19FS1A20Q5000 Amendment 0001 QA.pdf

19FS1A20Q5000: Data Literacy, Analysis, & Visualization Training Amendment 1 Questions & Answers (19FS1A20Q5000 0001 Q&A)

These Q&As are incorporated as an attachment to the solicitation and will be incorporated as an attachment in any resultant award made from this solicitation.

References and questions are listed in black font below. The Government’s answers appear beneath each question in green.

1. Q Page 2 of the Instructions to Offerors document states that the page limit for Volume II, Technical Quote is 15 pages and the page limit for the Relevant Corporate Experience section is 2 pages. On page 5 of the same document, it states, “The technical approach for each workshop shall not exceed 3 pages (a total limit of 18 pages when considering all 6 workshops).” Can you please confirm whether the page count for the Technical Quote is 15 or 20 pages (18 pages for Technical Approach and 2 pages for Relevant Corporate Experience)? If 15 pages is the correct length, can you please confirm the page limit for the technical approach of each workshop?The prescribed page limitations on page 2 of the Instructions to Offers are incorrect. The page limitation for the Technical Volume is 20 pages. See corrected Attachment 4 Instructions to Offerors v2.

2. Section L specifies Volume II, technical approach, should be 15 pages (excluding resumes).

Attachment 4 specifies that the proposal should include a technical approach for each workshop, including a syllabus, and not exceed 3 pages each, for a total limit of 18 pages. Are these 18 pages separate from the 15 pages of technical approach volume?

No. See the answer to Question 1 and reviewed the updated Attachment 4.

3. Section L, specifies that "Quotes that do not address all 6 workshop types are considered materially noncompliant quotes and will not receive further evaluation." In section L 3.2 FACTOR 2 Key Personnel, specifies that "The offeror’s technical quote shall clearly indicate by name who the proposed instructor(s) are for each of the three workshops." Would you please clarify what is considered compliant: names of instructors for all six (not three) workshops, or which three workshops should have instructors by name?

See answers to questions 1 and 2 and review the updated Attachment 4. In order to be considered compliant, the technical quote must address all six course types. A proposed instructor name shall be provided for each of the six courses. Also please note that Attachment 4 has been updated to state that FSI expects no more than one instructor name or resume per each of the six courses. If a quote includes one instructor to teach more than one course, only one resume for that instructor shall be submitted.

4. Is there any sequence, relationship, or prerequisites between the courses, or should we assume all courses are fully independent?

All courses are independent with the exception of Advanced Analysis and Modeling with Excel and PowerBI and Programming with R. For those courses, FSI’s in-house data course is a pre-requisite.

5. Could you provide some background on the likely participants for each course, and especially for Course 1: Programming with R, e.g., college degrees, prior analytical experience, x years in certain roles, etc.?

There are no pre-requisites for these courses. Participants may come from any background. For Advanced Analysis and Modeling with Excel and PowerBI and Programming with R, we recommend they have a working knowledge of Excel.

6. Will the State Department share actual data sets we can incorporate into the curricula?

Not at this time.

7. May curricula include required after-hours assignments or readings, or is it more appropriate to constrain activities to the proscribed classroom hours?

It is more appropriate to constrain activities to classroom hours. Our experience has been that students often do not complete pre-work or homework for class.

8. Are instructors permitted to request students to conduct a pre-course assessments as a tool to baseline understanding and competency?

Pre-course assessments may be requested; we cannot compel students to complete them.

9. Are post-course evaluations required for course feedback and as input for curricula enhancement, or as a test of students’ knowledge retention?

PWS has been updated to reflect a course evaluation requirement. See section “Evaluation” under “Performance Requirements.” Technical quotes do not need to address course evaluations, which will be finalized after course content during performance.

10. Can you share the identity of the incumbent vendor and confirm if they are permitted to bid on this PWS?

The incumbent details are listed below. As is the case with any vendor, the ability of either incumbent to provide a quote for this RFQ is dependent on their compliance with the solicitation provisions and terms and conditions.

Vendor Name DUNS Number BPA Number

1. DSQuorum LLC dba Data

Society

079817046 19FS1A18A5000

2. District Data Labs 080055384 19FS1A18A5001

11. Will the winner of this bid be required to teach the existing (incumbents) material for the four

(4) existing course, or will the winner be required to develop new material for the four (4) existing courses?

The awarded contractor shall develop and deliver their own course material for all six courses based on the performance outcomes found in the PWS.

12. Prior to August 19, will bidders get access to the current course material, or at minimum access to the agenda or curriculum for each of the existing four (4) courses?

No. When developing quotes, prospective vendors should refer to the performance outcomes and course content provided within the PWS.

13. Can the State Department provide a list of online training platforms that are pre-approved for use, or provide a list of actual platforms currently being used, or at minimum provide the platform being utilized for online delivery of the current four (4) courses, as a potential to minimize development cost and approval cycle time.

Currently courses are delivered by standard web conferencing tools (e.g., Google Meet, Zoom, WebEx) in consultation with the course manager. FSI is currently standing up a new Learning Management System (LMS), Cornerstone On Demand. Delivery of materials through the LMS is not currently part of this training. For Programming with R, incumbents have used RStudio Cloud to provide a virtual environment for the R software.

14. Will multiple courses be taught simultaneously, e.g., on the same days? Either multiple sessions of the same course, or more than one type of course?

Multiple sections of the same course will not be taught on the same day. In some circumstances, two different courses may be scheduled for the same day.

15. Could you expand on the type of experience meeting “Demonstrated Understanding of Foreign Affairs work” as defined in Instructor Qualifications Knowledge of the work of the State Department or other foreign affairs agencies.

16. Could you elaborate on the frequency, participants, and duration of expected Collaborative Meetings, as defined in Performance Requirements.

Prior to initial delivery, meetings should be weekly during the design phase, and should include the curriculum designer, the contractor project manager, the prospective instructor, and the COR. Once a course goes into delivery, meetings will be only as needed, to address changes, updates or issues with the training, or to review student feedback.

17. Could you expand on the likely variability, frequency, and delivery of “…talks, workshops, and other events…” as defined in the Department of State Programmatic Data Events section. The concept of Webinars and Hackathons are further defined, but not the concept “talks, workshops, and other events.”

The variability, frequency and delivery of talks, workshops and other events are yet to be determined based on the needs of the Department.

18. Could you expand on the variability of Hackathons to better assist in planning and pricing, e.g., estimated number of participants, experience level, novelty of subject matter, duration of hackathons, and the like.

The specific format and details of the Hackathons have yet to be determined. Vendor will be consulted in the process of making those decisions.

19. For interactive courses such as Course 1 Programming with R, or Course 4: Advanced Analysis, it would be helpful to have access to an environment. Will the department prefer setting us up in a sandbox, or having the vendor set up a sandbox from scratch?

For online training, vendor should be prepared to set up online development environments in consultation with FSI to ensure compliance with Department of State IT security requirements.

For physical classroom training, FSI will provide the training software and computing environment. Also, see answer to question 13.

20. What is the envisioned audience for the newly developed courses to be delivered? Does the audience delineation provided in the RFI still apply to either or both newly developed courses?

The new courses (5 & 6) are designed for Department employees who do not work in data analytics areas, to educate them on the fundamentals of data sciences for non-practitioners or new practitioners.

21. How soon would this project begin after a proposal is awarded? If the project is to begin during the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, would FSI consider the desired face-to-face training and curriculum deployment to be converted to a virtual platform?

Work following the award shall begin as soon as possible, including an initial virtual delivery of Data Literacy for Executives scheduled for two half-day sessions on September 28-29. At this time, FSI/SAIT is planning to deliver all training under a resultant award virtually through the end of calendar year 2020. Total virtual training delivery may continue in 2021, subject to conditions.

22. For events, what virtual platforms would the FSI consider acceptable?

See answers to questions 13 and 19.

23. How many facilitators/instructors does the FSI envision for a training course session.

FSI requires at least one instructor per course session. Additional instructors may be provided at the option of the awarded vendor, however inclusion of additional instructors does not permit any increase or adjustment in the awarded daily rate. The PWS limits the number of students to no more than 25 per course offering.

24. For the four existing programs, will the contractor be facilitating the programs as presently constructed or does the FSI anticipate updates or revision to the existing training?

See answer to question 11.

25. Is FSI willing to pay for the instructional design and development of the new curriculum, and what is the envisioned relationship between the new and previously existing curriculum?

See answer to question 11. Also, all design and delivery costs are not separately priced. Daily rates provided by the contractor shall be fully loaded and inclusive of all costs for which the contractor expects compensation, including travel to and from the place of performance in Arlington, VA (if classroom delivery). No other costs shall be billed separately. The PWS has been updated to reflect a daily rate rather than a session rate per course.

26. Can FSI provide an anticipated number of each of the six courses it expects to take place per year?

The following is the current projected offerings of courses for FY21. However, it is subject to change based on demand or other considerations.

o 5 Day Programming with R - 4 sessions o 2 Day Data Literacy for Managers - 7 sessions o 1 Day Data Literacy for Executives - 3 sessions o 3 Day Adv. Analysis and Modeling with Excel & Power BI - 3 sessions o 2 Day Fundamentals of Data Literacy - 12 sessions o 2 Day Data Visual Design and Storytelling - 12 sessions

27. Pp. 3 of Attachment 1 states: "For online class components, vendors are asked to provide the platform(s), with the understanding that they must be approved for use by SAIT before being used with Department employees “ - is it necessary to have this approval secured before submission of the proposal or is this something that can be secured after the contracting?

Generally, cloud-based or online-only platforms will be permissible, provided vendor follows a set of established guidelines for their use with Department employees. Any software that must be installed on a computer hard drive will need approval before training begins.

28. Pp. 10 of Attachment 1 states: “ Operating Constraints While the students will have access to the internet, they will not be able to download software unapproved by the Department of State for use during delivery of the workshops. All software must be approved in advance of the workshops.” Could you please provide a list of analytical software that is approved for use by the Department of State employees and clarify the requirements of the approval procedure?

For in-person classroom instruction, all software for the course is already installed on the computers in the training classroom. Software includes, but is not limited to, Excel, PowerBI, R Studio, and select R Studio packages. Any additional software needed for in-person training will require extensive approval through the IT approval process and is discouraged. For online training, see question 26.

29. How are the learning outcomes measured in the existing vendor-led courses? Has the State Department implemented or is it implementing learning contracts with its employees?

See answer to question 9. SAIT/BA does not use learning contracts.

30. Per this RFQ we meet all of the criteria in terms of Small Business (Woman Owned/SDVOSB) but it is not clear to us whether there is a requirement for a Facility Clearance? Based upon the Scope of Work there is no clearance personnel required, but can you please confirm we can be awarded this effort if we do not have a DD254 in place?

There is no facility clearance (FCL) requirement for this solicitation or resulting contract.