Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 04, 2015 FBO #5033
DOCUMENT

R -- CFM Performance Measures Dashboard - Attachment

Notice Date

9/2/2015
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541611 — Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Office of Construction and;Facilities Management (00CFM3B);811 Vermont AVE, NW;Washington DC 20420
 

ZIP Code

20420
 

Solicitation Number

VA10115N0243
 

Response Due

9/14/2015
 

Archive Date

11/13/2015
 

Point of Contact

E.J. Jean-Jacques
 

E-Mail Address

Contracting Officer
(Evenel.Jean-Jacques@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

Title: CFM Performance Measures Dashboard This is request for information not a solicitation. The purpose of this Request for Comments / Request for Information is to obtain industry input on the acquisition strategy, final scope of work for a CFM performance measures program/ dashboard. The purpose of the measures program is to determine the status and overall health and performance CFM's projects and can provide meaningful, consistent and reliable date for decision making. The Government will use this information to determine the best acquisition strategy for this procurement. Responses to this draft RFP must cite the contractor's qualifications and experience for developing construction industry performance measures that are based on industry standards and are of value to measuring CFM's Major construction activities. Disclaimer and Important Notes: This request does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Confidentiality - No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). INSTRUCTIONS: All respondents are requested to identify their firm's size and type of business. Interested firms responding to this market survey must provide (a) capability statement demonstrating their experience, skills and capability to fulfill the Government's requirements for the below SOW. The capability statement shall be in sufficient enough detail, but not to exceed 3 pages, so that the Government can determine the experience and capability of your firm to provide the requirements below. Responses must be submitted via email to E.J. Jean-Jacques at Evenel.Jean-Jacques@va.gov by September 14, 2015, 4:30 p.m. ET. PERFORMANCE PERIOD The Government anticipates awarding a base contract for a period of 12 months with possibility of four (4) one-year optional periods. ? U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Construction & Facilities Management Draft Scope of Work Statement for the CFM Performance Measures Dashboard ? Table of Contents Background1 1.Development of CFM Major Projects Performance Measures2 2.Development of CFM Major Projects Performance Measures Database3 3.Development of CFM Major Projects Performance Measures Dashboard4 4.Dashboard Software Infrastructure5 5.Data Support6 6.Total Project Staffing7 7.Performance Measures Implementation and Dashboard Training8 8.Dashboard Process Improvements - Performance Measures and Data8 9.Dashboard Process Improvements - Automation9 11.Evaluation & Rating Criteria11 Abbreviations and Terminology11 Background The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Construction & Facilities Management (CFM) is seeking professional services to develop a Performance Measurements Dashboard (PMD) to report on the status and health of its Major Construction Programs, Projects, and Contracts. CFM wants to develop the PMD to measure performance through all stages of Major capital projects from conception to activation. The PMD will communicate data that is stored in the Performance Measurements Database (PMDB). The PMDB will integrate and accurately align data about construction performance from multiple VA and CFM operational systems. The relationship between CFM operational systems, the PMDB, the PMD, and related vendor project and on-site support is shown in figure 1. Figure 1: Relationships of CFM Operational Systems and Performance Measures Performance measures are used by VA and in particular by CFM to assess how well Major Construction Programs, Projects, and Contracts are performing relative to their stated goals and objectives. Performance measures also provide CFM with information to benchmark, both internally and externally, leading to more consistent project delivery. Performance measures serve as indicators and early warning notifications of potential problems. Performance measures will be used by current employees as they lead projects through all project management stages and to benchmark with other construction industry organizations. CFM currently uses a number of disparate software systems to report on the status of program, projects, and contracts. Obtaining a comprehensive and actionable status view requires analysis of data from multiple systems. These systems are often not integrated and data in one system is not aligned with similar business information in another system. Development of performance measures or monthly reporting is a tedious manual process. CFM prototyped an effort that confirmed the benefits of using dashboard software for development of Major Construction project performance measures. The dashboard software was linked to a consolidated database of properly aligned and integrated construction project performance data. CFM now seeks services to implement this approach in an operational environment. The successful contractor for this services contract will identify their strategy for planning, organizing, and staffing to meet CFM's expectations. This Draft Scope of Work (SOW) section is organized as follows, with response guidelines included in each SOW section: 1.Development of CFM Major Projects Performance Measures 2.Development of CFM Major Projects Performance Measures Database (PMDB) 3.Development of CFM Major Projects Performance Measures Dashboard (PMD) 4.Dashboard Software Infrastructure 5.Data Support 6.Total Project Staffing 7.Performance Measures Implementation and Dashboard Training 8.Dashboard Process Improvements - Performance Measures and Data 9.Dashboard Process Improvements - Automation Additionally, compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and all other applicable laws, regulations, and guidelines of authorities having jurisdiction and VA convention is required of the vendor. Section 508 requires that Federal Agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities. Refer to http://www.section508.gov/. 1.Development of CFM Major Projects Performance Measures Major project performance measures help CFM management determine the status and overall health and performance of a project and can provide predictive information for early action on issues before they become problems. CFM has developed an initial set of performance measures that report the status of Major construction contracts. Examples include Budget, Cost, Schedule, Contract Changes, Information Requests (RFIs), and Safety. In addition to implementing existing performance measures in the new dashboard software, this project seeks to expand the list of project performance measures available to CFM. For example, few if any measures are currently available on planning, design, or activation phase activities. There are also no measures to gauge customer satisfaction with projects. CFM seeks the ability to organize and aggregate information to provide extensive flexibility in the analysis of construction performance measures. For example, one analysis of performance measures might be driven by the need for project analysis, while another may be based on an aggregation of projects within a program. Analysis may be driven by a collection of projects in a particular geographic area (e.g., Region, VISN) or within a particular period of time (e.g., FY 2015, 2016). Still other analyses may require custom queries and reports. Development of additional performance measures is currently limited by the availability of data about some aspects of CFM's construction program. Other sections in this Scope of Work statement identify the vendor's responsibility to develop a consolidated performance measures database. Development of new performance measures relies directly on the successful performance of that task. Earned Value Management (EVM) is one of the categories of performance measures to be included in the dashboard. EVM has been adopted by CFM to measure the integration of cost, schedule, and work scope aspects of its Major construction program. The EVM performance measure must provide quantification of technical progress, enabling CFM management to gain insight into project status and project completion costs and schedules. Two essential characteristics of successful EVM are data integrity and carefully targeted monthly EVM data analyses (i.e., risky WBS elements). Contractors must specifically document their expertise in earned value analysis and the application of ANSI/EIA-748: Earned Value Management Systems. Contractor's shall provide examples illustrating their development of EVM performance measures on past projects, including measuring a project's progress at any given point in time, forecasting its completion date and final cost, and analyzing variances in the schedule and budget as the project proceeds. Proposals shall document the vendor's familiarity and understanding of construction industry performance measures, examples of how that expertise has been used on behalf of other clients, and how that expertise will be brought to bear on the development of CFM performance measures. Performance measures shall be developed to provide CFM with insights to drive improvements across all aspects of its construction portfolio. Development of performance measures will require a collaboration with and approval by CFM. 2.Development of CFM Major Projects Performance Measures Database The vendor will be responsible for the development of the CFM performance measures database (PMDB). The PMDB is a central repository of integrated data on Major construction projects from multiple disparate sources. Information in the PMDB will be obtained from a number of VA and CFM operational systems. The vendor will determine the steps needed to properly extract data in the format that can be most easily and accurately imported into the PMDB. In addition to information imported into the PMDB, manual data entry from project managers and senior resident engineers will be required from many different reports and sources. The PMDB will integrate and accurately align data about construction performance from multiple VA and CFM operational systems. The PMDB will improve data quality, by providing consistent codes and descriptions, and by incorporating business rules to flag questionable data. Consistent and properly aligned information will provide CFM with an accurate view of contract, project, and program performance. The PMDB will be updated periodically allowing performance measures to reflect current status. The PMDB shall maintain data history, to facilitate trend development and temporal tracking even when the source transaction systems do not. Contractors shall clearly explain their strategy and past experience for moving data from operational systems to a PMDB-like consolidated data store. Contractor's shall describe the process they have used on other similar projects for extracting, standardizing, quality controlling, and aligning each data element with others in disparate systems to derive a performance measure. Proposals shall identify the types of processes that might be required to clean, align, integrate, and aggregate the data to support the development of performance measures. Examples of similar processes developed for construction industry projects shall be included to substantiate the contractor's capability to develop a PMDB and data loading and quality control processes. The vendor will be expected to develop easy-to-use forms to facilitate management of data in the PMDB. Examples include, but are not limited to, forms to facilitate data migration from source systems into the PMDB, to support data quality analysis, and to support manual changes to improve the quality of data. Forms will also be required to support manual data entry from project managers and senior resident engineers to enter data that cannot be extracted from source systems. Contractors shall include examples of data management forms in their proposals. A high level data relationship and flow diagram of some CFM and VA systems is presented in figure 2; Contractor's are informed that this diagram is for concept illustration purposes only because it may be incomplete and not current. As one of its first tasks, the succesful vendor will be required to develop a similar diagram that identifies the data needed for each performance measure, the source system where the needed data resides, and the data manipulation (automated and/or manual) required to produce the performance measure. This diagram shall be updated by the vendor each time a new performance measure is added or modified. Figure 2. Example for Concept Illustration Only 3.Development of CFM Major Projects Performance Measures Dashboard The CFM performance measures dashboard will enable CFM management to report easily and quickly on the status and health of its Major Construction programs, projects, and contracts. The dashboard will be displayed on a web page that is linked to a performance measures database (see discussion of the PMDB in item 2 of this SOW). The dashboard system must provide a meaningful view of CFM Major Construction data to support both tactical and strategic management decisions based on the data. Visual representations that clearly and succinctly communicate the implications of data relationships are important in the design of the CFM dashboards. Technical features of the dashboard software shall be fully leveraged. Features that are of interest to CFM include but are not limited to the following: "Graphical/visual display of a performance measure "Display of current status as well as historical trends for a performance measure "Use of portals to organize a collection of performance measures "The ability to interact with the dashboard, including the ability to drill down to view detail PMDB data records used to produce a performance measure "Use of contextual formatting to provide alerts in the event a performance measure falls within a particular range "The ability for notifications to be triggered in the event a performance measure falls within a particular range "The ability to generate detailed reports on performance measures displayed in the dashboard "The ability to "cut and paste" images and data in the dashboard into standard MS Office products for use in other presentations, reports, and briefings "The ability to manage security for access to and display of performance measures by grouping users into roles or other similar construct "The ability for users to configure the dashboard to their preferences In addition to viewing performance measures through the dashboard, monthly reports shall be provided in a format acceptable to CFM. Performance measures should be compiled into a set of documents that are readily accessible and easy to understand. Contractors shall cite relevant prior experience creating dashboards and reports for construction industry performance measures. Description of the software infrastructure used for development of the dashboards shall be provided. Details related to past projects shall include why specific functionality was chosen and how it addressed the particular requirements of the project. Illustrative examples and narrative descriptions of dashboards and their features should be included as part of the RFP response. Contractors shall include examples of previous work showing performance measures reports which they have developed for other construction industry clients. 4.Dashboard Software Infrastructure All production software and data used in the development of the PMD and the PMDB must be stored behind the VA firewall. Access to all software and data in the development and presentation of performance measures in a production environment must be accomplished using VA systems. Consideration will be given to development and testing of performance measures using an identical infrastructure that is not behind the VA firewall. Note that CFM data will not be available for use outside of the VA firewall. Proposals that include this approach shall indicate the value of the approach to the project. CFM strongly prefers but does not mandate the use of Tableau (www.tableau.com) software to develop the CFM Performance Measures Dashboards. VA has a license for Tableau software; it is installed behind VA's firewall; and CFM has access to VA's Tableau licenses. Responses that propose the use of dashboard software other than Tableau are limited to a software product that has already been approved and acquired by VA and to which CFM can obtain an appropriate number of licenses. Software products that require a new analysis and procurement process by the VA Office of Information Technology will not be considered. In addition to other sections of their response, Contractor's proposing other than Tableau software shall identify the product they intend to use indicating the advantages of the proposed software over Tableau for the presentation and reporting of CFM performance measures. Proposals with software products that meet these requirements will be reviewed with the same attention given to all responses. Résumés of personnel that will work on this project shall specifically cite their experience using and developing dashboards in Tableau or other proposed software. Contractor's shall include examples of successfully completed previous work showing performance measures dashboard organization and data display which they have developed for other construction industry clients. The examples shall illustrate that the contractor is capable of developing performance measures as described in this SOW. 5.Data Support This contract requires that the vendor provide on-site support at CFM Regional Offices. Vendor staff at these locations will be expected to support CFM staff in a number of activities including but not limited to data preparation, data extraction from other systems, population and maintenance of the performance measures database, data analysis for accuracy and completeness, communication and coordination with CFM staff to obtain data, validate data, and creation and validation of performance measures dashboard objects and reports. On-site regional support shall assume responsibility for evaluating data and related performance measures with CFM staff in the Region, and shall correct data locally, before the data is consolidated with and/or presented along with information from other Regions for CFM-wide performance reporting. This process is intended to eliminate repetitive data calls that result when inaccurate data is questioned after it has been incorporated into overall performance measures. On-site staff must be intimately familiar with all data and systems used in the development of performance measures to the point where they are sensitive to data anomalies. On-site staff will on occasion be called upon to create custom queries and reports to support CFM management. On-site staff at regional offices will also use their experience to collaborate with other vendor and CFM staff in the definition of additional measures and the process for developing those measures. CFM anticipates the need for on-site support staffing levels as follows: "CFM Central Office, Washington, D.C. - a minimum of 3 full time personnel "CFM Regional Office East, Silver Spring, Maryland - 1 full time personnel "CFM Regional Office Central, North Chicago, Illinois - 1 full time personnel "CFM Regional Office West, Vallejo, California - 2 full time personnel Proposals shall indicate the types of services to be delivered, the number of personnel required to deliver these services, and resumes of specific personnel to be assigned to the project. CFM, at its sole discretion, may choose to change the required number and distribution of support resources in discussion and negotiation with the vendor. The response to this RFP shall indicate how the contractor will be able to respond to increases and/or decreases in the demand for on-site staff. Continuity and stability of resources is a primary factor in the success of this effort. The successful vendor shall indicate that on-site personnel will dedicate full time effort to on-site efforts at the VA Regional Office as noted above. On-site personnel will develop skills and understanding of VA processes as well as sensitivity to performance data that will continually improve the accuracy of the performance measures. That development reflects an investment in these resources by CFM. On-site personnel shall conform to the Total Project Staffing requirements in item 6 below, especially as related to changes in staffing. 6.Total Project Staffing The identification of qualified vendor staff that will be included as part of a team of CFM personnel and contractors is a key success factor in the creation and sustainment of the CFM Performance Measures Initiative. The CFM Major Construction projects performance measures dashboard requires several types of skill set to be provided by the vendor. Successful delivery of the project requires that vendor staff proposed for the project have a deep understanding of the construction industry along with strong technical skills to design, develop, and implement the software infrastructure, and to support the data acquisition and analysis required. The skills and experience of all personnel that work on the project shall meet or exceed the skill of personnel identified in the proposal for each position. The VA Contracting Officer shall approve any and all changes to project team staffing proposed by the vendor in advance of any change. When a staffing change is approved, the vendor shall provide, at the vendor's expense, transition training for the new resource. The scope and duration of transition training shall be agreed upon by the vendor and CFM. The performance measures program shall not experience any loss in accuracy or productivity as a result of the resource transition. CFM envisions that the types of skill sets, as listed below, shall be required. Contractor's proposal should include the identification of a project team with skill sets and specific resources they feel are required to deliver all services they deem necessary for the project. "Project management: Successful experience managing similar types of projects with demonstrated communication and management skills addressing scope, schedule, budget, and resource management. Project management professional (PMP) certification is preferred. "Construction industry expertise: A detailed understanding of the construction industry is required to facilitate communication with CFM team members. This skill is required for ongoing measures identification, determination of data sources for the measures, and development of accurate methods for calculating the measures. Knowledge of construction processes is also required of data analysts to understand and interpret data changes that occur in CFM projects. "Technical development and data management: Technical software and data administration skills are required to develop and maintain processes to migrate data from CFM and VA operational systems into the comprehensive database of performance measures; to develop and maintain, including update, the dashboard measures analytics and presentations formats; and, to support CFM in discussions with the VA Office of Information Technology (OIT) when required. "Data analysis and quality management: Data analysis will require an intimate understanding of all data and systems used in this project to gauge the quality and accuracy of the data, to extract meaningful trends, and to support all analysis requested by CFM. Résumés of all personnel to be used on this project shall be submitted as part of the response to this RFP. The résumés shall identify specific skill sets and past experience relevant to this project. The response shall also indicate the level of effort that each resource will provide and the duration of their commitment to this project. 7.Performance Measures Implementation and Dashboard Training The vendor and CFM staff shall develop methods to better align the CFM Major Construction program and the dashboard performance metrics. Dashboards shall provide CFM with the ability to quantify its performance and to identify performance drivers. Analysis shall lead to the identification of industry best practices to improve Major Construction project performance, and methods for adopting practices that will reduce performance gaps. CFM staff shall be trained to use and support the dashboard environment to the greatest extent possible. CFM staff in Regional offices shall be trained to use the dashboard system for data preparation, data extraction from other systems, population and maintenance of the performance measures database, and data analysis for accuracy and completeness. Contractors shall describe training programs they have developed for the dashboard software environment proposed. Examples of training resource materials shall be submitted as part of the proposal. 8.Dashboard Process Improvements - Performance Measures and Data In addition to implementing existing performance measures in the new dashboard software, this project seeks to expand the list of project performance measures available to CFM. For example, few if any measures are currently available on planning, design, or activation phase activities. There are also no measures to gauge customer satisfaction with projects. CFM will need to improve the data quality with its project management systems and extension of source data collection to support the development of new performance measures. Proposals shall indicate how the contractor can assist CFM with the development of new performance measures. These performance measures shall be based on CFM needs, incorporate construction industry standards, and be of value to measure CFM Major Construction activities. Performance measures shall be developed to provide CFM with insights to drive improvements across all aspects of the Major Construction portfolio. 9.Dashboard Process Improvements - Automation CFM is interested in further automation of the dashboard process and infrastructure to integrate more extensively the population of the dashboard database from existing CFM and VA operational systems. The resulting streamlined process will reduce the need for manual data manipulation and reduce the time and effort to populate data for the dashboard objects. CFM does not envision directly connecting the dashboards to CFM operational systems due to security restrictions. Contractor's proposal shall identify the process and timeline that they will use to transition to a more automated process for CFM Performance Measures Dashboards. Contractor's shall cite their experience and provide relevant examples. 10. Startup and Go-Live Milestones Time is of the essence in the performance of this scope of work, especially during startup and initial go-live stages. CFM target dates for startup and go-live are noted below. Contractors shall provide a full project plan incorporating all work to be performed over the life of the project. The project plan shall include dates for major milestones including a "go-live" date for an operational CFM performance measures dashboard environment. 1.Kickoff Meeting shall be conducted no later than one week after the notification to proceed to the vendor. 2.A detailed project plan and schedule shall be provided by the vendor no later than two weeks after the notification to proceed to the vendor. 3.Data support by on-site vendor staff at CFM Regional offices shall be initiated by the vendor no later than two weeks after the notification to proceed to the vendor. 4.A vetted and approved list of initial performance measures to be implemented in the dashboard environment shall be provided by the vendor no later than three weeks after the notification to proceed to the vendor. 5.The design and layout of the Performance Measures Dashboard (PMD) with appropriate illustrations of performance measures graphics shall be provided by the vendor no later than three weeks after the notification to proceed to the vendor. A narrative description of PMD functionality (drill down to detail, alerts, notifications, security) shall also be provided at this time. 6.A complete process description of the performance measures dashboard environment shall be provided by the vendor no later than five weeks after the notification to proceed to the vendor. The process document shall describe: a.Initial performance measures to be implemented b.Source systems for data required to develop the initial performance measures c.Design and functionality of the Performance Measures Dashboard Database (PMDB) d.The process for extracting, quality controlling, and aligning data coming from source systems into the PMDB e.The description of all manual data manipulations or data entry that is required f.The method for calculating each performance measure g.The organization and presentation method for each performance measure h.Report design and layout i.Data security plan 7.Implementation of the software infrastructure, including licenses for required CFM use, shall be completed by the vendor no later than five weeks after the notification to proceed to the vendor. 8.A demonstration of the operational system shall be provided by the vendor no later than seven weeks after the notification to proceed to the vendor. 9.The go-live operational version of the performance dashboard system shall be provided by the vendor no later than eight weeks after the notification to proceed to the vendor. 10.Updates of performance measures shall initially occur on a monthly basis after the go-live date; milestones, including dates, for all other activities in this scope of work shall be identified in the contractor's comprehensive project plan. 11. Evaluation & Rating Criteria Contractor's responding to the Scope of Work (SOW) shall be clear and concise following the outline provided. Evaluation of responses to the SOW will be based on the following rating criteria: 1.The ability of the contractor to meet the target dates for the startup and go-live milestones noted in this SOW. 2.CFM's analysis of the quality of the examples provided that document the contractor's expertise in the development and implementation of construction industry performance measures in a digital dashboard environment similar to that requested in this SOW. Contractor's shall have successfully performed work of similar size and scope for two construction industry clients within the last five years. 3.CFM's analysis of the quality of the contractor's capabilities in the use and deployment of the software technology to develop and implement the dashboard software infrastructure. Contractor must have successfully performed work of similar size and scope for two construction industry clients within the last five years. 4.CFM's analysis of the project plan and schedule for developing and implementing the dashboard infrastructure. Time is of the essence in this project. Contractor shall provide a schedule that identifies major milestones and illustrates how they can meet CFM's target for a "go-live" date for an operational dashboard environment as noted in this SOW. 5.CFM's analysis of the project staffing plan including personnel résumés and strategy for responding to changes in CFM support requirements. Résumés for personnel proposed for on-site support at CFM Regional offices shall indicate past experience performing similar work for construction industry clients comparable to CFM. Abbreviations and Terminology Contractor, organization(s) that submit a response to this RFP CFM, Office of Construction and Facility Management within the Department of Veteran Affairs PMD, Performance Measurement Dashboard PMDB, Performance Measurement Dashboard Database VA, Department of Veterans Affairs Vendor, organization(s) chosen by CFM to provide services as described in this RFP DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/VA/vacoofmae/vacoofmae/VA10115N0243/listing.html)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: VA101-15-N-0243 VA101-15-N-0243_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2294041&FileName=VA101-15-N-0243-002.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2294041&FileName=VA101-15-N-0243-002.docx

 

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Place of Performance

Address: 425 I Street NW;Washington, DC

Zip Code: 20001
 

Record

SN03868866-W 20150904/150903000540-48800eb9f07774f2bf3358d966e9c4a2 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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