In order to be able to react quickly and in a structured manner to changing conditions and requirements, the PQ portal is (further) developed within the framework of two-week sprints. The team neusta implementation team is cross-functional: Three full-stack developers of the team neusta company HEC work self-organized and make decisions about the technical implementation. The team is supported by a UX designer from neusta experience and a test manager. The proxy product owner from neusta enterprise services takes care of coordinating, capturing, and prioritizing the dynamic requirements elements in close consultation with the service owner and stakeholders; she also acts as the central point of contact for the development team. She is supported by a requirements manager. A Scrum Master, also from neusta enterprise services, is responsible for the agile process and provides transparency about the team's work to the client and all other stakeholders.
The multi-tier application system is implemented with Java, Spring and Angular. An automated build system is used for unit tests and to ensure code quality. Testing is performed in multiple stages in the staging systems (development, test, integration).
In order to be able to react quickly and in a structured manner to changing conditions and requirements, the PQ portal is (further) developed within the framework of two-week sprints. The team neusta implementation team is cross-functional: Three full-stack developers of the team neusta company HEC work self-organized and make decisions about the technical implementation. The team is supported by a UX designer from neusta experience and a test manager. The proxy product owner from neusta enterprise services takes care of coordinating, capturing, and prioritizing the dynamic requirements elements in close consultation with the service owner and stakeholders; she also acts as the central point of contact for the development team. She is supported by a requirements manager. A Scrum Master, also from neusta enterprise services, is responsible for the agile process and provides transparency about the team's work to the client and all other stakeholders.
The multi-tier application system is implemented with Java, Spring and Angular. An automated build system is used for unit tests and to ensure code quality. Testing is performed in multiple stages in the staging systems (development, test, integration).
