Statement_of_Objectives_Integrated_Student_Experience_FINAL_3_5.docx

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (SOO)

Integrated Student Experience (ISE)

1.0 Overview

FSA currently disseminates financial aid information to students through more than 9 websites and faces a number of challenges including: content inconsistency and redundancy across websites, multiple authentication requirements for a comprehensive view of financial aid portfolios, and duplicative administrative and resource requirements for the management and support of multiple websites. Consolidating these sites will provide students and parents with an enhanced customer experience across the student aid lifecycle, aiming to increase financial aid awareness and attendance, while simplifying the application and servicing process. This initiative was chosen as ED’s signature initiative for complying with the Executive Order 13571 on streamlining customer service.

The Integrated Student Experience Initiative is comprised of website consolidation, maintenance and updates (StudentAid.gov), new media platforms and mobile. Beneficiaries of this effort include all prospective students and their families, current college students, borrowers in repayment, and those that influence and inform students and borrowers.

In a phased approach, this project will provide a “one-stop-shop” for students, parents and borrowers for information related to financial aid, repaying student loans, applying for federal aid and navigating through the college decision-making process. Phase 1 of ISE was launched in July 2012 with the release of StudentAid.gov and social media pages. StudentAid.gov currently offers over 150 pages of English content and 100 pages of associated Spanish (SP) content. The website is expected to receive over 30 million annual visits. The site, built in responsive design for optimal viewing on all devices, consists mainly of static content to date, including this functionality:

· one site survey (SP),

· one email/request form (SP),

· 4 loan repayment calculators based on legislative guidelines (SP),

· multiple videos, pictures, infographics (SP)

· one glossary

· one files (pdfs, images, etc.) repository

· one events repository

· one announcements repository (SP)

· more than 500 URL redirects in place from retired sites to StudentAid.gov pages

· 12 static or dynamic sidebar modules or “tiles” (SP)

· 6 general sections of content, each containing set style/formatting

· one site search provided by Bing

· plug ins to social media properties

The social media properties include:

· Facebook.com/FederalStudentAid (with custom Facebook applications)

· Twitter.com/FAFSA

· YouTube.com/FederalStudentAid

· Storify.com/FAFSA

· Visual.ly/users/FederalStudentAid

2.0 Objectives

A. Operations and Maintenance At a minimum the contractor shall perform the following Operations and Maintenance services:

1. Update content and functionality provided by FSA. All new and updated content shall be reviewed and approved by FSA in the Test site before moving to the Production environment. FSA staff will make minor content updates (such as editing paragraphs, creating new basic pages, and adding content that follows existing templates in the WYSIWYG editor) through the CMS but will look to the contractor for assistance with these and more complex changes.

2. Serve as technical liaison between FSA Customer Experience group, FSA Technology Office and their support contractors, and the Virtual Data Center provider.

3. Respond to application and infrastructure incidents and disaster recoveries; participates in annual FSA disaster recovery exercises.

4. Supports infrastructure initiatives that include COTS software patches and upgrades, security patches and upgrades, and server patches and upgrades.

5. Provide a system to track and report system incidents initiated by FSA or contractors. Each request shall be assigned with a priority level associated to a defined service level. All outstanding requests shall be discussed in the weekly status meeting, and summarized in the monthly performance report.

6. Change management: The contractor shall follow the Federal Student Aid Enterprise Change Management processes to ensure all changes are coordinated, reviewed, and approved through Federal Student Aid organizational areas. Traceability for changes is achieved by using the Collaborative Lifecycle Management’s (CLM) Rational Team Concert (RTC) component. All changes are approved in RTC which also controls the source code for projects. Developers are required to check components out of that system and ensure that work items exist that describe the task. When conducting O&M Activities, the vendor shall use the Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) tool that consists of Rational Requirements Composer, Rational Team Concert, and Rational Quality Manager. They shall use code store within Rational Team Concert, as well as using that tool to record changes made to the system; shall update/create test cases in Rational Quality Manager; shall reference requirements in the Requirements Composer. The vendor is expected to have knowledge of the tool and FSA shall provide access and information on how to use the tool within the FSA Environment.

7. Create and update user guides and system documentation required by FSA. The system documentation includes System Security Plan, Configuration Management Plan, Continuity of Operations Plan, Contingency Plan, Disaster Recovery Test Plan, etc.

8. Provide mobile (phone and tablet) support and maintenance for multiple screen sizes. Updates (content, design, functionality, etc.) available on the ISE website (PC experience) shall be optimized for phone and tablet experiences (mobile web) through responsive design.

9. Provide new media (social media) functionality support and maintenance.

10. Provide analytics monitoring and support through maintaining current tools and continued site tagging.

B. Enhancement Services At a minimum the contractor shall provide FSA with the following Enhancement services:

1. Provide creative design support, based on the current FSA digital style guide, for future enhancements following 508 accessibility guidelines. Create all necessary page templates/user interfaces and graphic elements for multiple screen sizes.

2. Collaborate with FSA staff and contractors to provide recommendations on technical solutions for consolidating presentation of back-end systems in support of ISE target state.

3. Document functional and technical requirements with FSA participation.

4. Provides project management support, maintaining a project plan, weekly status report for all enhancements.

5. Provide system and intersystem testing. Support testing activities and coordination with FSA’s Enterprise Performance Team, FSA’s User Acceptance Group and with the Department’s 508 Accessibility Group.

6. Follow Documentation process as described by FSA’s Lifecycle Management Methodology (LMM) process.

7. Provide ISE development and support (operations and maintenance) for mobile (smartphone and tablet) native applications (e.g. iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, etc.).

The required enhancements include: 1) Professionals Toolkit, 2) Mega Menu Update, 3) Minor Enhancements, 4) Interactive Question Section (IQS), 5) Career Search and 6) Content Workflow and 7) NSLDS

3.0 Constraints

Content Management Tool - Drupal 7 Change Request Tool- Rational ClearQuest Database- MySQL USASearch (powered by Bing) Webtrends Google Analytics Digital Style Guide CodeIgniter (a PHP Framework) Adobe Creative Suite Lifecycle Management Methodology (LMM) Compliance with Section 508 Responsive Website Design FSA IT Standards: https://studentaid.ed.gov/about/contracting-info/it-standards Minimum Key Personnel Requirements Program Manager

· 5 years of work experience in IT or Technical System management

· Project Management certifications / credentials

· Experience in coordinating across multiple teams and organizations to deliver successful products and services Website Developer

· Experience in architecture, interaction and navigation design, writing for the web, usability testing, building and launching Drupal database driven websites. Experience with creating custom Drupal modules and updating existing modules.

· Broad working knowledge of technologies, including Mid-Tier Infrastructure and Applications, Data Base Architecture, Portal Technologies and Storage Technologies. The Application Developer should have practical experience with IT architecture elements and components and technology directions, including Service Oriented Architecture, Cloud Computing and Federated Identity Management.

· Experience with custom development, package-based software, automated software and system management tools and software troubleshooting experience; Software Development Life Cycle, proven knowledge of system and software testing and quality assurance best practices and methodologies. Solid working knowledge of current Internet technologies; and knowledge of database design, file management techniques and data security and privacy practices. Develop custom applications using Drupal, java, PHP, XML, XSL(-T), CSS, JavaScript, and HTML 5

· Provides the lead and foundational role in executing the majority of the stages in the Application Development lifecycle. This Developer acts as SCRUM Master for development efforts. This role will be the primary liaison with the Enterprise Information Technology Architecture and Strategic Infrastructure Group (EITASIG) and will be responsible for recommendations around application architecture. This role would be the primary liaison with other members of an Integrated Product Team including Test, Business Analysis, Product Owner, the FSA Technology Office and others as needed.

4.0 Technical Environment

Production Servers One (1) MySQL Database Server - Red Hat Enterprise Server 5.6, 8GB, 2 vCPU’s Two (2) Application Servers - Red Hat Enterprise Server 5.6, 8GB, 2 vCPU’s

EPT Servers One (1) MySQL Database Server - Red Hat Enterprise Server 5.6, 8GB, 2 vCPU’s One (1) Application Server -- Red Hat Enterprise Server 5.6, 8GB, 2 vCPU’s

Test One (1) Application and Database Server - Red Hat Enterprise Server 5.6, 8GB, 2 vCPU’s

Development One (1) Application and Database Server - Red Hat Enterprise Server 5.6, 8GB, 2 vCPU’s

5.0 Deliverable Table

Operations and Maintenance Deliverables

· List of all System Incident Reports (SIRs) submitted during the reporting period.

· List of outstanding issues.

· Chart showing successful and failed deployments in production.

· List percentage of successful and failed deployments in production.

· Summarize service provided and to identify any open issues.

Weekly

· List of all SIRs submitted during the reporting period.

· Number of SIRs submitted by priority that met the target date compared to those that were not met including totals for the option year.

· List of outstanding issues.

· Graph showing SIR activity over the reporting period

· Analyze trends as well as make recommendations to improve service responsiveness.

· Chart showing successful and failed deployments in production.

· List percentage of successful and failed deployments in production.

· Analyze the SIRs submitted throughout the reporting period and provide a summary of the problems/bugs reported, with recommendations for improvement.

· Summarize service provided and to identify any open issues.

Annually

Enhancement Deliverables

· Hold scrum development meetings

· Hold Development Planning Meeting

· Participate in Requirements Gathering Sessions

· Participate in Requirements Review Session

· Hold Development Review Meeting

· Update LMM System Documentation

· Deploy to Test Environment

· Deploy to Enterprise Performance Test

· Hold 508 Review

· Hold Pre-Production Readiness Review

· Hold Production Readiness Review

· Deploy to Production

TBD

· Hold scrum development meetings

· Hold Development Planning Meeting

· Participate in Requirements Gathering Sessions

· Participate in Requirements Review Session

· Hold Development Review Meeting

· Update LMM System Documentation

· Deploy to Test Environment

· Deploy to Enterprise Performance Test

· Hold 508 Review

· Hold Pre-Production Readiness Review

· Hold Production Readiness Review

· Deploy to Production

TBD

· Hold scrum development meetings

· Hold Development Planning Meeting

· Participate in Requirements Gathering Sessions

· Participate in Requirements Review Session

· Hold Development Review Meeting

· Update LMM System Documentation

· Deploy to Test Environment

· Deploy to Enterprise Performance Test

· Hold 508 Review

· Hold Pre-Production Readiness Review

· Hold Production Readiness Review Deploy to Production

TBD

· Hold scrum development meetings

· Hold Development Planning Meeting

· Participate in Requirements Gathering Sessions

· Participate in Requirements Review Session

· Hold Development Review Meeting

· Update LMM System Documentation

· Deploy to Test Environment

· Deploy to Enterprise Performance Test

· Hold 508 Review

· Hold Pre-Production Readiness Review

· Hold Production Readiness Review

· Deploy to Production

TBD

· Hold scrum development meetings

· Hold Development Planning Meeting

· Participate in Requirements Gathering Sessions

· Participate in Requirements Review Session

· Hold Development Review Meeting

· Update LMM System Documentation

· Deploy to Test Environment

· Deploy to Enterprise Performance Test

· Hold 508 Review

· Hold Pre-Production Readiness Review

· Hold Production Readiness Review

· Deploy to Production

TBD

· Hold scrum development meetings

· Hold Development Planning Meeting

· Participate in Requirements Gathering Sessions

· Participate in Requirements Review Session

· Hold Development Review Meeting

· Update LMM System Documentation

· Deploy to Test Environment

· Deploy to Enterprise Performance Test

· Hold 508 Review

· Hold Pre-Production Readiness Review

· Hold Production Readiness Review

· Deploy to Production

TBD

· Hold scrum development meetings

· Hold Development Planning Meeting

· Participate in Requirements Gathering Sessions

· Participate in Requirements Review Session

· Hold Development Review Meeting

· Update LMM System Documentation

· Deploy to Test Environment

· Deploy to Enterprise Performance Test

· Hold 508 Review

· Hold Pre-Production Readiness Review

· Hold Production Readiness Review

· Deploy to Production

6.0 List of Attachments - Enhancements 1 – 7

1. Professionals Toolkit Development

2. Mega Menu Update

3. Minor Enhancements

4. Interactive Question Section (IQS)

5. Career Search

6. Content Workflow

7. NSLDS