NNG15SD38B-040.pdf

Control Number: TAC-19-53498

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price (FFP) Task Order

(TO) to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for Micro Focus Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Global Software Licenses and software maintenance and support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to procure brand-name Micro Focus ALM Software Licenses and software maintenance and support for VA, Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization (OEHRM), Test and Evaluation (TE) Division. OEHRM TE Division is directly supported by Enterprise Testing Service (ETS). ETS currently uses 40 Micro Focus ALM software licenses.

This requirement is to procure an additional quantity of 70 Micro Focus ALM Global software licenses and associated Micro Focus ALM Global 24x7 license Support for OEHRM use. Micro Focus ALM is a software test management tool that provides a centralized platform for application management and supports test and defect management, software development lifecycle (SDLC) requirements management, test plan and test execution management, defect tracking and reporting in one easy-to-use tool. The tool will enable more relevant and accurate results and improved quality in agile environments, improved team collaboration and provide a central storage location for communication and documentation. The support is required to ensure the Micro Focus ALM software remains operational. The estimated cost for the 12-month base period is The total estimated value of the proposed effort including a 12-month base period and two 12-month options for services is

4. Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 16.505(a)(4), the following brand name requirement is being justified and approved as an exception to fair opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C.

4106(c)(2) as implemented by FAR Subpart 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available for this procurement. This procurement is an expansion of current ALM software being used, thus the request for brand-name Micro Focus

Micro Focus ALM Expansion Control Number: TAC-19-53498

ALM products. ETS currently uses 40 Micro Focus ALM software licenses and additional licenses are required for OEHRM. These licenses are proprietary and no other licenses can provide all required functionality with full interoperability.

Specifically, the existing Micro Focus ALM software licenses operate through a proprietary code and no other brand name software would be able to function and communicate with these existing licenses. Use of any other brand name software would result in completely replacing all the existing licenses resulting in reconfiguration and redesigning of the infrastructure. VA’s technical experts determined that these duplicated efforts and software replacement would result in delivery delays of 1-year and duplicated costs of $1.5 million. These additional costs would not be recovered through competition. VA requires that an application lifecycle management solution must support interrelated components by defining releases, developing requirements with test design and execution, and defect reporting from a centralized repository. The product must support seamless integration from one stage of the testing flow to subsequent stages which is critical for end-to-end test management. The product must support end-user ability to create key performance indicators, milestones and scope items to support customizable advanced reporting using scorecards, with internal governance to develop and customize as needed. The product must support the ability to send auto alerts and emails to stakeholders based on changes or updates to specified fields in the requirement test plans, test execution and defects modules. The product must support the ability to run and control tests from a single location. ALM is the only product that is fully interoperable with the existing Micro Focus ALM product used by ETS that enables seamless integration needed for cross-project reporting, pre-configured business views, project metrics and defect trends. Micro Focus ALM is the only product that will meet the government’s requirements that is fully interoperable with the Micro Focus ALM tool used by ETS. Other products do not meet the Government’s requirements and cannot be customized or modified to meet the Government’s requirements.

The required Global licenses will support the OEHRM Program Executive Office (PEO) TE, the Chief Medical Office (CMO) TE liaisons, and the Cerner Test and Evaluation staff. Use of the required ALM software and synchronizing efforts with ETS as a user of ALM are needed to support Cerner Electronic Health Record requirements. The required licenses will enable OEHRM and partners to gain full insight into ETS efforts through cross-project reporting, pre-configured business views and project metrics. Additionally, OEHRM will have access to defect trends down to the individual project view.

In addition, only a reseller can provide the required support for the Micro Focus ALM software since access to the Micro Focus proprietary data is required to ensure all services provided are properly configured.

If VA is unable to procure the required software, the software testing activities would not be performed properly or to schedule. Insufficient testing could result in the fielding of a new Veteran electronic health record that does not provide the required information to health providers which would have a direct negative impact on Veterans.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in Section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. However, the undersigned VA representatives determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name licenses, as well as software maintenance and support. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to perform market research to ascertain if there are changes in the market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: Market Research was conducted by Government technical experts between March and August 2018 and during November 2018 by reviewing the capabilities of potential products through internet research, knowledge of the marketplace and requesting quotes for market research purposes. The products reviewed range from dedicated test management tools to products that are bundled as part of larger tools suite in the application development life cycle space.

Two main products, IBM Rational and Atlassian JIRA were closely reviewed.

Neither product meets all the Government’s functional requirements, as stated in Paragraph 5, or is fully compatible with the existing ALM software used by ETS.

The market research revealed that only Micro Focus ALM is capable of providing the capability necessary to work seamlessly with the existing Micro Focus ALM software licenses and meet the aforementioned Government requirements. Only Micro Focus ALM software is compatible with proprietary Micro Focus ALM software applications.

A Request for Information (RFI) for market research purposes was issued on the NASA SEWP V GWAC to determine sources that could provide the required Micro Focus ALM software licenses, maintenance and support. There were a limited number of responses but there appears to be an adequate number of authorized resellers who can meet the Government’s needs. One response was received from a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) NASA SEWP V GWAC holder, stating that it could provide the required Micro Focus ALM software license and maintenance services. Additional market research was conducted by Government representatives in August 2018 utilizing the NASA SEWP V Provider Lookup Tool, which found 44 resellers for this item; 10 of which are SDVOSBs.

NASA SEWP V prime contract holders can add line items based on customer requests; therefore, limited competition is anticipated.

9. Other Facts: None