Samoa BMS Quality Assurance Solution Architect Consultant

1. Duty Station of the Consultancy: Home-based

2. Duration of Consultancy: 25 days spanning over 11 months (May 2024 – March 2025)

3. Nature of the consultancy:
Under the overall supervision of the IOM Chief of Mission, under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager, with technical support from the Regional Thematic Specialist in Immigration and Border Governance, and in coordination with the Quality Assurance Team Leader/members, the consultant will assist in successfully implementing the upgrade work though providing quality assurance services during the upgrade releases. The consultant will play a crucial role in ensuring the quality and reliability of the upgraded BMS, including added features and integrations.

Specific Functions
▪To work closely with the Team Leader to ensure project implementation is in line with the business requirements of the Government of Samoa and established project timeframes.
▪To work closely with the Team Leader/Programme Manager in coordinating technical matters among stakeholders and making decisions when needed through providing situational analysis, technical advice and practical recommendations
▪To conduct tests and/or review pre-release vendor testing or User Acceptance Testing to identify defects, validate functionality and ensure the overall performance and stability of the upgraded BMS in accordance with the business requirements of the government of Samoa
▪To conduct reviews of the upgraded BMS functionality against the agreed business requirements of the government of Samoa
▪To engage with the technical team to identify existing and potential gaps and risks and make practical recommendations to mitigate the identified risks and ensure timely and satisfactory implementation
▪To submit reports on conducted quality assurance assessment for each release phase
▪To attend technical meetings as requested by the Programme Manager
▪To report to the Team Leader/Programme Manager the matters that may affect the upgrade implementation and quality and timely delivery of each release phase

4. Project Context and Scope:
Established in 1951, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the leading intergovernmental organization in the field of migration and is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. IOM’s Immigration and Border Governance (IBG) Programmer partners with Member States to enhance the migration policies, legal frameworks, technical and administrative structures, and human resources required to effectively address the diverse migration and border management challenges and harness the opportunities of migration and cross-border mobility.
With financial support of the Government of Japan, IOM is currently implementing the Project for Enhancing Border Management Capacity for Responding to Infectious Diseases in Pacific Island Countries in 7 countries including Samoa. The objective of the project is to support Pacific socio-economic recovery through safe resumption of border management operations and enhanced seamless border management infrastructure technology, equipment, and improved capacity.

The current Border Management System (BMS) of Samoa was originally installed in 2004. This system currently provides functionality to support traveller management, including movements and alerts, visa and permit processing, and identification of possible overstayers. Another system, the Travel Document Management System (TDMS) supported by a separate vendor provides functionality to support the issuance of Samoan travel documents.

The current immigration system arrangements are not integrated, and the existing systems require updates to database, programming and operating system software to ensure ongoing system security, stability, and viability, as neither system has been substantially updated or enhanced since initial installation, apart from essential support and maintenance, such as bug fixes or upgrades to client PC operating systems. The government of Samoa plans to integrate BMS and travel documents services with one system environment within the BMS.

Against the backdrop, in November 2020, the current BMS’s functional and technical requirements were reviewed by the Immigration and ICT Divisions of the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (MPMC) to inform any upgrade or replacement of Samoa’s BMS. A decision has subsequently been made to implement key functional upgrades to satisfy current business requirements of the Immigration Division. The 2020 requirements have then been updated to respond to the latest requirements in 2023.

As part of the above mentioned project, IOM is currently assisting the government of Samoa in upgrading the existing BMS though integrating BMS and travel document services with one system environment within the BMS with additional functionalities.

The project has identified and contracted the vendor to deliver upgrades. The vendor has specified the best technological response to the requirements and how they will be satisfied in the Annex 1: Samoa Requirements Response.

5. Organizational Department / Unit to which the Consultant is contributing: IOM Samoa

6. Tangible and measurable outputs of the work
Though performing thorough testing of the system, the consultant is required to submit a report on results and analysis of the system and certify the work is fully completed according to the agreed business requirements at the end of each release phase.

Please go to https://australia.iom.int/careers to download the full Terms of Reference and view the full deliverable and the timeframe.

7. Performance indicators for the evaluation of results
Successful upgrade delivery that meets the business requirements of the government of Samoa and are approved by the Project Steering Committee

8. Education, Experience and/or skills required
The successful consultant is expected to have detailed functional understanding of Border Management System and has extensive experience of working with various modules of BMS.
▪BA Degree in Computer Science, Information Management, Software engineering, or relevant field or
▪Min 5 years’ relevant professional experience in the design and implementation of IT solutions/quality assurance with strong emphasis on testing of systems, preferably BMS.
▪Excellent knowledge of databases
▪Experience with the Agile Software development model
▪Knowledge of BMIS and/or immigration work desirable
▪Proven experience as a solution architect, quality assurance tester, business analyst, or similar role
▪Ability to communicate technical matters in common terms
▪Excellent analytical skills for assessing overall system performance
▪Fluency in written and spoken English is required
▪Experience working with government system preferred

9. Travel required: None

10. Competencies
Values
▪Inclusion and respect for diversity: respects and promotes individual and cultural differences. Encourages diversity and inclusion.
▪Integrity and transparency: maintains high ethical standards and acts in a manner consistent with organizational principles/rules and standards of conduct.
▪Professionalism: demonstrates ability to work in a composed, competent and committed manner and exercises careful judgment in meeting day-to-day challenges.
▪Courage: demonstrates willingness to take a stand on issues of importance.
▪Empathy: shows compassion for others, makes people feel safe, respected and fairly treated.
Core Competencies – behavioural indicators
▪Teamwork: develops and promotes effective collaboration within and across units to achieve shared goals and optimize results.
▪Delivering results: produces and delivers quality results in a service-oriented and timely manner. Is action oriented and committed to achieving agreed outcomes.
▪Managing and sharing knowledge: continuously seeks to learn, share knowledge and innovate.
▪Accountability: takes ownership for achieving the Organization’s priorities and assumes responsibility for own actions and delegated work.
▪Communication: encourages and contributes to clear and open communication. Explains complex matters in an informative, inspiring and motivational way.