DRAFT 4365_EA_Cloud_ArchitectureDesignSpt PWS v4.0.pdf

DRAFT

IRS – ES – Enterprise Architecture EA Fiscal Year 2025 Acquisition Strategy

EA Cloud Architecture and Design Support

1. Introduction and Background

2. Scope

3. Key Personnel

4. Program Management

5. Orientation Briefing

5.1 Briefing Contents

6. Transition

6.1 Transition In

6.2 Transition Out

7. Transition to Support (T2S)

8. Cloud Architecture and Design

8.1 Overall Objectives

8.2 Program and Technical Objectives

8.3 Cloud Architecture and Design Scope

9. Digital Disruption Support Services

9.1 Overall Objectives

9.2 Program and Technical Objectives

9.3 Digital Disruption Support Services Scope

10. Cloud Customer Engagement and Communication

10.1 Overall Objectives

10.2 Cloud Strategy, Architecture Governance and Management Scope

11. Architecture Strategy and Modernization

11.1 Technology Retirement

11.2 Enterprise Architecture Roadmap (EAR)

12. Performance Requirements Summary (PRS)

13. Deliverables

13.1 Shipping

13.2 Deliverable Format

13.3 Deliverable Quality

13.4 Review of Deliverables

13.5 Deliverable Schedule

14. Other Information and Special Conditions

DRAFT Performance Work Statement EA Cloud Architecture and Design Support

14.1 Hours of Work

14.2 Place of Performance

14.3 Telework / Alternate Work Site

14.4 Period of Performance

Performance Work Statement IRS – ES – Enterprise Architecture

EA Fiscal Year 2025 Acquisition Strategy

1. Introduction and Background.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Enterprise Architecture Program serves a critical role in ensuring that IRS business strategies are guided by sound investments in Information Technology.

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is mandated by laws and Federal OMB Directives. EA must be aligned with Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC) and the IRS Enterprise Lifecycle (ELC) processes. The Enterprise Architecture Office (EAO), as a strategic business partner, develops and delivers Solution Architecture and associated engineering services to projects and programs in direct support of their mission to the IRS, Treasury, OMB, and other Federal and State Government organizations. This includes enforcing standards and developing sound engineering guidelines. The EA Program is managed within the Information Technology (IT) organization and led by the Director of Enterprise Architecture.

EA is the IRS lead for centrally processing requests to implement new IT infrastructure in any IRS community or private cloud landing zone. EA drives ES leadership’s efforts to implement the 2-year cloud transition strategy, gather requirements to support delivery of architectural artifacts, support efforts to respond to cloud-related questions from TIGTA’s auditors, create/maintain dashboards/reports to convey status updates to EA stakeholders, and support execution of the EA cloud service request (CSR) process. Contractor support will provide technical expertise and support in the areas of Strategic Communication Plans and Initiatives in support of EA priorities as well. Note: Due to the extent that acronyms are used throughout this document, a Table of Acronyms is provided on pages 57-59.

The mission of the IRS EA Program is to:

Drive Improved Mission Results: EA Program activities will contribute to the improved delivery of IRS’ services to its customers through proactive identification of standards, new architecture facets and industry standard technologies for new capabilities, functionalities, and refined business processes. The EA Program will comply with Federal mandates and continue to evolve and improve architecture guidance and compliance.

Increase Efficiency and Reduce Cost: The EA Program will seek opportunities to minimize the cost of business and IT solutions, with an emphasis on sharing and reuse of assets and elimination of unnecessary duplication across IRS.

Improve IT Investment Decision Making: The EA Program will apply architectural discipline and rigor in supporting investment decision-making to ensure that IT investments are aligned to business needs, technically sound, compliant with standards, and in the best interest of the IRS.

Improve IRS-Treasury EA Coordination: The EA Program will work collaboratively with the Treasury EA program to improve alignment of objectives and plans and ensure compliance with OMB and GAO requirements.

Improve IRS-wide EA Awareness and Governance: The EA Program will continually strive to improve stakeholder awareness of EA products and services and enhance EA governance efforts by actively demonstrating EA results. This includes collaborating with other IT organizations and BODs/FODs, proactive customer outreach, on-going education, and an effective program to ensure EA information is available to all IRS customers and partners timely through a variety of communication channels.

Improve and Innovate: The EA Program seeks to continually improve and innovate EA products and services. The EA program expects all team members to continually strive towards improving all aspects of the EA program. The EA Program will improve stakeholder awareness and support and enhance governance efforts, through demonstration of EA results and impact, collaboration, outreach, education, and communication.

PERFORMANCE WORK OBJECTIVES

EA requires cloud architecture and design support to enable IT to modernize IRS data, applications, and services across service and deployment models. Maintaining a cloud infrastructure will reduce fixed investment, minimize the risks of aging hardware, and improve scalability and elasticity. The expansion to private and hybrid cloud will support long-term and emergent business requirements for enterprise IT orchestration and service management. IRS systems must accommodate heavy demand during peak times, resulting in the critical need for both infrastructure scalability and flexibility. The overall objective is to enable the modernization of workloads and applications in the cloud as well as provide comprehensive cloud modernization planning services.

The Contractor support will enable alignment to the 2-year Cloud Transition Strategy, EA’s vision, target state Enterprise architecture, Enterprise Architecture Roadmap (EAR), IRS Modernization Plan and the IRA Strategic Operating Plan, enabling EA to achieve cloud modernization and transformation objectives. The services required shall be delivered in accordance with the terms and conditions of the FAR regulations concerning sole source contract awards, the Performance Work Statement (PWS) and the terms and conditions of the Request for Quote (RFQ).

EA requires Contractor support to develop define, update, and communicate EA strategic plans and initiatives that meet objectives in support of internal and external stakeholders. The Contractor shall provide support and services in the following general areas:

• Cloud Architecture and Design (CAD)

• Digital Disruption Support Services

• Cloud Customer Engagement and Communication

• Architecture Standards and Modernization

The Contractor shall produce Work Products/Deliverables that conform to, and integrate with, existing IRS standards and guidelines. The Contractor shall conform to all IRS Security and Disclosure policies.

DESCRIPTION OF TASKS

The objective of this requirement is to acquire contractor support services for cloud computing services within the EA/ECAD Group. This will include communications, stakeholder, and organizational advisory support services. This Performance Work Statement (PWS) is for a Fixed Price Performance-Based Acquisition with mission-oriented, event-driven performance measures. Travel to IRS, Treasury and other government facilities and offsites may be required.

Travel will be cost reimbursable and added as a separate CLIN.

2. Scope

The IRS is continually looking for ways to better meet management challenges inherent in the growing variety of interfaces, increasing Information Technologies (IT) capabilities, demanding security needs and rising expectations from internal customers. Faced with shrinking budgets and growing demands for its services, the IRS is seeking innovative, creative, and cost-effective solutions that address the rising cost of IT consulting services.

EA requires contractor support to assess and analyze IT initiatives driven by IRS delivery partners or stakeholders to identify, connect, and recommend areas for collaboration, connection, and input to our core products and services proactively and expediently. Contractor support will assist ES in architecting and designing enterprise solutions, balancing efficiency and connect the tax ecosystem in a seamless and leading-edge manner. Accomplishing this will require Executive level engagement from the Contractor and frequent and direct collaboration with ES leadership.

This document provides requirements needed to support the establishment of a contract agreement to obtain Solution Engineering and Enterprise Architecture support services including impact of system and product retirements on the IRS architecture, support for development and reporting of IT performance metrics, project and program management for EA led initiatives in direct support of their mission to the IRS, Treasury, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other Federal and State Government organizations.

Further, this PWS defines the effort required to support the EA Leadership team’s cloud service initiatives and priorities. The Contractor will provide support for the aforementioned scope, including developing status reports, creating communications materials, assuring product quality, providing organizational advisory support services, and ensuring compliance with IRS’ personnel security requirements.

3. Key Personnel

The offeror shall identify, in their proposal based on information provided in the table below, certain positions or roles and associated labor categories considered to be Key Positions. The

Contractor shall submit the name and resume of the Contractor employee (certified by their respective manager) for each Key Position shown in the table below. Key personnel may also be identified at the time individual task orders are awarded. Task Order key personnel will be identified when the PWS for the task order is issued.

Contractor employees identified as Key Personnel shall be dedicated to this project. If any changes in proposed key personnel become necessary during actual performance, the contractor shall provide written notification 60 days in advance. In the event of a sudden change in key personnel (death, incapacitation, immediate termination, etc.), the contractor shall provide written notice to the CO within 3 calendar days of the event. For any substitution, the contractor shall submit justification with a proposed substitute whose qualifications are equal to or greater than the person being replaced, along with a resume in sufficient detail to permit evaluation within 10 calendar days of notification of a substitution.

Position or Role Additional Experience/Job Requirements

Principal EA Advisor/ SME - Computer and Information Research Scientist

The Principal EA Advisor (SME - Computer and Information Research Scientist) should have 20+ years of demonstrated:

• Experience across various, successful government and private sector architecture enterprise systems, technology strategies, enterprise system developments and deployments, Cloud implementations, and business process re-engineering to support and execute against the EA’s core mission and IRS future state vision.

• Experience providing executive management consulting on corporate strategy focusing on enabling technology implementations and business process reengineering in support of legacy modernization and digital transformation.

• The Principal EA Advisor should have the knowledge and expertise to advise EA leadership and/or key members of the EA organization on best practices, industry trends, and innovation taking place in the public and private sectors.

Task Order Program Manager

(PM)

The Program Manager will be responsible for overall management, performance and quality of the Team’s work and full authority to act on behalf of the contractor on all award matters relating to daily operations, contracts, and staffing. The Program Manager should have 15+ recent years of demonstrated.

• Experience across various successful government and industry architecture enterprise systems, technology strategies, enterprise system developments and deployments, Cloud implementations and business process re-engineering.

• Experience leading Enterprise Architecture teams in conducting multiple workstreams including, but not limited to current-state analyses, target-state visioning, IT Transition Management including transition state road mapping, prototyping, analysis of alternatives, architecture, and design artifact generation.

• Experience managing projects with complex technical and organizational landscapes and demonstrated ability to facilitate close integration between

Position or Role Additional Experience/Job Requirements business and technical aspects of projects; planning project stages and providing recommendations on business implications for each stage that are tied to enterprise strategy/objectives.

SME - Computer Systems Engineer/Architect

The SME - Computer Systems Engineer/Architect should possess specialized engineering and architecture experience gained across government and private sector clients in analyzing and developing implementation strategies for new technologies, application strategies, data strategies, security considerations, establishing engineering design patterns and guidance to build a common, forward-looking approach for IT modernization. The Technical System Architect should have 15+ recent years of demonstrated experience.

• Experience redefining technical processes and architecture to build a common, forward-looking approach for a target state business architecture.

• Experience creating and supporting forums for industry leading technology adoptions opportunities and aligning new technology to immediate and future architecture priorities.

• Experience with Computer Systems Engineers/Architects to define, develop and integrate an architectural strategy and design initiatives to support a diverse Business and IT Portfolio.

• Deep understanding and experience in executing Enterprise Architecture frameworks and solution design patterns

EA SME – System Architect – Business

The Business System Architect should have hands-on technical experience providing enterprise architecture services, strategic planning and business IT alignment, program and project support to government and private sector clients.

The Business System Architecture should have 15+ recent years of demonstrated:

• Experience redefining technical business processes and architecture to build a common, forward-looking approach for a target state business architecture and other architecture and engineering artifacts.

• Experience with Technical architects to define, develop and integrate an architectural strategy and design initiatives to support a diverse Business and IT Portfolio.

• Experience with eliciting requirements and creating business architecture analyses and visualizations.

4. Program Management

The Contractor shall provide program management support to develop, track, and maintain all work under the task order. This shall include developing and baselining project schedules or project roadmaps with milestones for deliverables; monitoring and tracking progress toward project milestones and providing updates for work efforts; implementing Agile workload management practices by leveraging Kanban boards and Agile ceremonies and managing Contractor resources based on workload and priority. The Contractor shall ensure that change management and strategic communications are integral capabilities of the Contractor’s program/project management activities.

The Contractor shall perform standard contract management activities, including managing the Contractor support staff assigned to this task order and ensuring all Contractor employees comply with the security and training requirements of the IRS.

The Contractor shall submit a biweekly status report of all significant accomplishments from the prior two weeks and work planned for the next two weeks. The status report will be discussed with the IRS at bi-weekly status meetings. Contractor team leads are expected to attend the bi-weekly meetings.

The Contractor shall maintain a team roster and submit when changes are made. The roster shall include the following for each resource:

Name Status of MBI and date MBI letter was issued (interim and final) If final, expiration date of memo.

Assigned workstream GFE Assignment (Laptop Barcode and SmartID number) Date Training Completed (SAT and SITS)

The Contractor shall participate in periodic meetings with Government personnel (both on-site and via telecon) to discuss status and new and developing issues that may affect task order performance.

The Contractor shall prepare and deliver in electronic format a Monthly Status Report (MSR) identifying the deliverables and services (if no formal deliverable was provided) for the prior month. The work performed and reported on the monthly status report must be consistent with the services invoiced for the reporting period. If requested, the Contractor shall participate in monthly Project Status Review meetings, and other meetings relating to each Work Product/Deliverable. The MSR must be submitted within 10 days of the end of the month. The invoice can be submitted 5 business days after submission of the MSR.

The following supplemental information is required for each Work Product/Deliverable that is ordered:

a. Contractor Employee(s) responsible for the Work Product/Deliverable.

b. A high-level integrated master schedule that outlines the tasks, milestones, and timelines for task area or work product.

c. Status of Work Product/Deliverable (indicate whether it is on-hold and why, whether it was completed during the period, or is still in-progress).

d. Percentage of Completion for each individual CLIN ordered, for each month, and cumulatively for the year; and

e. Any problems or issues encountered during the performance of a Subtask or Work Product/Deliverable which have not yet been resolved, along with a suggested solution for each.

At the end of each reporting period, the Contractor shall provide a summary of work performed, including a list of deliverables, date delivered and/or SharePoint site where the deliverable is posted. The Contractor shall also include a self-assessment of the work performed during the prior period consistent with the format of the CPAR.

The Government reserves the right to request this report at any point during the performance of the order at the discretion of the Contracting Officer Representative. This ad hoc report, if desired, will only be requested once during the life of the task order and is in addition to the regularly scheduled Period of Performance Summary report.

Outcome/Deliverables:

• Bi-weekly Status Report due Monday (Noon) for prior two weeks starting 2-weeks after award.

• Integrated Master Schedule (IMS)

• Monthly Status Report Due 10 days after end of month

• Period of Performance Summary Report and Self-Assessment due last business day of the reporting period.

5. Orientation Briefing

Within two weeks of task order award, the Contractor shall conduct an orientation briefing for the Government. The Government does not desire an elaborate orientation briefing, nor does it expect the Contractor to expend significant resources in preparation for this briefing. Rather, the intent of the briefing is to initiate the communication process between the Government and Contractor by introducing key task order participants, explaining their roles, reviewing communication ground rules, and assuring a common understanding of task order requirements and objectives.

The orientation briefing shall be held at the Government's facility or at the Government’s sole discretion, virtually; both parties shall mutually agree upon the date and time.

The completion of this briefing shall result in the following:

5.1 Briefing Contents.

1. The Contractor and Government personnel who will perform work under this task order will be introduced.

2. The Contractor shall demonstrate confirmation of their understanding of the work to be accomplished under this PWS.

3. The Government will address any issues concerning the Contractor clearances and government furnished property requirements for Contractor personnel.

Deliverables:

• Orientation Briefing (conducted within 2 weeks of award) and Meeting Minutes from meeting due 3 business days after the meeting.

6. Transition

6.1 Transition In.

Transition-in is defined as the one-time “start-up” period at the initial award of the task order for on-boarding resources and transitioning support and knowledge from any incumbent Contractors and/or IRS personnel to the new awardee. The new awardee is tasked with acquiring and understanding the necessary documentation, information, and processes related to any work in progress. This effort includes meeting with the IRS Subject Matter Experts and/or outgoing Contractors frequently to gather any tacit knowledge related to the systems, projects, etc. in support of this task order. The Government estimates ramp-up may take up to 60 days. The Government may request additional support throughout the lifecycle of the task order as requirements are transitioned from existing agreements to this task order.

6.2 Transition Out.

To minimize any decreases in productivity and to prevent possible negative impacts on additional services at the beginning and conclusion of the Task Order’s performance, if appropriate, a transition phase will start no later than (90) days prior to its expiration date. The Contractor shall:

a. Have personnel on board during the phase in and out periods.

b. Remain responsible for the full performance of all efforts and cooperate fully with the staff and/or the new incumbent Contractor.

c. Fully cooperate in providing all documentation and data identified by the government as government owned information; and

d. Return any Government information provided to the Contractor during associated

Task Order performance.

All related work and products become the property of the Government, regardless of the ownership of the automation hardware or software used to create the products or services. All reports, charts, logs, and maps shall become the property of the government upon completion or termination of each Task Order and shall be available for inspection by the Government upon request at any time during the Task Order period of performance.

Outcome/Deliverables:

All contract efforts are transferred timely and completely from the incumbent Contractor to the awardee Contractor. The Government is continuously informed of transition progress, there is no lapse in services provided, and there are no delays in scheduled performance. Key deliverables to be produced are:

• Transition Project Plan (tasks and timeline)

• Transition Presentation, Kickoff meeting and subsequent meetings with IRS Project Manager, IRS SMES, and new Contractor

• Final Work Summary Report (to include identification of any gaps)

• Document inventory and gap analysis

• All editable and published versions of work products/documents are uploaded to

IRS EA SharePoint.

• Transfer knowledge of technical skills and lessons learned to IRS staff upon completion of deliverables and work products.

• Transfer knowledge of operations and maintenance processes and procedures.

• Support transition efforts to assist the Government with the transition of work from the Contractor to the Government or to a successor Contractor.

• Develop a Transition Plan that includes training material, current status report, planned activities, issues encountered and identified risks.

7. Transition to Support (T2S)

The transition to support process is an on-going process throughout the life of the task and should be embedded in the work of each task order. This task includes the transition effort required to transition the task order at the end of the planned period of performance (OP4). The work shall include, but not be limited, to the following:

• Knowledge Transfer

• Knowledge transfer of technical skills and lessons learned to IRS staff and the incoming Contractor upon completion of deliverables and work products.

• Operations and maintenance processes and procedures.

• Transfer of complete documentation for all delivered functionalities. Deliverables shall be in softcopy and hardcopy format and shall be the sole property of the federal government. The format of deliverables will be provided in a format which will allow the government to modify and update when/if necessary.

• Knowledge transfer of configurable data including usernames and passwords and application settings.

Outcome/Deliverables:

• Develop and implement transition plan.

• Deliver knowledge transfer sessions.

• Complete configuration items are delivered and baselined.

• Bi-weekly status updates during the transition period.

8. Cloud Architecture and Design

EA requires Cloud architecture and design support to enable IT to modernize IRS data, applications, and services across service and deployment models. Maintaining a Cloud infrastructure will reduce fixed investment, minimize the risks of aging hardware, and improve scalability and elasticity. The expansion to private and hybrid Cloud will support long-term and emergent business requirements for enterprise IT orchestration and service management. IRS systems must accommodate heavy demand during peak times, resulting in the critical need for both infrastructure scalability and flexibility.

The overall objective is to enable the modernization and portability of workloads and applications across Cloud landing zones as well as provide comprehensive Cloud modernization planning services.

EA requires technical Cloud architecture and design support to address the overall technical objectives listed below.

8.1 Overall Objectives

a. Provide Cloud modernization services that accommodate considerations from an enterprise perspective, including impacts on IRS business units, contracts, management, and technical component layers (i.e., application, infrastructure, and security).

b. Provide technical support to fully develop and deliver services for Requirements Assessments, Architecture & Engineering, and Application Onboarding.

c. Enable IRS to seamlessly continue Cloud modernization efforts by providing IRS with sufficient transition support.

d. Prescribe solution architectures to enable program/project teams to reduce complexity, cost, and attack surface as well as optimize efficiency and effectiveness of operations and maintenance activities for Cloud.

8.2 Program and Technical Objectives

a. Enable IRS to seamlessly continue Cloud modernization efforts by providing IRS with sufficient transition support for delivering and/or maintaining Cloud solution architecture artifacts, standards, and/or guidance.

b. Enable program agility by using agile practices to incrementally deliver minimally viable cloud solution architecture work products.

c. Provide analyses of “as-is” and “to-be” technical capabilities to prescribe transition and target state architectures and technology stacks for application solution architectures.

d. Provide recommendations to improve alignment of EA standards and guidance to applications’ Cloud solution architecture requirements.

e. Enable IRS to standardize and reuse approved Cloud solution architecture patterns for applications with minimal customization as efficiently and effectively as possible.

8.3 Cloud Architecture and Design Scope

a. In alignment with EA’s standards and guidance, leverage Software AG’s Alfabet and ARIS service offerings and/or other tool(s) approved by IRS to prescribe Cloud architecture solutions (aka solution architectures; vision, scope, and architecture (VSA) artifacts; solution concept artifacts) with current, transition, and target state architectures as well as high-level application modernization milestones for approximately 120 application architecture and design support requests per year.

b. In alignment with EA’s standards and guidance, leverage Software AG’s Alfabet and ARIS service offerings and/or other tool(s) approved by IRS to prescribe Cloud architecture solutions aka solution architectures; vision, scope, and architecture (VSA) artifacts; solution concept artifacts) with current, transition, and target state architectures as well as high-level application modernization milestones for approximately 30 unplanned or ad hoc application architecture and design support requests per year.

c. Prescribe guidance on Cloud architecture and design artifact process development improvements, enabling EA to define and reuse architecture patterns in Software AG/IBM’s Alfabet service offering, enhance product quality, align to industry leading Cloud architecture framework(s), and inform Cloud landing zone selection decisions.

d. Coordinate with stakeholders to request feedback on Cloud solution architecture work products and consider lessons learned from engagements with project teams to continually improve the quality of architecture standards, guidelines, and artifacts as well as accelerate artifact delivery times at least twice per year..

e. Plan and estimate delivery timelines for Cloud architecture and design support priorities.

f. Analyze program/project team inputs to identify modernization capability gaps, constraints, dependencies, interface requirements, complexities, security requirements, and compliance requirements. Within Cloud architecture artifacts, include benefits and implications of moving individual applications or groups of applications to the Cloud to inform sequencing and decision making.

g. Work with EA stakeholders (e.g., domain architecture leads, EA Standards and Technology Management, and other delivery partner stakeholders where appropriate) to validate technology stack decisions, enabling EA to restrain the expansion of its technology footprint as well as optimize the reuse and extension of pre-existing solutions across the enterprise.

h. Prescribe solution architectures for programs/projects to address target state capability requirements for high availability, disaster recovery, and data backup/restore operations across all landing zones.

i. Complete and maintain Cloud architecture, Vision, Scope, and Architecture (VSA), and solution concept artifacts, including but not limited to content relating to the solution’s technology stack, compute/storage specifications, solution architecture, logical design, physical design, data flows, and sequence flow diagrams.

j. Use and continuously enhance checklist(s) for Cloud architecture as well as Vision, Scope, and Architecture and Solution Concept artifact development to ensure EA prescribes consistently clear, complete, accurate, and feasible transition and target state solutions to project teams as well as provide the information required by delivery partners to address potential network bandwidth capacity constraints, data security risks, and performance monitoring requirements, for example.

k. Prescribe solution architectures for programs/projects to deploy workloads to any landing zone without impacting the performance of data retrieval, publishing, and validation services (e.g., Common Enterprise Services, Data Access Layer service) and/or integration with authoritative data sources (e.g., Enterprise Data Platform

(EDP)).

l. Prescribe solution architectures and approaches for programs/projects to optimize resource utilization and reduce costs (e.g., Prescribe approaches to limit data egress/ingress operations, leverage reserved vs on-demand AWS instances, minimize footprint of persistent environments, etc.).

m. Prescribe inheritable security control solutions from Cyber domain architecture to address programs/projects’ zero trust architecture (ZTA) security capability requirements as well as IRS’ security and compliance requirements for IT systems to obtain Authorizations to Operate (ATOs).

n. Coordinate with stakeholders to create or update solution architectures (e.g., External Partner Zone (EPZ)) for enterprise network and cybersecurity modernization initiatives in accordance with relevant Cloud and/or Cyber domain architecture guidance.

o. Based upon Cloud domain architecture guidance, prescribe new and updated existing Cloud hosting solution architectures for shared platforms (e.g., Common Enterprise Services, Enterprise Pega Platform, API Gateway Management Platform), enabling accelerated adoption of shared functions (i.e., functions as a service), microservices, serverless computing, portable service offerings, and open API standards.

p. Based upon Cyber domain architecture, standards, and guidance, enable Cybersecurity and project teams to quickly identify, catalog, and update inheritable security control families from managed service providers and cloud service providers in Software AG/IBM’s Alfabet and ARIS offerings, IRWorks, and/or other relevant solution(s).

q. Based upon Cloud domain architecture standards and guidance, deliver scalable/elastic architectures to allow teams to expand or scale down storage and compute capacity as dynamically as possible.

r. Based upon Cloud domain architecture standards and guidance, prescribe Cloud solution architectures to support implementation of programs’/projects’ artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) capability requirements.

s. Ensure all technology guidance considers the enterprise’s current, transition, and target state architectures when developing Cloud solution architecture artifact content for program/project teams, especially as new capabilities (e.g., AI/ML) emerge to address strategic requirements and objectives in the Enterprise Architecture and Roadmap (EAR) and IRA Strategic Operating Plan.

t. Analyze IRS system configuration items and asset inventory management information against the IRS As-Built Architecture (ABA) and the IRS Enterprise Architecture Roadmap (EAR) in Software AG/IBM’s Alfabet and ARIS offerings, IRWorks, and other relevant solutions to continually validate and improve the quality of enterprise Cloud application inventory information and identify opportunities to optimize reuse of existing storage and compute capacity across project teams and environments accordingly.

u. Prescribe guidance on Cloud architecture and design artifact process development improvements, enabling EA to define and reuse architecture patterns in Software AG/IBM’s Alfabet service offering, enhance product quality, align to industry leading Cloud architecture framework(s), and inform Cloud landing zone selection decisions.

v. Leverage Software AG/IBM’s Alfabet and ARIS service offerings to deliver Cloud solution architecture and design artifacts for application program/project teams, optimizing reuse of architecture patterns to enhance product quality and align to industry leading Cloud architecture framework(s) and standard(s).

w. Apply industry leading practices and innovative approaches to accelerate Cloud modernization and architecture artifact delivery efforts as well as reuse existing data, lessons learned, architecture patterns, technology stack(s), and technology infrastructure specification standard(s) to expedite the delivery of Cloud architectures and environments while maintaining compliance with IRS standards and guidance.

x. Coordinate with stakeholders to request feedback on Cloud solution architecture work products and consider lessons learned from engagements with project teams to continually improve the quality of architecture standards, guidelines, and artifacts as well as accelerate artifact delivery times at least twice per year.

y. Deliver, present, and store all Cloud solution architecture artifacts in a centralized repository.

z. Conduct simulation modeling, data traffic flow analysis, network bandwidth analysis, performance and bottleneck analysis, design trade-off analysis, load balancing and scalability analysis to validate Cloud solution and performance monitoring architecture artifacts.

aa. Provide engineering expertise and guidance to enable and optimize portability of IT configuration item components in applications’ Cloud solution architecture(s) across IT landing zones.

bb. Applications’ Cloud solution architecture artifacts shall address each system’s requirements for performance, availability, operations (i.e., recovery time objective, recovery point objective, service level objective(s), data archival, data retrieval), operational monitoring (e.g., Depict integrations with AppDynamics, Splunk ITSI, and/or other solutions as well as provide information requested by Enterprise

Operations to address operational monitoring requirements.), and security (i.e., address requirements to obtain Authorization to Operate).

cc. Provide testing and evaluation support to assess attainment of technical performance specifications and system maturity; identify risks, provide risk mitigation approaches, and deliver empirical data analyses to validate implementation of architectural recommendations.

dd. Support the Government and/or third-party Contractors in the execution of Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) events, including performance of administrative support activities, execution of test failure analyses, and compilation of requirements to inform system modification prescriptions.

ee. Work with managed service providers (e.g., Integrated Enterprise Portal, Treasury Cloud, Managed Infrastructure Data Services, and Software as a Service cloud service provider teams) to develop applications’ Cloud solution architectures.

ff. Support Application Modernization Analysis (AMA), including reviewing applications’ transition and target state requirements, conducting Cloud modernization gap assessments, and prescribing minimally viable Cloud modernization solutions to address scalability, availability, reliability, portability, and security requirements while accelerating solution and environment provisioning delivery times in accordance with Cloud and Cyber domain architecture guidance.

gg. Maintain Cloud application modernization Kanban board and provide subject matter expertise to inform prioritization of architecture artifact delivery activities as well as align transition and target state architectures to the anticipated availability of Cloud services and/or microservices in specific Cloud landing zones during specific timelines.

hh. Advise program/project teams on how to implement Cloud domain’s DevSecOps standard(s) and guidance.

Deliverables:

• In alignment with EA’s standards and guidance, leverage Software AG’s Alfabet and

ARIS service offerings and/or other tool(s) approved by IRS to prescribe Cloud architecture solutions (aka solution architectures; vision, scope, and architecture (VSA) artifacts; solution concept artifacts) with current, transition, and target state architectures as well as high-level application modernization milestones for approximately 120 application architecture and design support requests per year.

• In alignment with EA’s standards and guidance, leverage Software AG’s Alfabet and ARIS service offerings and/or other tool(s) approved by IRS to prescribe Cloud architecture solutions aka solution architectures; vision, scope, and architecture (VSA) artifacts; solution concept artifacts) with current, transition, and target state architectures as well as high-level application modernization milestones for approximately 30 unplanned or ad hoc application architecture and design support requests per year.

• Prescribe guidance on Cloud architecture and design artifact process development improvements, enabling EA to define and reuse architecture patterns in Software AG/IBM’s Alfabet service offering, enhance product quality, align to industry leading Cloud architecture framework(s), and inform Cloud landing zone selection decisions.

• Coordinate with stakeholders to request feedback on Cloud solution architecture work products and consider lessons learned from engagements with project teams to continually improve the quality of architecture standards, guidelines, and artifacts as well as accelerate artifact delivery times at least twice per year.

9. Digital Disruption Support Services

The IRS is planning a significant shift from its current computing environment to an IT as a service (ITaaS) model. ITaaS will treat all IT services as a commodity by providing the enterprise with the compute, storage resources on a subscription (charge back) or via a service level agreement.

Additionally, the IRS must transform its capabilities as a service provider to deliver services efficiently, while lowering operational and capacity expenses

The scope of the Digital Disruption Engineering contract will encompass the full suite of services necessary to design, prototype, converge or replace multiple enterprise legacy systems and data stores. The Government defines study in the active sense as: delivering prototype benefits quickly, while keeping the IRS IT Strategic view aligned; establish a common approach to transformation, together with a culture for questioning the status quo; and an aggressive posture for delivery of disruptive capabilities.

9.1 Overall Objectives

a. Enable strategic decisions by ES and EA leadership to effectively prioritize, plan, modernize, and migrate applications to the Cloud, reducing costs and increasing efficiency of IRS’ IT environment.

b. Enable alignment to 2-year Cloud Transition Strategy, EA’s vision, target state Enterprise and domain architectures, Enterprise Architecture Roadmap (EAR), IRS Modernization Plan and the IRA Strategic Operating Plan, enabling EA to achieve Cloud modernization and transformation objectives.

c. Enable IRS to seamlessly continue Cloud modernization efforts by providing IRS with sufficient transition support.

d. Architect Cloud and Cyber domain capabilities to reduce complexity, cost, and the attack surface as well as optimize efficiency and effectiveness of operations and maintenance activities across the enterprise.

9.2 Program and Technical Objectives

a. Enable IRS to seamlessly continue Cloud modernization efforts by providing IRS with sufficient transition support for delivering and/or maintaining Cloud and Cyber domain architecture artifacts, standards, and/or guidance.

b. Enable alignment with best practices by providing guidance on tools and processes for Cloud security, centralized management, and performance monitoring.

c. Enable program agility by using agile practices to incrementally deliver minimally viable cloud domain architecture work products.

d. Coordinate with Cybersecurity to deliver and enforce clearly defined and industry leading security practices, patterns, policies, standards, and reference architectures with respect to usage, access, and data security for new and pre-existing applications.

This information should be readily accessible and specific, and relevant artifacts should be readily searchable.

e. Provide business cases or feasibility studies (e.g., white papers), including problem definition, analysis of business requirements, functional analysis, technical requirements, capability gaps and impacts, risk analysis, and economic analysis, enabling EA and delivery partners to compare the relative strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks across various Cloud solution options and inform decisions by senior leadership.

f. Provide analyses of “as-is” and “to-be” technical capabilities to prescribe transition and target state architecture and technology stack updates for Cloud and Cyber domain architectures.

g. Advise EA on how to enhance existing technical capabilities for addressing the requirements and objectives set forth in ES’ 2-year Cloud Transition Strategy.

h. Advise EA on the potential opportunities and impacts of new or existing Cloud and Cyber technical capabilities on business unit operations as well as lifecycle management of application, infrastructure, networking, and security solution components.

9.3 Digital Disruption Support Services Scope

a. Update EA’s Cloud and Cyber domain architecture content in EA’s Enterprise Architecture and Roadmap, ES’ 2-Year Cloud Transition Strategy and Roadmap, and/or EA’s Cloud Roadmap on a monthly basis.

b. Assess capability gaps between current and target state enterprise hybrid cloud architectures as well as prescribe solutions, guidance, and sequencing plans to support planning and execution of ES’ 2-year Cloud Transition Strategy, the EAR, and related Cloud tasks in IRS’ IT Modernization and IRA Strategic Operating Plans on a quarterly basis.

c. Engage delivery partners and the EAR team to align on application modernization priorities and timelines as well as proactively engage IRA program teams to identify future Cloud modernization architecture development requirements, especially relating to major transformation initiatives (e.g., mainframe modernization) every month.

d. Prescribe and/or update Cloud domain architecture guidance to optimize workload and platform portability across IRS’ IT landing zones.

e. Prescribe and/or update enterprise technology stacks for Cloud and Cyber domains’ technical capabilities on a quarterly basis.

f. Prescribe Cloud domain architecture solutions and updates to address technical capability gaps relating to target state capability requirements for high availability, disaster recovery, and data backup/restore operations across all landing zones.

g. Analyze Red Hat Application Migration Toolkit (RHAMT) tool assessment results to assess cloud migration readiness and inform Cloud solution architecture prescriptions.

h. Define, document, communicate, and maintain development, infrastructure environment provisioning, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD), and containerization standards and IT lifecycle management procedures for all types of IRS application deployments in accordance with industry leading practices.

i. Analyze technical capability gaps of cloud foundational services and prescribe guidance to address gaps across multiple cloud service providers and update Cloud and Cyber domain architecture content accordingly.

j. Based upon clearly documented functional and non-functional requirements, develop and maintain open, scalable, elastic, reusable, and extensible architectures (i.e., architecture patterns), standards, and guidance for all of IRS’ current and future Cloud service and deployment models in Software AG/IBM’s Alfabet and ARIS service offerings or other tool prescribed by IRS. If necessary, coordinate with delivery partners to capture functional and non-functional requirements in a standard agile format (e.g., user and technical stories). Such architectures may leverage multiple Cloud platforms across multiple landing zones. Architecture patterns should optimize portability, interoperability, and operational resilience across landing zones.

k. Define and/or update reusable Cloud architecture patterns, standards (e.g., technical infrastructure compute and storage capacity specifications), and guidance to accelerate provisioning of new application environments or reuse of pre-existing environments for application modernizations with similar requirements.

l. Contractor shall prescribe potential solution options in application architecture patterns to limit data egress/ingress operations and enable delivery partners to virtually view and analyze log data natively within cloud landing zones via REST API calls or other methods.

m. Application architecture patterns shall prescribe guidance on how to leverage loosely coupled YAML/ JSON/XML/Python/GO APIs to ensure compatibility across platforms and landing zones as well as API implementation standard(s) to automate provisioning and configuration of new APIs and API endpoint access policies on API GW Management Platform via CI/CD pipeline solution(s).

n. Prescribe reusable and extensible architecture patterns for all of IRS’ current and future Cloud service and deployment models across all landing zones in Software

AG/IBM’s Alfabet and ARIS service offerings, enabling stakeholders to expedite the development of transition and target state architectures as well as sequencing plans.

o. Prescribe guidance on Cloud architecture and design artifact process development improvements, enabling EA to define and reuse architecture patterns in Software AG/IBM’s Alfabet and ARIS service offerings as well as enhance product quality and align to industry leading Cloud architecture framework(s).

p. Prescribe architectural guidance to help expedite and improve system security assessment and authorization requirements (e.g., Prescribe guidance for application solution architecture pattern(s) to help automate approval decisions for Security Change Management (SecChM) requests, firewall rule changes, and Authorizations to Operate (ATOs) decisions within days as opposed to weeks or months.) as prescribed per IRS’ Cybersecurity standards, guidelines, and IRM requirements (e.g., IRM 10.8.1, 10.8.24).

q. Prescribe standards, guidance, and architecture(s) for orchestrating the delivery of all project software artifacts, computing infrastructure, and patches from source code check-in through production deployment for all IT customers, enabling fully automated DevSecOps solution implementations with requisite security and quality in place. In addition, DevSecOps guidance should prescribe how to automate application and enforcement of the Risk Management Framework (RMF) in solution development, security change management, firewall rule change requests, and ATO approval processes.

r. DevSecOps guidance should advise program/project teams on how to use IRS tools and services (e.g., AWS Kiali, Splunk, Splunk ITSI, and AppDynamics) to troubleshoot code deployment issues as well as provide testing, validation, and performance monitoring support or analysis as needed.

s. Coordinate with delivery partners (e.g., User and…