S150042_IROC_Govt_Responses_to_Exhibit_A_RFI_Questions_100915.pdf

U.S. Forest Service

AG-024B-S-15-0042, IROC Agile Development

Exhibit A

Questions Submittal Template

All Questions and Government Responses

Document Reference

(RFI, SOO, PI/EC,

Attachment #)

Page

No. Section No. Question/Comment Government Response

General Is the company that developed the requirements eligible to bid as a prime on this RFP? Are they eligible to subcontract to another small business and compete for the work as part of a small business team? Or are they excluded based on OCI? The current ROSS O&M service provider and the IROTA (study) service provider are not restricted from competing on the IROC effort. The performance work statement for Interagency Resource

Ordering Technical Assessment (IROTA) was tailored to remove any potential, apparent or real conflict of interest and there are no parties that are excluded/prohibited from competing on the development portion. Pertinent Output/Deliverables from the IROTA contract are included in the attachments and available to all bidders. There are no exclusions from prime contractors working with subcontractors with the exception of the Limitations of Subcontracting clauses that is expected to be included in the final solicitation.

Attach_6_IROC_Interactiv e_mockups

2 My Active Incidents map - It appears that there is a requirement to provide interface with GIS software. If there is a requirement, what GIS packages are currently used?

FAM-IT has an active project that provides an Enterprise Geospatial Portal which uses ESRI ArcMap and HTML 5 for the clients.

RFI 5 Requested

Information

#6

What -off-the-shelf software could be used as the basis of the IROC? - What happens if the COTS package(s) proposed are not currently part of the approved USFS Enterprise Architecture, or USFS does not currently have licensing for the package? How does that impact USFS evaluation and acceptance of our RFI response, and/or evaluation and acceptance of our final proposal? What is the change process a new COTS would have to go through? Can that be spelled out in the final RFP?

Assuming a new COTS is accepted in the final proposal solution, would the Government pay for that package licensing up front as part of the provisioning of USFS Dev, Test and Ops environments, or would the contractor pay for it? What criteria will the Government use to technically evaluate any specific COTS package(s) that are proposed by the contractor? How will the cost of any such proposed COTS packaged be evaluated as part of the price evaluation?

Potential OTS considerations could include supply chain management or logistics management software but these suggestions are not to be considered an exhaustive list. IBM Sterling Supply software is currently used by the Fire Caches as part of the ICBS system which will need to interface with IROC. It is the Offeror's duty to recommend potential OTS or build-from-scratch or hybrid approaches to the requirements in the SOO. Any OTS package would need to go through the Forest

Service Technical Assessment process for approval. The contractor should include the cost of any software license(s) required. Include initial and O&M license costs. We will look at OTS, build-from-scratch, and hybrid approaches. Government would evaluate the approach in accordance with the evaluation criteria in the solicitation including analyzing lifecycle costs to evaluate (i.e. a reduction in development costs would be compared to the total lifecycle cost of using off the shelf solutions).

The Government will also consider upfront license costs. If the licenses are procured as other direct costs, the license will be put in the governments' name.

PI/EC 1 1.1 What are the requirements for providing "hyperlinks of past performance product examples?" How many?

Provide no more that three hyperlinks of past performance product examples. Please include work similar to that contemplated by the solicitation/SOO.

PI/EC 2 1.1 Suggest adding 'Quality Control Plan' as one of the items "Not included" in the Page Limitations bullets. Agreed

PI/EC 2 1.2 Factor 1 has 4 bullets. What is the total page limit for Factor 1? i.e., what is the page limit for the two sections entitled "Technical Approach", and entitled "Detailed Timeline and proposed Travel?"

The total page limit for the overall technical proposal is 20 pages and certain sections/deliverables have been excluded from this page count. How each page count for each factor is allocated will be left to the discretion of the offeror.

RFI - Request for Information document

SOO - Statement of Objectives PI/EC - Prop Instr/Eval Criteria 1 of 5

Exhibit A

Questions Submittal Template

All Questions and Government Responses

PI/EC 2 1.2 Factor 2 has two bullets. What is to total page limit for Factor 2?

The total page limit for the overall technical proposal is 20 pages and certain sections/deliverables have been excluded from this page count. How each page count for each factor is allocated will be left to the discretion of the offeror.

PI/EC 2 1.2 Factor 3 has 3 bullets. How many past performance references are required? At a minimum? At a maximum? Same questions regarding the number of past performance product examples? What is the total page limit for Factor 2? What is the page limit for the Past Performance Product

Examples?

A minimum number of references will not be specified; a maximum of three references will be allowed. If a PPIRS/CPARS report is available and the Offeror would like it pulled specifically as part of their past performance history then that project should be called out in the offerors response otherwise PPIRS/CPARS records will be pulled randomly by the Government for consideration in the evaluation process.

PI/EC 5 2.1.1 #4 #4 ends with…."Note: As indicated in the proposal instructions, only non-financial incentives can be included. Non-financial and/or financial disincentives can be included." Where is this indicated in the proposal instructions, we did not see it anywhere?

"Only non-financial INCENTIVES can be included. Non-financial and/or financial DISINCENTIVES can be included."

PI/EC 5 2.1.2 Bullet 2 mentions CMMI Level 3 or equivalent certification for the Prime. Can you please list all of the acceptable corporate level management and quality certifications that you will consider so that there is no ambiguity? Is it required in your proposal to show evidence of such current certification as of proposal due date?

This evaluation factor will be evaluated and it is not considered to be a 'go/no-go' factor. CMMI

Level III is the preferred certification. ISSO 9001:2008/2015, ISO/IEC 27001, certification (or a combination) and/or a proven software product using Agile development and proven strong quality control program with elements adhering to the above industry standards will be evaluated.

Certification Certificates and/or proven strong quality control program documentation should be included as part of the RFP response and shall be current at the time of submittal of the offer.

PI/EC 6 2.2 What is the minimum number of references required? What is the maximum number you want to see? Will teaming partners/subcontractor's past performance references be given the same weight as the primes references?

A minimum number of references will not be specified; a maximum of three references will be allowed. If a PPIRS/CPARS report is available and the Offeror would like it pulled specifically as part of their past performance history then that project should be called out in the offerors response otherwise PPIRS/CPARS records will be pulled randomly by the Government for consideration in the evaluation process.

PI/EC 7 2.2.1 Suggest adding a numbered item to the Past Performance Summary requirements to state whether or not the reference is in PPIRS/CPARS or not. That way you know how many Questionnaires to expect.

Agreed

PI/EC 9 4 You state…."the Offeror may not introduce any new materials that are not part of their written submitted Technical Proposal volume." Does this mean we may, or may not, prepare a PowerPoint or other presentation? Would a PowerPoint constitute "new materials?" I.e. are we to present using the proposal documents only?

PowerPoint presentations containing information also found in the proposal do not constitute "new materials" and are acceptable.

SOO 4 3 States…."Legacy ROSS is hosted on the National Enterprise Support System (NESS) computer server hardware, as are the Development, Practice, and Training application configurations. ......NESS provides the development site for the ROSS Contractor to develop, test and conduct quality control on changes prior to release." Will USFS be providing Development, Practice and Training environments on NESS servers, or will the contractor need to provide their own infrastructure?

The Government is in the process of determining if the Contractor would be allowed to host the development, testing/quality assurance, practice, training and production environments on scalable

FedRAMP approved environment. There are internal FAM-IT approvals that need to be obtained for this. Offerors are encouraged to provide feedback to the pros and cons of using the NESS hosted environment vs. an external FedRAMP environment.

SOO - Statement of Objectives PI/EC - Prop Instr/Eval Criteria 2 of 5

Exhibit A

Questions Submittal Template

All Questions and Government Responses

SOO 7 4 You mention that "requirements in the table are estimated to be 80% complete." In terms of the overall contract scope, do the requirements identified in the RFI attachments and exhibits encompass the entire scope of the project? I .e., since this is an FFP contract, may we assume that when the final RFP is issued that no new requirements gathering will be required, etc.; that the RFP and attachments will constitute the entire scope? That any new discoveries would be outside the defined scope and would require a change order?

It is the Government's assertion that requirements gathering is estimated at 80% complete and we do not believe that the requirements identified in the RFI attachments and exhibits encompass the entire scope of the project. The Government expects there is the potential for additional requirements to surface during the Agile development process and it is reasonable to expect such.

Additionally, it is desired that if the Offeror's bid includes OTS software, they detail which requirements the software will meet and to what degree the requirements will be met.

SOO 9 5.0

Outcomes

Maximize off-the-shelf software to minimize O&M and DME efforts - Is there a list of COTS packages that were evaluated based on the requirements or is it the responsibility of the Offeror to suggest a suitable COTS package? Potential OTS considerations could include supply chain management or logistics management software but these suggestions are not to be considered an exhaustive list. IBM Sterling Supply software is currently used by the Fire Caches as part of the ICBS system which will need to interface with IROC. It is part of the Offeror's responsibility to recommend potential OTS, to be evaluated by the Government, that could be used as the basis for IROC.

SOO 11 7.0

Constraints

SOO Section 7.0 says - "Be fully operational by the end of year two of the contract"; Is it the expectation of the Government that the new system IROC be implemented in a phased manner and run both ROSS and IROC in parallel until the completion of development or should it be built in a phased manner and move to production at the completion of all the development (at the end of year two)?

It is the intent of the Government that the IROC will be built in a phased manner and moved into the Production environment at the completion of all development (at the end of year two of the contract).

SOO 12 9 Please clarify the period of performance. You state "The base period of performance shall extend for one year from the date of award. Option periods may be exercised at the discretion of the

Government." How many option periods will there be? 1, 2, 3, 4 or?

"The base period of performance shall extend for one year from the date of award. A maximum of 4 options periods may be exercised at the discretion of the Government." Maximum contract length would be five years including all option periods.

SOO 12 12 The Government will provide two laptop computers to ensure access to Forest Service software and systems - Does this mean the contractor needs to provide laptops to other staff? You state

"LincPass access will be provided to the primary users of those laptops" - Will the Government be granting VPN access to more than two contractor staff? Or only two?

The Government will provide VPN access for multiple contractor staff beyond the two computers issued by the Government.

RFI 5 6.off-the-shelf

If we were to offer an off-the-shelf software solution, should we include additional features in our

RFI response that were not detailed in any of the supporting documents? We would like guidance as to whether this would add value to the RFI response.

Yes, it would add value to identify additional functionality that benefits the Government.

SOO - Statement of Objectives PI/EC - Prop Instr/Eval Criteria 3 of 5

Exhibit A

Questions Submittal Template

All Questions and Government Responses

SOO 10 FedRAMP Assuming the cost is competitive and system availability is acceptable, is a FedRAMP approved cloud hosting environment preferred to the current NESS environment?

Scalability is an important consideration and a FedRAMP approved cloud hosting environment is preferred if it also reduces the overall cost and improves performance however the Government is in the process of determining if the Contractor would be allowed to host the development, testing/quality assurance, practice, training and production environments on scalable FedRAMP approved environment. There are internal FAM-IT approvals that need to be obtained for this.

Offerors are encouraged to provide feedback to the pros and cons of using the NESS hosted environment vs. an external FedRAMP environment.

Data Dictionary General General With reference to the provided Logical Data Model, has the database already been implemented during a previous effort and the intent of the IROC project is to implement a front end to the existing database or will the project entail development of a new database in accord with the

Logical Data Model?

The intent of the IROC project is to implement a front end to the existing Oracle database that is currently used by the legacy ROSS application. This does not restrict the recommendation of another database management system. However, the legacy ROSS data needs to be available.

RFI General General Is there a known client preference for a particular development tool suite or infrastructure platform: e.g. database type; development language; reporting/business intelligence tools; source control/change management tools; etc.

The intent of the IROC project is to implement a front end to the existing Oracle database that is currently used by the legacy ROSS application. This does not restrict the recommendation of another database management system. However, the legacy ROSS data needs to be available. The

Government will evaluate recommendations using Gartner Quadrants and other information available on recommended systems.

PI/EC 5 2.1.2 Please clarify the difference between "very low performance risk" and "low performance risk."

Very Good/Low Performance Risk. Based on the offeror’s technical proposal and/or other information gathered, LITTLE doubt exists the offeror will successfully perform the required effort.

The offeror has demonstrated successful experience utilizing Agile processes in working on development/deployment projects for previous clients (Federal Government and/or Non-Federal entities) and any risks encountered are mitigated such that there is no major impacts to schedule, cost, or quality.

Exceptional/Very Low Performance Risk. Based on the offeror’s technical proposal and/or other information gathered, virtually NO doubt exists the offeror will successfully perform the required effort and any risks encountered are mitigated such that there is no impacts to schedule, cost, or quality. The offeror has demonstrated excellent experience utilizing Agile processes in working on design-build projects for previous clients (Federal Government and/or Non-Federal entities), and has exceptional demonstrated successful experience in working on design-build projects similar in size, scope, and complexity.

SOO - Statement of Objectives PI/EC - Prop Instr/Eval Criteria 4 of 5

Exhibit A

Questions Submittal Template

All Questions and Government Responses

SOO 4 3.0 What measure will the Government have in place to ensure NESS performance doesn't introduce delays to the development Agile processes and development efforts?

The Government is in the process of determining if the Contractor would be allowed to host the development, testing/quality assurance, practice, training and production environments on scalable

FedRAMP approved environment. There are internal FAM-IT approvals that need to be obtained for this. Offerors are encouraged to provide feedback to the pros and cons of using the NESS hosted environment vs. an external FedRAMP environment.

SOO 4 3.0 Is the Government flexible on NESS roles with regard to development environments and critical middleware that may be unfamiliar to NESS?

The selected Contractor may host the development, testing/quality assurance, practice, training and production environments on a scalable FedRAMP approved environment.

SOO 4 3.0 The SOO lists the Production, Development, Practice, and Training environments hosted by NESS. Is there a Test environment that is connected to external systems that can be used for interface testing?

The Government is in the process of determining if the Contractor would be allowed to host the development, testing/quality assurance, practice, training and production environments on scalable

FedRAMP approved environment. There are internal FAM-IT approvals that need to be obtained for this. Offerors are encouraged to provide feedback to the pros and cons of using the NESS hosted environment vs. an external FedRAMP environment.

SOO 6 3.0 Does IROC interface with Mutual Aid? If so, can the Government provide more specific information about how this interface needs to be developed?

IROC must be set up to interface with mutual aid and/or other systems whose data is in appropriate format and available through the SDMT. We would like to see an API in use for this information.

SOO 10 5.7 Can the Government provide more details about the existing LMS and the format of the training materials required?

The Government may require a variety of training formats intended to effectively train multiple learning types including, but not limited to YouTube videos, on-line (searchable) user guide documents, canned virtual training sessions, etc. It is the Offeror's duty to recommend appropriate training protocols and the associated materials for the IROC. Change Management must also be considered in the training materials.

SOO 11 7.0 Will it be the Government's or contractor's responsibility to obtain the ATO? The Contractor shall prepare the ATO and the Government shall review and submit it.

SOO 11 7.0 Does the end of year two include an initial transition period?

In two years, the Government expects the development, user acceptance testing, and final delivery of a fully functional IROC. Final deployment to the user community (including user training) is not factored into the two year development phase. Offerors are encouraged to provide feedback to the feasibility of this schedule in their RFI response for the Government to review.

RFI

Could you let us know if there is a spreadsheet to complete relative to the fully burdened labor rates requested below? Reference RFI request: "A list of labor categories with fully burdened labor rates that would be representative of the skill mix required to suppor the requirements of the draft

SOO."

For the purposes of the RFI the Government did not provide a list of labor categories. Please proceed with the RFI response by including those labor categories that the respondent believe would be required to meet the requirements of the draft SOO. The Government will make not to consider including a list of labor categories that are required, at a minimum, in the final solicitation

SOO - Statement of Objectives PI/EC - Prop Instr/Eval Criteria 5 of 5