5000178537_PWS_TaxPro v1 4.11.24.docx

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

For Internal Revenue Service Inflation Reduction Act – Tax Pro Account Applications DevSecOps, Infrastructure and Support Services

Version: 1 Date: 4/4/2024 Consideration and Payment General

The contractor shall provide the services described in the Performance Work Statement (PWS), Sections 6 to 11. Except as otherwise specified in this order, the contractor shall furnish the necessary personnel, services, travel, supplies, materials and otherwise do all things necessary for or incident to the performance of the work set forth herein.

This is a hybrid firm fixed price (FFP) / Labor Hour (LH) task order. Refer to Alliant 2 Labor Pricing for Contract Line-Item Number (CLIN) Structure for pricing for the base period core tasks, and all options, including optional tasks.

Compensation for Fixed Price Tasks:

The Contractor shall be compensated for the successful completion of the fixed price tasks as follows and as set forth in the Alliant 2 Labor Pricing. The applicable unit price for FFP shall be a unit price for the time period in which the services are estimated to be performed, as agreed to by the Government and the Contractor.

Section 7.1: Task Area – Transition Management Section 7.5: Task Area - Release Development Section 8: Task Area -Enterprise System Testing

Compensation for Labor Hours Tasks:

The Contractor shall be compensated for the number of hours actually incurred at the fixed loaded hourly rates for the Labor Hour tasks, if exercised, as set forth in the Alliant 2 Labor Pricing for the following LH tasks:

Section 7.2: Task Area – Program Management Support (OPTIONAL) Section 7.3: Task Area – Risk Management and Contingency Planning (OPTIONAL) Section 7.4: Task Area – Requirement Management (OPTIONAL)

The estimated hours per labor category are for budgeting purposes only. The number of hours used for each category may exceed or be less that the estimate by category, as long as the ceiling price for each individual task (tasks 7.2, 7.3, 7.4) is not exceeded. The Government shall not be obligated to pay any amount in excess of the ceiling price, nor is the contractor obligated to continue to perform if to do so would exceed the ceiling price.

For Labor hour or hybrid type executed CLINs, the contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer when 75% of the labor hour funds have been expended under each CLIN.

Contract Pricing

The base period and each option period include optional tasks and line items in support of Tax Pros Applications DevSecOps, Infrastructure and Support Services. Core tasks 1 – 8 are for severable services. Task 7.1 for Transition In, and all optional tasks (7.2, 7.3, 7.4) are for non-severable services. Optional requirements, at the discretion of the Government, may be exercised at the same time, may not be exercised at the same time, or may not be exercised. Contractor performance of any option without execution of a modification to the task order by the Contracting Officer is the contractor acting at its own risk and the Government is not obligated to pay or reimburse the contractor. All options are subject to availability of funds and may be unilaterally exercised by the Government.

Enterprise System Testing Section 7.2:

Program Management. Support

Background With over 240 million tax filings in the United States every year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is emphasizing the use of technology to be smarter, faster, and completely accessible to its customers. The goal is to provide taxpayers access to their tax account information twenty-four hours per day both online and through mobile devices. The Tax Pro Account Program provides modern, online, and mobile products with increasingly robust capabilities such as tax account status, payment functionality, and on-demand self-service. Key drivers for the Tax Pro Account Program include:

· Increasing satisfaction among all individual taxpayer groups by ensuring taxpayer self-service needs are met efficiently and effectively online.

· Reducing call volumes and manpower support required by providing an improved online user experience.

· Consolidating IRS service options to a centrally accessible location online by positioning self-service as the primary channel for all taxpayer interactions with the IRS.

· Automating the authorized disclosure of tax information to third parties.

· Authentication of users of electronic and digital services accounts.

Online Account The Tax Pro Account Program is providing improvements to taxpayer service by delivering a unified Online Account product accessible through a single online account, to provide Tax Professionals accurate clear bills and computations of balances due; transparent explanations and next steps to resolve tax-related issues; secure self-service or full-service payment options; timely confirmations and expected follow-ups; and account status and resolution, that is available anywhere via online, mobile, or telephony access. Online Account is the first product approved for development by Tax Pro Account.

The objective of this performance work statement is to bring on highly skilled and technical resources in support of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to strategically deliver capabilities to support the Tax Professional community.

The IRS has a mission to rapidly deploy the capabilities for business taxpayer experience. Because of this, the IRS has a very time sensitive schedule to aggressively deliver the taxpayer experience capabilities within the next 2 years, the contractor is expected to have in depth knowledge of the current Taxpayer Experience Platform, IRS IT’s internal and external system integration dependencies. To support the aggressive delivery of capabilities and speed to market, it would be desire for the vendor to have a secure cloud environment validated by IRS Cyber (including Pub. 4812) and enterprise standards to develop IRS capabilities within the vendor’s environment.

Below are capabilities in scope for FY24 – FY26

Applications Organization The Tax Pro Account Program Management Office (PMO) operates as a “prime integrator” across Tax Pro Account Business and IT Delivery Partners in the organization across the Enterprise to deliver web-based applications as outline in the following figure. The Tax Pro Account PMO is a part of the Enterprise Program Management Office (EPMO) in the IRS IT organization.

The Tax Pro Account PMO performs the following services:

· Manages the execution of the program and is accountable for overall Program success.

· Acts as the front door between IT and the Business.

· Manages and executes the Product Roadmap & Release Plan.

· Communicates and integrates across the Enterprise.

· Executes the governance framework.

· Manages scope, schedule, and cost associated with application delivery.

· Coordinates resource and risk management.

The Tax Pro Account PMO is led by the Director, Tax Pro Account PMO and is divided into three (3) organizations: Program Management & Integration (PM&I), Production Support, and Delivery. The PM&I organization is responsible for Tax Pro Account product planning and traditional PMO functions such as (but not limited to) risk management, prioritization, elaboration, contracts, budgeting, reporting and governance. Production Support is responsible for defects (P3/P4) that are prioritized/assigned to a release in Delivery. Production also supports and manages the incident responses and defect identifications although many production support functions have transferred to AD CSD. The Delivery organization is responsible for coordinating Tax Pro Account product development and delivery of capabilities.

Program Cadence The Tax Pro Account PMO has drawn upon best industry practices in agile development to pilot the Tax Pro Account delivery process. The following diagram illustrates the high-level Tax Pro Account operating model, which enables IRS IT to effectively coordinate work and produce high quality software based on the existing operating model. The operating model, which consists of a Governance and Investment cadence and a Development/Delivery cadence, utilizes industry best practice, and is tailored to meet the IRS governance and compliance needs.

Operating Model The Tax Pro Account Program Operating Model is comprised of three (3) layers: The Executive Boards, Program Management Office, Release Team with Delivery Partners.

Executive Boards The Tax Pro Account Executive Oversight Team (EOT) is represented by leadership from the Tax Pro Account Program and Business and Delivery partners. The team meets once monthly to review the key accomplishments of Tax Pro Account development and deployment. The team reviews progress made by the Program, highlighting delivery status, risks, partner updates, and spotlights on areas of interest.

The Strategic Development Executive Steering Committee (SD ESC) is the foremost governing organization for the Tax Pro Account program. The SD ESC governs the design, development, and deployment of Tax Pro Account projects and investments. Tax Pro Account briefs the SD ESC on the status of approved work. The SD ESC determines which prioritized potential investments will be chosen for development and identifies potential products to be transitioned out of the development process.

The Tax Pro Account Governance Board (GB) was chartered by the Strategic Development Executive Steering Committee (SD ESC) and governs all Tax Pro Account investments and any associated investments or components as deemed appropriate by the SD ESC. The primary objectives of the GB are to ensure information technology investments, Tax Pro Account Program objectives, and Tax Pro Account Product objectives are met. Additional responsibilities of the Tax Pro Account Governance Board include reviewing and approving budget increases, approving milestone exits, recommending the approval of new products, and oversight of the performance of the Tax Pro Account portfolio.

Program Management Office The Program Management and Integration team is organized around two (2) main areas: Strategy and Planning and Integration Support. Strategy and Planning involves identification of future staffing needs, program cost forecasting, budget formulation and execution, product planning and prioritization, contract and task order management, and contract performance management. The Strategy and Planning team also provides information to support Governance level decisions and processes, coordinates of governance activities, and manages risks and issues that impact the Tax Pro Account program. Integration Support is responsible for program reporting and oversight, identification and tracking of organizational readiness activities, managing new environment and tool requests to support the Tax Pro Account program, and managing and maintaining the Tax Pro Account program SharePoint document repository.

The Release Management team manages the end-to-end delivery process for the Tax Pro Account program. The primary functions are Product Management, Release Management, and Technical Integration. The team coordinates with Online Services (OLS) and delivery partners to identify all potential business and technical elements, and align resources needed for development and deployment. The team manages and facilitates all Program Increment pre-planning, planning and execution activities, and manages iteration planning and execution, and all release activities. The Delivery Management team works with partner organizations to ensure environment readiness for deployment and to work toward resolution of issues that impact testing and deployment.

The Production Support team will be responsible for managing operation services, application monitoring and security remediation as well as leading production readiness for new Tax Pro Account products.

Release Teams Definition The Tax Pro Account PMO leverages Release Teams as part of the operating model to develop and deliver the Tax Pro Account products. One or more release teams led by a Release Manager from the Tax Pro Account PMO will work in concert during every Program Increment. Each release team consists of the following team members, though the number of team members may vary per release team:

· Release Manager (Tax Pro Account PMO).

· Scrum Master (Applications Development).

· Product Owner (Wage & Investment, or other Business Owner).

· Product Manager (Online Services or other Digital Owners).

· Developers (Applications Development).

· Cyber Engineers (Cybersecurity).

· System Engineer (Enterprise Services).

· System Architect (Enterprise Services).

· Testers (Enterprise Systems Testing).

· 508 Specialists (Information Resource Accessibility Program).

Note: The contractor shall provide teams between 20 to 25 people with the expectation that more teams will be added to handle new scope rather than increasing the team size. The contractor shall provide at least four (4) teams with the option for an additional three (3) teams, totaling seven (7) teams, in FY24 to support the capabilities scoped to be delivered by Jun 2024 through May 2026.

Scope The scope of work is the contractor to provide a comprehensive solution that will transform the way business taxpayers interact with the IRS by providing a one-stop digital self-service solution that supports filing, data, and communication needs. The IRS is seeking a contractor with knowledge on digital integration activities, including collaboration with business partners and IT delivery partners. The contractor shall provide strategic guidance and oversight, technical advisory support, architecture, requirements, agile methodology and development, and product management expertise. It is desired for the contractor to be a subject matter expert with knowledge on the Taxpayer Experience Platform, IRS legacy systems, data, and business units. Contractor personnel quoted have enough knowledge, skills, and experience identified to accomplish designated tasks within each Task Area.

The outcomes shall be the following:

· Increase overall digital interactions with the IRS and reduce paper and phone volumes.

· Implement innovative technologies to rapidly deliver customer-centric, self-service digital capabilities that help business taxpayers manage their taxes.

· Provide product development support with an emphasis on agile, test-driven development, and continuous integration methodologies to assist and enhance efforts to secure new applications.

· Provide personnel for planning including analysis, recommendations, and execution to support the delivery of working Webapps capabilities while, interfacing with IRS leadership teams to ensure overall delivery is timely and meets functionality requirements.

· Work collaboratively with Government designated points-of-contact to define requirements, provide infrastructure environments, and deliver functional capabilities.

· Furnish all necessary services, qualified personnel, material, and methodologies as needed and approved by IRS to perform agile IT program/project, and development support services for Webapps /online applications.

Objectives The IRS has chosen a strategy for application development that will maintain an IRS staff presence but outsources most of the work, which alleviates resource shortages in the IRS IT organization while maintaining IRS oversight and direction for product development.

Applications will be designed to be user friendly for taxpayer self-assistance across a broad audience and seamlessly integrated with the rest of the IRS offerings. Work products will be designed pursuant to an agile or iterative development process as the preferred methodology. As IRS applications are subject to accessibility and early security reviews, close coordination with review protocols and stakeholders are necessary to achieve short development cycle(s) and application deployment(s). The release teams will have access to the Dev and Test environments while higher environments are restricted to Enterprise Operations (EOPSs) personnel.

· Fulfill directives and objectives outlined in the Taxpayer First Act, Taxpayer Experience Strategy, IT Modernization Plan, and NTA 2020 Report.

· Increase overall online interactions with the IRS and reduce paper and phone volumes.

· Serve as an IRS-hosted application that can be scalable to include additional value-added, taxpayer products and features in the future.

· Support cloud execution that will result in improved “time to market” agility, increase operational efficiency and resilience, increased innovation, and enhanced or maintained security posture by migrating workloads to cloud platforms and services.

Skill Requirements The IRS has chosen a strategy for program management and application development that will combine IRS team members with contractor staff in all components of its Agile product development process and system maintenance. As a result, the need for team members well-versed in Agile product development and program management are needed to participate in the planning, creation, delivery, and support of Tax Pro Account products is necessary for the success of the Tax Pro Account Program.

The Tax Pro Account PMO is highly interested in Agile thought leadership, development methodologies, and proven delivery track records. The contractor shall provide subject matter experts with knowledge regarding the Taxpayer Experience Platform, IRS legacy systems, data, and business units.

Contractor Key Personnel Due to the aggressive timeline to deliver Tax Pro capabilities, key personnel and supporting staff must be ready to start on Day 1 with security clearances. Day 1 is the next day of the task order award date.

The Program Manager and other key personnel shall be designated during individual Task Order quotation. Key personnel (KP) are defined as personnel: (i) identified in the quote as key individual(s) to be assigned for participation in the performance of the BPA and its associated orders; (ii) whose resumes were submitted with the quote; or (iii) which are designated as key personnel by agreement of the Government and the Contractor during negotiations.

In the Table below, the Contractor shall identify individuals considered as KP in their quoted staffing projection to fulfill Technical / Price Quote.

Key Personnel

Program Technical and Delivery Management Program Manager The Contractor shall provide a Program Manager (PM) responsible for the performance of work performed under their designated Task Order(s). The Program Manager shall have full authority to act on behalf of the Contractor on all award matters relating to daily operation. The Program Manager shall be available during core hours – 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday thru Friday except Federal holidays or when the IRS facility is closed for administrative reasons.

· The Contractor shall submit a resume for the identified PM for review and qualifications verification.

· Personnel whose resumes are proposed are subject to the evaluation process for skillset accessibility. Agreement of the selection by the government and the contractor will be determined before award of Task Order(s).

· The PM shall have at least seven (7) years of demonstrated experience managing programs and projects of similar size and possess a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in good standing, at the time of contract award and throughout the period of performance or have a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience.

· It is desired that the PM have the following qualifications:

· A bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Project Management, or related field.

· Experience in organizing, directing, and managing multiple, complex, and interrelated project tasks.

· Experience in effectively communicating at senior executive levels within a customer organization.

· Experience in effectively communicating with leadership of other contractors.

· Experience in meeting with customer and contractor personnel to formulate and review task plans and deliverable items, and effectively execute in accordance with approved plans.

· Experience in implementing Taxpayer Experience Platform.

Technical Integrator The Contractor shall provide a dedicated Technical Integrator who shall be responsible for technical contract delivery performed under this PWS. The Technical Integrator shall have a full understanding of the technical approach to be used by the Contractor’s development team and shall be responsible for ensuring that the Contractor’s development team follows that approach. The Technical Integrator is responsible for technical quality and coordination with government technical leads throughout IT and shall be available during normal hours of operation.

The Technical Integrator shall have at least seven (7) years of demonstrated experience managing projects of similar size and possess a DevOps and Cloud certification in good standing, at the time of contract award and throughout the period of performance or have a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience.

It is desired that the Technical Integrator have the following qualifications:

· A bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Project Management, or related field.

· Experience in organizing, directing, and managing multiple, complex, and interrelated application development and testing tasks.

· Experience in implementing Taxpayer Experience Platform.

· Experience in design, architecture and implementing Tax Pro Online account.

Sr. Security Analyst The Contractor shall provide a Security Lead Analyst who shall be responsible for cybersecurity contract delivery performed under this PWS. The Security Lead Analyst is responsible for quality and coordination of all cybersecurity with government cybersecurity leads throughout IT and shall be available during normal hours of operation.

The Security Lead Analyst shall have at least seven (7) years of demonstrated experience managing cybersecurity aspects of projects of similar size and possess Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification in good standing, at the time of contract award and throughout the period of performance or have a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience.

It is desired that the Security Lead Analyst have the following qualifications:

· A bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Project Management, Cybersecurity, or related field.

· Experience in organizing, directing, and managing multiple, complex, and interrelated application development and security scanning/testing tasks.

· Experience in Zero Trust Architecture.

· Experience in implementing security tool during the development of individual online account.

Sr. Cloud Architect The Contractor shall provide a Cloud Architect Lead who shall be responsible for developing end-to-end solution architect design. The design will include system integration dependencies that include both on prem and cloud. The architect lead will work with IT partners including Enterprise Solutions on developing and gaining approval on technical documentation (e.g., Cloud Design and Requirement Package).

It is desired that the Sr. Cloud Architect have the following qualifications:

· The Cloud Architect Lead shall have at least seven (7) years of demonstrated experience on OpenShift, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, FedRamp, and Authority to Operate (ATO). It’s preferable if the key personnel are cloud certified.

· A bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Project Management, Cybersecurity, or related field.

· AWS Certified.

Release Manager The Contractor shall provide a dedicated Project or Delivery Manager who shall be responsible for:

· Delivering the project and product using the appropriate agile project management methodology.

· Working with the Product Owner and Product Manager to define the roadmap for IOLA and developing epics, user stories and acceptance criteria.

· Leading the collaborative, dynamic planning process and prioritizing the work needed to be completed based on capacity and capability of the team.

· Ensuring IOLA is built to the appropriate level of quality for each phase of the development lifecycle (development, test, performance, and production).

· Providing weekly status to IRS management.

It is desired that the Release Manager have the following qualifications:

· At least seven (7) years of demonstrated experience as project, release, or delivery manager.

· A bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Project Management, Cybersecurity, or related field.

Sr. Business Analyst The Contractor shall provide a dedicated requirement management lead who shall have the skills and be responsible for the following:

· Expert knowledge of requirements management.

· Document line -of-sight traceability.

· Manage traceability from Epic, User Stories, Test Cases, systems integration components.

· Requirements elicitation and business elaboration.

· Perform requirements analysis and formulation.

· Review and creation of requirement specifications or user stories.

· Develop requirement process and identification of improvement potential.

· Execution of requirement reviews.

· Enter, maintain, and track requirements in repository.

· Enforce full line of sight traceability.

It is desired that the Sr. Business Analyst have the following qualifications:

· At least seven (7) years of demonstrated experience in requirements management.

· Exceptional organizational skills, including the ability to prioritize.

· Abstract logical way of thinking.

· Good communication and written skills.

· Decisiveness or decision-making ability.

· A bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Project Management, Cybersecurity, or related field.

Sr. System Engineer The Contractor shall provide dedicated system engineer for development and delivery management and have 10+ years of solution engineering experience. The contractor shall have knowledge of IRS tax processing and interfaces as well as the following knowledge and skills:

· Solid technical background to help drive development around the technical dependencies.

· Strong understanding of Agile methodologies and other software development methodologies.

· Experience in and knowledgeable of multiple information technology systems, and activities to improve or enhance internal processes.

· Strong analytical skills to examine systems and processes and extrapolate solutions.

· Experience in business process analysis and system analysis to move to digital services.

· Knowledge and experience in roadmap strategic development.

· Preparation of executive materials for briefings; experience in process improvements and implementation; experience in problem solving.

· A bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Project Management, Cybersecurity, or related field.

Sr. Technical Architect The Contractor shall provide a dedicated technical architect for development and delivery management and have 10+ years of architecture experience. The contractor shall have knowledge of the IRS enterprise architecture, and IRS tax processing and interfaces. Additionally, the contractor shall have the following knowledge and skills:

· Solid architecture background to help drive development around technical dependencies.

· Strong understanding of Agile methodologies and other software development methodologies.

· Experience in and knowledgeable of multiple information technology systems, and activities to improve or enhance internal processes.

· Strong analytical skills to examine systems and processes and extrapolate solution architectures.

· Experience in business process analysis and system analysis to move to digital services.

· Preparation of executive materials for briefings; experience in process improvements and implementation; experience in problem solving.

· Subject Matter Expert on Taxpayer Experience Platform, IRS IT internal and external system integration dependencies.

· A bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Project Management, Cybersecurity, or related field.

Front and Back End Web Developer Lead The contractor shall provide dedicated front and back-end web developers to translate static wireframes into functional, 508 compliant, front-end software using modern techniques and frameworks.

· The contractor shall have the skills and at least seven (7) years of demonstrated web development experience.

· Knowledge of programming languages such as JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React, JavaScript, and JQuery.

DevOps and Automation Lead The contractor shall provide a dedicated DevOps developer with at least 7+ years of DevSecOps pipeline. The DevOps lead shall have knowledge of the existing Taxpayer Experience Platform and its features to the CI/CD pipeline, including Git repositories and Jenkins CI/CD multi-branch templates of consisting of application build, infrastructure as code (IaC) scripts to manage the provision infrastructure throughout each environment for consistency. Has knowledge on the following software but not limited to:

· SonarQube.

· NexusIQ.

· AppScan.

· GitHub.

· Jenkins.

The Contractor must notify the Contracting Officer prior to making any changes or substitutions in key personnel. No substitutions shall be made except in accordance with below process and substitution clause located within IRS Security Clauses specifically BPA Clause #26 IR1052.204.9006 – NOTIFICATION OF CHANGE IN CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEE EMPLOYMENT STATUS, ASSIGNMENT, or STANDING.

1. Contractor promptly notifies the Contracting Officer in writing, at least fifteen (15) working days in advance of the proposed substitutions. The Government has 30 days to approve or disapprove key personnel or the proposed substitutions are deemed acceptable substitutions. Contractor must provide:

a. detailed explanation of the circumstances necessitating the proposed substitutions,

b. complete resume for the proposed substitute, and

c. any other information requested by the Contracting Officer needed to approve or disapprove the proposed substitution.

2. All proposed substitutions must have qualifications that are equal to or greater than the labor category position requirements.

3. The Contracting Officer (CO) will forward request to authorized Program Office representative (usually BPA or Task Order Level COR) to conduct evaluation of request. Representative will notify CO approval or disapproval.

Program Product Planning Product Planning Specialist The contractor must provide a Product Planning Specialist with 10+ years of roadmap and solution planning. Strong skills in planning, scheduling and engagement with stakeholder, and project management.

· 5+ years of demonstrated experience managing programs, and projects of similar size and possess a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in good standing, at the time of contract award and throughout the period of performance or have a minimum of 7 years of relevant experience.

· A bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Project Management, or related field.

· Experience in organizing, directing, and managing multiple, complex, and interrelated project tasks.

· Experience in effectively communicating at senior executive levels within a customer organization.

· Experience in effectively communicating with leadership of other contractors.

· Experience in meeting with customer and contractor personnel to formulate and review task plans and deliverable items, and effectively execute in accordance with approved plans.

· Facilitating prioritization sessions and executive briefings.

Sr. System Engineer and Sr. Technical Architect The contractor must provide a dedicated Sr. System Engineer and Sr. Technical Architect for product planning and have 10+ years of solution engineering and architecture experience. Knowledge of IRS tax processing and interface

· Solid technical background to help drive the technical dependency and sizing for prioritization and great understanding of Agile methodologies and other software development methodologies.

· Experience in and knowledgeable of multiple information technology systems, and activities to improve or enhance internal processes.

· Strong analytical skills to examine systems and processes and extrapolate solutions.

· Experience in business process analysis and system analysis to move to digital services.

· Knowledge and experience in Lean Business Case development and roadmap strategic development.

· Preparation of executive materials for briefings; experience in process improvements and implementation; experience in problem solving.

Task Areas Task 1 – Transition Management

7.1.1 Subtask 1.1 – Kick Off and Orientation Briefing

The Contractor will provide transition plans and an orientation briefing for the government. Contractor will discuss and present plans for transitioning task order activities with the incumbent service provider as necessary and will ensure transition plan is implemented within a time frame agreed upon by the contractor and the government. Contractor will discuss and present plans for transitioning task order activities as necessary. Within 5 business days of task order award, the contractor shall conduct an orientation briefing for the Government. The Government does not desire an elaborate orientation briefing, nor does it expect the contractor to expend significant resources in preparation for this briefing. Rather, the intent of the briefing is to initiate the communication process between the Government and contractor by introducing key task order participants, explaining their roles, reviewing communication ground rules, and assuring a common understanding of task order requirements and objectives.

The orientation briefing shall be held at the Government's facility and both parties shall mutually agree upon date and time. The completion of this briefing shall result in the following:

· The contractor and Government personnel who will perform work under this task order will be introduced.

· The Government will show the applicable facilities to the contractor if the contractor will be performing work on the Government's site.

· Any issues concerning the contractor clearances for contractor personnel will be discussed.

· The contractor shall demonstrate confirmation of their understanding of the work to be accomplished under this PWS.

While the MBI paperwork is being processed, the vendor shall provide support on a labor hour basis during this period, while non-key personnel and other required specialists submit the proper paperwork. If vendor personnel already received government investigation approval, monthly payments will not be affected.

Desired Outcome – Tax Pro Account PMO and the Contractor have a solid understanding of the task order requirements and that all personnel are introduced to the IRS team.

Work Products –

· The contractor shall provide orientation briefing, meeting minutes and actions items within one week of the meeting.

· During the first 60 days, the contractor shall start drafting and finalizing polices, plans, process, procedures, Responsible Accountable Consulted and Informed (RACIs), Program Management Plan (PMP), draft Integrated Master Schedule (IMS), numbering convention for documentation reviews, traceability document, and other related technical documentation needed for this project.

· The Government shall have 10 business days to review the draft Transition In Plan and provide comments to the contractor. Government and contractor representatives will then meet to discuss the comments after which the contractor shall incorporate the agreed-upon changes and deliver a final start-up within five working days of the government’s feedback.

6.1.2 Subtask Area – Transition In/Out

Within 60 calendar days of the completion of performance of this task order (or as designated by the IRS), the contractor shall fully support the transition of the contractor’s work that is turned over to another entity, either government or a successor contractor. The contractor shall assist with transition planning and shall comply with transition milestones and schedules of events.

The contractor shall be responsible for the implementation of the transition and application cutover activities. The transition shall cause no disruption in development services or operations. To ensure the necessary continuity of services and to maintain the current level of support, IRS may retain services of the incumbent contractor for some, or all, the transition period, as may be required.

The contractor shall be responsible for the transition of all technical activities identified in this task order. As part of the transition, the contractor shall be responsible for:

· Inventory and orderly transfer of all Government-Furnished Property (GFP), to include hardware, software, and licenses, Contractor Acquired Government Property, and Government Furnished Information (GFI).

· Transfer of documentation currently in process.

· Transfer of all software code in process.

· Certification that all non-public IRS information has been purged from any contractor-owned system.

· Participate in knowledge transfer activities in accordance with the transition plan.

· Provide members to and participate in transition management team.

If the government provides a Transition-Out Plan template, the contractor shall complete it as assigned; otherwise, the contractor shall submit a Transition-Out Plan at the direction of the government. The Transition-Out Plan shall:

· Document the strategic approach.

· Identify equipment, hardware, software, documents and other artifacts that are included in the transition.

· Document milestones and schedules.

· Document work in progress.

· Identify transition risks and risk mitigation.

· Define roles and responsibilities.

· Define transition approval authorities and lines of communication.

7.2 Task 2 – Program Management Support (OPTIONAL)

Program Management in this area differs from Contractor Program Management of the BPA or individual task orders. Program Management in this section primarily refers to the delivery of specific Online Account Program Management tasks or deliverables to execute the Online Account Program; however, may be used by other programs and projects. Program management support would include activities at the program management level inclusive of but not limited to:

· Shall provide program management for all activities performed under this contract.

· Shall provide a dedicated program management resource for tasks under Tax Pro Account Applications DevSecOps, Infrastructure and Support Services.

· Shall perform the contract technical effort using sound program management principles.

· Shall monitor all work and coordinate with designated government representatives and other vendors as required.

· Shall act in the best interest of the Government in relationships with other commercial providers and shall maintain complete confidentiality and the highest ethical standards in these matters, as related to the performance of this contract.

· Shall conduct monthly In-Progress Reviews (IPRs) concerning contract and performance-related issues. The IPRs will be a face-to-face meeting with the Government Program staff. The Contractor shall use Microsoft PowerPoint as the delivery method for the IPR. The Government may require more frequent IPRs. The Contractor shall ensure that it fulfills all tasks and requirements within budget and on schedule.

· Shall support recurring, scheduled and ad-hoc meetings relating to the required and contract Level tasks within this PWS.

· Shall participate in weekly briefings to the Government PM and staff and shall develop Status Reports for those meetings; Support executives briefing and report status.

· Shall develop a Resource Management Plan that maps key program management and managed services personnel to projects and responsibilities.

· Shall provide advisory and consulting assistance as requested on program management.

· Provide coaching support to assist in IRS adoption and execution of incremental development and delivery approaches.

· Draft, review, and update project management documentation in accordance with IRS guidelines and templates.

· Develop and maintain project schedule and work breakdown schedule.

· Monitor, track, review, and update project status, and provide analysis to ensure that all impacts are identified early in the project planning.

· Support the development and maintain a configurable set of project guidance, documents, and plans to be tailored to each project.

· Support facilitating lessons learned reviews with continuous development, documentation, communication, and application of lessons learned.

· Support ALL project-related reviews. Examples include Project/Release Readiness Reviews, Sprint Reviews, and Project/Release Milestone Exit Reviews.

· Strategic Planning: Support the alignment of IT requirements/ Information Resource Management (IRM) plans with strategic business plans and program initiatives.

· Management Improvements: support implementation of improved systems and business practices to optimize productivity and service delivery operations (e.g., analysis, implementation of improvements in the flow of IT work and program processes and tool utilization, including business system analysis, identification of requirements for streamlining, re-engineering, or re-structuring internal systems/business processes.

· The Contractor shall integrate all scheduling activities with the IRS’s standard project management tool.

Desired Outcome – The Director, Senior Managers, and Delivery Release Managers of Tax Pro Account PMO are kept informed on the major activities in this Task; Lessons learned from other programs, releases, and projects are effectively applied to minimize and mitigate project risks and deficiencies.

Work Products – Status Briefing meeting materials, meeting minutes, action items, and team roasters within one week of the meetings; Program Management Plan (PMP)

7.3 Task 3 - Risk Management and Contingency Planning (OPTIONAL)

· The Contractor shall develop a Risk Management Plan that conforms to best practices and provides visibility into all categories of Project Risk.

· The Contractor shall execute proactive Risk Management and shall identify risks to project success, documenting them in a Risk Register approved for viewing by any stakeholder requested by IRS.

· The Contractor shall document the probability, severity and timeframe of each identified risk and identify the negative impact of each risk.

· The Contractor shall execute proactive risk mitigation and contingency planning and shall identify techniques to mitigate risks before they occur and contingency plans to reduce their negative effects.

· The Contractor shall document the recommended mitigation and contingency plans in the Contractor’s Management file area within a shared file management system and shall track the status of any risk mitigation or contingency planning activities for which the Contractor is responsible.

· The Contractor shall participate in periodic risk reviews, on a schedule dictated by IRS, in which risks, mitigation plans, and contingency plans are reviewed and discussed. The Contractor shall be tasked with executing such actions wherever appropriate.

· The Contractor shall document and maintain all program risks and issues in IRS project management tool.

7.4 Task Area – Requirement Management (OPTIONAL)

· The Contractor shall follow IRS project management standards across all stakeholders managed. Project activities include, but are not limited to, project lifecycle workflow approvals, regularly updating Key Performance Indicator, and preparation of Dashboards.

· The Contractor shall use IRS Project Management tool and follow IRS’s rules and policies for maintaining projects in that tool.

· The Contractor shall perform end-to-end traceability in IRS approved repository.

· The Contractor shall maintain all project documentation on IRS approved collaboration site.

7.5 Task Area - Release Development

Contractor personnel are expected to be involved in managing and supporting the prioritization, program portfolio management, release management, and other strategic and tactical processes across multiple simultaneous projects/releases. This includes guiding the release team, elaborating and implementing Agile stories, providing guidance to scale Agile delivery methods, and providing necessary support to supplement release team efforts through a variety of roles. The support will be provided for multiple IT organizations including Tax Pro Account PMO, Applications Development, Enterprise Services, Enterprise System Test, Cybersecurity, etc.

· Shall develop a program management plan (PMP) to address the Contractor’s approach and schedule for implementing the requirements of this PWS and achieving the performance standards for each task. The Contractor shall maintain and update the PMP for the duration of the contract.

7.5.1 Subtask Area – Release Support Functions

Desired Outcomes- The program has staff with the appropriate skillsets to provide software development, testing, and technical leadership and can monitor and report readiness status for each product deployment or drop deploying the system to production within schedule.

Work Products – The table below describes the Product Planning, Program Increment (every 9 weeks) and release iteration (2-week sprints) work products that will be delivered on a continuous basis for support under this Task Area:

User Acceptance Test

Conduct code review

Section 508 Applicable Provisions and Testing DID (APT) with test results and implemented methodologies.

Demonstration of application using Assistive technology (standalone screen reader, screen magnifier and Voice command software compatible with the IRS COE*)

* IRS COE Assistive technology: JAWS 13 or 16; ZoomText 10.11.7.4; Dragon Naturally Speaking 14

Knowledge Transfer Documented Working Sessions

Status Updates and Reporting Updates to the ROAD Guide

Update Computer Operator Handbook (COH)

Updates to Interface Control Documents (ICDs)

Updates to Security Compliance Documents Security Compliance documents

Updates to Vision, Scope and Architecture (VSA)

Incorporate Swagger API documentation

7.5.2 Subtask Area – Release Delivery Teams

At minimum this team will support Agile delivery for the effort as outlined below:

DevSecOps Infrastructure:

The DevSecOps tools and infrastructure currently in place for Tax Pro Account does not provide the agility and scalability necessary to efficiently develop, deliver, operate and maintain both current and planned products and capabilities, including those specified as part of business systems modernization, the Inflation Reduction Act.

The opportunity is to improve both the tools, processes and underlying infrastructure, taking advantage of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (Infrastructure/Cloud) to increase program velocity, scalability and operability.

DevSecOps Tools and Processes - Improve tools and processes utilized to fully control our environments. Increase automation used in operations. This initiative is composed of many smaller efforts, e.g., deprecation/modification to E2E, alignment with Business Systems Monitoring approach, and updated sources code management to support scaled agile (e.g. Git/GitFlow). Further automate prototyping, development, testing, and deployment models with modern patterns.

Infrastructure Supporting DevSecOps - Dramatically increase the use of cloud technology (e.g., ECP/OpenShift containers) supporting DevSecOps processes, to the point where most if not all “backend” virtual machines (VMs) used for this purpose are eliminated in favor of scalable containers and portable workloads. This can and should be done in phases to limit risk. This would be worked in alignment with the groups defining the enterprise CICD cloud-compatible processes and tools.

Infrastructure Supporting Production User Experience - Transition services supporting the production user experience that are currently hosted in enterprise computing center (ECC) VMs to dynamic and scalable cloud, including ECP and/or Treasury/GovCloud environment(s). Like the transition of infrastructure supporting DevSecOps processes, this conversion of Production services to cloud/containers would be performed incrementally to reduce risk. The move to containers would enable portable workloads that can in some instances be moved between cloud environments (e.g., ECP<->GovCloud/AWS) where desirable.

Desired Outcome of Continuous DevSecOps Delivery Onboarding – The Program will…