Attachment_A_-_SOW_2018.04.19.pdf

UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Attachment A - SOW

RFQ - 19FS1A18Q4301

MTT

STATEMENT OF WORK

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAINING

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Foreign Service Institute

School of Professional and Area Studies

Management Tradecraft Training

April 19, 2018

STATEMENT OF WORK

For the

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAINING

1. Introduction

The contractor will provide support services for project management training courses.

2. Background

The United States Department of State’s (DOS) Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the U.S.

government’s primary training institution for officers and support personnel of the U.S. foreign affairs community, preparing American diplomats and other professionals to advance U.S. foreign affairs interests overseas and in the U.S. At the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training

Center (NFATC), the FSI mission is to develop the men and women our nation requires to fulfill our leadership role in world affairs and to advance and defend U.S. interests.

The NFATC is located in Arlington, VA with other locations in the Washington metropolitan area;

and domestic and overseas regional training centers. FSI offers more than 700 classroom courses, including some 70 foreign languages, about 270 custom-developed distance learning products and over 2,700 commercial distance learning courses available worldwide 24/7 through the Internet.

Annual enrollments exceed 100,000 students.

3. General Scope

FSI currently has training requirements for Project Managers. The training focuses on the project management process and corresponding DOS unique processes and terminology.

FSI is seeking a contractor to provide professional services required by the Department of State and FSI through delivery of a five-day training course entitled “Managing Projects at State

Course”.

The course objectives for the five-day Managing Projects at State Course are listed below. At the completion of the training, using course materials provided, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the periods and phases of the project management cycle.

2. Describe the five types of projects and give examples of each.

3. Explain what control gates are and give examples.

4. Describe the roles of members in a typical federal government project team.

5. Explain the process of the user requirements definition, concept definition and system definition, and how these are related.

6. For a given project, create a work breakdown structure, responsibility matrix, Gantt chart and an activity network.

7. Describe methods of monitoring project status, including the earned value management method.

8. Outline federal government acquisition planning procedures.

9. Explain the most common reasons projects fail.

10. Describe the advantages of teamwork in project management.

11. Describe actions that project managers can take when projects go off track.

12. Describe federal government project resources and constraints.

The training location will be primarily at FSI at the George Schultz Center at 4000 Arlington Blvd, Arlington, VA and various offices at Rosslyn, VA.

Attendees shall include direct hire employees ranging from General Schedule (GS) Grade 5 to

Senior Executive Service (SES), Personal Service Contractors (equivalent to GS-9 through GS-

15), Foreign Service Officers (equivalent to GS-7 through SES), and English-speaking locally engaged embassy staff.

The average class size ranges between 12-25 students. The minimum number of students for each class shall be 12 students. Classes with fewer than the minimum number of students shall be canceled. The maximum class size will be 25 students per class. The classes taught by the contractor will vary from 7 to 12 classes per year. The number of classes will depend on funding and the needs of the government.

3.1 Performance Requirements

3.1.1 Period of Performance

The period of performance will be five (5) years.

3.1.2 Place of Performance

o Arlington, VA o Rosslyn, VA

3.2 Personnel Qualifications

3.2.1 Key Personnel:

Key personnel will have the following qualifications:

3.2.1.1 Instructors/Subject Matter Experts – Department of State Unique Classes o Seven years or more of professional experience working in a project manager position.

o Five years or more of professional experience teaching project management classes in an international or foreign affairs setting using experiential training methods.

o Professional knowledge of Project Management Institute (PMI) terminology as found in the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), guides and standards.

o Professional knowledge of project management terminology that is appropriate in an international or foreign affairs environment.

o Good interpersonal and communication skills that include the ability to present this course in easily comprehensible English to all attendees where English may be a second language.

o Ability to obtain and maintain a public trust certification.

o Multicultural experience highly desirable, but not required.

3.3 Contractor Description of Services

3.3.1 Development

The contractor will be required to make minor updates, e.g. project management language and technology changes regarding the content of existing course designs to meet changing training objectives at the request of FSI. The proposed electronic workshop designs will be sent to the

Contracting Officer Representative (COR) for review and acceptance no less than sixty days prior to the first course date (unless a shorter period is approved in writing by the COR). Changes to the course design will require the original topical outline design with noted updates, selected exercises, discussion points, a copy of the instructor manual and all student materials with changes reflected.

The Management Tradecraft Training Division will designate and provide access to three

Department of State employees to conduct interviews regarding project management issues.

3.3.2 Training

o The contractor will provide one knowledgeable lead instructor for the purpose of conducting the training. In addition, a minimum of one other contract instructor is required to be familiar with materials to teach in the event the lead instructor is not available.

o The contractor will be responsible for teaching all modules of the Managing Projects at State Course using printed instructional material, instructor notes and activities, student handbooks, job aids and handouts provided by the COR. The contractor will provide an introduction to each topic and assistance to students during the hands-on project management exercises and lead discussion of project solutions. The emphasis of the instruction will reinforce the project management process and language in the

Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM).

o FSI has a 100% attendance requirement and the contractor will not have the authority to waive this standard without prior written approval by the COR, course coordinator or authorized FSI management. All students are required to sign an attendance roster both morning and afternoon. The instructor will verify attendance and sign the roster upon completion of each session.

o All sessions taught at FSI are scheduled approximately nine months prior to the beginning of each fiscal year. The COR will provide the contractor with the schedule.

The sessions are available for student registration approximately six months prior to the start of the fiscal year. Please note: course schedules are subject to change without the benefit of advance notice. In these cases, the contractor will receive notice within a reasonable timeframe, e.g. as soon as the change is known by the COR.

o The classroom sessions will begin daily at 8:30 a.m. or 9:00 a.m. local time as identified in the course syllabus. All sessions will end at 4:00 p.m. local time. Each session will have a one-hour lunch break along with at least one morning and one afternoon break.

o The contractor shall be notified of any course postponements or cancellations as soon as possible.

o Should it be necessary to cancel a session within ten calendar days of the class start date, the contractor shall be notified. Note: The contractor will not be reimbursed for a non-conducted class.

o The instructor will arrive at least 45 minutes before the start of the session each day, but no earlier than 7:00 a.m. local time and should be prepared to stay no less than 30 minutes after class to answer students’ questions.

o The contractor will distribute and monitor the final exam process, immediately grade completed exams, notify students of their exam results, and provide relevant feedback to students. A minimum score of 80% must be achieved in order to pass the exam. At the discretion of FSI, a class completion certificate will be given to the student by the instructor at the end of the session or emailed by FSI to the student following class completion.

o Exams and attendance rosters shall be collected by the instructor and delivered to the

COR.

o In the event of a federal government closure or liberal leave due to snow, weather, emergency, holiday, declaration, etc., the contractor must ensure all topics are covered either in class held during that week or by assigning homework. The Contractor will then be responsible for reviewing assignments to ensure students understand all topics in the course.

3.4 Government Provided Services

The government shall:

o coordinate registration of all session participants.

o provide classroom space with tables, chairs and flip charts.

o provide class feedback forms and electronic surveys.

o provide materials such as highlighters, markers, note pads, name tents and attendance roster.

4. Other Pertinent Information or Special Consideration

4.1 Roles and Responsibilities

Listed in Table 3 are the primary roles and responsibilities for the personnel who will be supporting contractual requirements, both from the government and the contractor’s perspective.

Table 3: Roles and Responsibilities Chart

Role Responsibility Contracting Officer (CO) A Contracting Officer is an individual who has the authority to enter into, administer, or terminate contracts and make related acquisition determinations and findings.

As a warranted government professional, the CO is the only person who can make awards and changes/modifications to the contract, and legally bind the government.

Contracting Officer Representative (COR) This individual is assigned as the liaison to the CO for the contract. The COR performs day-to-day management of the program, ensuring that performance is done in conformance with the schedule and quality requirements within the scope of the contract. The COR’s responsibility is limited to technical direction, acceptance of deliverables, surveillance, monitoring, and recommending proposed changes in scope or provisions to the contract to the CO.

4.2 Standards of Conduct

The contractor will ensure that personnel assigned to this contract observe the highest standards of personal and professional conduct.

4.3 Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

o AOR: Agreement Officer's Representative has oversight of an interagency agreement or interagency acquisition agreement.

o BPA: Blanket Purchase Agreement o BPA Call: Used as an ordering vehicle against an existing blanket purchase agreement to request a service or product provided under the established agreement.

o Contract: For the purposes of the Performance Work Statement, the term contract is synonymous with BPA.

o DOS: U.S. Department of State o DOSAR: U.S. Department of State Acquisition Regulation is the agency supplemental to the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

o FSI: The Foreign Service Institute is the primary training facility supporting U.S.

foreign policy. Formal name is the National Foreign Affairs Training Center

(NFATC).

o FSO: A Foreign Service Officer is a commissioned member of the United States

Foreign Service. As diplomats, Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States.

o LE Staff: General term for staff hired locally by a foreign post.

o MRPT: Moderate Risk Public Trust is a designation of position sensitivity that denotes a position will have no access to National Security-related information. Any candidate for a MRPT position will be subject to a minimum background investigation. An MRPT is not a government security clearance.

o NFATC: National Foreign Affairs Training Center (for definition see FSI) o OpenNet: The U.S. Department of State's Sensitive but Unclassified internal network or intranet.

o PSC: A Personal Services Contractor is an individual hired through a contract that creates an employer/employee relationship. A U.S. government employee is technically the PSC’s supervisor in charge of timecard and other personnel management actions.

o PSA: Personal Services Agreement is an employment mechanism used at a foreign post that is not subject to the U.S. government’s Federal Acquisition Regulations.

PSAs are administered by the embassy’s Human Resources Specialist Officer in accordance with 3 FAM 7000 and 8000 regulations. DOS’ PSA authority is found in

Section 2(c) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C.

2669(c) and (n)).

o PIB: Procurement Information Bulletin published by the Office of the Procurement

Executive containing mandatory internal DOS policy, procedures, and guidance.

o Post: A diplomatic or consular mission in outside the U.S. promoting U.S. Foreign

Policy.

o Public Trust: Individuals applying for or encumbering public trust positions are subject to background investigations, periodic updates, and special investigations.

o Synchronous Training: Students and instructors are online or in the classroom at a specific time to allow interaction.

o VILT: Virtual Instructor Led training is a training method in which a simulated virtual environment is used that enables the instructor to explain, show and/or test certain abilities that may contribute to the learning process.

o WAE: While Actually Employed are retired employees hired on a time limited, non-status competitive appointment.