AT_29896_LSJ_REDACTED.docx

Limited Source Justification SIT Bridge Task Order

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

CIO NBIB IT Program Management Office System Integration Testing (SIT)

1. Contracting Activity This Limited-Sources Justification (LSJ) supports a procurement action to be conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program (FAR 8.405-6). The procurement action is generated by the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM), Office of Procurement Operations (OPO).

2. Action Being Approved:

OPM through National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) is responsible for providing investigative products and services for more than 100 Federal agencies to use as the basis for a variety of adjudicative decisions, including but not limited to security clearance and suitability decisions as required by Federal law. NBIB’s mission is to deliver efficient and effective background investigations to safeguard the integrity and trustworthiness of the Federal workforce. For more than a century, NBIB’s predecessor organizations have provided background investigative services to a wide array of Federal departments and agencies. Over 95% of the Government’s background investigations are provided by NBIB.

NBIB Information Technology (IT) Program Management Office (PMO) provides technical services to NBIB. NBIB IT PMO designs, develops, and maintains mainframe, distributed and web-based systems to support OPM program offices that are not related to Retirement and Insurance Services, including NBIB suite of systems, OPM enterprise systems, Oracle database administration support and OPM web services and support. Specifically, the work objective of this requirement is to provide all aspects of System Integration Testing (SIT) support to ensure that all aspects of the suite of applications developed are verified and validated to improve product quality and time to “market”. System Integration Testing services shall include planning, designing, executing, and reporting on system integration testing of all releases to include new developments, enhancements and bug fixes. Testing shall be conducted from both release specific and integrated perspective which shall include new, transformed and legacy System Integration Testing.

Systems Integration Testing (SIT) crosses both current legacy and some transformed systems since the integration of Java with legacy programs is fundamental to the transformation release strategy. Knowledge of both transformed releases and operational systems is critical to effective SIT delivery.

These services are currently provided under the now expired OPM Information Technology Support Services (ITSS) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) Call OPM32-12-A-0013 W0012 with List Innovative Solutions. This BPA Call was issued for a one-year base period of performance and four (4) one-year option periods as well as a six-month FAR 52.217-8 option. The FAR 52.217-8 option was exercised on September 12, 2018 with a Period of Performance (PoP) going from September 13, 2019 through March 12, 2019.

OPM requires a bridge effort for these services with a base period of performance of (3) months from March 13, 2018 through June 12, 2019 and three (3) three-month option periods. The total length of the task order will be 12 months, if all options are exercised. A lapse in service would leave the systems used by NBIB to perform their mission critical services supporting the process of conducting background investigations vulnerable.

As a result, this Limited Source Justification (LSJ) provides justification to issue a sole source bridge task order to List Innovative Solutions (List) against GSA Schedule contract number GS-35F-0238K in order to continue these vital services for a base period of three months with three (3) three-month options in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B)—Only one source capable of providing the supplies or services.

3. Description of the Services Required to Meet the Agency's Needs The services required under this bridge effort are to maintain the viability and efficacy of the System Integration Test suite of tools.

The objectives of this requirement are targeted to elements critical to the NBIB IT PMO testing efforts to include testing of new developments, enhancements of current applications, testing of Operations and Maintenance work requiring knowledge of Legacy (PIPs) and current applications that are part of an integrated system.

These activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

A. Ability to support a disciplined approach to testing software applications and software components for NBIB IT PMO releases. The purpose of testing is to ensure that the system satisfies the requirements, is built to specifications, and ultimately meets the end-users needs.

B. Provide ability to plan, write and execute System Integration Tests (SIT) for the To-Be integrated releases as well as confirming parallel results in the As-Is suite. This objective will result in planning, writing and implementing SIT tests for individual releases that deploy code for SIT evaluation which will result in further system change, and test revisions.

C. As part of performing the above testing, Automation and Performance testing will be performed. Resources with the ability to perform Automation and Performance Testing as described below will be required:

· Automation Testing involves exercising the system functionality with automated test scripts through SilkTest, Test Studio, Selenium and/or any other automation tools. Automated test scripts (short programs) use record and play back functionality with inserted verification points/parameters and Visual Basic Scripting Language to create automated regression suite to increase the depth and scope of tests to ultimately improve software quality.

· Performance testing measures and analyzes system performance (e.g., response times, transaction rates) and verifies the system’s ability to meet established performance requirements. It determines how a system performs in terms of responsiveness and stability under a certain load The PoP for the required services will be as follows:

The estimated value for this bridge action is $XXXXX. A breakdown of this amount can be found in the table below:

4. Authority Permitting Acquisition using Limited Sources FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B). Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

The services required under this bridge effort are to maintain the viability and efficacy of the NBIB suite of tools. List is the current provider and the only source that can provide the continuation of these services ensuring no break in services provided with the time frame required.

A competitive effort is underway that consolidates the requirements of multiple BPAs. Extending this effort will sync the end date of the current BPAs, allowing for a seamless transition of all work to a new vendor. List is proficient in the suite of tools that encompass the NBIB system, and competing this portion would result in additional costs to the Government, as it would need to transition services to potentially two vendors in less than 12 months. The possibility of service interruptions during and after transition would also be heightened due to the complexity of the required services.

5. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost would be Fair and Reasonable Based on the nature of the requirement, the solicitation will be issued to a single source, List, under GSA Schedule Number GS-35F-0238K. Competition will not be sought. In accordance with FAR 8.404(d), GSA has already determined the prices of supplies and fixed-price services, under schedule contracts to be fair and reasonable. As a result, OPM will confirm that the quote submitted pricing is equal to or less than their established GSA rates. By placing an order against a schedule contract using the procedures in 8.405, the contracting officer has concluded that the anticipated order represents the best value. Additionally, the vendor will be requested to provide discounts available beyond their published GSA prices.

6. Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results or Statement of the Reason Market Research was not Conducted The market research techniques that were utilized included querying Government databases that provide information relevant to agency acquisitions. In addition, the Contract Specialist utilized the System for Award Management (SAM) website, General Services Administration (GSA) Advantage, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V and internet search engines. The market research team also reached out to knowledgeable members of the Government.

Work for the follow-on competitive effort to OPM32-12-A-0013-W0012, in which List is the incumbent contractor, is currently underway. The follow-on effort will also consolidate three other BPA Calls that are of similar scope. On May 1, 2018 a Request for Information (RFI) was issued to gauge industry ability to meet the full requirement and was posted to three (3) GSA Schedules: IT 70, Alliant Small Business and the Professional Services Schedule. At time of close, twenty-two (22) vendors responded to the RFI. Fifteen (15) of the responding vendors are identified as small businesses; however, only three (3) were considered capable of fulfilling the services as stated in the Draft SOW within the RFI. The bridge effort is required to ensure there is no lapse in service while the competitive effort is being worked.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification None

8. Statement of 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 Barriers to competition have been overcome as a competitive effort is underway for the continuation of these services beyond this bridge task order. As previously described OPM has prepared a competitive effort and released a Request for Information (RFI) to gauge industry. Thus the approval of this bridge action will allow OPM the time required to compete this requirement. In addition, option periods have been included in the subject requirement. The options will allow for continued service and/or adequate transition time, if needed. Although not anticipated, if unforeseen delays are encountered during the subsequent procurement process, those options can be exercised extending the subject task order until the competitive award is made.