JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL020411.doc

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

TO PROCURE USING OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Contracting Officer, hereby approve the use of other than full and open competition for the proposed within-scope contract modifications, pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) and 10 USC 2304(d)(1)(B), FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(B). Only one responsible source and no other services will satisfy agency requirements. The service is deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it is likely that award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements.

JUSTIFICATION

1. Agency and Contracting Activity (FAR 6.303-2(a)(1)). Requiring Activity: Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), PEO C2C CC3. Contracting Activity: Defense Information Technology Contracting Office-NCR, PO Box 4502. Arlington, VA 22204-4502.

2. Nature/Description of Actions(s) (FAR 6.303-2(a)(2)) This action is for issuance of a modification of the task order against NexGen contract DCA100-02-D-4006, with Pragmatics, Inc. The NexGen contract vehicle, as solicited and awarded, has two separate sets of contracts, one set of multiple award contracts for small business and one set of multiple award contracts for large business. This requirement is a bridge in order to get to a follow-on to the current Pragmatics' Task Order (TO) 0042. The original task order was competed among the five small business NexGen contractors and Pragmatics was selected for award. The modification for the support services is to assure critical and uninterrupted information technology (IT) support to the Joint Staff (JS). This follow on work period of performance will be for two (2) months and will initiate 08 February 2011 and end 07 April 2011. The estimated value of the two month extension is $582,000.00.

3. Description of Supplies/Services (FAR 6.303-2(a)(3)). The mission of the GCCS-J Systems Engineering Branch (CC33) is to provide responsive, secure, interoperable joint Command and Control (C2) end-user mission capabilities for the Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Combatant Commanders, and Joint/Combined Task Forces. CC52 provides integrated, flexible, secure C2 mission end-user capabilities comprised of and leveraging DISA product and service offerings. It supports strategic and operational C2 users, both kinetic and non-kinetic, in all phases of war and operations other than war. CC52 provides a key portion of the Global Command and Control System – Joint (GCCS-J) functional capabilities commonly referred to as the Joint Operation Planning and Execution System (JOPES). It is the functionality encompassed in these products, which provide the Joint Staff and Unified Commands their primary conventional war planning tools and capabilities. The branch provides force planning, deployment and sustainment product support in order to deliver C2 application software to command sites, and provides operational sustainment support upon initial fielding.

The logical relationship between the initial task order and this work is that they both have the same scope of activities, i.e. software engineering, development, deployment and sustainment.

4. Identification of Statutory Authorities (FAR 6.303-2(a) (4)). The proposed contractual action is pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1). In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1- Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

5. Nature of the Acquisition Requires Use of Authority Cited (FAR 6.303-2(a)(5)). The JOPES team has developed the expertise to accomplish development, testing, fielding and sustainment support for the JOPES portion of the GCCS-J program which is highly specialized and requires in-depth subject matter expertise. The team has gained expert technical knowledge of JOPES from a software and hardware perspective as well as how it technically fits into the GCCS-J program. The team has obtained a full understanding of the external interfaces with JOPES and their specialized needs. The team has the architectural design ability that successfully architected and transitioned JOPES from a client/server architecture to a web based architecture. Their web service development capabilities have further moved the system toward a net centric environment. The team has developed the transition expertise to transition from one JOPES release to another with no loss of information or downtime for the Warfighter. Due to their planning, test and implementation knowledge all JOPES functionality has continued to be met from release to release while successfully meeting Key Performance Parameters (KPPs).

Pragmatics, Inc. is uniquely qualified to continue the development, fielding and support of GCCS-J Block V JOPES software. They have successfully developed and integrated JOPES from version 3.0 through its subsequences releases. It would also incur the serious technical risk of not fulfilling promised GCCS-J Requirements Identification Database (GRID) or architectural objectives within the scheduled timeframe. Under the current TO 0042, Pragmatics will deliver the latest version of JOPES software near the end of the current task. The developers are intimately familiar with this software as well as the current fielded version. To change developers when the JOPES 4.2 software testing cycle starts would severely impact the Block V schedule and budget.

Pragmatics has performed at the excellent level throughout the previous task order. During the entire task order, the contractor’s work has been of the highest caliber, and has consistently exceeded expectations. The contractor has demonstrated a strong commitment to sustaining customer acceptance of JOPES products, and has delivered on schedule. The contractor works well with product leads, force planning customers and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to document requirements for force planning systems. This helps to keep the user’s voice in all force planning work and to resolve problems before they become major issues. Pragmatics has scored in the "excellent" range in their award fee performance evaluations to date. Pragmatics' work on all previous Task Orders has been excellent. All deliverables were received either ahead of schedule or on time and always within cost.

6. FedBizOpps (FBO) Announcement/Potential Sources (FAR 6.303-2(a)(6).

A notice of intent will be published on the FedBizOpps website as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) IAW Subpart 5.2. The notice of intent will identify the Government’s requirements.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost (FAR 6.303-2(a)(7). Based on the current task order costs, the contracting officer has adequate information to ensure that the modification costs to the government will be fair and reasonable. The contracting officer will make a determination that the anticipated cost/price is fair and reasonable.

8. Description of Market Research (FAR 6.303-2(a)(8)). In accordance with the fair opportunity process, the initial task order was competed among the small businesses under the NexGen contract. Pragmatics was awarded the task order. This market research involved internet research on the vendor’s capabilities and past performance information. Market research was also conducted on vendors who could perform the work via other contract vehicles; i.e. GSA, by researching capabilities and scope of work under the GSA contract. Market research was performed to determine if the vendors had the qualifications as defined in paragraph one of Section 5. The research did not indicate any company that had the expertise and specialized knowledge available to immediately come in and perform the work for this two month period until a new contract can be put in place. None of the vendors researched displayed the relevant and specialized experience in GCCS-J development and sustainment specifically with JOPES to provide the government with a high level of confidence that there would be a minimal transition period.

Not awarding to Pragmatics as a two month extension/modification, would result in putting the operational JOPES software that provides C2 capabilities to the Warfighter at risk and jeopardize their ability to fight the Global War on Terrorism. Based on this market research it was determined that the following exception of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) would be exercised: the order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency as a modification to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order. As this effort was originally competed under NexGen, this requirement has been met.

9. Any Other Supporting Facts (FAR 6.303-2(a)(9)). Pragmatics, Inc. has an experienced and widespread set of GCCS-J operational and technical engineers who collectively hold decades of field experience and maintain key relationships with COCOMs, Joint staff, OSD and DISA. Additionally, over the past 5 years Pragmatics, Inc. has developed, delivered and sustained an extensive JOPES software capability to meet the warfighter’s needs. This modification will build on the successes achieved by Pragmatics, Inc. and would be the most cost effective and advantageous solution to the government.

Pragmatics performance under the current TO 0042 has been outstanding. Their complete understanding of the requirements, innovative approach to pushing forward towards Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES), responsiveness in resolving critical Global Software Problem Reports (GSPRs) and ability to adjust at a moments notice to government change in direction were demonstrated during all phases of support.

Pragmatics has in-depth knowledge of the products comprising GCCS-J and the target goals of the government. Pragmatics has been the prime contractor for the past 5 years on the GCCS-J JOPES Software Applications Support task. The Pragmatics team experience in dealing with the complex JOPES business rules, JOPES database, specialized JOPES applications, GCCS-J requirements, and rapidly evolving security requirements position them to be able to perform the work required for this modification. Many of the key personnel who have worked on JOPES database and JOPES applications over this time are still with the team. This team of highly, seasoned professionals has a combined team experience of over 80 years. Pragmatics completely understands the technical environment and has adopted internal practices (Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model – Integration (CMMI) level 4) to optimize the use of the processes for software development, management, quality assurance, configuration management, problem resolution, and finally the functional requirements and war fighter expectations.

Presently, the GCCS-J program is moving toward a netcentric environment. Pragmatics has proven to be knowledgeable in this area with several software deliveries, studies and documents that it has undertaken. With the next JOPES release, they will have produced many web services for the netcentric environment. The incumbent has proven that they can do the reengineering and will be the best able to continue the reengineering of the software into this netcentric environment. They have the current knowledge of the system and also proven that they have the forward thinking knowledge necessary to provide the Government with an excellent product for the users. The JOPES v4.2 release is one of the final releases for Block V of the GCCS-J program. There is only 30 days of trade space remaining as approved by the Block V APB. Block V also marks the end of the overall program, with a sustainment date of March 09 targeted. Due to these constraints and the overall complexity of JOPES, the risk is too high for the PMO to transition to a new vendor at this time without having a new contract vehicle in place.

10. Listing of Interested Sources (FAR 6.030-2 (a)(10)). Not applicable.

11. Actions Taken to Remove Barriers to Competition (FAR 6.303(a)(11)). No action is necessary as all the contractors were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order. The follow-on order will be competed.

12. Statement of Period of Performance and/or Delivery Schedule (DARS 6.303-2(a)(S-90)). The period of performance is anticipated to be 60 calendar days after the modification award.

13. Reference to the Approved Acquisition Plan (AP)/Program Plan (PP) (DARS 6.303-2). N/A). A Program Wide Acquisition Plan has been approved and includes this procurement. The work is described in Section G: POA for GCCS-J JOPES Database/ACOA/DVT/Software Application Sustainment.

14. Reference to Information Technology (IT) (includes National Security System (NSS) IT), Information Management (IM), and Information Assurance (IA) Requirements (DARS 6.303-2). Compliance was discussed in the contract-level acquisition plan.