Attachment_L002_IMS_Guidance.pdf

ATTACHMENT L002: INTEGRATED MASTER SCHEDULE (IMS)

GUIDANCE

The IMS is an integrated, time-phased schedule of program/project tasks. The IMS identifies significant program events, accomplishments, and criteria including the expected durations and dates of each. The IMS should be structured in such a way that it provides the Government confidence in the Offeror(s) ability to successfully execute the program to an on-time completion. As the purpose of the IMS is to understand the Offeror’s approach to the program, the activities and tasks included should be sufficient to account for the successful execution of entire program under contract.

The information submitted will be used as the basis for assessing the Offeror’s proposed schedule. Failure to comply with direction provided herein may adversely affect the assessment.

Chapter 1 – IMS Network and Data Listing

The Offeror shall provide an electronic and hardcopy IMS network schedule. The program IMS shall be submitted in Microsoft Project 2007-2010 format. All network schedule information shall be consistent with and traceable to the Statement of Work (SOW) and other requirements documents as outlined in this RFP. All activities, with the exception of the first activity, should have at least one predecessor. There shall be no negative total slack in the IMS. Summary activities shall not be linked.

The IMS network schedule shall clearly indicate the critical path. The IMS shall contain at least one unbroken critical path that reaches from the first activity of the program to the last activity.

Text names for activities on the critical path shall be underlined and use bold, red font. Purely Level of Effort (LOE) tasks (e.g., program management, recurring CDRL submissions, or other ongoing program tasks) should not be specifically addressed in the IMS. However, to the extent there are specific activities within these categories that tie to other activities (e.g., exercising annual options or onetime CDRL submission), these activities would be appropriate for inclusion.

The IMS network schedule shall contain a sufficient number of activities to provide a detailed understanding of the total program, including milestones. Offeror(s) shall use a calendar consistent with the company's work schedule.

For each IMS activity, the Offeror shall identify in a Text field the corresponding sub-factor primarily associated to that activity e.g. Sub-factor1, Sub-factor2, and Sub-factor3 etc. Offeror(s) shall represent CMC subfactors as follows: CMC Sub-factor 1 = “CMC1”, CMC sub-factor2 = “CMC2” etc. All subfactors shall be addressed to a level of detail sufficient to provide an understanding of that Sub-factor’s execution.

The durations for each task in the network schedule shall represent most likely durations.

Elapsed durations should not be used in assigning durations to activities (examples when appropriate include Post-Award Conference, Major Meetings, transportation durations, etc.).

Solicitation: FA8625-18-R-6701 Air Force Life Cycle Management Center

C-5M Super Galaxy Division CMC/WxR Production (PIMA) Section L, Attachment L002

The IMS shall be constructed using only activities (summary and non-summary) and milestones.

Any activity with duration greater than 60 workdays should be divided into activities with smaller durations or justified in the narrative.

The Offeror shall provide as part of the schedule narrative, a tabular listing of all customized fields used to build the IMS. This listing shall include the IMS column title, the Microsoft Project field name and a brief explanation of what each field is used for.

Offeror(s) should maximize the use of finish-to-start activities and limit the use of start-to-start and finish-to-finish relationships unless there is a true requirement for these types of relationships.

Both the first activity (Contract Award) and the last activity in the IMS (Lot 1 Delivery Complete) shall be on the critical path of the IMS.

The hardcopy of the IMS in Gantt format shall be submitted on single-sided, 11 x 17 inch paper using no smaller than 10 point font.

Chapter 2 - Schedule Rationale

A schedule evaluation will be performed to determine the completeness and realism of the proposed program. The Offeror shall provide ground rules and assumptions used to develop and understand the IMS. Any unusual aspects of the proposed approach to the program shall also be described.

The Offeror shall describe their current or proposed schedule management system and how it will be used to plan, coordinate, integrate, control and manage the schedule. The Offeror shall describe the calendar(s) submitted in the IMS file. A listing of Offeror holidays should also be included in this section.

Relationships with excessive lead or lag time should be avoided in the IMS submittal.

The Offeror shall let the logic determine the network and minimize the use of constraints.

Directed dates or any other conditions that would prohibit the ability of the IMS to flow naturally during a schedule risk assessment, such as finish no later than, start no later than, must finish on, and must start on constraints shall be avoided altogether. The use of start-to-start (SS) and finish-to-finish (FF) logic relationships shall be minimized in the contractor’s IMS and the contractor shall provide rationale for the use of SS or FF logic relationships in the IMS documentation accompanying the submitted IMS. Constraints (other than "as soon as possible"), directed dates and rationale supporting the need for each constrained/directed date in the schedule shall be included in the IMS documentation. Each constraint other than “ASAP” (to indicate “as soon as possible”) and directed dates shall be justified individually in the IMS documentation narrative.

Solicitation: FA8625-18-R-6701 Air Force Life Cycle Management Center

IMS Definitions

The following Government definitions will apply to the IMS:

Milestone - A specific definable accomplishment in the program/project network, recognizable at a particular point in time. Milestones do not consume time or resources

Activity - A task or measurable amount of work to complete a job or part of a project

Duration - The length of time estimated to accomplish an activity during normal working hours

Elapsed Duration - The amount of time needed to complete a task, based on a 24 hour day and a 7 day week, including holidays, weekends, and other non-working days

Constraint - A limitation or restriction set on the start or finish of a task

Finish-to-Start (FS) - An activity must finish before another can start

Start-to-Start (SS) - An activity depends on the start of another activity

Finish-to-Finish (FF) - One activity cannot finish until another activity finishes

Total Slack or Float - The amount of time a task can slip without affecting the project finish date

Lead - The amount of time of the overlap between where a successor task begins and a predecessor task completes

Lag - The amount of time between the completion of one task and the start of its successor task

Critical Path - The series of tasks that must be completed on schedule for a project to finish on schedule. Activities along the critical path have zero slack/float. It should be easily distinguished on the report formats

Gantt Chart - A graphical display of program activities and key milestones that depict work activities in an integrated fashion. Represent activities by bars showing the length of time for each activity

Solicitation: FA8625-18-R-6701 Air Force Life Cycle Management Center