Attachment_I_Task_Order_0003_Technical_Architecture_Support_Services_(TASS)_PWS.pdf

Task Order 0003, FSA TASS

Attachment I

FSA Technology Office

Performance Work Statement (PWS)

Task Order: 0003

Technical Architecture Support Services (TASS)

“Subject to Availability of Funds”

Background

Federal Student Aid (FSA), a principal office of the U.S. Department of Education, plays a central and essential role in postsecondary education as the largest provider of student financial aid in the country. FSA ensures that all eligible individuals may benefit from federally funded or federally guaranteed financial assistance for education beyond high school. FSA consistently champions the promise of postsecondary education and training to all Americans—and its value to our society. The Department of Education has the responsibility of ensuring that each postsecondary educational institution seeking or participating in the FSA Title IV programs, under the Higher Education Act (HEA) as amended, comply with the laws, regulations and policies to gain or maintain participation in those programs.

Federal Student Aid’s (FSA) technical infrastructure is complex integrating many technologies.

FSA requires assistance in performing Technical Architecture Support services. These services require access to skilled personnel with a variety of technical skill sets that span the full range of technologies that may be deployed at a major enterprise. These skill sets include, but are not limited to, evaluation of technologies, establishment of design standards, and general technical support of new and existing technical projects.

Objectives

FSA has a requirement for senior level Subject Matter Expert (SME) services and skill sets with the technical abilities to assisted FSA with the acquisition of new technical solutions, oversight of development efforts and continued maintenance of legacy systems.

Initially the Contractor will focus on building the institutional knowledge necessary to understand the key processes, standards and project team needs to establish reasonable standards that project teams will be required to use to express solution designs and FSA will use to evaluate and assess those designs. The existing standards and processes were designed to support new systems development efforts focusing primarily on Application Architecture. FSA needs to revise those standards and processes to better reflect current needs but also expand them to include:

Legacy systems that are primarily in maintenance mode with no design documentation or project specific design documentation:

If the system is primarily in maintenance mode, FSA needs processes and standards to access the solution design of these types of solutions without imposing the requirement (and cost) of creating a full set of preliminary and detailed design documentation meeting FSA’s standards.

If the system is being re-factored or enhanced, the project team will need to deliver design documentation in the format and level of detail required by FSA to reasonably evaluate and assess these enhancements without imposing the requirement (and cost) of creating a full set of preliminary and detailed design documentation meeting

FSA’s standards for the entire solution.

The current design standards do not address infrastructure only solutions (Hardware and

Software) such as Data Centers, Application Servers( ITA), Messaging Infrastructures (ITA), Security Architecture Infrastructures (PAS / AIMS) and immerging DevOps

(Development/Operations) infrastructure approaches such as Infrastructure as Software. FSA needs to expand its design standards and TQC process to included infrastructure projects.

In addition to expanding the existing standards to support legacy and infrastructure projects, the existing standards need to be refreshed to support new development projects. The existing standards were developed over 5 years ago and used by only a few projects before the TASS effort was suspended. Since then, project teams have expressed concern about these standards and have difficulty using them. As part of the first quarter effort, the Contractor shall research and understand these concerns and provide specific recommendations for addressing these concerns.

FSA is also considering shifting the Technical Quality Control assessments from being primarily focused on standards compliance using specific architectural guidelines (Architectural Models) to a more Goals/Objective oriented assessment. The Contractor shall review the FSA-provided

Goals, Objectives, Qualities and Validation document and provide specific recommendations for improvements. The Contractor shall review this document providing specific recommendations for improvements and a clear path forward for using this document as the standard for designs across all projects regardless of how system documentation is provided to FSA.

The following FSA projects are targeted for support by this task order but are not limited to:

a) VDC/NDVDC – Virtual Data Center /New Generation Virtual Data Center

b) Servicing – FSA Loan Servicing Systems

c) IPM – Integrated Partner Management

d) DMCS – The Debt Management Collection System

e) DCAS - Data Challenge and Appeals Solution

These systems represent the types of FSA solutions this task order will focus on. The

Offeror shall be prepared to support a broad set of solutions using a broad base of technology skill sets.

Activity 1: Provide TASS Program Management Support

The Contractor shall provide TASS program management support services to the FSA

Technology Office to assist with the development of the TASS Program and related functions.

This includes completion of a TASS Program Assessment of existing TASS Processes and artifacts. The Contractor shall develop TASS program/project plans, including resource and schedule estimates that incorporate all TASS-related activities, performance and administrative management responsibilities. The Contractor shall ensure that all deliverables meet the agreed performance standards regarding quality, technical accuracy, usefulness, and timeliness of the deliverables and work products.

Kickoff Meeting – Qualities include:

1. Depicts and describes integrated project team, task order approach, and technical quality control approach

TASS Master Program Plan (PgMP) – Qualities include:

1. Incorporates all TASS-related activities including significant activities based on internal and external drivers

2. Includes a program charter, goals, and objectives that align with the task order goals and objectives as defined in this task order

3. Assist in describing how scope, cost, schedule, human resources, communications, risk

,and quality will be managed

4. Aligns with and supports the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS)

Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) – Qualities include:

1. Includes detailed tasks, dependencies, resource and schedule estimates, including estimated activity cost information

2. All activities are included with all predecessor and successors identified such that a logical critical

3. Delivered in MS (Microsoft) Project format

Setup of Project Artifact and Project Repository– Qualities include:

1. Setup of network directory folder on FSA a shared drive with defined subdirectories that hold:

1.1. Copies of the CO or COR acceptance of deliverables

1.2. A working network directory that holds all works in progress

1.3. A directory that holds all deliverables and associated work products including but not limited to: Visio diagrams, reference documents and other source material required to maintain the deliverable in the future.

1.4. A PowerPoint presentation documenting the repository and what artifacts belong in each directory.

Provide Weekly Project Status

1. Weekly Status reports are work products and are to be submitted to FSA no later than

Friday of each week. The weekly status will include (but not limited to):

1.1. Status of each activity currently awarded. Including if the activity is on time or not.

If not on time , an explanation of why and what steps the Contractor is taking to correct the delay.

1.2. Any anticipated changes in personnel or progress in obtaining required talent.

1.3. Any program issues that need the attention of the Government.

1.4. Any program issues that may represent a risk to the program and successful delivery of the task order requirements.

2. Weekly status is a requirement for the entire period of performance of the task order.

Activity 2: Provide Stage Gate Support Services

The Contractor shall provide services to support the intake process and coordination for up to 20

Preliminary and/or Detailed Design stage gates (1a- Preliminary Design and 1b – Detailed

Design). Stage Gates will be performed throughout the period of performance of the task order.

FSA anticipates that the team will be provided 60 days advance notice for each stage gate, but the Contractor must also be flexible and be prepared to provide Stage Gates on demand. The services provided will include:

1. Assist with the intake processing of Stage Gate requests including coordinating and scheduling the Stage Gate review and presentation to Engineering Review Board (ERB)

2. Assist the Government with performing Technical Quality Control (TQC) reviews of design deliverables

3. Assist in the preparation and presentation of TQC results and recommendations to the

ERB.

Activity Qualities include:

1. Deliver services over the period of performance of this task order.

2. Prepare and maintain tracking spread sheet for scheduled stage gates as described in

Engineering Design Review – Technical Stage gate 1a and 1b Process Description

Document. Report Stage Gate status to the ERB on as needed.

3. Perform up to 20 TQC’s as described in the Engineering Design Review – Technical

Stage gate 1a and 1b Process Description Document.

4. Provide assistance in the preparation of the ERB Stage Gate reports delivering results in

PowerPoint presentation format..

Activity 3: Acquisition SME Support Services

The Contractor shall provide technical Subject Matter Experience support of acquisition activities for the FSA Loan Servicing System and DDAS (Digital Delivery & Application

Services) solutions.

Support the Development of Acquisition packages and Evaluation of Proposals– Qualities include:

1. Assist with reviewing existing acquisition technical requirements and provide recommendations for improvement and completeness.

2. Assist with the review Instructions to Offers and provide recommendations to ensure sufficient information is ensuring the proposals to effectively evaluate the proposed solutions.

3. Assist with reviewing evaluation factors and provide recommendations assisting FSA in assuring that technical considerations are adequately captured in the evaluation factors.

4. Assist technical evaluation panels by providing feedback and findings that will assist the

Government in identifying Strengths, Weaknesses and Deficiencies of the proposal as related to the evaluation factors.

Activity 4: Legacy System TQC Quick Start

FSA has an immediate need to provide design system assessments for legacy systems. In this activity, the Contractor will provide a tailored (or replacement process) for the TQC that will support legacy systems that have no documentation or project specific documentation. The process will address the minimum amount of information needed to assess the changes in a release of a solution and how it will be evaluated by a TQC assessment team. The result of the

TQC must provide the Engineering Review Board with a reasonable assessment of the risk associated with the release. This activity is not intended to provide the final solution. It is intended to have an initial process in place and ready to be used.

Legacy System TQC Quick Start” – Qualities include:

1. Assist with updating Stage Gate Review document integrating quick start requirements

2. Assist with updating TQC integrating quick start evaluation criteria and instructions to

TQC assessment team

3. Assist project team planning guide with providing instructions to project teams about roles and responsibilities

4. Assist with guidance to project teams on how to package and deliver the required information necessary to support this quick start process.

5. Present process and changes to FSA in the form of Power Point presentation.

6. Assist with Pilot changes with 1 FSA system

Activity 5: Update/Replace “The Goals, Objectives, Qualities and Validation Scenarios

Document”

The Contractor shall review “The Goals, Objectives, Qualities and Validation Scenarios

Document” to determine if the existing document is organized effectively and contains the necessary information to effectively communicate to potential acquisition Offerors and existing project teams the FSA requirements as intended by this document. The Offeror will research existing best practices and assist the Government in determining if updates are required and the level of effort that would be required to implement these recommendations.

Review “The Goals, Objectives, Qualities and Validation Scenarios Document” – Qualities

1. Review DDAS (Digital Delivery & Application Services) requirements to assist with determining if they have been accurately and effectively captured in the acquisition requirements.

2. Research best practices for Goals, Objectives and Qualities included in the document to determine if they are obsolete or require updating.

3. Review the format and structure of the document to determine if changes are required.

4. Provide rough order of magnitude level of effort for each recommendation to assist the

Government in determining the best strategy to implement the recommended changes – which may include not moving forward with some recommendations.

5. Update or replace existing documentation

6. Present process and changes to FSA in the form of Power Point presentation.

Initial Structural and Content Changes – Qualities include:

1. Update proposed structure of document mapped to recommendations

2. Update existing content into new structure.

3. Identification of new material and plan for acquiring and incorporating the new material

4. Consensus with impacted parties (ERB, Project Teams and Program Management teams) on general direction and usability.

5. Present process and changes to FSA in the form of a PowerPoint presentation.

Complete Structural and Content Changes – Qualities include:

1. Update document completing the content of the deliverable,

2. Update document restructuring existing material as needed.

3. Consensus with impacted parties (ERB, Project Teams and Program Management teams) on general direction and usability.

4. Present process and changes to FSA in the form of a PowerPoint presentation

Pilot and Roll Out - Qualities include

1. With the assistance of FSA, the Contractor shall conduct a pilot of the changes implemented in the activity with 1 FSA project team

Activity 6: Update/Replace Preliminary and Detailed Design/Exemplar Documentation

FSA’s existing standards for Preliminary and Detailed design documentation were originally created with the intention that they would be used for new engineering efforts. In this effort, the Contractor shall review the existing design standards, examples of project team design deliverables using the existing standards, and review of design deliverables not using these existing standards. Additionally, the design standards were developed over 5 years ago and have not been maintained over time. The Contractor shall focus on (but not limited to):

understanding why project teams are having difficulty using the standards (three project teams will be select by FSA for the Contractor to interview), review existing standards for best practices, review existing standards to assist with determining if the correct information is being requested to support oversight of a project team’s design.

Additionally, the current design documents are primarily focused on application architecture.

FSA has a need to expand the primary and detailed design standards to include infrastructure projects such as data center design.

Review “Preliminary and Detailed Design/Exemplary Documentation t” – Qualities

1. Provide insight and recommendations to better accommodate legacy systems currently using the design standards.

2. Provide insight and recommendations to better accommodate legacy systems that are not currently using the design standards.

3. Provide insight and recommendations to better accommodate infrastructure projects such as data center design.

4. Review the format and structure of the documents to determine if changes are required.

5. Provide rough order of magnitude level of effort for each recommendation to assist the

Government in determining the best strategy to implement the recommended changes – which may include not moving forward with some recommendations update or replace existing documentation

2. Update existing content into new structure.

3. Assist with Identification of new material and plan for acquiring and incorporating the new material

4. Consensus with impacted parties (ERB, Project Teams and Program Management teams)

2. Update document restructuring existing material as needed.

3. Consensus with impacted parties (ERB, Project Teams and Program Management

1. With the assistance of FSA, the Contractor will conduct a pilot of the changes

Activity 7: Update/Replace the Technical Quality Control (TQC) processes

The TQC process is primarily focused on supporting new solution development efforts and compliance to design standards. In this activity, the Contractor shall analyze the TQC process and provide specific recommendations for shifting the TQC process away from compliance to standards to meeting FSA’s technical goals and objectives. The end result of the TQC process improvement should provide FSA with a birds eye view of the solution portfolio highlighting which projects are contributing to moving towards FSA’s technical goals and which projects are impeding progress. The TQC will remain primarily project oriented, but results will be aggregated across projects providing FSA with a consistent Enterprise view that will inform the

Engineering Review Board and assist them with their decision -making responsibilities.

The current TQC process places a large burden on legacy systems to map their existing documentation to FSA’s standards to support TQC review of their design. This mapping also places a large burden on the assessment team to find the design documentation and assemble their assessment to align to the TQC assessment criteria. Some projects (FAFSA – Free

Application for Federal Student Aid - is an example) have over 100 legacy design documents containing over 2,500 pages of documentation. Using this approach, FSA would need to invest hundreds of hours of effort mapping documents to the TQC evaluation criteria. Additionally, accessors would potentially spend hundreds of extra hours combing through many documents to acquire the same information that would have been available in a single section of a design document using FSA’s design standard.

FSA has a requirement to support the Technical Quality Control of legacy systems without placing a large burden on both the legacy development team and the Technical Quality Control assessment team.

ReviewTehnical Quality Control (TQC) Goals/Objectives – Qualities include:

1. Review TQC process to assist with determining how the emphasis can be shifted away from standards compliance to goals/objectives compliance

2. Review TQC process to assist with determining how legacy projects with no system level design documentation or project level documentation can be performed with minimal cost to the project.

3. Provide rough order of magnitude level of effort for each recommendation to assist the

Government in determining the best strategy to implement the recommended changes – which may include not moving forward with some recommendations.

4. Present findings and recommendations in the form of a Power Point presentation.

5. Review TQC process to determine how legacy systems can be assessed using existing documentation without placing a burden on both the development team and the TQC assessment team.

6. Review the TQC process to determine how legacy systems can be assessed using release level change documentation.

7. Provide rough order of magnitude level of effort for each recommendation to assist the

Government in determining the best strategy to implement the recommended changes – which may include not moving forward with some recommendations.

8. Present findings and recommendations in the form of Power Point presentation.

9. Update or replace existing documentation

2. Update existing content into new structure.

3. Identification of new material and plan for acquiring and incorporating the new material

4. Consensus with impacted parties (ERB, Project Teams and Program Management teams)

2. Update document restructuring existing material as needed.

3. Consensus with impacted parties (ERB, Project Teams and Program Management

With the assistance of FSA, the Contractor will work will conduct a pilot of the changes

Deliverables

Activity 1: Provide

TASS Program

Management Support

Kick off meeting

Presentation

PowerPoint 5 days after award

Weekly status reports Word Weekly

Project Artifact

Repository Report

(Delivered as a power point presentation)

FSA Share Drive 45 days after award, Updated as needed

Integrated Master

Schedule delivered as MS project and

PDF file

MS Project 45 days after award, TASS Master

Program Plan

(PgMP)

Word 45 days after award, Activity 2: Provide Stage

Gate Support Services

Summary of Services

Performed

Word Monthly (on the 28 th

Copies of all documents produced or modified under this activity including but not limited to: Stage

Gate status report, TQC Evaluations, ERB Stage Gate

Various Monthly (on the 28

Reports.

Activity 3: Acquisition

SME Support Services

Summary of Services

Performed

Word Monthly (on the 28

Copies of all documents produced or modified under this

Various As needed

Activity 4: Legacy

System TQC Quick Start

Updated Stage Gate

Review Process

Document

Word 180 days after award

Updates TQC documentation

Word 180 days after award

Activity 5:

Update/Replace “The

Goals, Objectives, Qualities and Validation

Scenarios Document

Findings and recommendations report.

Word

Contractor Proposed recommendations executive summary

Word Contractor Proposed

Preliminary Updated/ replacement

Final Updated/ replacement

Document

Word Contractor Proposed

Pilot Findings and

Lessons Learned

Word Contractor Proposed

Activity 6:

Update/Replace

Preliminary and Detailed

Design/Exemplary

Documentation and provide recommendations

Documents replacement

Documents

Word Contractor Proposed

Pilot Findings and

Lessons Learned

Word Contractor Proposed

Activity 7:

Update/Replace the

Technical Quality

Control (TQC) processes recommendations replacement

Document

Word Contractor Proposed

Pilot Findings and

Lessons Learned

Special Requirements

Period of Performance:

The Period of Performance shall be from September 30, 2016 through September 29, 2016.

Performance Location:

The Contractor will be primarily off-site. However, all Contractor staff will be required to be available Mon – Fri from 8-4:30pm, for meetings, collaboration sessions and related business at

Union Center Plaza (UCP), 830 First Street, NW Washington DC 20002. The Contractor will also need to furnish all staff members with equipment capable of accessing FSA controlled system environment via CITRIX. Proper controls and security of all FSA document artifacts and deliverables must be maintained solely in FSA SharePoint environment.

GFE:

FSA will provide ED laptops to Contractors who require access to the ED network. This requirement is based on the SOP for Mandatory Use of Personal Identity Verification (PIV)

Cards.

Key Personnel:

Program Manager-I

Subject Matter Expert-III