AWARD
99 -- USDA FAS Application Development
- Notice Date
- 10/13/2016
- Notice Type
- Award Notice
- Contracting Office
- Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency, Acquisition Management Division, Contracts Operations Branch, 1280 Maryland Avenue, SW, Portals Bldg., Room 508A, Washington, District of Columbia, 20250-0567
- ZIP Code
- 20250-0567
- Solicitation Number
- AG-3151-S-16-0070
- Archive Date
- 10/27/2016
- Point of Contact
- Dhavidson M. Cayanan, Phone: 2027729072, Jeremiah E. Keenan,
- E-Mail Address
-
dhavidson.cayanan@wdc.usda.gov, jeremiah.keenan@wdc.usda.gov
(dhavidson.cayanan@wdc.usda.gov, jeremiah.keenan@wdc.usda.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Award Number
- AG-3151-D-16-0166
- Award Date
- 9/28/2016
- Awardee
- SVD STARS II, LLC
- Award Amount
- $2,004,745.80
- Description
- This is an 8(a) direct award under 8(a) STARS II. The Period of Performance is for 12 months. SECTION C - PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science, and efficient management. The role of the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is to link U.S. agriculture to the world to enhance export opportunities and global food security. The FAS Office of Chief Operating Officer (OCOO) is responsible for worldwide management operations, including budget and financial management, information technology applications support, human capital management, program and management compliance, international travel services, personnel security, emergency management, contracting, and training support. The OCOO Information Services Division (ISD) is the lead organization for this effort. FAS is assessing and adjusting capital planning and investment control and acquisition planning policies and practices to more explicitly incorporate agile modular approaches in IT development and acquisition. Using these approaches, FAS expects to realize faster returns on IT investments and deploy technology solutions that will propel it towards a ͞21st century digital government, one that is efficient, effective and focused on improving the delivery of services to the American people. C.1 BACKGROUND As outlined in the 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management, Federal agencies have traditionally taken a multi-year "grand design" approach for developing, modernizing, and enhancing investments in IT. This approach is grounded in the common notion that responsible development necessitates a full detailing of requirements before work can start. Although a seemingly reasonable assumption, practical evidence and private sector experience has shown that large and complex IT implementations often encounter cost and schedule overruns, as the painstaking process of requirements gathering too frequently takes years to complete. Subsequently, agencies lose visibility into the performance of these multi-year IT development investments which affects their ability to implement corrective actions that reduce risk or mitigate financial exposure. The Government increases investment risk in these situations because: (1) the IT solutions that had once addressed agency requirements may no longer be pertinent or a priority; (2) substantial funds are allocated towards outdated solutions without any returns on the investments; or (3) agencies encounter budgetary constraints before substantive work is completed. To help resolve these issues, modular approaches should be used in the development of IT investments, allowing agencies to implement significant capabilities for investments through the use of modular solutions that can be defined, developed, and deployed within months instead of several years. The Information Services Division (ISD) has adopted agile software development practices as its modular approach to divide investments into smaller parts in order to reduce investment risk, deliver capabilities more rapidly, and permit easier adoption of newer and emerging technologies. C.2 APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS Contracting Guidance to Support Modular Development June 2012 C.3 ISD Services Efforts in support of ISD may be deleted and added during the life of the Task Order. C.4 SCOPE As specified by the Government, the Contractor shall perform the efforts required under this Task Order as part of Integrated Project Teams (IPT) comprised of a mix of Government and Contractor personnel, including Contractors working under other task orders and/or contracts to deliver business results using agile software development techniques. The scope of this PWS encompasses six work streams. Each work stream consists of multiple subtasks. The work streams shall be performed on a labor hour basis. Expert support is required to re-engineer the way the Agency uses technology to support agency-wide business process improvement initiatives and carry out its day-to-day work. Projects will vary in size and scope, depending upon the requirements of FAS. The Contractor shall be directly responsible for ensuring the accuracy, timeliness, and completion of all subtasks defined under this Task Order by the COR. The Contractor shall provide a wide range of Contractor support to help FAS and its sub-organizations assess programmatic success, consolidate functions, and streamline management and IT processes to achieve transparency and better management controls. The Contractor shall ensure that software development work and deliverables will utilize secure coding techniques and meet all requirements for secure coding practices and assessment and authorization (A&A) as required by NIST, OMB, USDA, and FAS. Software development work will be predominately Sharepoint and/or Drupal related efforts. The scope includes development and modernization of IT applications and systems to achieve outcomes via improvement to or complete redesign of people/process/technology solutions; working with government staff to identify programmatic improvement opportunities that can be effected through more strategic deployment of information technology; and proposing plans for business process improvement and business process reengineering efforts that dovetail with the overhaul of the way the Agency uses information technology resources. Organizational Change management is critical to this overhaul effort and the transition to a modernized organization will require communications (vertical and horizontal), outreach, training, messaging, as well as assisting leadership and technical staff with the transition from the current model to the new paradigm resulting from modular approaches to application development and IT investment strategies. DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT Operating systems: Windows 7, Windows 10, Windows 2003/2008/2012, Database: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Development Tools/Components: Microsoft SharePoint (2010/2013), Microsoft Visual Studio.NET 2005/2008/2010/2012, (VB.Net, C#, ASP.NET), Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 (Visual Basic, Visual C++), HTML, and XML, Drupal, Infragistics NetAdvantage, Aspose, Dundas, Farpoint and Telerik components BI/Reporting Tools: Microsoft Reporting Services, Crystal Reports, Hyperion SQR, PerformancePoint Server, SharePoint Server, SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Data Mining, Excel and PowerPovit for Excel and SharePoint Collaboration Tools: Microsoft SharePoint (MOSS 2010/2013), Web Service Technologies: SOAP Requirements, Defect, Issue Management & Source Control: MS Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2012 Vulnerability testing: Veracode Project Management: Microsoft Project & Project Online Cloud Technology: Microsoft Azure C.4.1 Program Management Office Support - Labor Hour The Contractor shall provide the management structure and processes to support all of the technical and administrative efforts required by this PWS. The Contractor shall organize and manage individual subtasks in accordance with the priorities communicated by the COR or their delegates (Government Project Managers). Program Management Office (PMO) Support includes day to day on-site project management, direction of the work assigned to the Contractor and the reporting of subtask status. The Project Manager shall be the single point of contact for communications regarding agency directives or problems and any other administrative communications. The PMO shall be responsible for communicating to their subordinate employees as appropriate. The Project Manager shall ensure compliance with all NIST, OMB, USDA, FAS, FISMA and 508 procedures, laws and regulations in the execution of this Task Order. The Contractor shall lead technical development including coordinating the work of the development team and assuring compliance with the ISD Enterprise Architecture. The Contractor shall provide the Government Project Manager (PM) a Project Plan for each subtask within a work stream setting forth the Program Charter that describes the technical approach, organizational resources and management controls to be employed to meet the cost, performance and schedule requirements for each assigned effort. Microsoft Project shall be used to baseline the schedule, resources and content for all projects before their approval and work begins. The Contractor shall maintain project plans in accordance with ISD's Integrated Master Schedule standard operating procedures and perform Integrated Resource Management using ISD's Enterprise Resource Pool shared by all projects. The Artifacts and Milestones defined in section 4.1.1 are required in all project plans delivered under this Task Order. ISD reserves the right to refine the milestones and artifacts defined in Section 4.1.1 over the life of this Task Order. The template in section 4.1.2 is an example of the kind of plan the Contractor shall produce for each release of software. Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) is required to be used to track and manage user stories, product backlogs, detailed story requirements, Sprint content, test cases & test results, defects (bugs) and issues. TFS shall also be used as a code repository in accordance with FAS ISD's standard operating procedures for deployment. The Project Plan shall detail the key activities and milestones, allocation of staff and other resources necessary for the successful completion of this Task Order. The COR shall receive the Project Plan in both electronic form (Microsoft Project) and hard copy (when requested). The COR must provide approval to move forward on activities in the project plan before any development activities occur. The Contractor shall request prior approval on all activities not included in the plan or any modifications to the plan after approval has been given. The Contractor shall minimize staff changes in order to minimize risk to the activities performed under this Task Order. Within three business (3) days of when it is known that such personnel changes are necessary, the Contractor shall arrange a personal or telephonic meeting with the COR and the Project Manager, to discuss the plan for transition of the work. Following the meeting, a report shall be submitted to the Government to address the meeting and topics, including the personnel change and a written transition plan to include the schedule for the transition; training and knowledge transfer approach; and any other details appropriate to ensure the least amount of disruption to the subtask(s) being impacted by the transition. The transition shall not in any way impact commitments associated with already existing work. C.4.1.1 Project Artifacts & Milestones Required Artifacts Artifact Form Location Product Backlog Work Items in TFS TFS Project Site Project Plan Microsoft Project IMS Repository Story Cards for each Sprint Tasks in project plan Project Plan Acceptance Test Cases Work Items in TFS TFS Project Site Acceptance Test Results <TBD> TFS Project Site Regression Test Cases Work Items in TFS TFS Project Site Regression Test Results <TBD> TFS Project Site User Communication Plan Tasks in project plan Project Plan User Training Plan Tasks in project plan Project Plan Release Notes Word Document TFS Project Site Code Base Code database in TFS TFS Milestones Milestone Purpose Release Planning Complete Verify that the estimated schedule, cost and content (story cards) to be delivered in the release are well defined and baselined Sprint 2..n Planning Complete Verify that the specific story cards to be delivered in the Sprint are well defined Sprint Complete Verify that the Sprint delivered the story cards it was supposed to Regression Test Complete Verify that new capabilities haven't broken something in the rest of the application Ready for UAT Verify that the release is in a staging environment and ready for User Acceptance Testing Production Readiness Verify that the release is in a production environment in accordance with the FAS ISD deployment process and ready for production use Go-Live Verify that the users have been notified and trained on how to use the release C.4.1.2 Project Plan Template ABCD Project Release a.b Planning Create/Update Backlog as TFS Work Items Estimate number of sprints in the release Prioritize backlog and Assign Stories (i.e., SC's) to Sprints Create the Project Plan for the release, including Test Plan (Unit, Sprint, Regression, Performance, Stress, User Acceptance tests) User Communication Plan User Training Plan Project Plan approved by government Project Plan baselined in Microsoft project Milestone: Release Planning Complete (includes Sprint 1 Planning Complete) Sprint 1 BA/User Support Fill in required details on the Sprint's User Stories (S.C.'s) Define Sprint Acceptance Criteria Development SC1:........ SCN:.... Unit test developed code Move developed code to test environment QA/QC: Test Sprint against Acceptance criteria (e.g., SC1..SCN) Log test cases and test results in repository File work items as appropriate Demonstration: (if needed) Move developed code to staging environment Demonstrate capabilities to users Collect feedback/changes required File collected changes as Backlog/Work Items as appropriate Sprint Completed Sprint 2... N (If needed for the Release) Update Backlog as appropriate Prioritize backlog & update stories (i.e., SC's) for remaining sprints Update the project plan as appropriate Sprint Planning Complete Execute the Sprint 1 template for the next Sprint Deployment Regression test application, file work items as appropriate Move code to staging environment Milestone: Ready for UAT UAT, file work items as appropriate Training deliverables complete Release notes complete (what's in release, any issues, exceptions) Check code into Code Database Move code to production environment Milestone: Production Readiness Announce release to users with release notes Provide any pre-Go-Live training as required Milestone: Go-Live Provide any post Go-Live training as required "Lessons Learned" review completed C.4.2 Business Analysis and Process Re-engineering Support - Labor Hour The Contractor shall provide leadership in requirements management, backlog prioritization and software release planning. For each development effort under this Task Order, the Contractor, as part of an IPT, shall meet regularly to "groom the product backlog", in formal and informal meetings to accomplish: • removing user stories that no longer appear relevant • creating new user stories in response to newly discovered needs • re-assessing the relative priority of stories • assigning estimates to stories which have yet to receive one • correcting estimates in light of newly discovered information • splitting user stories which are high priority but too coarse grained to fit in an upcoming software release As part of its planning activities, the Contractor shall identify related architectural, regulatory, security, interoperability, and integration requirements. All requirement specifications shall be at sufficient detail to perform system design and include quantifiable baseline business process operating metrics where appropriate. The Contractor shall utilize the prioritized product backlogs to develop sprint and software release plans for all development and modernization subtasks performed under this Task Order. The Contractor shall provide recommendations based on thorough evaluations of product feature set, current needs, and cost/benefits to the Government. In support of software conversion efforts involving re-hosting to another platform, architecture, operating system, database, programming language, and/or communications system, the Contractor shall provide a description\ of the current hardware and software environment, and if applicable, data distribution methods, as well as parallel processing and/or system validation of old and new systems prior to implementation. The Contractor shall develop Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) strategies that leverage the FAS enterprise architecture to bridge performance gaps in business processes. The Contractor shall identify opportunities for business process improvement across FAS by facilitating collaboration among all activities to improve FAS business practices and services, as required. The Contractor shall make recommendations for improvements in efficiency, interoperability and integration among USDA and\or FAS processes and\or systems. Recommendations shall maximize the use of COTS software solutions, emerging technologies, and best practices to continuously enhance FAS' operations and services while ensuring alignment with over-arching Enterprise Architecture guidelines. Furthermore, where applicable, recommendations shall identify FAS technology gaps and/or functional system duplications. C.4.3 Development and Modernization of IT Applications and Systems - Labor Hour The Contractor shall iteratively develop high quality software, with minimum defects, in accordance with the approved software release plan. The Contractor shall ensure that all specified web-based system interfaces contain compatibility among system components in the operational environment. The Contractor shall provide software solutions that include user interfaces that are intuitive, user friendly, conform to usability guidelines and meet Congressional mandate concerning access to federal information technology by members of the public and federal employees with disabilities (Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act). The Contractor shall ensure that new releases of software maintain previously provided functionality, while providing enhanced capabilities or systems corrections, unless otherwise directed by the Government. The Contractor shall develop and/or, modernize FAS IT Applications and Systems using component-based solutions. The Contractor shall utilize ISD's development, staging, and production environments for all application software releases in accordance with ISD deployment and change management procedures. All software shall be thoroughly tested before being promoted from development to staging environments. The Contractor shall support Use acceptance activities required by the ISD deployment procedures and change procedures. The Contractor shall work with the Configuration Change Board (CCB) and Integrated Project Team (IPT) to ensure that application software releases are coordinated with the customer to minimize the impact on the user community. The Contractor shall ensure that a communication plan exists to notify the user community of releases of new functionality. The Contractor shall utilize state-of-the-art development processes and standards that meet OMB guidelines, USDA OCIO standards, and industry best practices for all development and modernization responsibilities. The Contractor shall utilize role-based user permissions by application as approved by the application's Government PM. C.4.4 Training and Documentation - Labor Hour The Contractor shall be responsible for the development of training materials for software developed under this Task Order. The Contractor shall ensure that the training is appropriate according to user levels/needs (e.g. end users, administrators, analysts, help desk support, and management). The Contractor shall ensure delivered systems are fully documented in accordance with direction from the COR. C.4.5 Security - Labor Hour The Contractor shall provide security services for development and modernization efforts, ensuring that system development complies with all applicable USDA regulations and secure coding practices. Security vulnerabilities detected in software created under this contract using Veracode or similar scanning tools shall be mitigated prior to deployment. The Contractor shall be responsible for understanding and identifying the risks associated with security vulnerabilities identified through independent software scanning and make mitigation recommendations to the Government. The Contractor is responsible for developing a remediation plan for all identified Security vulnerabilities and a mitigation plan for all security vulnerabilities that cannot be resolved or pose no threat to the network. C.4.6 Organizational Change Management - Labor Hour The Contractor shall provide organizational change management to ensure implementation and acceptance of Modernization Efforts to all stakeholders; stakeholders include but are not limited to the entire FAS enterprise as well as other agencies vendors, Agriculture organizations and administrations. The contractor will assist leadership and technical staff with the transition from the current model to the new paradigm.
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