Attachment 1 - Bootcamp Training Area of Interests 18 Jul 2024.pdf

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center

Kessel Run (AFLCMC/C3C) Bootcamp Training

Areas of Interest

Prepared by

AFLCMC/C3C

Version Date: 18 July 2024

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT C: Distribution authorized to U.S. Government Agencies and their contractors Administrative or Operational Use; Critical Technology; Software Documentation, Vulnerability Information, Export Control; 14 April 2019. Other requests for this document shall be referred to AFLCMC/C3C (DoD Controlling Office) 11 Barksdale Street, Building 1614, Hanscom AFB MA 01731-1700.

HANDLING AND DESTRUCTION NOTICE: Comply with distribution statement and destroy by any method that will prevent disclosure of contents or reconstruction of the document.

1. Background Kessel Run (KR), a division of the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), leverages industry best practices and products to rapidly deliver capabilities while posturing for future and potentially disruptive information technology (IT). Over the past few years, KR has expanded its operational scope to include three major branches, each incorporating numerous portfolios and working teams, with over 1600 personnel. KR has revolutionized the way that the U.S. Air Force builds and acquires software by: utilizing balanced teams to continuously integrate and deliver software capabilities; embracing a culture of rapid feedback loops (build, measure, learn) and user-centered design to rapidly develop, produce, and deploy software applications to support all divisions in the Air Operations Center (AOC). To continue to rapidly deliver software to the warfighter, KR has military personnel, that continuously rotate through KR, that need innovative, unique design, product and software training that current Department of Air Force initial skills or other training offerings do not meet; those needs are for foundational training in User Experience (UX) research and design, product management, and software development.

2. Common Solutions Attributes The following are solutions attributes that applies to all three (3) Areas of Interest. Proposals must address all three Areas of Interest to be considered complete; incomplete proposals will not be evaluated.

2.1. What We Are Looking For: Kessel Run seeks courses that must fulfill the following capabilities:

2.1.1. The courses are delivered virtually via a Government-approved virtual meeting space such as Zoom Gov or Google Meets

2.1.2. The courses are delivered agnostic of the Operating System(s) (PC, Mac, Linux) used by the students

2.1.3. All lessons and coursework are accessible on the Department of Defense’s unclassified computer networks

2.1.4. All courses are taught synchronously, instructor-led, with tutors and office hours available to students requiring additional assistance outside a classroom setting

2.1.5. All the lessons and coursework are conducted and completed between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time), Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays and Government-designated days (such as Family Days)

2.1.6. The total coursework, both inside and outside the classroom, will take the students no more than 40 hours per week to complete

2.1.7. The course should enable students to make up for missed classes while still adhering to the course lengths stated above

2.1.8. The course content and instructions provided to the students are at the college level

2.1.9. The courses are crafted and taught with consideration that the typical students taking these courses have no previous skills, certificates and/or knowledge in course they are taking

2.1.10. There is a method to evaluate each student’s grasp of the course material/information through regular knowledge checks (examples: projects, tests, etc.)

2.1.11. The vendor currently has the facilities, infrastructure, personnel and experience in providing the courses identified

2.1.12. The vendor has a cadre of instructors with previous industry and instructional experience applicable to the courses

2.1.13. While the vendor should at a minimum address the course competencies stated in each Area of Interest, the Government is open to vendor suggestions for well-developed innovative and alternatives approaches to the competencies to ensure that the courses evolve with industry standards

2.2. What Are Not Looking For:

2.2.1. The courses are delivered in-person only

2.2.2. The courses are delivered on-demand and/or asynchronously

2.2.3. The courses are delivered via presentation only with no practice time or ability for cohorts to interact

2.2.4. The courses are delivered via a proprietary virtually service that is not Government-approved as a virtual meeting space

2.2.5. The vendor is relatively new in the market and provides a solution for course plans and content that they have yet to offer in the marketplace and/or are still in the development phase

2.2.6. The vendor is not currently adequately staffed with necessary instructors and/or their current staff does not have sufficient experience with the course content.

2.2.7. The vendor has no ability to adapt future course plan and content to address emerging technology, methods or capabilities

3. Area of Interest #1: User Experience Research and Design

3.1. What We Are Looking For: Kessel Run seeks a UX Research and Design course that fulfill the following capabilities:

3.1.1. The course that is available for students to start at least once every six months, for a total of two (2) times per year

3.1.2. The course can accommodate ten (10) to twelve (12) total students annually

3.1.3. The course address, at a minimum, the following competencies:

• Introduction to industry standard UX research methodologies (qualitative and quantitative)

• Application of industry-standard techniques for developing user personas and journey mapping

• Utilization of industry-standard tools and methods for usability testing and analysis

• Consideration of industry-standard accessibility guidelines in UX design

• Application of industry-standard principles of UX design

• Implementation of industry-standard techniques for information architecture and wireframing

• Utilization of industry-standard tools for visual design and prototyping

• Incorporation of industry-standard practices for creating and iterating prototypes Principles of User-Centered Design (or, Human-Centered Design)

• Understanding and applying all design phases

• Conducting design research, including user research

• Design Thinking methodology

• Creative Problem-Solving

• Workshop/Meeting Facilitation

• Agile Methodologies

• Visual Design and UX Design with Style Guides and/or Design Systems

• Continuous learning

• Design Artifacts to Translate Designs into Engineering Products, such as wireframes, service blueprints, etc…

3.2. What Are Not Looking For:

3.2.1. The course exceeds twelve (12) weeks total in length

4. Area of Interest #2: Product Management

4.1. What We Are Looking For: Kessel Run seeks a Product Management course that fulfill the following capabilities:

4.1.1. The course that is available for students to start at least once every six months, for a total of two (2) times per year

4.1.2. The course can accommodate sixteen (16) to eighteen (18) total students annually

4.1.3. The course address, at a minimum, the following competencies:

• Adoption of industry-standard approaches to product vision and strategy development

• Utilization of industry-standard techniques for roadmapping and prioritization

• Application of industry-standard Agile product management practices

• Incorporation of industry-standard product metrics and analytics for decision-making

• Conducting product and market research

• Developing product requirements

• Crafting a product vision

• Building an effective product roadmap

• User-Centric Approach

• Stakeholder Engagement/Communication

• Developing and utilizing product data and analytics

• Managing/leading a product team

• Project Management

• Agile Methodologies

• Creative Problem-Solving

• Understanding and leveraging emerging technologies

• Market and industry awareness

• Continuous learning

4.2. What Are Not Looking For:

4.2.1. The course exceeds eight (8) weeks total in length

4.2.2. The course is focused on Project and/or Program Management

5. Area of Interest #3: Software Development

5.1. What We Are Looking For: Kessel Run seeks a Software Development course that fulfill the following capabilities:

5.1.1. The course that is available for students to start at least once every six months, for a total of two (2) times per year

5.1.2. The course can accommodate sixteen (16) to eighteen (18) total students annually

5.1.3. The course address, at a minimum, the following competencies:

• Adherence to industry-standard software development methodologies (Agile, Scrum, etc.)

• Utilization of industry-standard version control systems (e.g., Git)

• Implementation of industry-standard continuous integration and deployment practices

• Application of industry-standard software testing techniques (unit testing, integration testing, etc.)

• Version control

• Software development languages (Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, SQL, Bash) and

Frameworks (Spring, React)

• Testing

• Continuous Integration (CI)/Continuous Development (CD)

• Application Programming Interface (API) development

• Container Orchestration (e.g. Kubernetes/Elastic Kubernetes Service(EKS))

• Agile methodology

• Defensive Programming

• Support for Day 2 Operations "-ilities" (e.g. reliability, observability, maintainability

• Continuous learning

5.2. What Are Not Looking For:

5.2.1. The course exceeds twelve (12) weeks total in length

5.2.2. The vendor lacks the ability to development training on new programming languages