Capability and Standards Structure

ID

Each Capability and Standard has a unique alphanumeric identifier. The letter "C" indicates a Capability, an "S" indicates a Standard and “SCS” indicates a Supplementary Care Standard. The number is arbitrary and does not have any additional meaning such as priority, sequence or inter-relationships. This allows for the identification of Capabilities and Standards in a consistent manner.

Version

Each Capability and Standard has a version number. Each Capability and Standard can change independently and it's version number will change accordingly. Version numbers are subject to change depending on the nature of the change (e.g. major, minor, patch). There is no relationship between the version numbers of different Capabilities and Standards.

Type

Indicates a Capability or a Standard and where applicable, defines the type of Standard:

• Capability - Describes the business needs at the highest level.

• Interoperability Standard - Express technical and non-functional requirements for a specific interface or integration.

• Overarching Standard - Expresses overarching technical and non-functional requirements.

• Supplementary Care Standard - Describes the functional, technical and/or operating conditions required to deliver a specific service within a health and care setting.

Category

Only Capabilities have the Category field. Category is used to group related Capabilities on the Buying Catalogue.

Status

Each Capability and Standard will have one of five statuses:

• Draft - Whilst in Draft status, Suppliers have the chance to provide feedback about the contents of the Capability or Standard. The contents of the Capability or Standard are subject to change at this stage.

• Published - When this status is reached, it is expected that the contents of the Capability or Standard are fully defined, agreed, signed off and are not expected to change.

• Effective - Used to indicate that Suppliers should now be compliant with the Capability or Standard.

• Deprecated - The content is still visible to Suppliers but is Deprecated for a period of time before it is Retired. Suppliers will no longer be able to be assessed against Deprecated content however compliant Solutions must remain compliant until the Capability or Standard is Retired.

• Retired - The content is now Retired and located under “Retired Content” for reference.

Effective Date

Capabilities and Standards that are mandated under the Catalogue Agreement will have an Effective Date by which Suppliers must comply with the Capability or Standard.  

Suppliers will need to have achieved compliance against relevant Effective Capabilities and Standards (see Status above) in order to onboard on to the Buying Catalogue. There may be other Capabilities and Standards that Suppliers need to achieve compliance with as part of the Contracting Vehicle Agreement in order to be awarded a place on a Contracting Vehicle.

Contracting Vehicle(s)

Indicates the commercial Contracting Vehicle a Capability or Standard is applicable to.

Description

A concise description of the purpose of the Capability covering the mandatory scope.

Outcomes

Describes the main users of the Capability and the outcomes they want to achieve from using a Solution that meets the Capability based on the mandatory scope.

Epics and Acceptance Criteria

Epics are individual high level business requirements and describes features relevant to the Capabilities they belong to. All Epics together define the full scope of a Capability.

The Acceptance Criteria associated with an Epic defines the minimum expected functions a Supplier’s Solution must deliver, and are test scenarios that will be used during the Capability Assessment stage of Onboarding to establish whether a Supplier’s Solution meets the Epic or not. In order to pass any Epic, all associated Acceptance Criteria for that Epic must pass the assessment.

Epics are classified as either MUST or MAY Epics and all Epics will be assessed during the Capability Assessment stage of Onboarding. It is recommended that Suppliers consider all Epics as part of User Research to understand what the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) is for their users.

MUST Epics

MUST Epics are mandatory and used to confirm during the Capability Assessment stage of Onboarding that a Solution delivers the minimum required for a Capability. A Supplier Solution needs to meet all MUST Epics in order to Pass Capability Assessment for a Capability.

MAY Epics

Describes additional functionality associated with the Capability. Suppliers should consider all MAY Epics as part of their User Research. Suppliers can choose to map their Solutions to these Epics and they will be evaluated via Capability Assessment. Contracting Authorities or purchasing organisations may require these Epics as product qualification or requirements criteria.

Additional Implementation Details

Additional Implementation Details are mandatory details related to a specific Epic and are assessed during the Assurance stage of Onboarding.

These details can include references to other Standards and Suppliers will need to complete any separate assurance activities related to those Standards. Additional Implementation Details can also include information of how any functionality should be implemented.

Supporting Information

This information may be useful to Suppliers when implementing the related Epic, but is not mandatory and is for guidance only.

Roadmap

The Roadmap section summarises future changes and opportunities for Suppliers in relation to the Capability or Standard. These are links to the individual Roadmap pages which provide further information on the Roadmap Item.

A concise description of the purpose of the Standard covering the mandatory scope.

Specifies which Contracting Vehicle the requirement applies to (i.e. some requirements may only apply to certain Contracting Vehicles and not all).

Each requirement within a Standard will have a unique Requirement ID so it can be recognised during compliance.

The description of each requirement within a Standard that will be used to determine compliance of a Solution with the Standard.

Each requirement within a Standard will have a level as defined in the RFC 2119.1 and Ancillary Document (Change Management Process and Roadmap Content).

A concise introduction describing the Standard and detailing what the Authority want Suppliers to do with the product (Standard).

Specifies which Suppliers the requirement applies to.

Each requirement within a Standard will have a unique ID so it can be recognised during compliance.

The description of each requirement within a Standard that will be used to determine compliance of a Solution with the Standard.

Each requirement within a Standard will have a level as defined in the RFC 2119.1 and Ancillary Document (Change Management Process and Roadmap Content).

Description

A concise description of the purpose of the Supplementary Care Standard covering the broad scope.

Functional Requirements

The functional requirements that need to be met in order to comply with the Supplementary Care Standard.

Secondary Artefacts

Non-functional and overarching requirements that need to be met in order to comply with the Supplementary Care Standard.

Requirement ID

Each requirement within a Supplementary Care Standard will have a unique ID so it can be recognised during compliance.

Requirement Text

The description of each requirement within a Supplementary Care Standard that will be used to determine compliance of a Solution with the Standard.

Requirement Level

Each requirement within a Standard will have a level as defined in the RFC 2119.1 and Ancillary Document (Change Management Process and Roadmap Content).

Category

For Secondary Artefact requirements only, categorises similar or related requirements.