Statement of Objectives 4.27.26.pdf

Statement of Objectives (SOO)

Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Training Scheduling and Resource Management Software

1.0 Background

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Workforce Development (AFB-500), requires a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software solution to support the planning, development, management, and execution of annual training schedules.

Training events include both:

• In-person (classroom-based) instruction

• Virtual (synchronous online) instruction

Current scheduling and room assignment processes require significant manual coordination and lack automated resource allocation and deconfliction capabilities. The Government seeks a COTS solution that enhances efficiency, accuracy, visibility, and enterprise-level coordination of training operations.

2.0 Objective

The objective of this market research is to identify commercially available software solutions capable of:

1. Developing and managing annual training schedules for both in-person and virtual training sessions.

2. Assigning and optimizing physical classroom space

3. Allocating instructional and facility resources

4. Performing automated conflict detection and deconfliction

The Government seeks solutions that improve transparency, reduce manual workload, and provide enterprise-level visibility into training capacity and utilization.

3.0 Scope

The desired solution shall support:

3.1 Training Schedule Development

• Creation of multi-month and annual training calendars

• Able to maintain at least two scheduling years at the same time.

• Assist with building and scheduling “String” course schedules, which are an established set of linked, sequenced courses.

• Assist with balancing “String” schedule with individual course scheduling.

• Recurring course scheduling

• Scenario planning and forecasting

• Drag-and-drop scheduling capability (preferred)

3.2 Classroom and Virtual Room Assignment

• Automated assignment of physical classrooms based on:

o Capacity o Equipment requirements o Location o Historical room utilization

• Integration with virtual platforms (e.g., MS Teams, Zoom, WebEx, or similar)

• Simultaneous management of physical and virtual rooms

3.3 Resource Allocation

• Instructor assignment and workload management

• Contract and Government instructor resource tracking

• Equipment/resource availability (labs, simulators, specialty rooms, etc.)

• Differentiate instructor resource types (Contractor, Adjunct, and Course Manager) and utilize each type based on a desired percentage of overall utilization.

3.4 Conflict Detection and Deconfliction

• Automated identification of:

o Double-booked instructors o Overlapping room assignments o Resource conflicts

• Alerting capability

• Decision-support recommendations for resolution

• Allowance for priority weighting in automatic deconfliction

• Manual rule-based conflict resolution

• Override authority with audit tracking

3.5 Reporting and Analytics

• Utilization reporting (rooms, instructors, course offerings)

• Performance metric tracking for instructor type utilization goals

• Capacity planning metrics

• Historical trend reporting

• Exportable reports (Excel, PDF, etc.)

• Dashboard-level executive visibility

• Student throughput

3.6 Access and Security

• Role-based user permissions

• Audit trail capability

• Compliance with Federal cybersecurity requirements (e.g., FedRAMP preferred, if cloud-based)

3.7 Integration (Desired but Not Mandatory)

• Learning Management System (LMS) integration capability

• Calendar system integration (e.g., Outlook)

• Data import/export via API

4.0 Constraints

• The solution must be commercially available (COTS).

• Custom-developed systems are not within scope.

• Configuration is acceptable; extensive custom coding is not preferred.

• The solution must be scalable to enterprise-level training operations.

• The solution must support both on-site and remote training environments.

5.0 Desired Outcomes

The Government seeks a solution that:

• Reduces manual scheduling effort

• Improves scheduling accuracy

• Increases visibility into training capacity

• Optimizes room utilization

• Prevents instructor and facility conflicts

• Provides leadership-level reporting capability

• Supports long-range planning and operational forecasting

6.0 Vendor Response Instructions

Interested vendors are requested to provide:

1. Product name and description

2. Confirmation that the solution is COTS

3. Description of scheduling capabilities

4. Description of resource allocation and deconfliction functionality

5. Hosting model (cloud, SaaS, on-premise, hybrid)

6. FedRAMP status (if applicable)

7. Typical implementation timeline

8. Pricing structure (ballpark, not binding)

9. Federal Government past performance (if available)

10. Demonstration availability

Responses are for market research purposes only and shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or award a contract.