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Term
Definition
HorizonChanges which are on the Horizon will be represented in a separate section of the Roadmap and are included for information purposes. A Horizon item is a potential change which NHS Digital are aware of, but it has either not been formally submitted into the change process and/or is only an idea or high level concept with little or no specification in place. It indicates items which are further into the future and for which it is yet to be determined whether it will progress and if so which of the change routes it will progress through.
Managed Capacity

The main route for progressing new and uplifted Standards which apply to all relevant Suppliers and which are likely to have a Published specification. Where these have an Effective Date, all relevant Suppliers will be obliged to have achieved compliance with these items by the given date as per the terms of the Catalogue Agreement. Changes in this route will fall into one of four categories:

  • SRO priorities
  • Legislative and Regulatory change
  • Minor and Patch uplifts
  • Other

These items will only be commissioned via the Roadmap and Suppliers are expected to incorporate any development cost within their List Price. Some items in Managed Capacity may be associated with incentive payments for delivery of the change within a certain time boundary.

Opportunity Item

Opportunities for Suppliers to engage with NHS Digital and the change requestor to collaborate on the definition of specifications and to deliver certain changes early ahead of publication to the wider market where applicable. These will be commissioned via the most appropriate Framework or Procurement vehicle in current operation. Changes in this route will fall into one of two categories:

  • Alpha/Definition/FoT - opportunities for Suppliers to co-produce specifications before they are Published to all other relevant Suppliers through Managed Capacity and given an Effective Date if applicable.
  • Other opportunities - opportunities for development of new Capabilities or standalone features which do not have to be delivered by Foundation Solution Suppliers and which may allow a Supplier to bring a new product to market and/or for existing products to be pulled in from specialist Suppliers rather than forcing additional development on a limited number of Suppliers.
Feasibility AssessmentOpportunities for Suppliers to collaborate with NHS Digital and/or the change requestor to provide information and analysis to assess the feasibility of a new change request before it progresses through another route. These may be either optional or mandatory for Suppliers depending on the nature of the assessment required.
Urgent Change

Change requests which impact Standards and Capabilities which need to be progressed quickly outside of the usual change management principles. These will account for only a highly restricted volume of change meeting one of two criteria:

  • National information or cyber security incidents as classified by the appropriate body
  • Inappropriate, incorrect or missing drug or patient safety guidelines/alerts and other clinical safety issues and incidents as determined by an appropriate body
Draft

This is the status associated with specifications for a new or uplifted Capability or Standard which are still going through definition and elaboration with stakeholders.

    • Draft specifications will be released to Suppliers for review via the Confluence Roadmap page and iterated as often as possible
    • There will be opportunities for Suppliers to engage and feedback on Draft specifications
    • Suppliers can begin development when a specification is at Draft status, although they do so at their own risk

At Draft status there will be a Supplier facing Roadmap page on which detail of the specification is released as it becomes available.

Published

This is the status associated with specifications for a new or uplifted Capability or Standard which are fully defined, agreed and signed off and are not expected to change. Where there is a need for minor or patch uplift, this will be handled as described in the Versioning section. Suppliers would be expected to be working towards achieving compliance with a specification when it is given this status. There may be some Standards and Capabilities which do not progress beyond this status in which case they would be advisory or reflect some other scenario where it remains optional at that point.

A checklist will be in place to ensure that before this status is awarded, the specification is adequately defined and ready for implementation with all necessary assurance, implementation and guidance documentation in place to enable a Supplier to complete development at minimal risk.

At this point a full version of the Confluence page will be released. In the case of uplifts to existing Standards and Capabilities, this will be a complete, refreshed version of the page e.g. if there is an uplift to Data Standards, the changes will be on or linked to from the relevant Roadmap page and are likely to only show the specific requirements which are changing until it is Published, when a full updated version of the Data Standards page with a revised version number will be made available and will sit alongside the Effective version.

Effective

This is the status associated with Standards with which all relevant Suppliers are required to have achieved compliance.

It is the status associated with Capabilities which have been included within the scope of a Framework request and hence which Suppliers are able to onboard Solutions against and sell via a Framework.

When the Effective Date is reached, the old Effective page will be replaced by the new one with an uplifted version number. The old one will be given a status of Retired and moved to an alternate location on Confluence.

All relevant SuppliersThis term is used to indicate that Suppliers have the choice as to which Capabilities they choose to offer through the GP IT Framework and as such there are different Standards with which they will need to be compliant. Therefore if a change to a Standard is not applicable to the products and Capabilities the Supplier is offering, then that change is not relevant to them. The Roadmap will indicate the Capabilities and Standards which will be impacted by a particular item on the Roadmap.
Achieved complianceThis means that a Supplier has been awarded a DevMAC for the Roadmap item.
Effective Date

The date on which the Standard or Capability becomes Effective. It is the date by which all relevant Suppliers will need to have achieved compliance with the change item.

Effective Dates only apply to changes in the Managed Capacity and Urgent Change routes. Some items in the Managed Capacity route may not have an Effective Date, but may be associated with incentive payments for delivery over a certain time period. Those items which do have an Effective Date are mandated for delivery by all relevant Suppliers.

Backstop DateThis term means the same as Effective Date and should not be used.
Retired

This is the status associated with old versions of a Capability or Standard which have been uplifted or replaced. These pages may be superseded by a new Published or Effective specification.

These pages will remain available for reference in an alternate location on Confluence.

DeprecatedThis is the status associated with Capabilities or Standards which are not yet Retired because products are in live service and still need to be supported. Those Suppliers with pre-existing compliance must maintain this, those with no compliance are not obligated to comply with these Standards.
ClosedThis is the status associated with a change request which will not be progressing. It is recognised that some change requests are submitted into the process and then are not taken forward at some point for a variety of reasons, therefore this status will be used to indicate to Suppliers that a change which had previously appeared on the Roadmap is now no longer required and they should not continue work on it. Changes at this status will remain on the Roadmap for a period of time to ensure awareness.
MandatedThis term describes a Standard within the Managed Capacity route which Suppliers must deliver and which has been given an Effective Date by which all relevant Suppliers must have achieved compliance. Use of this term should be avoided where possible, instead referring to the Effective Date.
Incentive itemThe term Incentive Item or other terms regarding incentive payments and incentivisation refer to additional funding which may be associated with particular items on the Roadmap. These may be available and applied at the discretion of the Framework and Catalogue Authority and could be applied based on Suppliers maintaining compliance with Effective Dates, for delivery of a change ahead of an Effective Date, or for delivery of items which do not have an Effective Date over a certain bounded time period. 
Day 1 Standard

This term describes the Standards with which a Supplier will need to have achieved compliance in order to onboard on to the Catalogue and be awarded a place on Framework 1. Due to the way in which the procurement, onboarding and the compliance process will work, the date on which Suppliers will actually join Framework 1 will differ. It is anticipated that the earliest date that Suppliers could join the first Framework is July 2019, therefore this is the earliest possible Effective Date of a Day 1 Standard. As there are Standards with Effective Dates at any point beyond this, Suppliers will need to have achieved compliance with these as a condition of joining Framework 1 i.e. if there are Standards with Effective Dates in July 2019, September 2019 and December 2019 and the Supplier is due to join the Framework in January 2020, then all these Standards are Day 1 Standards.

Versioning

This is defined in the Versioning section

Roadmap

The GP IT Futures Standards and Capabilities Roadmap, known simply as 'the Roadmap', serves two primary purposes:

    • An overarching, summary view of ALL change requests relating to new and uplifted Standards and Capabilities regardless of which change route they will progress through. This will be published for all interested stakeholders to view. NB. All Roadmap items will also be represented via the pages on Confluence with the ability to sort and order to view those relevant to particular Capabilities.
    • The only method for commissioning mandated change progressing through the Managed Capacity route and therefore showing the Standards with which Suppliers are obliged to maintain compliance under the terms of the Catalogue Agreement
Priority StandardThis term is used to identify those changes to Standards and Capabilities which have been identified by the NHS England SROs group as the most important and top priority items for the forthcoming period. The Priority Standards may progress through any of the defined change routes, but once in the Managed Capacity route will have an Effective Date. Wherever possible, these items and the associated Effective Dates will be issued for Supplier feedback and agreed in advance of a Framework opportunity such that Suppliers are aware of their obligations and can price accordingly.
FeatureA change which does not impact a Standard or Capability.


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Lifecycle of Standards and Capabilities
Lifecycle of Standards and Capabilities
Lifecycle of Standards and Capabilities

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