FOOD_SAFETY_IT_SYSTEM_RFI_-_final.pdf

FOOD SAFETY IT SYSTEM - NEXT GENERATION

Background

The mission of United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA), Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), is to ensure that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.

USDA FSIS is seeking information about interested and qualified software development and/or software integration companies to develop the Next Generation (NextGen) suite of applications supporting FSIS’ Food Inspection and Public Health mission, employing Opensource technologies, Agile software development methodologies, automated software tools, DevSecOps frameworks, and code that is cloud-environment and mobile enabled.

Briefly, the USDA FSIS inspection force provides inspection and oversight to approximately 6,000 establishments that slaughter or process meat and poultry products daily. In all, FSIS employs approximately 10,000 people, of whom approximately 7,500 use Information Technology (IT) tools in performing their daily work.

One of the primary automated tools employed by FSIS inspection personnel is the Public Health Information System (PHIS). PHIS is a web-based application launched in 2011 which has been continuously improved to integrate and streamline all scheduling, assigning, tracking, and documentation for FSIS tasks including import management, export management, domestic production inspections, and risk analysis. The PHIS application has automated previous FSIS paper-based business processes into one comprehensive, and fully automated data-driven inspection system. While PHIS has significantly improved the way FSIS detects, and responds to foodborne hazards, USDA must now modernize its primary food safety system.

Food Safety IT System - NextGen will incorporate leading edge principles and technology to build upon previous improvements by further aligning the system with current Federal policies and regulations. The next generation of USDA Food Safety systems must operate in a cloud-based and mobile enabled computing environment. The USDA Food Safety system must also be FedRAMP compliant and conform to all requirements for configuration and deployment of a Federal Government owned system.

The Food Safety IT System - Next Gen project is planned to have a total period of performance of five years; with one base period plus four option years.

Requirements

The following guiding principles are considered core for the proposed system:

1. Use of the Agile software development methodology;

2. Use of DevSecOps processes, procedures, and tools in the software development life cycle (SDLC);

3. Identification and use automated tools for code review, security compliance, and user experience testing as part of the software development workflow;

4. Use of modern scripting languages and tools to the greatest extent possible;

5. The new code must be a COTS/GOTS/customized solution, capable of being hosted in a FedRAMP compliant “cloud computing” environment;

6. Include a responsive user interface (UI) that provides a consistent user experience (UX) and is design responsive to enable operation on variety of devices, including mobile platforms;

7. The proposed solution shall comply with requirements set forth within Section 508 Amendment of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for Accessibility and Compliance;

8. The proposed solution shall adhere to all requirements within USDA Policy DR 3080- 001 Records Management related to the development, delivery and maintenance of USDA systems;

9. The proposed solution shall adhere to all requirements within USDA Policy DR 3410- 001 Information Collections related to the development, delivery and maintenance of USDA systems;

10. If applicable, proposed solution shall possess or be able to obtain a negotiated Terms of Service agreement to be approved by USDA/FSIS;

11. Include appropriate software security mechanisms in compliance with Government security standards;

12. Use “intelligent data” (i.e., XML) rather than images and pictures of text;

13. Provide data for analysis through an enterprise data warehouse separate from operational databases;

14. Apply appropriate data security mechanisms by limiting access to authorized users via seamless integration with USDA’s multi factor authentication – eAuthentication;

15. Be implemented via a web services architecture that promotes reusability, reduces complexity, and enhances interoperability;

16. Provide easy and rapid deployment using continuous integration, and continuous delivery principles; and in conclusion

17. USDA FSIS is seeking a next generation solution for its Food Safety system. The proposed system will be highly scalable, use Agile adaptability to meet changing requirements, and provide a reliable and consistent user interface.

This is a REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. This RFI IS NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTATION, OR A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. Nor is this RFI a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This RFI is simply a request for information and it does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Furthermore, the Government is NOT at this time seeking proposals, and will NOT accept unsolicited proposals.

Please be advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in a response to this RFI. Instead, all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense.

Information Sought

USDA FSIS seeks information from companies who have experience successfully transforming core legacy application(s) into a next generation system. RFI responses must be sent via email to the FSIS Primary Point of Contact with a summary of not more than three prior projects which utilized a cloud computing solution. This summary should not be more than one page each.

The top of the page for each past performance project must include the following information:

1) Name of the RFI responding contractor, complete address, and POC info;

2) Complete Past Performance Government contract number as either a prime or subcontractor, and the name of the Gov customer organization, with city & state;

3) Contract period of performance, as well as the total dollar value of the effort;

4) Type of contract award, i.e. GSA Schedule Task Order; or if other please describe. If

GSA Schedule, please specify the recommended SIN(s);

5) Recommend existing contract vehicle(s) or number(s) that could be leveraged for this acquisition; and finally

6) A narrative description of your firm’s past performance experience, and a discussion of how your completed effort is similar in size and scope to the planned USDA FSIS Food Safety System- Next Generation project.

RFI responses may also address the following:

7) Corporate experience using Opensource technologies;

8) Corporate approach to Agile software development;

9) Corporate experience, and/or approach to operating in DevSecOps environment using automated tools;

10) Recommended software development team composition; and

11) Discussion of any potential development, or FedRAMP certification risks.

The total number of RFI response pages may not exceed five letter sized (8.5” X 11”) pages using standard margins and font, or 5 MB in size. Information presented in excess of five pages or 5 MB will not be considered.

RFI Questions

Any questions regarding this RFI must be submitted in writing via e-mail to the Primary Government Point of Contact (POC), Dwight Hill, Contracting Officer, dwight.hill@usda.gov Not Later Than (NLT) November 30, 2018.

RFI Responses

RFI Responses must be in Microsoft Word for Office 365 compatible format and are due NLT December 20, 2018 1600 EST. RFI Responses are limited to a total of 5 letter sized pages and 5 MB in size and must be submitted via e-mail only to the Primary Government Point of Contact (POC): Dwight Hill, Contracting Officer, dwight.hill@usda.gov.

Industry Day

Finally, please be informed that USDA FSIS is planning to hold a “Next Generation - Food Safety System Industry Day” in January or February of 2019. Further details will be provided at a later date.

mailto:dwight.hill@usda.gov mailto:dwight.hill@usda.gov