ATTACHMENT 18- GLOSSARY OF TERMS.pdf

ATTACHMENT 18: GLOSSARY OF TERMS

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations

Term/Acronym Definition

Agency/State entity

Includes every state office, officer, department, division, bureau, board, and commission, including Constitutional Officers. “State entity” does not include the University of California, California State University, the State Compensation Insurance Fund, the Legislature, or the Legislative Data Center in the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

Agreement A legally binding contract between the Buyer and the Contractor that defines the scope of work, pricing, deliverables, and the terms and conditions governing the performance of the work.

Bidder

1. A supplier who submits, or has identified their intention to submit, a bid to the State in response to a solicitation.

2. An individual, sole proprietorship, firm, partnership, corporation, or any other business venture that responds to a solicitation.

Business Requirements

Higher-level statement of the goals, objectives, or needs of the Agency/ state entity. Business requirements describe the reasons why a project has been initiated, the objective that the project will achieve, and the metrics that will be used to measure its success. Business requirements describe the needs of the Agency/state entity as a whole, not the groups or stakeholders within it.

Commercial Off-The- Shelf (COTS) Software

A computer hardware or software product that is ready-made for specific uses and available for sale to the general public. COTS products are designed to be installed without requiring custom development. For example, Microsoft Office is a COTS product that is a packaged software solution for businesses and individuals. The set of rules for COTS is defined by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).

State of California California Interagency Council on Homelessness

RFP 27-ICH-001

Bidder Response

July 10, 2026

Term/Acronym Definition

Contract A legally binding contract between the Buyer and the Contractor that defines the scope of work, pricing, deliverables, and the terms and conditions governing the performance of the work.

Custom Solution Typically, computer software developed for a specific customer to accommodate the customer's particular requirements, preferences, and expectations.

Proposal An offer made in response to a request to perform a contract for work/labor or to supply goods at a specified price. Also known as a Bid.

Functional Requirements

Functional requirements represent the business objectives, needs and outcomes of all stakeholders. They should be organized and presented in context of and with a baseline business process/workflow that they describe. They provide a description of what an enabling solution should provide and specify essential details of a solution for stakeholders as a means to express and manage expectations. They describe actions and operations that the solution must be able to perform. They can describe services, reactions, and behaviors of the solution. They also describe information the solution will manage. The requirements should be expressed in business terms and should not include any technical references. The requirement should identify “what” is required to meet the business objective, not “how” the requirement will be implemented.

Immaterial Deviation

A deviation can be accepted by the State when it is determined to be of such a minor concern that it carries little or no importance, and by accepting it, it doesn’t provide the bidder with any material advantage over other bidders.

Example: A bidder referenced the wrong page in their supporting technical literature. The bidder directed the evaluator to page 4 and the correct page should have been page 5.

Material Deviation A deviation in the bid response that cannot be accepted by the State because it is not in substantial accord with the solicitation requirements, State of California California Interagency Council on Homelessness

RFP 27-ICH-001

Bidder Response provides an advantage to one bidder over other bidders, or has a potentially significant effect on the delivery, quantity, or quality of items bid, amount paid to the Contractor, or on the cost to the State. Material deviations cannot be waived.

Example: The solicitation required a system that would serve 500 users and the bidder only offered a system that would serve 250 users.

Modified Off-The-Shelf (MOTS) Software

Typically, a COTS product with source code made available to the purchaser to allow for modifications. The product may be customized by the purchaser, by a vendor, or by another party to meet the requirements of the customer. Since MOTS product specifications are written by external sources, purchasers may not have control of future changes to the product.

Non-Functional Requirements

Non-functional requirements provide criteria to evaluate the operation of an enabling solution and primarily represent qualities of (expectations and characteristics) and constraints on (e.g., governmental regulations) the solution. They capture conditions that do not directly relate to the behavior or functionality of the solution, but rather describe environmental conditions of an effective solution or productive qualities of the solution. Mid-level non-functional requirements also define quality of service requirements, such as those relating to required capacity, speed, security, privacy, availability, response time, throughput, usability, and the information architecture and presentation of the user interfaces.

Project/Transitional Requirements

Project/transition requirements describe capabilities that the solution must have in order to facilitate the transition from the current state of the enterprise to a desired future state. Mid-level project/transition requirements are differentiated from other requirement types because they are usually temporary in nature and will not be needed once the transition is complete.

They typically cover process requirements imposed through the Contract, such as mandating a particular design method, administrative requirements, data conversion and migration from existing systems, interfaces, skill gaps that must be addressed, and other related changes required to reach the desired future state.

State of California California Interagency Council on Homelessness

RFP 27-ICH-001

Bidder Response

Responsive Bidder A bidder whose solicitation response is compliant with the solicitation requirements and indicates performance without material deviation from the terms and conditions of the proposed contract.

Responsible Bidder

A bidder who is fully capable of performing the contract. Considerations include a supplier deemed to satisfactorily demonstrate some or all of the following, pertinent to the specific transaction:

1. Adequate financial resources or the ability to obtain the resources required to perform the contract;

2. An adequate cost accounting system;

3. The capability to comply with the required or proposed delivery or performance schedule considering all existing commitments;

4. A satisfactory record of performance;

5. A satisfactory record of integrity;

6. Qualified and eligible to receive an award under all applicable laws and regulations; and/or

7. Necessary organization, experience, operational controls and technical skills (or the ability to obtain them).

Statement of Work

(SOW)

A written description of work to be performed under a contract to satisfy the State's needs. It can include what is to be done, when, where, and how plus define the roles and responsibilities of the State and the contractor.

Sometimes referred to as scope of work.

Solution Requirements

Describes the characteristics of a solution that will meet the business requirements. Solution requirements describe specific characteristics of the solution both in terms of functionality and quality of service. Solution requirements are sub-classified into functional requirements, non-functional requirements and project/transitional requirements.

State of California California Interagency Council on Homelessness

RFP 27-ICH-001

Bidder Response

Transitional/Project Requirements

Transition/ Project requirements describe capabilities that the solution must have in order to facilitate the transition from the current state of the enterprise to a desired future state. Project/transition requirements are differentiated from other requirement types because they are usually temporary in nature and will not be needed once the transition is complete.

They typically cover process requirements imposed through the Contract, such as mandating a particular design method, data conversion and migration from existing systems, interfaces, skill gaps that must be addressed, and other related changes required to reach the desired future state.

Agile Methodology

An iterative and incremental approach to software development and project management that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer satisfaction. It focuses on delivering small, usable pieces of a product quickly and continuously improving through feedback.

Scrum:

A framework within Agile methodology designed to help teams work together to deliver complex products efficiently. It emphasizes collaboration, accountability and iterative progress toward a well-defined goal.

SLA Tracking The process of monitoring and measuring compliance with agreed service performance metrics between a service provider and a customer.

SaaS Solution (Software as a Service)

A cloud-based software delivery model where applications are hosted by a provider and accessed over the internet.

FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program)

A U.S. government program that standardizes security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services used by federal agencies.

StateRAMP A state-level counterpart to FedRAMP, providing a standardized approach for cloud security assessment and authorization for state and local governments.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

A cloud computing model that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet.

State of California California Interagency Council on Homelessness

RFP 27-ICH-001

Bidder Response

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

A cloud computing model that provides a platform for developers to build, run, and manage applications without managing infrastructure.

API Management The process of creating, publishing, securing, monitoring, and analyzing APIs in a scalable and controlled manner.

State of California California Interagency Council on Homelessness

RFP 27-ICH-001

Bidder Response