Procurement: Study Leave Manager High Level Requirement Documentation (DRAFT)

Study Leave Requirements Documentation
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to identify the requirements for leave management functionality required by Health Education England (HEE).   
 
Background 
HEE uses leave management functionality to manage postgraduate doctors and dentists in training requiring study or exam leave.  HEE wishes to identify a system to provide similar functionality to maintain business activities from 1^st April 2019 onward. 

Structure of the document
This document is broken down into several parts described below:

• User requirements – these are the user requirements that need to be fulfilled.
• Technical and non-functional requirements – these are the more technical facing criteria that are required.
• Process flow – a high level process flow has been documented to illustrate the process at present.

Administrator Requirements

• To be able to assign/delete/edit (change) approvers (on one to one basis and in bulk) to a post
• To be able to view trainee placements against a post (at a minimum to see the current holder of a given post)
• To be able to get notification of exception application for study leave from trainee and add approvals
• View trainee request progress and edit individually, in case of changes to approvers
• Set sequence of approvers on a post.
• Transfer outstanding requests from one approver to another in case of approval chain changes
• Where possible to set reminders for approvers after some time if approval not received
• Send email to trainee and approvers as part of the workflow process.
• Download supporting documents for processing payments
• To be able to assign the relevant roles to either approvers or trainees using the system.

Trainee Requirements

• To be able to view and select current and future posts to apply for study leave against.
• To be able to complete exception study leave form and apply study leave if not in permitted list
• To be able to get email notification of application (both standard and exception)
• To be able to view progress of application
• To receive a notification (e.g. system or email) to both the trainee and administrators involved of any approval or rejections.
• To be able to edit study leave, upload documents and identify any cost/fee and expenses
• Request for payment of expenses

Study Leave Approvers Requirements (Sequence of approvals from 1 – 4 or more)

• To be able to get notification of study leave approval request
• To be able to approve/reject request
• Email trainee

System Requirements

• Ability to hold several user types including system administrators, trainees and leave approvers.  
• The system will have the ability to inherit training posts (A leave process will be applied upon a training post.)
• Allow Administrator to set up a customisable leave sequence process and approval sequence.
• Allow trainee to indicate the length of time that they require study leave to and from, what course they might be attending and if there are any costs/expenses associated with the study leave.  
• Allow approvers to accept or reject study leave
• If rejected, allow approvers to give reasons for rejection of leave 
• Send an automated email of approval/rejection to trainee
• Allow trainee to update details of leave, upload documents and include expenses.
• Within the administrator portal, it is anticipated that the following functionality will be available: 
  • That administrators can see a dashboard of who has applied for leave, including the cost of the leave.   
  • That 'batch' functionality is available to make mass amendments, rather than by individual record level.    
• Reporting functionality so that data can be reported on through dashboards and customisable reports
• That study leave data should be available for reporting using SQL
• Audit functionality is provided. 
• Allow email communication
• Prevent request submission until required fields are completed
• Admin ability to create and edit leave requests on trainee records
• Admin ability to set entitlements to limit volume of leave permitted in a set period
• That legacy study leave data can be imported into the system.

Technical Requirements and Non-Functional Requirements
Technical requirements are:
Using the system

• Requires a web browser interface that supports a range of internet browsers including Chrome and Internet Explorer.
• That the application can be used on mobiles.
• Data storage and processing must occur within the United Kingdom.
• The minimum standard for user authentication is username and password.
• The system must have the ability to audit user activity.
• System Interoperability

System availability and backups

• We would like the supplier to aim to provide their Access Control process (security Requirements; data and system access, Authentication and user access role?) and access to the 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with core system availability (uptime) between 08:00 – 18:00, Monday to Friday.
• We require regular system back up's to be taken and for these to be restorable should there be a need to restore data
• A full supplier's Business continuity and disaster Recovery plan is in place that aims to restore services promptly.

Cloud deployment model

• We seek the solution to be delivered via a private cloud model.

Non-Functional Requirements are:
User Support

• To provide user support through the means of either email, online ticketing and phone. Phone support services should be available between core office hours, 09:00 – 17:00.
• Admin/User to have sight of Forward Schedule of Change and outages during releases; defects/bug fixes and Maintenance changes that will impact the Live service.
• Admin/User to be aware of Incident, problem and complaint process.
• Admin/User to be aware of Escalations process/Matrix identifying all escalation points and their contact details; Level 1,2 ….
• We would like to see supplier's Performance Monitoring system, Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that the supplier has put in place to manage and maintain the service.
• We would like to see supplier's capacity metrics put in place with supplier and supplier provide capacity report.
• We would want to see put in place Business Relationship Management.
• System Demo and Manual
• Service Level Requirements (SLR)- Operating Service Level should be in place in order to measure performance. The SLR should outline some of the following as agreed with HEE:
  1. Availability Management-  to reflect maintenance plan, Hours of operation, location etc
  2. Performance Management - System Response Times, Processing time, query and reporting time
  3. Capacity Management - Volumes, scaleability, number of users, concurrent users etc
  4. Security Management - User access, Data and system access, authentication, User Access Role etc
  5. Service Desk
  6. Change/backup and recovery Management 
  7. Incident Management
  8. Problem Management

Accessibility

• That best endeavourers are taken to meet the standards identified by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

Independence of software

• We do not seek a reseller of software/services.

ISOs certificated?  ISO 20000, ISO 27001 etc

Standard Study Leave Process Flow Steps

• Administrator set up post with sequence of approvers assigned to post
• Trainee to select permitted post (present and future) to apply for study leave
• Trainee apply for study leave, exam leave or private leave. Trainee also includes estimated costs as applicable.
• Administrator and Trainee get notification of request application submitted successfully
• Administrator Review application and Add in sequence/edit Approvers (Exception Approvers  if exception form is completed)
• First approver gets notification to approve followed by second until the sequence is complete. Should one approver in the approval sequence reject the application, then a notification is sent to the trainee and the sequence stops. The system is then updated with the outcome.
• Administrators can review and edit applications at this stage but usually only when an issue is identified.
• Trainee get notification of approval/rejection
• Administrator/trainee/approvers correspond if rejected [conducted outside the system].
• Trainee attends and completed training
• Trainee to upload documents (certificate of attendance & expenses etc.) [not universally done]
• Trainee to update the expenses payment should further expenses be incurred than originally thought when submitting the application.
• Administrator to process payment offline [process undertaken by Trusts]. The system will need to record what was approved and how much.
• Trainee is paid by employer and a record is made on the system that a payment has been made.

Exception Study Leave Process Flow Steps

• System to display 'Exception' option to trainee to select if approved post is not in the filtered list
• Trainee to select, complete and submit 'Exception Form'
• System triggers the use of 'Exception Approvers'
• Administrator/Approver and trainee get notification of exception request application submitted successfully
• Administrator/Approver review application and add 'Exception Approvers' and set approval sequence
• First 'Exception Approver' gets notification to approve followed by second … until the final 'Exception Approver'.
• System send reminder to 'Exception Approver(s)' in the sequence after certain period set by administrator/Approver if approval is not received before the set period.
• Administrator/Approver and trainee get notification of final approval/rejection after full sequence approvals from the 'Exceptional Approvers'
• Administrator/Approver and trainee correspondence if Rejected (or trainee contacts admin)
• Trainee attend and complete training
• Trainee to upload documents (certificate of attendance & expenses etc.) [not universally done]
• Trainee to update the expenses payment should further expenses be incurred than originally thought when submitting the application.
• Administrator to process payment offline [process undertaken by Trusts]. The system will need to record what was approved and how much.
• Trainee is paid by employer and a record is made on the system that a payment has been made.

FLOW DESCRIPTION OF STANDARD AND EXCEPTION STUDY LEAVE FLOW MAP (DRAFT)