Attachment_A_-_Draft_Scope_-_DHS_Agile_Design_and_Development_Support.pdf

Attachment A

DHS Agile Design & Development Support

Background

The Department of Homeland Security has a vital mission: With honor and integrity, we will safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values. This requires the dedication of more than 240,000 employees in jobs that range from aviation and border security to emergency response, from cybersecurity analyst to chemical facility inspector. Our duties are wide-ranging, and our goal is clear -keep America safe.

On May 23, 2012 President Barack Obama issued Presidential Memorandum, Building a 21st Century Digital Government. The Federal CIO released the strategy “Digital Government Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People", which provided agencies with a 12-month roadmap focused on priority areas to enable a more efficient and coordinated digital service delivery. The Department of Homeland Security used this initiative to:

• Enable the citizens of America to better leverage government data to spur innovation across our Nation and improve the quality of services for the American people.

• Ensure we seize the opportunity to procure and manage smart devices, applications, and data safely, securely, and efficiently.

• Unlock the power of data and be ready to deliver and receive digital information and services anytime, anywhere and on any device.

The technology landscape is rapidly changing. The proliferation and availability of Cloud Computing and Agile Development and Mobility has provided new and innovative ways to deliver valuable Information Technology (IT) services within the Federal Government.

The Government defines Agile software development as a group of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development and deployment, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between cross-functional teams that include the government and contractor communities. Agile methods encourage adaptive planning, evolutionary development and delivery, a time-boxed iterative approach, and rapid and flexible response to change. Using this new contract vehicle for user-centered design and Agile development support, DHS components will be quicker in the design, development, and deployment of secure critical services that impact citizens and internal government users.

Scope

The contractor shall provide DHS components with Agile design and development teams. The teams shall deliver viable, digital solutions in support of DHS’s strategic mission and objectives. An Agile team typically includes 5-10 contractor staff not limited to one or more of the following roles: product manager, designer, engineer, and developer. As required, the contractor shall have the capability to provide teams and individuals at all security clearance levels. The specific security clearance level requirements for each team member will be defined by DHS components at the order level, rather than at the contract level.

The contractor shall provide teams that create modern digital services that use a modern technical stack.

The contractor shall provide modern digital services that use development and operations (DevOps) techniques that embraces continuous integration and continuous deployment. The contractor shall deliver modern designs of mobile and web applications that are secure and tested using automated testing frameworks. The contractor shall provide support to projects that are building brand new systems as well as projects that are building on top of existing systems. The contractor shall support new technologies and programming languages as they emerge.

The contractor services shall align with the U.S. Digital Services Playbook (https://playbook.cio.gov).

The contractor shall be familiar with the concepts in each play and emphasize them in their approaches and support. The contractor shall participate in agile ceremonies or the equivalent for specific agile methodologies (e.g. Backlog grooming, Sprint planning, Daily stand-ups, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, Scrum of Scrums)and utilize the requirements artifacts and the application architecture provided by the government. The contractor shall also design, develop, configure, customize and deploy the corresponding solution. Once deployed, the contractor shall provide production support of the solution as required.

The following list provides examples of support that is within scope:

• Cross-Functional Collaboration – The contractor shall participate in integrated program/project teams and agile teams to enhance communication, share lessons learned and facilitate rapid identification of dependencies between various functional entities to ensure that the projects deliver the right solutions and value to the business and end-users. This collaboration may include coaching government staff as the government attempts to stand up or execute an agile project.

• User Story Collaboration – The contractor shall work with the product owner, end users and requirements analysts to refine and groom user stories.

• User Centered Design – The contractor shall work with the product owner and agile resources to design application solutions to include user research, experience design, and service design.

• Code Development – The contractor shall use a modern technology stack to define, author, and deliver application code that conforms to requirements and application architecture provided by the government. This includes but is not limited to customizing COTS products for government use, developing, executing, and reporting on unit testing, and performing and documenting software code peer reviews. The contractor shall discover and reuse existing code, along with making newly developed code reusable on other government projects.

• Automated Testing – The contractor shall create and maintain an automated test suite for the purposes of performing automated testing on user stories and for ongoing regression testing to ensure functionality and quality of the overall system. This includes, but is not limited to testing methodologies such as Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Test Driven Development (TDD), and Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD).

• Usability testing – The contractor shall evaluate products by testing them with users. This includes but is not limited to performing Section 508 testing with DHS-certified Section 508 testing resources.

• Integration Support - The contractor shall integrate open source, COTS, GOTS and/or Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions into existing, custom built, or new systems and provide configuration, customization and implementation services. The contractor shall also integrate with other government systems using standards based communication protocols and data formats.

https://playbook.cio.gov/

• Data Migration – The contractor shall develop and execute data migration strategies/plans.

• Deployment Activities – The contractor shall plan, create and validate the implementation and deployment of scripts for use during application deployment. Provide release planning and management support.

• DevOps – The contractor shall work collaboratively and cross functionally with engineering and operations to implement continuous integration, continuous delivery, production monitoring, and production support. The contractor shall support its own code while in production.

• Configuration Management/Change Control - The contractor shall support effective and efficient configuration management and change control to support the agile development processes.

• User Training – The contractor shall provide user-centered, task-based training to users in support of system deployment.

• Metrics Reporting – The contractor shall develop and communicate project metrics. Metrics may include but are not limited to dashboards, Agile burn down charts, release roadmaps, and schedule.