ID_Qs_-_v.6AKC.pdf

Algorithm-Derived Decision Support (ADDS)

Solicitation # FA8650-19-S-6006

Questions & Answers

Q. Will classified slides be made available?

A. Yes

Q. Tech will change over 5-year period of performance….will government be flexible to adapt?

A. BAA written open-ended so contractors can adapt to changes. We hope performers will incorporate changes/latest tech.

Q. Where will data come from and is it multi-lingual?

A. Government will provide, in English.

Q. Can publicly-available data be used to build models?

Q. What about foundational knowledge (e.g., maps)?

A. You can bring whatever you want, but it should enhance, not conflict with the scenario training data.

Q. Will exemplar reports be made available to help build and train models?

A. We anticipate providing a number of reports, but these would be to familiarize performers with the report formats and would not be tied to the ADDS data sets.

Q. Are graphical outputs expected (as appropriate)?

A. Yes, if it makes sense in generating the product, or is called out in a product tasking.

Q. Can you relay any information regarding how the products will be evaluated?

A. Products will be evaluated based on the time required to generate the report, and quality based on established rubrics, as described in the BAA. The specific evaluation schema will decided upon at kickoff.

Q. Is SCI-level required for first year?

A. Yes.

Q. Could someone with Secret touch computer but never see/touch data?

A. Yes. But Performer is responsible for ensuring proper security protocols are followed.

Q. Can university foundational research be conducted by non-US citizens?

A. No, fundamental research is not anticipated.

Q. Will a security classification guide be provided to assist with preparing ADDS products?

A. We anticipate providing such a guide and/or having someone provide training after kickoff, if desired.

Q. If not sponsoring facility space, will ADDS assist with obtaining co-use agreements?

A. Yes, the ADDS team will work with performers to obtain such agreements, if possible.

Q. Is ADDS intended to build on the Xpress Challenge results or create new models?

A. Create new approaches.

Q. As the program progresses from Base to Option 1, is the class of problem the same with higher performance expected?

A. Higher performance using more challenging queries and scenarios is expected as ADDS

Progresses.

Q. If not able to address all specified goals areas, what areas would be best to address?

A. If necessary, prioritize the application of core sensemaking approaches over additional challenges, such as product formatting, security markings, etc.

Q. Any OCI concerns with curating the data to be provided?

A. No

Q. Must all staff on project hold TS/SCI?

A. No

Q. Do resumes count towards page limits?

Q. Can foreign nationals be allowed to participate if properly “firewalled”?

A. No Foreign Nationals are authorized to work on this effort.

Q. What are some of the deficiencies identified through the Xpress Challenge?

A. Xpress Challenge solutions generally relayed relevant information, but were not able to go beyond that level, such as generating an argument or identifying opportunities.

Q. Will the T&E team ask specific questions or give data and ask, “What’s interesting?”

A. Evaluation details TBD, but identifying items of interest will be valuable.

Q. What skill sets do you want to see on a team?

A. See BAA.

Q. Any GFE in base or future years?

A. No GFE will be provided (only GFI).

Q. How will multiple work sites be received?

A. No issue – as long as each site has been properly certified/approved for the level of classification they are handling.

Q. If example scored reports are provided, will details be provided behind the scoring methodology?

Q. What kind of questions will be received in taskings?

A. The format of the taskings will be discussed/provided at kickoff, but will be provided in written text (English).

Q. Will performers have access to IC analysts throughout the program?

A. Such direct contact is not anticipated in the base year, but may be possible in the option years.

Q. Are there published results available from the Xpress Challenge?

A. Additional information regarding the Xpress Challenge can be found at:

https://usgif.org/system/uploads/5845/original/D._Isaacson_-_USGIF_deck.pdf https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8301641

Q. What did the BAA mean by “streaming data”?

A. The BAA intended to convey that as new reporting is relayed, the underlying scenario storyline may change, possibly changing previously-reached conclusions.

Q. Will there be any recalled documents with the scenarios?

A. Recalled documents may be present in the ADDS scenarios.

Q. Will it be possible to generate graphics from the provided data sets?

Q. Do the ADDS data sets have video?

A. Not in the Base period or Option 1 period.

Q. Any background information you can provide on the goals and/or format of IC analyst training programs?

A. See, for example, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/716100469, and references therein.

Q. Can you post ADDS Industry Day slides?

https://usgif.org/system/uploads/5845/original/D._Isaacson_-_USGIF_deck.pdf https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8301641 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/716100469

A. AFRL’s are posted as an attachment to the BAA.

ODNI’s are posted on JWICS at https://rpsace.dodiis.ic.gov/rspace/docs/DOC-64179

Q. Is ADDS more focused on quality/rigor or speed?

A. Both are critical to ADDS’ success, and this evaluation rubric will be defined at Kickoff.

Q. Will any raw intelligence data be provided?

A. No, only processed (i.e., text-based) reporting will be provided.

Q. Will ADDS performers be allowed to relay information deemed important apart from the supplied taskings?

A. Whether any such “self-initiated” products will be allowed and scored will be discussed at the

ADDS Kickoff meeting.

Q. Does the Government anticipate a down select for Option year 1 from the 5 base awards?

A. Yes, the Government anticipates Option 1 will be exercised to award 3 performers.

Q. Does the Government anticipate there will be more than one award for Option year 2 and beyond?

A. No, the Government anticipates that only one (1) Option 2 will be exercised.

Q. Will the Bidder’s list be published on FBO or provided exclusively to the other Bidder’s for the purposes of teaming?

A. If potential awardees are interested in obtaining information regarding other bidders who have consented to disclosure of their company names, please contact the Program Manager. A list of bidders will be sent via email, not posted to FBO.

Q. When will the DD254’s be issued?

A. The DD254 will be an attachment to the awarded contract for each performer. There is a solicitation DD254 included as Attachment #2 to the BAA on FBO.

Q. Will the Government support co-use agreements if the SCI SCIF is with a different customer?

A. We will work with you to try to get any paperwork signed that you need.

Q. When is the deadline to submit questions?

A. Questions about the RFP must be submitted 1 week before proposal submission (9 October).

Q. When will the Scoring Rubric be developed?

https://rpsace.dodiis.ic.gov/rspace/docs/DOC-64179

A. Further details on scoring will be given to performers at kickoff.

Q Can the Government please confirm that this will be a fixed price contract?

A. Awards under this BAA will generally be Cost Plus Fixed Fee.

Q. The BAA Industry Guide directs Offerors to "NOT INCLUDE THE CONTRACTOR’S

NAME" in their Statements of Work (SOW). However, the AFRL ADDS BAA does not include this same direction. Will the Government please clarify if Offerors are required to exclude their company names from the SOW?

A. The SOW should contain only non-proprietary information. Please do not include any proprietary information, including the contractor’s name in the SOW.

Q. The BAA Industry Guide directs Offerors to provide resumes of personnel with "no names on the resumes." However, the AFRL ADDS BAA does not state to exclude names from resumes.

Will the Government please clarify if Offerors are required to include or exclude names from personnel resumes?

A. Job titles must be included on resumes. Names are optional.

Q. The BAA Industry Guide requests Offerors to submit their "...proposed Statement of Work on a CD-ROM using Microsoft Word." However, the AFRL BAA does not include this same request. Will the Government please clarify if Offerors should or should not submit a CD-ROM of the Statement of Work?

A. A CD-ROM should not be submitted. Refer to BAA part IV. Proposal and Submission

Information, section 2, which addresses how to submit proposals.

Q. The ADDS BAA Instructions state that "Pages shall be double-spaced (must use standard double-space function in Microsoft Word)" and that "All text, including text in tables and charts, must adhere to all font size and line spacing requirements listed herein." Will the Government please confirm that Offerors' Table of Contents, Headers/Footers, FAR 52.215-1(e) Restrictive

Notices, and References do not have to be double-spaced?

A. Font and line spacing requirements do not have to be followed for illustrations, flowcharts, drawings, and diagrams. Everything else must adhere to the spacing requirements. Refer to

BAA IV.2.b.

Q. The AFRL ADDS BAA includes (5) five attachments (Attch. 1 CDRLs, Attch. 3 Model

Contract, Attch. 4 Section K, Attch. 5 Proposal Adequacy Checklist, and Attch. 6 Subcontractor

Information).

A. BAA Attachment 2 is included on FBO.

Q: Will the Government please exclude resumes from the 30-page limit for Volume 1? Offerors may propose varying quantities of personnel and, therefore, those that propose a higher quantity will be challenged by page limits moreso than those that propose a lower quantity.

A. The BAA stands. The Government will not exclude resumes from the 30 page limit.

Q. Will the Government please clarify if all proposed staff in support of this BAA are required to have a Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility?

A. All proposed staff do not need to have TS clearance. It is up to the company to ensure that proper security measures are taken so staff do not have access to any information above their clearance level.

Q. Will the Government please clarify whether or not the awarded contractors will have access to

Government bases?

A. Awarded contractors will not be provided with access to Government Facilities except when necessary for a Kickoff, TEM or testing which will be granted on temporary, as needed basis and does not need to be addressed in the proposal.

Q. Attachment 5, Proposal Adequacy Checklist was provided with the solicitation, but does not appear to be referenced anywhere in the BAA. Would the Government please clarify if this attachment is to be completed and returned as part of the offeror’s proposal response, and if so, in what volume? Would the Government further confirm that if required, the Proposal Adequacy

Checklist is not counted against any stated proposal page limits?

A. The proposal adequacy checklist is a guide for each vendor to ensure compliant proposals are submitted. The checklists do not need to be submitted with the proposals.

Q. BAA Section 1.B.1 states, “Offerors must make a credible argument that solutions could be further optimized to support an IC-relevant use case, such as incorporation into the IC’s Next

Generation Trident (NGT) platform.” Would the Government please clarify if this argument is to be made as part of the Technical Proposal response, or is this a product of Base Year performance?

A. Product of Base Year performance

Q. During the base period development—prior to further improvements, optimization, testing and accreditation—does the Government intend to provision a DEVOPS environment suitable for developing and testing ADDS, or is the contractor responsible for provisioning the environment?

A. We will provide an environment for testing but not development.

Q. The DD254 requires Top Secret (TS) Facility and TS storage. Will contractors possessing an active TS Facility Clearance with Secret (S) storage granted by DSS, and accredited/approved

SCIF space meet the DD254 requirement for TS storage?

A. If there is a SCIF indicated on Number 9 of the SCI Addendum off-base and the NISS doesn’t reflect the TOP SECRET safeguarding for that Cage Code then the Contractor must obtain TOP

SECRET safeguarding capability by the Authorizing Official (AO) prior to being provided TOP

SECRET information.

Q. Would the Government please confirm the anticipated award date of May 2020? BAA

Section II indicates that the base period is partially funded with FY19 money, and Section VI indicates that award notifications are anticipated about 30 days from proposal submission.

A. Award dates are estimates and cannot be confirmed.

Q. Would the Government consider allowing text appearing in tables to be single-spaced?

A. Font and line spacing requirements do not have to be followed for illustrations, flowcharts, drawings, and diagrams. Everything else must adhere to the spacing requirements. Refer to

BAA IV.2.b.

Q. Would the Government consider excluding resumes from the 30-page limit on the Technical

Proposal volume?

A. Page limits will be enforced.

Q. BAA Sections IV.1 and IV.2.b.ii refer offerors to review the BAA Guide for Industry; the latter section suggests use of the Guide to assist in SOW preparation. The general outline for proposal responses in the Guide however, is not entirely consistent with the proposal structure implied by following BAA’s submission requirements for the Technical/Management proposal.

Would the Government please confirm that offerors are to outline their proposal responses following the instructions and review criteria required in the BAA, and follow the Guide for

Industry in SOW preparation?

A. To the extent that the ADDS BAA conflicts with the Industry Guide, the ADDS BAA takes precedence. Yes, the proposal should follow the instructions in the BAA, and the Industry Guide may be used to generate the SOW.

Q. Would the Government please confirm that optional estimates for anticipated technical resources are excluded from the 30-page limit on the technical volume?

A. The 30-page limit will be enforced to include these optional estimates.

Q. BAA section IV.2.c.i.c states, “For efforts to exceed $700,000, Subcontracting Plans shall be submitted in the cost/business proposal.” Would the Government please clarify if this threshold applies to the offeror’s overall contracted value, or just the portion that the offeror intends to propose as subcontracted funding?

A. This applies to the overall contract value.

Q. BAA Section VII.7.e states that all offerors other than small businesses must include a

Subcontracting Plan. However, BAA Section IV.2.c.c seems to indicate that the same is required only if the offeror intends to subcontract more than $700k. Would the Government please clarify the Subcontracting Plan requirements?

A. The $700,000 threshold applies to the overall contract value.

Q. The ADDS BAA states: "It is anticipated that TS/SCI government-owned and -collected multi-INT reporting will be provided to performers after award" and that no Base Support

(Facilities or Network Access) will be provided.

Question: Will the Government please clarify if Offerors are required to have a Sensitive

Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at the TS/SCI level?"

A. Offerors are required to have their own TS/SCI SCIF or have access to one.

Q. Will a Security Classification Guide (SCG) be provided prior to proposal submission to ensure that proposers do not inadvertently string together 2 or more unclassified concepts that result in a classified statement?

A No.

Q. On page 8 of the BAA, a location is not specified for the ‘AP System Integration Event and

Technical Test Readiness Design Review’ and ‘Program Reviews’. For the purpose of estimating travel, where are these events expected to occur?

A Program reviews will alternate between Dayton and Washington DC and some may be done via telecom. Tech Readiness review will be done in DC.

Q. On page 8 of the BAA, a location is not specified for the ‘Field Tests’ and ‘Final Testing, the location is specified to be at the contractor’s performer site or another location TBD. For the purpose of estimating travel, what location should be used?

A Field Test and Final testing will happen within Virginia.

Q. Please clarify section IV.2.a.ii in the BAA that seems to request 2 volumes in the response – 1

Technical/Management that includes the SOW and 1 Cost/Business. This conflicts with the BAA

Guide for Industry (Part III.a) that requests the SOW in a separate file that includes Cover page, Objective, Scope, Background, and Requirements sections. Please clarify.

A. To the extent that the ADDS BAA solicitation conflicts with the BAA Guide for Industry, the former takes precedence.