DRAFT SP-HRS-244622 PWS CDC OC Digital Services_08-27-2024.docx

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of Communications (OC)

Digital Communication Services in Support of the Implementation of New Business Processes

Draft Performance Work Statement (PWS)

August 27, 2024

Table of Contents

SECTION 0 - LIST OF ATTACHMENTS

Additional Resource:

Checklist of requirements for federal websites and digital services – Digital.gov

SECTION 1 – GENERAL

1.1 Introduction

The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services. HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of activities. While HHS is a domestic agency working to protect and promote the health and well-being of the American people, the interconnectedness of our world requires that HHS engage globally to fulfill its mission. In addition, staff divisions provide leadership, direction, and policy guidance to the Department.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a part of this important department and works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same. CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation's health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish the mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats and responds when these arise. The 2022-2027 CDC Strategic Plan advances science and health equity and affirms the agency's commitment to one unified vision— equitably protecting health, safety, and security. The plan continues to leverage 5 core capabilities of the agency, reflecting our commitment to equity and diversity and lifting up where we have invested through the COVID-19 pandemic. Our work is underscored by the agency's Pledge to the American People and dedication to use timely data and science to drive and communicate customer-centered, high-impact public health action.

1.2 Background

In April 2022, CDC launched the Moving Forward effort to refine and modernize its structures, systems, and processes around developing and deploying science and programs. The goal was to learn how to pivot long-standing practices and adapt to pandemics and other public health emergencies, then apply those lessons across the organization. The effort included a review of key business processes and workflows focusing on ensuring CDC's science reaches the public in an understandable, accessible, and implementable manner as quickly as possible.

CDC uses the web and other digital channels to disseminate information, educate, and engage with its audiences on various health topics. The CDC Office of Communications (OC) oversees CDC’s digital media communication efforts, including those of CDC.gov. OC also manages agency-wide web tools and systems, such as CDC’s Web Content Management System (WCMS) and content APIs. As part of the CDC’s Digital Communication Modernization efforts and the CDC’s Moving Forward effort, web production support will now be located within OC and not distributed across the CDC. CDC previously separated its enterprise support from its web production support for content updates across the CDC. With this performance work statement (PWS), CDC seeks to acquire private industry services to consolidate these efforts to achieve greater efficiency in managing CDC.gov and provide higher quality content and an improved user experience.

As well, CDC recently moved to a new system, the Digital First Editor (DFE), that allows non-technical content owners to directly edit web content and publish pages. Technical web production support is now focused on content that will not be managed in the new DFE or on content that requires more complex support, such as large tables, long documents, data visualizations, and interactive elements.

1.3 Scope of Work

The scope for this requirement is to support CDC’s digital communication activities by providing CDC with assistance and expertise across key areas of digital support including, but not limited to Web Content Management System (WCMS) management, hardware and software needs, security, software design, project management, technical web production, metrics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), 508 support, content strategy, design, user experience, and coordination.

The support required for implementing this new business process will ensure that CDC can manage CDC.gov with an enterprise lens to support the most effective and efficient technical web and digital presence, focus resources on priority topics and events, and provide the best user experience and up-to-date information to the public.

SECTION 2 – SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS/TASKS

2.1 Task Area 1: Project Management and Customer Service Support

It is essential for the CDC's Centers/Institutes/Offices (CIOs) and the OC to have project management and customer service support that ensures the resources and responsiveness required for success and that the business needs of OC and CDC's CIOs are met through strong customer service and tools that deliver value.

The Contractor shall monitor customer service performance and adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs), evaluate incoming tickets, and coordinate work across a team. The Contractor shall provide staffing strategies and techniques to provide consistent transparency and support to CIOs and OC. CDC currently has a JIRA instance, a SharePoint system, a custom system (Create-It), and a PowerApps solution for customer service and ticket triage and tracking that could be utilized to support parts of reporting related to this task and this contract. It is planned that these systems will be consolidated into a unified approach using PowerApps and JIRA, with most of the work completed before this contract starts.

Deliverables:

· Project Management Plan

· Customer Service Plan that includes:

· Mechanisms for triaging tickets and providing optimal support.

· Monthly and Weekly Reports and Dashboards that outline compliance with service levels, turnaround times, project status and potential issues. Tickets, issue logs, and priorities in the work queue will be made easily accessible to Division of Digital Media (DDM) staff and CIO digital teams.

· Monthly Provision of Customer Satisfaction Survey Reports (for all tickets)

· Recommendations for improvements or changes to the systems and process or with any development projects being undertaken as a regular project under Task 3.

· Communication Plan

· Bi-Annual Physical Equipment/Software Product Inventory Report

· Monthly project report for all work provided in Task Area 1.

· Project Cost Estimates (Estimate at Complete)

2.2 Task Area 2: Website Production Services and Advanced WCMS Technical Implementation

This task supports the CDC's move to a centralized web production model, moving all web production support for CDC.gov to OC in a phased approach. By providing centralized web production, the CDC expects to gain efficiency and increase the quality of web production support. Vital customer service and responsiveness to web tickets will be critical to the success of this task. Support will include regular engagement with the OC and each CIO's digital leads. Transparency and status of the work on this task will be delivered through a ticket dashboard.

The support for this task focuses on web production for all CDC.gov web properties and CDC Intranet sites that use the WCMS. Web production support includes developing and posting new content, updating existing content, maintaining sites, ensuring working links, optimizing images, etc. It also includes more advanced WCMS technical implementations that CDC's new Digital First Editor (DFE) cannot handle.

The current CDC web portfolio comprises over 90,000 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) pages across the enterprise. The intranet site is roughly 41,000 pages, and current labor hours for this work are factored into the web development chart in Attachment 7 - Task 2 Web Development Chart (Phase In).

The Contractor shall consider staffing strategies and other techniques to provide consistent support to CIOs and OC. In some cases, production support staff familiar with CIOs' websites are expected to increase customer support and adherence to the SLAs.

All support shall comply with Attachment 2 - Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Web Production Support turnaround times. Requesting these services will typically occur via web tickets from CIOs or the Office of Communications Digital Teams.

Support includes:

2.2.1 Develop and code web pages. Provide day-to-day maintenance of CDC.gov pages, sites, and intranet sites using CDC's standard WCMS interface and CDC's new DFE. Update Websites using CDC-approved client-side web applications, techniques, and tools using CDC-approved Web-based technologies such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)/HTML5, JavaScript (JS)/JQuery, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)/CSS3, Photoshop, and other design-related applications. Manage postings of video and supporting files, including thumbnails, descriptions, captions, and audio descriptions through the WCMS on CDC's YouTube channel. Remove outdated videos as needed. CIOs may also need SharePoint expertise to update parts of the intranet managed in SharePoint.

2.2.2 Support posting of advanced web products. Support the configuration, refinement, and posting of digital communication products as but not limited to videos, data visualizations, infographics, badges, podcasts, widgets, bots, rich internet applications (RIAs), and quizzes as provided by the WCMS, and other digital management tools made available by CDC. For example, the Contractor shall configure and produce a data visualization as requested by a program by using the options and methods provided by CDC through the WCMS. In collaboration with CDC and other Contractors, the Contractor shall offer requirements for enhancements or report bugs for remediation.

2.2.3 Regular maintenance of CDC.gov and intranet.cdc.gov sites. The Contractor shall perform standard maintenance tasks to ensure the site is maintained and error-free. These include running orphan reports, checking links, monitoring redirects, 508 reports, etc.

2.2.4 Provide multilingual site support. Support described above will be required for pages that are in Spanish. The Contractor shall manage the espanol.cdc.gov. Translation services are not required from the Contractor, however, web developers with Spanish fluency will be needed to accurately manage the Spanish home pages and interfaces. The Contractor may also occasionally provide support for any other language required. This support does not require knowledge of the language as the content is typically in a PDF. If HTML is used, a certified translator provides and reviews the translation. The Contractor shall also work with CDC's multilingual content providers, such as MotionPoint, which CDC currently uses, to coordinate technical activities.

2.2.5 Analytics reports. The Contractor shall deliver metrics reports to CIO requestors from Adobe Campaign, Adobe Analytics, American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Foresee or other CDC-approved, OC-provided metrics tools and platforms.

2.2.6 E-mail Communication Channels. The Contractor shall provide technical oversight for CDC's selected e-mail communication product (currently Adobe Campaign) and support the CIO's needs for e-mail communication services. CDC currently has 3.5 million subscribers and 486 campaigns. Historically, there are 3-5 new campaign requests each month. The Contractor shall support the CIOs in new e-mail channels, including system settings and newsletter design. The Contractor shall support the system's agency users through regular training (1-2 times per year), accurate documentation, and consultations. The Contractor shall clean up email topics, administrators within the system, and subscriber lists yearly. The Contractor shall support and develop front-end interfaces for the e-mail system's topic and subscription management as needed. The Contractor shall work with the e-mail communication product Contractor to troubleshoot any technical issues or understand new product releases.

2.2.7 508 expertise. In addition to 508 work that is part of day-to-day web postings support, the Contractor shall provide expert-level consultation to both OC and CIOs on 508 applications for both web and digital communication products. The Contractor shall consult with OC and CIO staff to determine the best 508 solutions if HTML versions are impossible. This includes consulting with CIO level 508 Approving Officials to make recommendations and assess plans. The Contractor shall also coordinate the remediation of files that are not accessible and set up remediation plans, documentation, and procedures. When an urgent inaccessible file receives an accommodation to post and replace with a remediated file, the Contractor shall set up a remediation plan and replace the inaccessible file in the agreed-upon time.

2.2.8 Extended 508 Compliance support. The Contractor shall provide extended 508 compliance for files such as PDFs, PPTS, or other non-HTML formats that are not covered as part of using the WCMS.

2.2.9 Resource tracking. The Contractor shall provide a mechanism to track the volume and resources used to support each CIO for work on this task.

Deliverables:

· Monthly project report for all work provided in Task Area 2.

· Maintenance Reports for 2.2.3

· Ticket Status Dashboard (i.e. status of web tickets) for work through all sub tasks - Realtime dashboard

· 500 Hours of 508 remediations per year – quarterly update on hours used.

· Resource tracking report. Monthly, may be included in dashboard, if preferred.

2.3 Task Area 3: Support for Agency-Wide, OC, or other CIO Digital Tools and Systems

This task will provide support for variety of IT-related tools and systems. This includes:

· Web or other digital communication tools and systems that are utilized across the enterprise.

· Other Systems or tools used specifically within the Office of Communication (OC) (list in Attachments 3 and 4).

· Exploring technical innovations that support all of CDC or OC.

· Researching and supporting Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) products.

The Contractor shall support developing, configuring, migrating, monitoring, maintaining, and managing digital media tools, including the CDC WCMS (a customized version of WordPress Multi-User with a static delivery-tier model), responsive design templates, search engine, mobile and progressive web apps, and associated infrastructure. A list of current systems is included in Attachment 4 - Current DDM Development, Modernization, & Enhancements (DM&E) Projects. The Contractor shall manage multiple tasks in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, running demonstrations of in-progress builds and prioritizing future technical needs on our web templates with IT stakeholders using Web analytic data to assess system performance.

The Contractor shall support agile, iterative, and waterfall project management methodologies. The Contractor shall manage large N-Tier WCMS and digital communication architectures, consisting of multiple content editing, storage, and delivery-tier production servers and development, staging, and disaster recovery environments comprised typically of 26-30 servers perhaps expanding to more or reducing as need arises from work developed in this PWS. The Contractor shall support a high availability, mission-critical system managing 900,000+ content items with on-demand publishing and yearly traffic of over 2 billion page views. They shall ensure all code is cross-browser and device tested while being Section 508 compliant and secure. The Contractor shall support, maintain and improve high-volume enterprise systems currently using the following technologies: .NET, Transactional Structured Query Language (T-SQL), MySQL, Java, PHP, WordPress, global search a regular expression and print (GREP), Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interfaces (RESTful APIs or APIs), Web Services, Single Sign On (SSO), PowerBI, R, RShiny, Bootstrap, JQuery, JQueryUI, JQueryMobile, Backbone, Angular, JavaScript, PowerApps, Cascading Style Sheets version 3 (CSS3), Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), Apache Solr, Nutch, D3js, Python, PySpark, Spark, BrowserStack, Objective C, Android SDK, Ionic, Docker, Jenkins, Selenium, Fortify, WebInspect, and NodeJS.

The Contractor shall provide support for usability, architecture, security, privacy, and technology assessment to assist CDC with strategic planning for incorporating new and emerging digital communications platforms and channels.

As described in Attachment 4 - Current DDM Development, Modernization, & Enhancements (DM&E) Projects, the specific DME projects supported by the below work shall vary year-to-year—and some may vary in urgency. Historical level of hours and project descriptions for projects supported by this task can be found in Attachment 4 - Current DDM Development, Modernization, & Enhancements (DM&E) Projects. Individual project priorities, definitions, scopes, and deliverables shall be adjusted to operate at a consistent resource level from year to year. In the event of public health emergencies, the project portfolio may also be adjusted to meet response needs. The Contractor shall be expected to manage these competing priorities with CDC while providing high support for CDC's agency-wide tools and systems.

The Contractor shall support the following under this task:

2.3.1 Monitor and improve CDC.gov's infrastructure, including the Public Web Portal (PWP), search, and the Intranet Web Portal (IWP). A list of systems, number of servers, and technology stacks are included in Attachment 3 - Current Division of Digital Media (DDM) Systems Summary. Infrastructure support includes server and database administration, configuration, patching, security, performance monitoring, and improvements. Still, it does not include maintaining the hardware or virtualization management software provided by CDC's Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). Tasks include regular coordination and collaborative troubleshooting to restore system functionality with OCIO officers, including administration support for an open-source Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP (WAMP) stack and JIRA Service Desk. The Contractor shall maintain and support critical, high-availability public-facing systems with content delivery networks and cloud storage. The Contractor shall support migrating on-premise hosted OC systems to OCIO-provided cloud environments in conjunction with OCIO.

2.3.2 Support for the current environment includes Internet Information Services (IIS), .NET, Java, and WAMP server management, log file retrieval and analysis, and high-volume Solr configuration, optimization, and management. Management and configuration of CDC's Content Delivery Network (currently Akamai) shall also be supported directly and in coordination with OCIO.

2.3.3 The Contractor shall support technical components of the new CDC.gov-related systems based on CIO feedback for additional DFE functionality and support. This work includes interface improvements to the DFE, internal and external archiving solutions and archive.cdc.gov, Artificial Intelligence processes to enhance search, content recommendation and identifying duplicate or similar content, and server-side and page-level redirects management. All source code shall be uploaded to the internal CDC Git Repository.

2.3.4 Provide Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) assistance with Development, Modernization, and Enhancement (DM&E), Operations and Maintenance (O&M), and sustaining engineering of new or existing OC-managed systems, including on-premise and cloud-hosted server-based applications, mobile and progressive web apps, widgets, headless database transactions, providing and consuming Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), lambdas, serverless functions and web services, and other modern software architectures and deployment mechanisms. A list of systems, number of servers, and technology stacks under this subtask are included in Attachment 3 - Current Division of Digital Media (DDM) Systems Summary.

2.3.5 OC fully or partially manages approximately 15 authorized systems for technical, security, SDLC, and Enterprise Project Life Cycle (EPLC) support. The EPLC process is a CDC-specific implementation of industry-standard SDLC processes, CDC-specific documents (as detailed on https://www.cdc.gov/cdcup/), and governance. Additionally, many of OC's critical systems are constantly evolving. New features and enhancements are added to a continual development cycle to meet the changing business needs of the CDC and HHS and adhere to new and existing federal policies. OC typically has 6-10 Development, Modernizations, and Enhancements (DM&E) projects on existing systems per year. Currently, CDC has four that are considered large projects (more than three developers), 2 are moderate (2 to 3 developers), and one is small (one developer). Each project has a varying level of Project Management, Business Analyst, Usability, Testing, and Security support as determined by project scope and Contractor recommendations. (A list of the current FY2023 DM&E projects is included in Attachment 4 - Current DDM Development, Modernization, & Enhancements (DM&E) Projects.)

2.3.6 OC services approximately 4500 Operations and Maintenance (O&M) and help desk tickets per year. Our projected FY2025 IT budget is approximately 60% DM&E and 40% O&M. The Contractor shall provide SDLC support for projects including development, security, architecture, project and IT financial reporting and tracking, release planning, issue and features back-log management, usability, requirements gathering, integration, 508 testing, load testing, user and regression testing, EPLC and other documentation and reporting, content migration, and on-going maintenance and support. The Contractor shall also provide routine maintenance, patching, bug fixes, minor enhancements, and configuration changes. The Contractor shall ensure enhancements and features are based on user-centered design and industry-standard secure-coding principles and meet system-specific business requirements and CDC and Federal security and privacy requirements, such as the Federal IT Security Management Act (FISMA), the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA Act).

2.3.7 New system development shall incorporate CDC infrastructure, security, privacy, content management, and future ongoing O&M support, as well as medium and long-term strategic goals. The Contractor shall support distributed systems, Service Oriented Architectures (SOA), RESTful APIs, code reuse, Commercial Off the Shelf Software (COTS), and Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS). Front-end User Interfaces (UI) shall adhere to user-centered and mobile-first design principles. The Contractor shall comply with industry standards for reducing page weight, load times, cross-browser, and multiple device support. The Contractor shall also provide development and integration support for SharePoint, Proficio, and Drupal. The Contractor shall support managing CDC's three app store profiles (Google, Microsoft, and Apple). The Contractor shall provide data visualization tools and libraries such as D3.js, PowerBI, and RShiny, as well as mapping libraries for general public consumption. In addition to the primary technologies listed above and in Attachment 4 - Current DDM Development, Modernization, & Enhancements (DM&E) Projects, OC's existing environment also uses (1) Databricks, (2) Spark, (3) Kibana, (4) Elasticsearch, (5) Logstash, (6) BackstopJS, (7) Wraith; (8) Selenium and other visual comparison tools; (9) and crawling authenticated SharePoint sites using Nutch.

2.3.8 All source code shall be uploaded to the internal CDC Git Repository.

2.3.9 Integrate OC systems, other CDC systems, or 3rd party tools and services. Modern architecture and development practices using SOA, RESTful APIs, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) are required to design, develop, maintain, and modernize OC systems. The Contractor shall support and promote distributed architectures while balancing up-time and enterprise scaling issues. The Contractor shall apply Machine Learning (ML) to gain additional reporting and insights. The Contractor shall expand the OC data lake, page info tab, and content monitoring dashboard to support digital communication metrics. Examples include integrating the CDC WCMS and responsive design template with Adobe Analytics, ForeSee American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), Page Info Tab reporting system, or consuming OC's content APIs for mobile application or widget development and maintenance. All source code shall be uploaded to the internal CDC Git Repository.

2.3.10 Integrate OC systems, other CDC systems, or 3rd party tools and services. Modern architecture and development practices using SOA, RESTful APIs, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) are required to design, develop, maintain, and modernize OC systems. The Contractor shall support and promote the use of distributed architectures while balancing up-time and enterprise scaling issues. The Contractor shall apply Machine Learning (ML) to gain additional reporting and insights. The Contractor shall expand the OC data lake, page info tab, and content monitoring dashboard to support digital communication metrics. Examples include integrating the CDC WCMS and responsive design template with Adobe Analytics, ForeSee American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), Page Info Tab reporting system, or consuming OC’s content APIs for mobile application or widget development and maintenance. All source code shall be uploaded to the internal CDC Git Repository.

2.3.11 Provide help desk and training support to Web managers across the agency for using CDC systems and tools. OC services approximately 4500 help desk and O&M requests per year. The Contractor shall troubleshoot problems within CDC’s WCMS and DFE, responsive design templates, content services, code solutions, metrics, or other CDC.gov systems. The Contractor shall adhere to the written SLA (see Attachment 2 - Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Web Production Support for details) for response and provide a monthly Help Desk Ticket Support. The Contractor shall also support external users of CDC who are using CDC APIs or other technology. The Contractor shall evaluate requests for functionality and inclusion in the system.

2.3.12 The Contractor shall conduct necessary training sessions for systems and projects managed or produced on this contract, including WCMS and DFE training, template training, Adobe Analytics, ACSI Foresee, and new features and refresher training. The Contractor shall also develop training materials such as 2–3-minute demonstration videos, 1–2-page standards, and comprehensive guides. The Contractor shall provide and maintain resources for web developers and digital media staff updated on CDC’s intranet and SharePoint sites, including templates, content type modules, and data visualization galleries. All training must comply with federal, HHS, and CDC standards. The current environment uses the JIRA Service Desk. The Contractor shall keep the intranet content regarding the web guidelines, galleries, training, and instruction current.

2.3.13 Provide security support for OC staff and digital media systems. Work includes preparing required Cybersecurity Program Office (CSPO) documentation, including Security Assessments and Authorizations (SA&A), 3rd Party Web Service Assessments, and Level III approvals for all OC-managed systems, tracking the security status of all systems, initiating security updates as needed, advising CDC staff on security issues and ensuring that all OC systems comply with CDC security standards (CDC cyber security standards are based on NIST 800 Special Publication series). Support compliance with CDC privacy policies, including completing Privacy Impact Assessments for CDC systems and working with the CDC Privacy officer. This task requires working within the CDC’s security and privacy processes, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publications 800 series and maintaining knowledge of those policies and standards as they change. The Contractor shall support dynamic and static code scanning processes, false positive verifications, and change management processes. The Contractor shall support the FedRAMP accreditation process, including assisting CDC as FedRAMP sponsor when necessary.

2.3.14 Support, develop, maintain, and enhance automated testing tools and processes. The Contractor shall work with CDC staff by researching, recommending, implementing, and maintaining automated testing tools for systems and products. Automated testing tools include unit testing, functional testing, 508 testing, visual comparison testing, policy adherence, security, and performance testing and monitoring. The current environment contains Selenium, Jmeter, PhantomJS, BackstopJS, VisualStudio, Mocha, Chai, Jenkins, and BrowserStack.

2.3.15 Support the management of the OC IT and Data Governance (ITDG) process. Support includes preparing project charters, stage-gate review documents, project plans, annual operating assessments, and other). The Contractor shall organize and conduct stage gate reviews on projects at the branch, division, and CIO levels. Providing integrated EPLC and project management documents with capital planning and financial reporting is required. For small projects, the Contractor shall assist OC by performing critical partner reviews, such as security, enterprise architecture, 508, and other technical reviews. Maintain this information in a resource and project management dashboard in OC’s JIRA time tracking system and utilize existing or create new PowerBI, RShiny, or other dashboards. The dashboard should contain information on both O&M and DME projects.

2.3.16 By HHS and CDC policies, provide support with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies and methodologies for digital communication and data analysis projects. Assist OC with leveraging AI/ML to provide content recommendation, analysis, SEO, and other system enhancements and solutions. The Contractor shall manage and optimize data flows associated with AI/ML projects and support the use of TensorFlow (1. x and 2. x), Python, PySpark, and Spark. Support AI/ML-based personalization and content recommendation modules. Current projects include predicting web page bounce rate, assessing reading levels on web pages, spelling and grammar checks, content writing recommendations, finding similar content, predicting the intended audience for web pages, and inferring searcher intent.

2.3.17 The Contractor shall provide development, design, and research support for voice interface technologies such as Cortana, Siri, and Alexa and other emerging technologies such as graph databases and social network analysis software packages. The Contractor shall support possible Internet of Things (IoT) projects, smart home projects, or other new and emerging communication channels as they become available and viable for disseminating CDC’s health messages. The Contractor shall learn or acquire expertise on specific technologies that may emerge as identified in collaboration with OC staff.

2.3.18 Support and evaluate OC with new COTS and Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) for digital media support. The evaluation shall include assisting in developing requirements, market research, trend research, evaluating products against requirements, security reviews, and recommending products. This evaluation shall provide up to 10 written reports on this evaluation effort.

2.3.19 Support management, configuration, and platform migrations of social media and digital communication tools. The Contractor shall assist the government in managing and maintaining external 3rd party services such as Adobe Campaign, Sprout Social, Adobe Analytics, MotionPoint, or other different, similar, or competing products. If the government chooses to change service providers, the Contractor shall assist in configuring the new service, migrating users and content from one system to another, and participating in or leading user training.

Deliverable(s):

· Project status reports outlining progress on all identified systems and products in development delivered through this task.

· Monthly project report for all work provided in Task Area 3.

· SDLC, EPLC and Project charters and project artifacts for all systems delivered on time (as prescribed by project timeline).

· COTS and FOSS Evaluation Reports (up to 10)

· Source code shall be uploaded to the internal CDC Git Repository (as code is developed)

· Task Area Training delivered.

· Related guides and system intranet document updated within 1 month of updates to the information.

· Security systems reports (S&A, Third Party Plans) updated on time and delivered to technical leads (Task 2.3.13)

2.4 Task Area 4: Enterprise Web Content Strategy

The Contractor shall provide enterprise-level support for all aspects of CDC’s Web Strategy and overall site usability. This work includes managing CDC’s standard content types, Audience Needs, Taxonomy, Content Strategy, and more.

Work shall include:

2.4.1 Communication and training related to all aspects of this task. The Contractor shall create and maintain intranet materials and training and educate staff across CDC in all aspects of this task. (Such as training on content types, updates on taxonomy changes, etc.)

2.4.2 Provide up to 20 live virtual training sessions per performance period on elements of web strategy. In addition to just-in-time training, videos and documentation should be made available on the CDC intranet.

2.4.2.1 2-10 consultations with CIO Digital teams per month.

2.4.2.2 Quarterly review of all intranet content related to Task Area 4 and updating content as needed. This shall include the content type gallery, taxonomy, and other internal sites for communication about these elements.

2.4.3 Web content strategy process and tools. The Contractor shall provide data and insights and develop reports that inform web strategy governance across the agency. The Contractors shall also support and maintain CDC’s web content strategy tools and initiatives, such as site models, content types, Audience needs, and taxonomy.

2.4.3.1 Support web strategy governance efforts.

2.4.3.2 Participate in monthly Governance Meetings and weekly Web Strategy Meetings.

2.4.4 Support development and updates to the system used to manage tickets from CIO Strategists as part of Task 5. Tickets may include improvements or enhancements to DFE features such as taxonomy changes, content types updates, site model revision, Audience needs, and web templates.

2.4.4.1 Perform regular review of CIO Strategists’ requests, develop reports and provide recommendations to CDC’s Web Strategy Team. It is expected that between 50 tickets could be received per month. .

2.4.4.2 Support web strategy governance decisions by providing monthly metrics and user data and creating and maintaining a playbook that incudes impact analysis.

2.4.5 Make recommendations for yearly updates to the CDC’s Living Digital Content Strategy, which is the agency’s guide for managing digital content life cycles and reflects best practices for content strategies.

2.4.6 Manage and Improve CDC’s Digital First Editor, Content Types, and Audience Needs. The Contractor shall support feature updates to CDC’s Digital First Editor, the development of new and ongoing maintenance of CDC’s content types, and maintenance and updates to CDC’s collection of Audience Needs in collaboration with the CDC Web Strategy Team. At the award of this contract, it is expected that CDC will have up to 100 content types. Attachment 5 - Site Models – Content Templates – Audience Needs lists current or projected content types and some examples of content types. A listing of CDC’s Audience Needs is also provided in Attachment 5 - Site Models – Content Templates – Audience Needs. Content types structure the CDC’s content and ensure consistent, user-tested presentation of all CDC.gov content. Audience needs to drive how content developers see related content and provide input in the site Information Architecture (IA).

2.4.6.1 Support feature updates to the Digital First Editor quarterly, including regular updates to the writing guide.

2.4.6.2 Evaluate and improve content types, at least once per performance period, through assessment of user testing, metrics, audience research and feedback from digital content strategists and health communication staff across CDC. This assessment should also include performing content analysis across CDC’s websites to inform the creation of up to 30 new content types or variations (per performance period). CDC’s Web Strategy team will approve suggested improvements.

2.4.6.3 Monitor existing audience needs, audience tasks, audiences, and sub-audiences on a bi-yearly basis to determine if they are accurate for CDC.

2.4.6.4 Develop strategies to obtain and integrate feedback into the digital-first editor, content types, and audience needs, including metrics analysis, surveys, pilots, workgroups, etc.

2.4.7 Manage CDC’s Web Taxonomy. The Contractor shall support the ongoing maintenance of CDC’s Web Taxonomy. CDC’s taxonomy shall remain accurate and encompass all of CDC’s web content. The taxonomy will serve as an input to CDC.gov information architecture and content types.

2.4.7.1 Management of the web taxonomy within the taxonomy tool (e.g., Graphologi).

2.4.7.2 Provide monthly reports on the performance of the taxonomy plus recommendations for improvements to the web strategy team.

2.4.7.3 Conduct QA reviews of the taxonomy implementation on CDC.gov and within the DFE and WCMS. Develop and manage QA tools, plus assist in QA training for the CIOs. Implement QA enhancements and communicate relevant changes to the agency on the CDC intranet site and during taxonomy office hours. Taxonomists should stay updated on industry standards and provide additional taxonomy support for new projects. This work could include mapping content services taxonomy terms over to the CDC’s web taxonomy, leveraging CDC’s web taxonomy for site navigation, web metrics dashboards, and search terms and results. Additional support may be needed for consultation on larger projects or tasks such as incorporating taxonomy into CDC-INFO, the digital asset manager, enterprise social media management tools such as Sprout Social, CDC search, metrics, or data.cdc.gov. Provide ongoing taxonomy consultation as needed.

2.4.8 CDC Content Coordination and Optimization. The Contractor shall support improving and coordinating the posting of content on CDC.gov. This work will include:

2.4.8.1 Optimize and improve CDC content across the agency by reviewing high-profile web pages and making recommendations based on known best practices for digital content. The Contractor shall provide up to 1000 hours of content optimization activities. This work would be spread out over each performance period.

2.4.8.2 Manage CDC’s archive process. Work with content owners and programs to identify and recommend content to archive on archive.cdc.gov servers or to be removed from the public site altogether.

2.4.8.3 Collaborate with content owners within the Office of Communication to keep OC-managed website content up to date, including annual content reviews, consultation, coordination of significant updates, providing recommendations for content updates based on best practice recommendations, etc. Work includes annual review, content archiving (such as moving to archive.cdc.gov or removing from CDC Web sites), and other best practices in content management. This is expected to be up to 1000 hours of content administration activities per performance period.

2.4.8.4 Develop master content calendars for CDC’s home pages, OC managed internet or intranet sites, and other digital products. Coordinate the annual features calendar for promotion.

2.4.8.5 Collaborate with content owners across the CDC on high-priority website efforts, including public health emergencies, that include content coordination for a site-wide launch. Activities include working with web production staff in Task 10 to coordinate site launch, rewriting part of content, and identifying needed updates on CDC websites. This is expected to be up to 6000 hours of content administration activities per performance period.

2.4.9 CDC Usability Support. The Contractor shall provide usability and site-wide information architecture support as part of CDC’s overall web strategy efforts. This includes consultations for CDC’s websites, intranet sites, content, digital systems, tools and services. Up to 500 mockups, wireframes or designs per performance period are expected. Work includes the development of website wireframes, layouts, mockups, prototypes, and web information architectures based on audience needs and CDC’s communication goals. Designs should be evidence-based and informed by existing user experience research, web analytics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and user testing data. Web designs must comply with the CDC’s most up-to-date web template package available in the DFE, follow existing content type structures and layouts, and be mobile first.

2.4.9.1 Provide usability design support for CDC’s web template package (within the DFE and WCMS). This includes developing modules and design elements. Support evolving site navigation for desktop and mobile.

2.4.9.2 Provide ongoing usability design support for the Digital First Editor UI, including developing user flows and screen design.

2.4.9.3 Provide usability designs, layouts, or mockups for all tools, sites, or systems developed on this contract, as requested.

2.4.9.4 Provide site content strategy and information architecture support by continuously improving CDC’s overall IA and site models, topic hierarchy and structure as CDC evolves.

2.4.10 User Testing: The Contractor shall provide user testing support for CDC.gov, including testing CDC content types, taxonomy, web templates, navigation, high-priority sections of the site, and CDC’s digital content. CDC will provide access to a user testing tool, which includes built-in panelists to serve as user testing participants, supports testing on both desktop and mobile, records participant feedback, and provides virtual observation of participant’s screen. CDC currently uses The User Testing Human Insight Platform. The Contractor shall:

2.4.10.1Develop an annual user testing plan emphasizing rapid testing tools and protocols, including web data CDC can access, such as web analytics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and audience satisfaction data.

2.4.10.2Develop testing scripts, protocols, and delivery of an estimated 70-100 user tests with approximately 20 participants for each test, including a mix of public consumers and health care professionals. Access to data from testing sessions should be available for review by CDC’s Web Strategy Team within 24 hours after non-moderated and 48 hours after moderated sessions are concluded. Final reports for each testing effort should be delivered within four days after completion of testing.

Deliverable(s):

· Monthly project report for all work provided in Task Area 4.

· Task Area Training delivered up to 20 times for each performance period,

· Intranet content updated at least quarterly,

· Monthly Metrics and User Data Report (Task 2.4.3 & 2.4.4)

· Monthly Taxonomy Report

· User Testing Reports for up to 100 tests per performance period,

· CDC.gov master content schedule delivered in real time.

2.5 Task Area 5: Develop Transition Plan (Optional)

At least 60 calendar days prior to the expiration of the Order, the Contractor shall provide a draft Transition Plan that identifies transition support activities for follow-on requirements to minimize disruption of services. The plan shall be finalized 30 days after CDC review. The Transition Plan and support shall include the following:

2.5.1 Inventory all Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) and Government Furnished Information (GFI) in Contractor possession.

2.5.2 Status of all deliverables.

2.5.3 Current issues, problems, or activities in process that require immediate action.

2.5.4 The plan on how the Contractor intends to support the transition to the new follow-on Contractor, and the list of key personnel involved in this effort.

2.5.5 The CO, COR, and TPOC will approve this plan and transition support. Upon award of a new Order, the Contractor shall work with the new Contractor to provide knowledge transfer and transition support when required by the COR.

Deliverable: Transition Plan

2.6 Task Area 6: Web and Digital Communication Enhancements (Optional)

This Task includes support for enhancements to CDC’s web and digital communication products or activities. Enhancements include:

· Subject matter expertise.

· Content optimization.

· User testing.

· Application development.

· Mobile app development.

· eLearning technical development.

· Social media support.

· Digital content development.

· Usability design.

· Other related services.

The Contractor shall provide enhancement support directly to CDC’s CIO health communicators and digital teams. Each performance period will require undetermined web and digital enhancements. For this task area, the Contractor shall provide a variety of digital communication activities. In some cases, this support could come from the pool of staff providing support under Tasks 2-4, but this may not be possible due to the volume of enhancements. All work shall adhere to guidelines referenced throughout this PWS and industry best practices in the digital communication space.

Deliverables and enhancements may include any of the following support activities:

· Support the optimization and improvement of web content for web sites. This includes activities such as content refinement and developing including includes web page reviews, web page re-writes, usability improvements to content, identification of images for content, coordination of cross cutting content, optimizing duplicate content, coordination of translated content, assistance in annual reviews, review of metrics to inform work, and development of new plain language pages.

· Support for additional specific user testing on CIO Topic sites. This includes activities such as development of goals for user testing, developing scripts, recruitment of test participants, and testing reports.

· Support for technical development of novel content dissemination products or enhancements to existing products. New products may include new interactive tools, widget, SharePoint sites, mobile app, eLearning applications (i.e., Lectora, Captivate), advanced data visualizations. Activities include developing brief workplans for the enhancements, all development, testing and deployment activities. These projects must adhere to the technology, policy, privacy, security and availability aspects of work described in this PWS. Work shall include all aspects of the SDLC process including project management and EPLC reporting.