2023 Sole-Source_JOFOC_Cradle_V2 _vsb_Redacted.pdf

JOFOC# JFOC-2023-001

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National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

NASA Shared Services Center Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-6000

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER (NSSC)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

(JOFOC)

r 80NSSC23Q0061/Agency-wide Renewal for Structured Software Systems Ltd (3SL) Cradle Software

1. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.303-2(b)(1) – Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Justification for other than full and open competition.”

This document is a justification for other than full and open competition prepared by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center (NSSC), Procurement Operations Division, Enterprise License Management Team (ELMT).

The procuring agency is NASA and the contracting activity is the NSSC ELMT.

2. FAR 6.303-2(b)(2) – The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

For this other than full and open sole source justification, the NASA Shared Service Center will limit the competition to Structured Software Systems Ltd (3SL) for the procurement of Agency-wide Cradle software licenses and license maintenance and support. This requirement supports all Space Programs for NASA and will include new licenses and software renewal and maintenance support for current 3SL software modules owned by the agency. 3SL is the producer and sole source for all 3SL products and is the only known source which can meet this requirement for the Government (see attached sole source letter provided by 3SL, which is located in Alabama with headquarters located in the UK). NASA’s customers are currently using Cradle software to support systems engineering, modeling, and requirements management. The software support and maintenance will consist of the following:

All technical software and firmware updates for covered systems over coverage period.

The delivery of Releases, Versions, Correction Levels and Software correction packages, License keys.

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Telephone and online technical support (24 hour per day, 7 day per week, 365 days per year) for identifying, verifying, reporting and resolving problems, and technical questions.

Knowledgebase access to the 3SL support and download pages; to allow for up-to-date and immediate access to issues and bug fixes.

Documentation of software updates and upgrades including documentation updates, field notices, new manuals and customer application notes

Updates shall address items including:

• Bug fixes

• Software defects

• Software and firmware enhancements/improvements

• Work-around procedures for reported software defects

• Critical adjustments

• Technical evaluation of the systems

• Security Patches 2.2.6

The resultant contract will cover a period of four (4) years, consisting of one 12 month base year and three (3) one (1) year option years.

3SL Cradle product suite, will include the following CR-RW-Read Write, CR-RO-Read Only, CR-API-API, CR-REQ – Requires Management, CR-SYS – Systems Modeling, CR- PERF-Performance Modeling, CR-SWE–Software Engineering, CR-DOC–Document Generation, CR-WEBP–Web Publishing, CR-WEBA-Web Access, CR-MET – Metrics, CR- OCM – Oracle Connector Maintenance, CR-DASH-Dashboard Module. As an agency-wide renewal, the items are required for multiple NASA centers.

3. FAR 6.303-2(b)(3) – A description of the supplies or services required, to meet the Agency’s needs (including the estimated value):

The independent government cost estimate for the required new licenses and maintenance service for existing licenses is . The period of performance will begin 14 July 2023 and end 13 April 2027. The current software licenses support for existing software licenses expires 13 July 2023.

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Product Overview Describing Product Functionality:

Cradle is a standards-based requirements management system which supports the full systems development lifecycle at system, subsystem and lower levels by virtue of the following:

• Integrates features normally spread across separate tools from different vendors through selective Cradle modules

• Manages requirements, models, risks, interfaces, tests and verifications

• Scales to millions of items of information

• Provides traceability of data to source and generated documents with complete version management

• Enables user-definable views of data including tables, trees, documents, matrices, diagrams and graphs

• Enables user-defined metrics and management dashboards

Cradle is a tool to load, create, inter-link and publish information for all stages in a systems engineering project using agile, iterative or phase-based approaches and using any process. It is completely user-definable, scalable, flexible and secure. It can be deployed locally in an organization or project, deployed to remote sites or partners, or delivered through SaaS from any private or public cloud.

Cradle can support all requirements management and systems engineering work in one tool, including:

• Load information from external sources

• Load information from external sources

• Manage needs, user stories, requirements and a product backlog

• Analyze the user needs, optionally with models (MBSE)

• Define the design constraints

• Define the architecture, optionally with models

• Create the design, optionally with models

• Define and track tests, issues and defects at all levels

• Manage user acceptance and system validation

• Conduct traceability and coverage analyses across all information in the entire lifecycle or any part of it

• Publish documentation with user-defined layouts and templates

• Manage work breakdown structures and user task lists, record actual progress, and link bi-directionally to project planning tools

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• Reuse and share information between projects

4. FAR 6.303-2(b)(4) – An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1. Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

5. FAR 6.303-2(b)(5) – A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited:

This is the annual software and support renewal for existing 3SL Cradle products. If the Agency is to select an alternative source for 3SL Cradle software to standardize on for the Agency, the change in publishers and software products would adversely impact NASA’s ability to meet its mission.

The Cradle software licenses are owned by NASA and only require annual maintenance and support cost. Market research was conducted to identify available software tool vendors that can provide the annual maintenance renewal. Market research findings identified 3SL as the only source for the required software, no other vendor could meet the Government’s requirements. Also, after studying other software programs, 3SL was found to perform on a higher level and it would take multiple vendors and software programs to deliver equivalent 3SL Cradle products.

Cradle software is used by the major Space Programs, including Space Launch Systems (SLS), Enterprise Ground Systems (EGS), Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVA), and Orion/Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) to create, store and manage both technical and project requirements. Each program actively baselines requirements in Cradle and uses those baselines to support design and analysis review cycles that are currently underway and relevant to currently mandated space flight programs.

There are numerous applications that have been integrated with and use the information in Cradle. These applications are used for:

• Integrated Collaborative Environment (ICE) has integrated the data which resides in Cradle through the user-friendly front-end provided by ICE Liferay Portal. This has increased the productivity of Space Launch System (SLS):

• SLS Configuration/Data Management (CDM) Team has the capability to turn paper processes into automated processes. The software development effort is the SLS Deviation Verification Object (DVO). This project created a web-based solution for managing deviations and verifications to their documented and approved requirements. This has

5 | P a g e streamlined the SLS processes and provided the ability for SLS to sign these items in their Verification Review Board.

• SLS has templates that SLS publishes to produce its SLS-RPT-195-03 (Approved VCNs)

– user review of the VCNs and their DVOs takes place on the SLS Compliance Portal

• ICE Provides Cradle data for Ames Research Center’s data integration tools that meet HQ Enterprise Systems Development (ESD) traceability needs (TraceDigIT, FIQS, and other tools)

• ICE integrates data in Cradle with SLS Operational requirements managed externally in the SLS OMR system at ARC buy bringing operational requirements into Cradle seamlessly as they are created or modified. Pulling together requirements and design data

• Development of a web application for the SLS Report 209. This provides access to a significantly broader audience to view this SLS configuration data than is currently possible and brings enterprise reliability, integrity and confidentiality to the data.

Competition for 3SL, Inc. Cradle licenses, license support and maintenance is not possible because the software license and maintenance are for software and documentation that is copyrighted by 3SL and exists in source code form only within 3SL. Cradle is a modular product where each module contributes a specific capability towards the overall functionality delivered by the product. The Cradle licenses are allowed usage by existing and new HEOMD users. These licenses are an integral part of the Cradle requirements management, requirements gathering, engineering modeling, and document publishing for the ICE project.

They coincide and support existing ICE Cradle installations.

No other vendor can provide the detailed and timely knowledge of 3SL existing and emerging product sets, especially with regard to ongoing Cradle development and problem resolution. The knowledge and experience 3SL possess has been gained from years of performing the same services for the Agency. Success in fulfilling the Agency’s requirements depends on a proven, experienced service provider. Cradle is the only vendor who has the compatible bug fixes and security patch software for the current installed environment. This software is proprietary.

The need for continuity of services is of utmost importance. Failure to renew the Software Maintenance and Support would result in several NASA Engineering organizations across loosing efficiencies and needing to return to manual processes. Also, the requirements will no longer be available for numerous Space Programs. This would impact the schedule for SLS and GSDO.

Migrating the data and structures currently used and maintained in Cradle to a different tool would greatly impact ongoing work for NASA programs.

• Restructuring forms and templates for use with a different tool would be costly in terms of schedule and support.

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• Rewriting existing integrations would be costly in terms of both schedule and support for ICE and other teams (SLS, ESD, EGS, etc.) who rely on the existing integrations today

• SLS, MPCV, and EGS are involved with many programs reviews that rely on Cradle data that are intrinsic and critical to current Agency spaceflight mission and goals. Switching products at this time would be a great risk to the Programs that use Cradle today.

If the Agency investigated selecting an alternative source to replace 3SL products in use, the change in the solution would be significant upfront investment cost. The estimated cost to replace just the current 3SL Cradle software with a comparable solution (estimated: – based on the estimate purchase price of the 3SL software licenses. Note that the ongoing maintenance cost is typically of the initial purchase price – Agency total estimated maintenance cost = ) is significantly higher that the estimated Agency 3SL renewal cost of . However, the overall cost to purchase the new solution licensing, transition time and resources, redevelopment, training, and installation of over while still requiring paying the current Cradle maintenance fees to ensure security patches and bug fixes were still available. This cost is over four times the independent government estimate amount for the 3SL requirement and represents unacceptable duplicative costs. Based on the length of time it has taken to build this infrastructure, it would take approximately 1 year of a dedicated team of 1 high skilled Cradle expert and 1 new tool expert, 1 license administrator and 1 trainer to complete this transition. This would adversely impact NASA’s ability to meet various mission requirements within the Space Programs. Also, Cradle is now integrated with other tools in ICE and those integrations would need to be rebuilt. That would require enterprise service business resources and portal architects and programmers.

The risk to those programs currently deployed is too great. Realistically, any perceived savings achieved by switching to an alternative solution would be quickly absorbed by increased costs associated with disrupting the current mission, which would ultimately cost the Agency more money in the long run.

6. FAR 6.303-2(b)(6) – A description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies:

On May 12, 2023, a notification was posted on the Government Point of Entry (GPE) website, sam.gov, in compliance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This announcement served to inform interested parties about NASA’s plan to award a sole-source purchase order to 3SL. A summary of the synopsis outcomes can be found in section 10.

7. FAR 6.303-2(b)(7) – A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

The Contracting Officer’s signature on this document indicates that the Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. The

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Contractor shall be required to submit a proposal to be evaluated and negotiated by the Government. Prior to execution of the contractual instrument, a proposal analysis will be performed. The proposal analysis will ensure that the final agreed-to price for the contract action is fair and reasonable.

Historical prices found reasonable on previous purchases are available and will be used for comparison in the proposal analysis to determine if proposed prices are reasonable. Additionally, the contracting activity shall also request a current commercial price list to further ascertain the reasonableness of the pricing offered. The contracting activity is unaware of any issues that would circumvent a fair and reasonable price determination.

8. FAR 6.303-2(b)(8) – Description of the market research conducted, and the results, or a statement of the reasons a market research was not conducted:

The contracting activity queried the NASA Strategic Sourcing Repository, the NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) and the General Services Administration (GSA) eLibrary to examine the market for any change removing barriers to competition, allowing new sources an opportunity to meet the requirement for fiscal year 2023.

Using the product code and description for each item, the contracting activity initiated a targeted search for value-added resellers authorized to renew maintenance service for existing software licenses.

Results of the market research indicated the services needed to fulfill this requirement cannot be met through a strategic contract source for mandatory-use as identified in Appendix A–Enterprise Procurement Strategies of NASA Procurement Notice 19-12. Research revealed the market has not changed; the requirement is neither available through a government wide acquisition contract awarded in SEWP nor a schedule contract under the GSA.

Market research confirmed the requirement is a commercial item. A distribution network for the software does not exist and is only available through a direct-sell with the 3SL.

, confirmed via email attaching a sole-source letter to indicate Structured Software Systems Ltd (3SL) is the sole provider of Cradle software. See Attachment A – Contractor-provided Letter of Confirmation for Sole-Source Availability.

9. FAR 6.303-2(b)(9) – Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition

None

10. FAR 6.303-2(b)(10) – A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed an interest in writing in the acquisition:

A notice of NASA’s intent to award this sole-source action was synopsized on the GPE website (Sam.gov) per FAR Subpart 5.2 (See Section 6 above). The synopsis was posted on 12 May 2023 and closed on 26 March 2023. No companies responded.

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11. FAR 6.303-2(b)(11) – A statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

Moving forward, the agency will persist in assessing the market for potential alternative solutions or new sources before proceeding with any contract actions related to the same requirements.

However, considering the specific nature of the stated requirement, the agency is currently unaware of any specific actions it can undertake to explore alternatives.

EFO-2023-001

Rev1/2023

80NSSC23Q0061 Cradle Brand Name Justification

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

SIGNATURE PAGE

I certify that the requirements and technical data contained herein, and which form a basis for this justification are accurate and complete.

Technical Representative

I hereby certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Based on the content herein, it is determined there is substantial evidence to justify this exception to fair opportunity.

CONCURRENCE:

NSSC Councel

APPROVAL:

Based on the information provided in this justification, and as the approving official, I have determined that the exception at FAR 16.505(a)(4), Items Peculiar to One Manufacturer applies to the order.

Contracting Officer

Attachment A

Contractor-provided Letter of Confirmation for Sole-Source Availability

6/9/2023