The development and testing of the XBID Solution has predominantly, until now, been undertaken using a 'Waterfall' approach. The project parties and the service provider are exploring the potential implementation of an 'Agile' approach for the upcoming releases.

In order to support the TSO-only-XBID project (excl. NEMOs), which is composed of 31 TSOs, the need for professional external testing service support has arisen. The scope of the external testing service support comprises:

1) Involvement in test case creation for regression tests and test execution;

2) Optional involvement in so called ‘projects’: preparation and execution of test regarding modified XBID functionalities incl. failover and smoke tests; and

3) Providing testing services connected to the XBID system to individual TSOs.

1) Testing support for regression tests: after the functionalities have been jointly specified by the TSOs and NEMOs, the TSOs and NEMOs conduct a pre-release assessment, define the testing scope, create and review test cases before actual test execution starts. Regression tests, meaning testing existing and unmodified functionalities in a new release are executed by the TSOs for the CMM and SM at the very beginning of a new release testing cycle. The TSOs foresee that the successful tenderer will be assigned with the test case creation and after test case review done by the TSOs, the tenderer will independently execute the regression tests on behalf of the TSOs. Currently there is one major release planned per year involving 5-8 weeks of regression test case preparation and execution (4-5 full time testers during execution required), although this can vary from year to year. Moving to ‘agile’ will most likely involve more frequent but shorter regression test periods. The services are provided to all 31 TSOs;

2) Optional testing support for so called ‘projects’: by moving from ‘waterfall’ to ‘agile’, TSOs may involve external testers in further testing activities such as testing modified functionalities, failover tests, smoke tests, manual configuration (if the snapshot restoration process is not ready or if the necessary snapshot is not available) and ‘Would’ and ‘could’ existing functionality testing. Such involvement would be on behalf of all 31 TSOs;

3) Providing testing services connected to the XBID system to individual TSOs: in addition to 1) and 2) this service will be provided to individual TSOs. The tenderer will support the TSO in testing the XBID Solution; however, the exact scope of the testing service and the duration will vary from TSO to TSO and will be described in the scope of the ‘mini tenders’ that will be executed by the individual TSO under the framework agreement. Assumption is that during the contracting period on average 1-2 full time equivalents will be required to provide these testing services.

TenneT expects to have more than 1 framework agreement, with a mechanism of having one prior agreement and 1 or more stand-by agreements. The mechanism and exact amount of framework agreements will be explained when publishing the contract notice