LSJ_General_Software_Enhancements_NHLBI_For_Approval_Redacted_1.pdf

b. Project background.

The ITAC develops, enhances, and maintains both custom and Commerical Off-the-Shelf (COTS) software systems that supports NHLBI business operations. This support is split between multiple development contractors, a contractor supporting Software Maintenance/Sustainment and a contractor supporting Software Enhancement. The focus of this task order is to provide software development and enhancement services for a government designated set of ITAC managed software systems.

i. Incumbent Contractor:

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT).

3150 Fairview Park Drive Falls Church, VA 22042 703-995-8700

ii. BPA/Order Number: HHSN268201800008B/75N92022F00001

iii. Period of Performance: February 18, 2022 through February

17, 2025

iv. Amount obligated to date: $8,211,427.83

v. The initial award was competed full and open under applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures under the ITAC Blanket Purchase Agreement in 2022, a total of two (2) proposals were received in response to the solicitation that resulted in the initial award.

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

a. Project title. General Software Enhancements

b. Project description. The General Software Enhancements task order provides software development support as well as enhancement of several critical applications utilized across NHLBI and the NIH to include but not limited to the Electronic Performance Management Appraisal Program (ePMAP), Grants Dashboard, Tracking, Requests and Correspondence (TRAC), User Interface Path (UiPath), SharePoint, and Power Platform Applications. Once a program of enhancement is complete, the software will transition to the maintenance portfolio. Newly developed applications will transition to the maintenance portfolio when complete. NHLBI requires development and enhancement services to meet emerging NHLBI mission needs and stakeholder commitments, improvement of underlying code and architecture, reduction of technical debt, and alignment with the target architecture defined by the NHLBI ITAC Enterprise Architecture.

Requirement type.

Support services (non-research & development) Supplies/equipment Information technology (IT) Other (specify): ____________________

Type of action.

New requirement Follow-on – Extension of current Task Order Other (specify): ______________________

Proposed contract/order type.

Firm-fixed-price

Indefinite delivery (specify whether indefinite quantity, definite quantity, or requirements): ___________ Other (specify): ___________

Acquisition identification number.

HHSN268201800008B/75N92022F00001

c. Total estimated dollar value and performance/delivery period.

Current Task Order Value: $8,900,724.22 12 Month Extension Value: $4,220,623.72 New Task Order Value: $13,121,347.94 Value Requested by this action: $4,220,623.72 (the current BPA has sufficient funding remaining for this extension) Current Period of Performance: February 18, 2022 – February 17, 2025 New Period of Performance: February 18, 2022 - February 17, 2026

4. Identification of the justification rationale [see 8.405-6(a) and (b)] and, if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

a. Acquisition authority.

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program. Consideration of schedule contractors will be restricted to fewer than the number required by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(C) (Logical Follow-on).

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program. Consideration of schedule contractors will be restricted only to the item peculiar to one manufacturer as provided in FAR 8.405-6(a)(2).

b. Demonstration of the proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service.

Name and address of the proposed contractor(s).

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT).

3150 Fairview Park Drive Falls Church, VA 22042 703-995-8700

i. Nature of the acquisition and proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications.

The period of performance of General Software Enhancements task order is expected to end on February 17, 2025. ITAC has identified a need for a modification to extend the current period of performance by twelve (12) months to successfully complete the ongoing work and reduce the risk associated with lack of support for critical systems that support grants management, research, and NHLBI administration. FAR 8.405–6(a)(1)(i)(C)) states “in the interest of economy and efficiency, the new work is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order provided that the original order was placed in accordance with the applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures.

The original order or BPA must not have been previously issued under sole-source or limited sources procedures.” In the "interest of economy and efficiency" it is imperative GDIT be awarded a "logical follow-on" extension to complete work that is currently in progress. The original order was not issued under sole-source or limited sources procedures. The government is avoiding the duplication of costs and efforts, and the associated potential risks of transitioning the work to another vendor under the multiple award BPA.

ITAC has concluded that unless the current GDIT team continues the work, the delivery schedule committed will slip significantly, and systems could be put at risk by not getting critical updates in a timely manner and losing the ability to effectively maintain those systems. The nature of this program is that the SOW did not define what features would be worked on over the three year period of performance, but instead provided the list of systems and the process for feature and epic approval against those systems. ITAC works with the stakeholders, called the Change Control Board, of the various systems that are in scope of this contract and determines what should be worked on through a process of Program Increment (PI) Planning. At NHLBI, PIs are limited to 12 week increments and full software lifecycle development work (requirement to deployment) on a specific feature or epic can exceed the 12 week PI. PIs are planned and approved at least one PI prior to the one being worked on. For example, PI 1 is from 1/2/2025 –

4/2/2025, however the work for that PI was approved in PI 3 or 4 of the previous calendar year.

ITAC performs quarterly PI planning in accordance with SAFe processes and it often is not possible to complete work within the designated PI and must continue into future PIs. Due to the scope and complexity of some of the items and systems in the GSE backlog, there are work items that must continue beyond the currently planned PI, thus making an extension in the best interest of the Government so that these work items can be addressed in the committed timeframe, and the team can still be able to address unplanned security remediations, bug fixes, and operational tasks. Features and epics straddling across PIs is not uncommon and not a result of contractor inefficiencies, but as stated earlier, due to the complexity of the feature or epic being worked on. Not every feature or epic can be constrained to a 12 week work period, and due to factors such as complexity of the requirement(s), external dependencies (such as waiting on CIT or other NIH groups), unplanned security or emergency fixes on systems in the program portfolio, these may span multiple PIs. Additionally, there are several in-progress items that pertain to the remediation of security vulnerabilities and require the incumbent knowledge to continue and see through their finish. Due to the nature of security vulnerabilities, there was not the luxury of being able to defer the work until a new contract has transitioned in or to pre-plan the work in PI Planning. These must continue and include work that runs beyond the period of performance of the current contract.

Delaying those activities would negatively impact the security posture of NHLBI and therefore NIH. Outside of security work, PI planned committed work includes feature development for systems who have limited time windows to allow for the deployment of new features and larger, more complex changes to NHLBI enterprise systems such as the ePMAP (the performance management tool for all of NIH and HRSA), TRAC, and other grants, clinical trials, and researcher tools.Delays to development in those systems could require requestors to wait upwards of a year, when the system is available for deployment again, depending on their release cycle.

5. Determination by the ordering activity Contracting Officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

By placing an order against a schedule contract (current ITAC BPA) using the procedures in FAR 8.405, the ordering activity Contracting Officer has concluded that a modification to the existing order represents the best value (see FAR 2.101) and results in the lowest overall cost alternative (considering price, special features, administrative costs, etc.) to meet the Government’s needs.

Furthermore, additional discounts will be sought before modifying the order in accordance with FAR 8.405-4.

In accordance with 8.405-2(d), Evaluation, the price evaluation will be conducted by determining if the labor proposed to perform the work is appropriate, and by determining that the total price is reasonable. The resultant modification will be a labor hour effort using institutional knowledge of the work to be performed and information for previous similar efforts to negotiate a fair and reasonable price.

The Government will rely on labor categories and rates consistent with the Contractor’s Federal Supply Schedule with similar discounts to those provided under the current Blanket Purchase Agreement to ensure the proper discounts are sought.

An estimate for the Government to obtain current development and operational efficiencies and effectiveness levels with a new contractor would cost the Government an estimated $1M and require overlapping task orders to support an in depth transition. Requirements could be delayed up to six months, based on previous similar efforts.

This estimate was developed by taking into consideration transition in and out costs, the ramp up needed for development, the cost to the Government based on FTE oversight, and the costs to complete committed work. It is not anticipated that the Government would recover the additional $1M cost through competition at this time. GDIT is uniquely positioned to continue to provide the support needed in the time required and an extension is determined to be in the best interest of the Government.

6. Description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

Market research for this action, which included reviewing historical data to determine transition costs and development ramp up, revealed that costs would be significantly greater for other vendors because of the transition-in and transition-out costs and associated government oversight at this point in the program. Based on our analysis and research, no other vendor will be able to complete the efforts initiated under the current task order without additional costs, efforts, and the potential project delays that would occur. Market research was completed on the initial BPA call and fair opportunity was considered.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification. None

8. Statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

a. Removal of barriers to competition.

NHLBI expects that the scope of this requirement will change once the systems changes are executed, and the future requirement will be competed under the new ITAC Agile, Data Science, and Strategy Services (ADS) BPA, another vehicle, or a combination in order to ensure NHLBI is presented with the optimum capabilities for their needs.

a. Listing of sources, if any, that expressed an interest, in writing, in the acquisition. None