LIMS_SOW_021416_FINAL.docx

Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) Statement of Work (SOW)

SECTION C1 – DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS/WORK STATEMENT

The mission of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is to enforce the controlled substances laws and regulations and to bring to the criminal and civil justice systems those organizations and/or individuals involved in the growing, manufacture, or distribution of controlled substances appearing in or destined for illicit traffic in the United States and its territories. DEA’s operation and support activities are distributed across five core business lines that include the following:

· Investigative

· Forensic

· Financial

· Intelligence

· Administration The core business lines require significant information technology (IT) resources to carry out key processes.

In support of the DEA mission, Office of Information Systems (SI) provides IT services to include developing, deploying, and maintaining DEA’s mission critical and business applications as well as their supporting infrastructure. SI, the primary provider of IT support services for DEA’s Sensitive but Unclassified (SBU) IT infrastructure, is located at DEA Headquarters (HQ) in Arlington, Virginia the Sterling Park Technology Center (SPTC) in Sterling, Virginia and the DEA office in Merrifield, VA.

The IT services provided by SI include planning, designing, developing, documenting, deploying, and maintaining DEA’s mission-critical and business applications and their supporting infrastructure.

The Software Operations Section (SIS) manages the development and enhancements to the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) through the use of the agile software methodology. LIMS provides a seamless and virtually paperless laboratory environment to the Office of Forensic Sciences (SF) and the over sixteen (16) laboratories located across the continental United States. SIS provides supporting estimates and schedules and coordinates resources to successfully complete the project and manage the project scope. SIS ensures communication/use of standard practices of the agile software methodology, software configuration standards, and functional testing standards. SIS supports ongoing application and database maintenance and provides Operations and Maintenance support to the LIMS system.

C.2 BACKGROUND

DEA’s workforce is comprised of approximately 10,000 personnel. The workforce includes law enforcement officers and administrative, technical, and professional support personnel.

DEA’s Office of Forensic Sciences (SF) provides administrative support and management to sixteen (16) laboratory locations across the continental United States. The laboratories provide service to DEA and other federal agencies’ mission and may assist state and local agencies. Approximately 500 DEA employees, which include Laboratory staff and Headquarters staff, have access to the LIMS system. DEA’s laboratory enterprise consists of one (1) research laboratory, one (1) digital evidence laboratory, eight (8) regional laboratories, five (5) sub-regional laboratories, and one (1) training laboratory. Their locations and office designations are as follows:

· Special Testing and Research Laboratory (SFL1, Dulles, VA)

· Digital Evidence Laboratory (SFL9, Lorton, VA)

Regional Laboratories:

· Northeast Laboratory (SFL2, New York, NY)

· Mid-Atlantic Laboratory (SFL3, Largo, MD)

· Southeast Laboratory (SFL4, Miami, FL)

· North Central Laboratory (SFL5, Chicago, IL)

· South Central Laboratory (SFL6, Dallas, TX)

· Western Laboratory (SFL7, Pleasanton, CA)

· Southwest Laboratory (SFL8, Vista, CA)

Sub-regional Laboratories:

· Nashville (under SFL3)

· Four Digital Evidence laboratories (under SFL9) in New York, Chicago, Houston and San Diego

· Training Laboratory (SFT, Quantico, VA)

The regional laboratories (SFL2 – SFL8) are also known as ‘Field Laboratories’ because they directly support enforcement efforts of the DEA field offices. Regional laboratories support investigations by performing chemical analyses, latent print examinations, and other functions. Conversely, SFL1 conducts only chemical analyses; SFL9 examines digital evidence; and SFLT provides chemical training.

DEA’s LIMS system consists of the following components purchased by the Government: STARLiMS Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) software (Abbott Laboratory, Inc.), LabX software (Mettler-Toledo), and numerous peripherals for the laboratories to include:

· Scanners / Barcode Readers

· Honeywell, Xenon 1900h, USB Scanner Kit

· Honeywell, Xenon 1900h, RS-232 Scanner Kit

· Intermec CK3 Scanner Kit (w/DEA STARLiMS Program Install)

· Motorola Barcode Reader DS6878-HC-FIPS w/Firmware

· Barcode Printers

· Zebra GX430t

· Keyboard/Video/Mouse (KVMs)

· XTENDEX KVM Extender (HI RES KVM EXTENDER VIA CAT5 UP TO 1000 FT WITH RS232)

An additional module of STARLiMS, the Scientific Data Management System (SDMS) is used to parse data from laboratory instruments into LIMS and auto-populate raw data, charts, and/or graphs into defined LIMS test fields.

LabX® is a method-based software program specifically for Mettler-Toledo balances that is used to manage weighing activities and produce data for SDMS.

The LIMS solution provides all software necessary (including STARLiMS and LABX) within the existing DEA infrastructure and provides unimpeachable chain-of-custody tracking for items of evidence. STARLiMS provides compliance with ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standards and provides each DEA laboratory the ability to maintain records relative to the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) International accreditation program. LIMS manages forensic analyses, enables DEA to control laboratory business processes, and stores data regarding the forensic analyses performed by the DEA. This includes integration of data from DEA’s instruments and balances directly into the LIMS application.

The configuration of STARLiMS began in 2009 and was deployed to production in January 2013 through July 2015. A complete LIMS solution including STARLiMS, SDMS, and LabX was deployed to all laboratories except SFL1, SFL9, and the SFL9 sub-regional laboratories. Special Testing currently has a “lite” STARLiMS solution implemented where only the balances are integrated. SFL9 and its sub-regional laboratories only use STARLiMS.

The continued support for the configuration of the COTS product is performed utilizing the agile methodology, with regular product releases to a beta environment for testing. Additionally the LIMS contractors provide user support and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) for all laboratories.

The LIMS project enhances the support currently provided to DEA Special Agents, Diversion Investigators, the Office of Intelligence, other enforcement agencies, and the courts, by giving the laboratories the ability to provide “real time” information concerning the analysis and storage of evidentiary material. LIMS is a major component of the Concorde initiative. Concorde is a business-driven IT program providing unified access to and sharing of information in accordance with the DEA mission and the Department of Justice (DOJ) strategic plan. The Concorde program will eliminate stove-piped systems by integrating business functions and allowing for information sharing across the five main DEA business areas: Investigative, Intelligence, Forensic, Financial and Administrative. By modernizing legacy applications supporting these five business areas and integrating their business functionality, accurate real-time DEA information can be disseminated to authorized users. LIMS will fulfill the Forensic area of Concorde and provide real-time updates to applications within Concorde, and allow information sharing within DEA systems. This will better allow SF to support DEA’s enforcement and intelligence operations worldwide.

The end goal for the LIMS project is full integration of STARLiMS with the applicable Concorde applications and its Enterprise Data Warehouse. In order to reach this goal, DEA requires a team to make additional modifications to the COTS STARLiMS software, integrate with other Concorde applications, and continue Operations and Maintenance support.

C3. scope of work

In order to continue to advance the laboratories business processes, the contractor’s primary objective is to provide operations and maintenance support and make minor configuration changes of the STARLiMS COTS product based on a prioritized list of configuration items following the agile methodology; configure and support deployment of and keep up with STARLiMS software version/release updates. In addition, complete the SQL conversion until fully deployed, as well as integrate the LIMS application with CERTS.

3.1 Project Tasks

The Contractor shall perform the tasks described in the following subsections:

3.1.1 Requirements Gathering

The Contractor shall interface with the Champion, Working Groups and Product Owners to identify and clarify detailed requirements for configuring the STARLiMS application. Requirements shall be written as user stories and associated requirements shall be documented in Team Foundation Server (TFS). Discussions/actions documented via Meeting Minutes and forwarded to the appropriate Product Owner(s) for approval before dissemination to the Champion and other customers in attendance.

3.1.2 Participate in Daily Agile Stand-Up Meeting

The Contractor shall participate in daily Agile Stand-up meetings whereas each team member shall report work performed the previous day, work to be performed on the current day and any impediments to their performance of tasks. This information is strictly a verbal exchange and does not require a deliverable.

3.1.3 Attend Monthly Planning Sessions

The Contractor team shall attend a monthly Planning Session at the start of each month where all developers on the team are in attendance. Team velocity will be established at the start of each planning session based on historical velocity of the development team, and any anticipated resource reduction due to vacations, etc. for the upcoming Sprint.

Prior to the monthly planning session, requirements for user stories shall be fully documented in TFS for review and discussion by developers. Developers will “vote” via “Points Poker” to provide estimates for completion of prioritized Sprint user stories.

The Contractor shall document the results of the planning session in Team Foundation Server to include the team’s planned velocity and points assigned to each user story.

3.1.4 Attend Monthly mid-Sprint Reviews

The Contractor shall attend a mid-Sprint review to assess the month’s progress to date, with each developer on the team identifying the probability of completion of work assigned, as defined on the approved Sprint list in the monthly planning session. The contractor shall identify any impediments and any need to potentially reallocate developers to the month’s highest priority tasks.

The Contractor shall document the results of this meeting and provide meeting minutes to the appropriate Government Product Owner for approval.

3.1.5 Attend Monthly Retrospective Sessions

The Contractor shall attend a monthly retrospective meeting at the end of each month where each team member articulates the effectiveness of the month’s Sprint, issues encountered and lessons learned. The team leads shall review the tasks completed and report the team’s velocity to include identification of points assigned and completed by each team member.

The Contractor shall document and provide minutes of the monthly Retrospective Session to include all items discussed in the session to the appropriate Government Product Owner for approval.

3.1.6 Use of Team Foundation Server (TFS) and approved Development servers The Contractor shall utilize MS Team Foundation Server (TFS) to document epics, user stories, requirements, change requests, bugs and tasks.

The Contractor shall utilize source control and each developer shall track hours expended per task on a daily basis. At the end of each day, every Contractor developer shall either place their source code within the approved development server or request a code review by their team lead. If the code passes review, it can be checked in for potential inclusion in the next build.

3.1.7 Testing

The Contractor shall perform testing of user stories at various levels, usually performed by a Requirements Analyst/Tester (RA), the testing should include unit testing by developer, code reviews by Contractor Team Lead. Once the RA has successfully tested a user story, the Government Product Owner shall be notified that user stories can be tested and subsequently closed, if tested successfully. No code moves to production without the involvement of two developers (usually a developer and a team lead).

3.1.8 Maintenance and Support

The contractor shall provide ongoing O&M support of the LIMS solution.

The contractor shall identify and correct application defects, perform problem resolution, identification and documentation of application performance issues, provide user help support and system administration including system monitoring and file maintenance, system upgrades, system documentation updates as needed. The LIMS team must provide continuous system response time during normal business hours at all DEA laboratories, which are located across the continental United States (US) in different time zones.

The contractor shall provide helpdesk as well as Operation and Maintenance (O&M) support for the LIMS solution for the all laboratories. The helpdesk support shall include, but is not limited to, answering of phone calls and emails, monitoring and updating DEA’s Help Desk system, and communicating with the end user regarding issue through resolution. In addition, the contractor shall provide HelpDesk reports of all HelpDesk calls. The report shall include calls received through DEA’s Helpdesk (Service Center), transferred calls from program offices, and all calls received directly and/or all issues identified by the users. The Government shall review all reports for completeness and accuracy.

3.2 STARLiMS Configuration and Implementation Support

By using DEA’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), the contractor shall continue to configure STARLiMS, which includes the following, at a minimum:

· Continue to maintain and support the LIMS application to meet the needs of the DEA Laboratories.

· Continued compliance with ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standards and ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) requirements;

· Configure SDMS protocols for laboratory instruments

· Continue to upgrade SDMS to its latest version releases.

· Continue to Configure the STARLiMS application and DEA-specific configurations to keep up with the latest releases of the software;

· Maintain the STARLiMS interface with DEA’s Concorde systems including the DEA data warehouse, IMPACT, and Evidence Tracking systems

· Improve system performance;

· Enhance, develop and implement testing procedures for load testing, unit testing, and system responsiveness;

· Complete and deploy the STARLiMS SQL conversion to include data migration

· Integrate CERTS into LIMS

SECTION 1

SECTION 2

SECTION 3

3.1 3.2 3.3

3.3 Delivery of Incremental Software Beta Release

The Contractor shall bundle functional user stories at the end of each month’s Sprint, if feasible, for deployment to a beta environment for further testing by selected users.

SECTION 1

SECTION 2

SECTION 3

3.4 Delivery of Incremental Software Production Release

With approval by the Product Owner, Task Monitor (TM), the Contractor shall promote beta versions into production and provide post-deployment support. Production releases are generally scheduled shortly after the end of each monthly sprint, but may occur in the middle of a sprint if requested by the Government Product Owner.

3.5 Script Development

The Contractor shall develop monthly or as needed scripts to load, process, or retrieve data.

3.6 Security Support

Certification and Accreditation (C&A) and Security Test and Evaluation (ST&E) activities are required to satisfy DEA and DOJ security requirements as found in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/DOJ Guidelines. The contractor shall provide the following, as necessary:

· Input to the LIMS C&A Plan (to include a Security Test Plan)

· Updated System Features Users Guide (SFUG)

· Participation in ST&E related meetings

· Updated supplemental software documentation not provided with standard STARLiMS documentation, needed to mitigate any security findings and Technical support to mitigate all security findings to address OIG Findings

· Mitigate security findings as needed

3.7 Documentation Support

Upon request of the TM, the Contractor shall provide documentation of procedures, application reference materials, workflows, and business processes and data structures. Additional documentation shall include Concorde Technical reference documentation, for use by the development teams to assist in clarification as software development is in progress, and to use as reference for any future software enhancements or modifications. The Contractor shall develop Quick Reference Guides (QRG) for each new feature released, to provide “at-a-glance” instructions of primary application functionality and modifications.

3.8 Project Management

The Contractor shall provide, at a minimum, monthly status briefings to the SIS/SIR Section and Unit Chiefs, providing statistical charts and slides to demonstrate progress and trends of development teams, staffing status and issues and current contract burn rate and contract balance. The Contractor shall be expected to maintain acceptable staffing levels, with the contract fully staffed (having provided security packages to DEA) for at least the identified key personnel within 30 days of contract award date. Staffing levels shall be maintained at no less than 90% at any time during the contract. Offerors should thoroughly understand the DEA clearance process and be prepared for candidates to have several month wait times for a full clearance to be awarded. Contractors cannot begin billing to this contract without a full clearance.

The Contractor shall provide project management support to Unit Chiefs, Section Chief and SIS Product Owners in providing historical, trending and financial reports.

The Contractor shall provide support to the Government Product Owners in the development of monthly Sprint prioritization lists.

C4. DELIVERABLES – FORMAT/CONTENT

All deliverables are subject to review and approval by the TM. The TM will return comments and/or approvals within ten (10) business days of submission by the Contractor.

The Contractor shall submit the deliverables delineated in Section 4.1, Table 1.

Project deliverables shall be provided in the format specified by DEA (i.e. Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint; source code in TFS).

A. Articles of Delivery Table 1 – Articles of Delivery

3.2

a) SQL and Data Migration

b) CERTS/LIMS Integration

c) Database backup or scripts

d) STARLiMS upgrades to include SDMS

a) & b) Electronic

a) One week prior to scheduled deployment or migration

b) As needed and requested by the TM

C5. TELEWORK AND EMERGENCY SUPPORT FOR CONTRACTORS

Subject to the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) approval, eligible contractors may be able to telework on a situational basis to complete a specific work assignment. Teleworking may be designated for either a short period of time, or a longer period predicated upon a case by case basis. All telework will be in compliance with provided DEA telework guidelines. The Contractor shall be responsible for submitting to the COR for pre-approval, a plan that describes how the services would be performed during a closure and the level of support needed.

Telework contractors will not be allowed to perform work at home that requires access to DEA sensitive, classified, or Privacy Act protected information unless they have access to a Secure Network Solution (SNS) laptop computer or Firebird Anywhere token.

Before teleworking on a situational basis, a contractor must request and receive approval from the COR prior to the actual date(s) of teleworking. The request should be submitted in writing (email acceptable) sufficiently in advance to allow for prior approval

The COR will respond to the request documenting approval or disapproval.

If a contractor who has been approved to telework on a situational basis is unable to request and receive approval prior to the actual dates(s) of teleworking as required for an unassigned or a situational telework day due to a weather-related or any other emergency, he or she has the option of teleworking without prior approval when authorized by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). This is called unscheduled telework. The contractor must still notify his or her COR of his or her intent to work unscheduled telework.

Equipment and Supplies: The contractor is responsible for protecting any DEA-owned equipment and to use the equipment only for official purposes. DEA is responsible for servicing and maintaining any DEA-owned equipment issued to the contractor. The contractor is responsible for installing, servicing and maintaining any personal equipment used. DEA is not liable for damages to the contractor’s personal or real property while the contractor is working at the approved alternative work site.

Communication: Contractors participating in the program shall be available to supervisors, co-workers and other contacts by telephone, E-mail, voice mail, Lync or other communication during their scheduled duty day as directed by their supervisors.

Monitoring Work Performance: The COR will verify what the contractor produces by examining the product(s) or results of the contractor’s efforts. This can be done by using project schedules, key milestones, regular status reports and team reviews. The COR may call contractors’ employees who are working at home or an approved alternate location

C6. CONTRACTOR KEY PERSONNEL

SIS has designated all personnel from the following labor categories under this contract to be considered critical personnel. Being critical to the support of the DEA mission, the Contractor shall identify and provide a resume (maximum three pages per resume) and letter of commitment for each of the five (5) contractor personnel proposed for these labor categories.

· 01- Project Manager/Technical Lead

· 02- Senior SQL Developer

· 03 – IT Subject Matter Expert (2)

· 04- Senior Requirement Analyst/Help Desk

The following categories of labor shall work under this contract. The duties and minimum qualifications required of the persons performing in the labor categories are identified below. All labor categories are considered to be exempt from coverage under the Service Contract Act. All personnel shall have thorough knowledge, formal training, and a high level of experience in a specific specialty as listed in the qualifications column in the chart below.

6.1 Required Expertise

The contractor shall identify the following personnel.

01 - Project Manager/Technical Lead

Key Personnel

Serves as the STARLiMS Technical Lead; leads technical planning meetings; demonstrating critical soft skills in terms of professionalism, conduct and execution in a client-facing role; Ensures all development consistently follow prescribed Concorde development methodologies. Serves as the system architect for the LIMS project

· Documented experience as a system architect for a LIMS enterprise scale system having more than 1,000 users and a Database Management with more than 500 tables and 100 million total data rows. Resume must document significant contributions to overall system architecture.

· 5+ years of experience managing development teams using Agile or other development methodologies.

· 10+ years of software development experience.

· 10+ years of web development experience.

· 5+ years of experience with STARLiMS project Architecture and Development

· 5+ years of experience developing and implementing the STARLiMS Forensic system/application

· Knowledge and experience with the implementation and integration of the SDMS software and STARLiMS in order to automate the population of results from analytical instrumentation with varying outputs (PDF, CSV, etc.);

· Knowledge and experience with Mettler-Toledo balances and LabX® software a plus

· Knowledge and experience with SQL databases including data conversion and database management

· Knowledge and experience in forensic science to include drug analysis, fingerprint, and digital evidence examination

· Knowledge of Scientific Working Group for the Analysis of Seized Drugs/ Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDRUG/SWGDE) and Scientific Working Group on Friction Ridge Analysis; Study and Technology (SWGFAST) recommendations

· Knowledge of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standards and ANAB requirements

· Knowledge and experience with data and system security including network security, encryption protocols, and electronic signatures

03 - Subject Matter Expert

Key Personnel

· 8+ years of web development experience.

· ASP.Net C# MVC based web development experience is a plus

· Knowledge and experience with all aspects of STARLiMS application, including: configuration, testing, implementation and operations and maintenance and bar-coding

· Experience with Agile development methodologies

· Knowledge and experience with appropriate tools and techniques for productivity and code quality: debuggers, profilers, unit testing, source control

· Knowledge and experience with the implementation and integration of the SDMS software and STARLiMS in order to automate the population of results from analytical instrumentation with varying outputs

· Experience with Mettler-Toledo balances and LabX® software a plus

· Additionally, the SMEs must possess at least three (3) of the following skills and attributes from the list below:

· Knowledge of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standards and ANAB requirements;

· Knowledge and experience with AFIS and IAFIS systems;

· Knowledge of SWGDRUG, SWGDE and SWGFAST recommendations;

04 – Requirements Analyst/Helpdesk

Key Personnel

· Experience writing Agile user stories and requirements documentation

· Strong knowledge of laboratory fundamentals, processes and equipment required

· Understanding of Laboratory regulatory regulations (ISO, CAP, GXP) highly desirable

· Computer Skills: Strong affinity to IT systems with working knowledge of LIMS desirable

In addition to the qualifications listed in the chart above, the contract team, as a whole, must also possess the following:

· Knowledge and experience with analytical instrumentation utilized in a chemistry laboratory

· Knowledge of the processing of evidence for the presence and analysis of latent prints

· Knowledge of ISO 17025

· Experience implementing STARLiMS into an accredited forensic laboratory

6.2 Training

DEA expects the Contractor to provide personnel with the required skills to support the requirements identified in the contract. This includes the skills required to operate in the DEA IT environment. However, if Contractor training is required for tools or services not identified in the contract, DEA will fund either the training cost or the Contractor’s time for training, whichever is most beneficial to the government. DEA may fund time for training if training is DEA specific (e.g., DEA Security Awareness training, Firebird, etc.). If additional Contractor training is identified during the contract that would be beneficial to the government, DEA will determine on a case-by-case basis.

6.3 DEA-2852.211-70 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE (BASE AND OPTIONS) (MAY 2012)

(a) The period of performance of Base Period of this contract begins on September 14, 2019 and ends on September 13, 2020.

(b) Pursuant to clause 52.217-9, Option to Extend the Term of the Contract, in the event that the Contracting Officer exercises an option, the period of performance for each option period shall be as follows:

Option Period III: September 14, 2022 – September 13, 2023 Option Period IV: September 14, 2023 – September 13, 2024

(c) The exercise of any options is subject to the availability of funding and the continuing needs of the Government.

6.4 Place of Performance

Work will primarily be performed at DEA work locations. This will be at either 600 and 700 Army Navy Drive, Arlington, Virginia or the 22400 Shaw Rd, Sterling, VA location and other local locations as specified by the TM. The Contractor shall work a regular 40-hour work week, between 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, but may fluctuate to meet operational needs. The annual number of hours should not exceed 1920 hours per FTE unless approved in advance by the TM. As needed, individual contractors may be authorized to work remotely for support of software deployments or to work outside of these hours.

C7. EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

7.1 NOTICE LISTING SOLICITATION PROVISIONS INCORPORATED

BY REFERENCE

The following solicitation provisions pertinent to this section are hereby incorporated by reference (by Citation Number, Title, and Date) in accordance with the FAR provision at FAR “52.252-1 SOLICITATION PROVISIONS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE” in Section 5 of this solicitation. See FAR 52.252-1 for an internet address (if specified) for electronic access to the full text of a provision.

NUMBER TITLE DATE

52.217-5 EVALUATION OF OPTIONS JUL 1990

7.2 EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

(1.) The Government intends to award a single task order through competitive negotiations to the Offeror whose proposal is considered most advantageous to the Government, considering the factors listed below and cost/price. Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.5. Evaluation is performed to determine the Offeror’s understanding of the work to be performed, approach, potential for completing the work as specified in the solicitation, cost/price realism and reasonableness, and ranking with competing offerors.

(2.) A technical evaluation will be conducted to determine the relative merits of the Offeror’s proposal in accordance with evaluation factors established by the Government prior to receipt of quotations. The technical evaluation (Factors 1-4) will result in adjectival ratings of Outstanding, Good, Acceptable, Marginal, and Unacceptable by factor and overall. Ratings will also result in adjectival ratings of risk to include Low, Medium, and High Risk. Cost/Price will be evaluated pursuant to FAR 15.4. Cost/price will not receive an adjectival rating or risk rating.

(3.) The proposal will be evaluated against the evaluation factors stated in the solicitation, Proposed Technical Approach, Key and Critical Personnel, Relevant Past Performance and References, Resource Planning and Management, and cost/price. Deviations/exceptions taken to the solicitation will not necessarily cause a proposal to be considered unacceptable. However, a large number of deviations/exceptions or one or more significant deviations/exceptions may result in the rejection of the proposal as unacceptable.

(4.) The Government reserves the right to make award based on initial offers without discussions. Therefore, the Offeror is requested to submit its best proposal to the Government on the most favorable terms both from a technical and cost/price standpoint.

(5.) If discussions are conducted, they will be conducted with those Offerors in the competitive range. The competitive range shall consist of the most highly rated proposals. Those Offerors will be requested to present their responses to Clarification Requests, Deficiency Notices, and Government questions relative to the proposal. Upon completion of discussions, all Offerors will be requested to submit a Final Proposal Revision. Final proposal revisions will be evaluated using the same method of evaluation used for initial proposals.

(6.) The Government will evaluate the proposal based on the evaluation factors listed below. The evaluation factors are in descending order of importance and when combined are significantly more important than Cost/Price; however, as technical becomes more equal, Cost/Price will become more important.

Technical Proposal (Volume I)

Business Proposal (Volume II)

Cost/Price

FACTOR 1 – PROPOSED TECHNICAL APPROACH

The Government will evaluate the ability of the offeror to fully comply with the Government’s requirements as defined in the SOW. The Government will evaluate the offeror’s understanding of the scope of the contract, the breadth and depth of the tasks defined in the SOW, and the method by which tasks will be accomplished to include scheduling of time and manpower. The Government will evaluate the offeror’s proposed solution to ensure it adheres to sound industry practices, and reflects significant relevance to the program’s objectives, environment and constraints. The Government will evaluate the demonstrated validated processes and procedures that ensure high quality performance. CMMI is not required. Innovations are welcome and will be evaluated as part of the technical approach.

FACTOR 2 – KEY and Critical PERSONNEL The Government will evaluate the offeror’s highly qualified and experienced personnel with documented experience in providing support services of the same type and scope of the services identified in the SOW. The Government will evaluate resumes and letters of commitment from all Key and Critical Personnel. Resumes of key and critical personnel shall explicitly detail relevant professional training, certifications, and verifiable, previous successful program experience/expertise. Resumes shall include start and end dates, company/agency name and a detailed description of each work experience, clearly referencing the required experience outlined in the SOW. A summary paragraph or matrix claiming total years of qualified experience is not sufficient, nor shall it be accepted as a substitute to providing the detailed, verifiable qualifications in each work experience in the resume. The Government must be able to clearly ascertain and validate required experience in the individual work history, or the resume will be considered a deficiency.

The Government will evaluate the key and critical personnel’s availability for a minimum of this contract’s base period of performance. The Government will evaluate the demonstrated timely availability of a sufficient number of Key and Critical Personnel that meet applicable security requirements as specified in the RFP. The proposed Key and Critical Personnel shall meet or exceed the qualifications listed for the key and critical personnel CLINs listed in the SOW.

FACTOR 3 – RELEVANT PAST PERFORMANCE AND REFERENCES

The Government will evaluate relevant past performance and any relevant past performance for proposed subcontractor(s) as it relates to the probability of successful accomplishment of the contract requirements. Relevance of past performance includes, similarity and scope of work, technology stack, software methodology, and quality of the past performance. Quality of services may be defined as how well the Contractor has complied with contract requirements and whether it conformed to standards of good business practices. Past performance shall include enterprise level services similar to those identified in the SOW; its record of conforming to standards of good business practices, specifically in the use of Agile software methodologies; ability to keep staffing at an acceptable level, and its history of commitment to customer satisfaction. All offerors must include sufficient information to identify and describe their experience and expertise conducting the same or similar work, both inside and outside the Federal government, and demonstrate their current capacity to perform the proposed work.

The Government will evaluate their performance under existing and prior contracts for similar services, with an emphasis on information that demonstrates relevancy and quality of past performance, mapped to the Project Tasks defined in Section 3 of the SOW, and indicating relativity to the size and complexity of the acquisition under consideration.

Past performance shall include, at a minimum, the following information for both the Offeror and major subcontractors (a major subcontractor is defined here as a company/vendor for which over 25% of the total contract effort will be subcontracted over the life of the contract):

A list of the last five (5) contracts completed during the past five (5) years and no more than five contracts currently in process that are representative of the Offeror’s capability to perform the services described herein, to include:

· Project Title

· Government Agency or Company Name

· Indicate whether the offeror performed as the prime or subcontractor. The Government will give more weight to contracts performed as the prime contractor than those performed as a subcontractor.

· Client Point of Contact (POC) to include name, phone number, and email address if available

· Project Agency/Company Contract/Order Number

· Period of Performance

· Value by year of contract/order

· Staff Management – Describe staff retention/turnover rate, time to replace lost staff, how impact of turnover to project was handled

· Performing tasks similar to those of this solicitation; mapped to the tasks in Section 3 of the SOW, clearly articulating the technology stack and software methodologies utilized

· Describe any other relevant functions performed, innovative techniques introduced, or commendations received The Government will supplement the information provided by the offeror with information the Government obtains through reference checks, its own knowledge/experience, and/or from other sources. These sources, in the case of federal contracts, may include, but not necessarily be limited to, other Government contracting offices, the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS), and the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS).

FACTOR 4 – RESOURCE PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s understanding of and capability to support the requirements identified.

Staffing plan describing the Offeror’s processes, procedures, and controls proposed to obtain, train, and retain a qualified/certified workforce including key and critical personnel capable of supporting the scope of the SOW as well as contingency plans to meet surge requirements and/or unforeseen personnel shortages.

The Government will evaluate the management approach that places strong emphasis on leadership, communication, accountability, resource management, risk management, cost management to ensure delivery of quality staff and products.

The Government will evaluate the Offeror’s ability to provide meaningful training of new and existing personnel and how the training will enhance performance under any resulting contract. The Offeror shall provide a detailed description of continuing programs and procedures for retaining personnel via incentive programs. This shall include any planned conferences, seminars or other type of training programs the company has instituted or plans on instituting.

COST/PRICE

The Government will evaluate cost/price, an unrated evaluation factor, based upon the use of any one or several price evaluation techniques as may be deemed necessary to determine that the proposed price is fair and reasonable, such as:

a. Adequate Price Competition; and

b. Comparison of the proposed price with prices obtained through market research for the same or similar services, and

c. Other techniques in accordance with FAR 15.404.

In the course or evaluating cost/price, the Government will not assign an adjectival rating to the Offeror’s Business Proposal.