Justification_and_Approval.pdf

For Official Use Only

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICES

1155 DEFENSE PENTAGON

WASHINGTON, DC 20301-1155

ACQUISITION

DIRECTORATE

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as a Contracting Officer, hereby approve the use of other than full and open competition of the proposed contractual action pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) and FAR 6.302-1.

1. REQUESTING AGENCY / CONTRACTING ACTIVITY

Requesting Agency:

Department of Defense Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics

(OUSD(AT&L))

Performance Assessments and Root Cause Analyses (PARCA) 3620 Defense Pentagon Room 3C889A Washington, D.C. 20301-3620

Contracting Activity:

Department of Defense Washington Headquarters Services (WHS)/Acquisition Directorate (AD) 1155 Defense Pentagon Washington, D.C. 20301-1155

2. NATURE / DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S)

This action is being processed to obtain a firm fixed-price contract award with a six-month base period of performance and one six-month option period, to 540.co, LLC (540.co) based on the company’s unique and innovative proof of concept on the Acquisition Intelligence Support Agreements (AISA) tool.

3. DESCRIPTION OF THE SUPPLIES / SERVICES REQUIRED TO MEET THE AGENCY’S NEEDS

PARCA is the central office for assessing the performance of Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs), for root cause analysis, and for earned value management. Established by section 103 of the 2009 Weapons System Acquisition Reform Act (P.L. 111-23), PARCA issues policies, procedures, and guidance governing the conduct of such work by the Military Departments and Defense Agencies. It prepares comprehensive performance assessments conducted semi-annually for all MDAPs which serve as the principal means of informing the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (OUSD(AT&L)) of the execution status of the MDAP portfolio. PARCA likewise prepares root cause analyses for MDAPs with Nunn-McCurdy breach status, and it evaluates the utility of metrics related to the cost, schedule, and performance of MDAPs. Through an annual report, PARCA provides situational awareness of the MDAP portfolio to Congress.

A major PARCA initiative in support of Better Buying Power 3.0 has been to improve agility in acquisition, intelligence and requirements processes to better serve warfighter needs.

These processes are inherently slow and not integrated to sustain core force capabilities.

PARCA leadership is working within the Department and the Intelligence Community to move from this status quo to a fully agile integrated enterprise. Its goal is to instantiate persistent, duplex communications among stakeholders to make these processes more valuable, timely and less costly. This will require migrating from fixed document interchanges to more transaction oriented processes which promote mutual real time situational awareness and cooperation. To this end, PARCA is leading the acquisition community in developing key process improvements to enable agility within the acquisition, intelligence and requirements institutions. The first mechanism is the Systems Threat Assessment Report (STAR) and related Critical Intelligence Parameter (CIP) paradigms.

Pilots and demonstrations were held in 2014, and a new vision has been established. The “dynamic” STAR (or DSTAR) is moving from a printed document to an online assessment linked to threat modules updated at specified intervals and at threat event changes. At the same time CIP policy and mandatory notification processes are being revised, and CIPs will be identified in initial capability documents. The new CIP breach mechanism and remediation process will be restructured and adjudicated within a new governance model.

PARCA has also identified a commercial practice, service level agreement, and is piloting and prototyping its construct called an Acquisition Intelligence Support Agreement (AISA) to define demand and timelines for intelligence support. AISA development would occur as early as possible in the life of a project to promote a collaborative dialogue in assessing the feasibility and cost of desired operational capabilities while simultaneously considering relevant threat technologies. A related construct is that of the AGORA or library card catalogue that would exist on a classified network as a secure database of AISA information.

While not including the technical data referenced in each AISA, it would contain the who, what, why and where of the AISA to allow quick, comprehensive insight for acquisition decision making, strategic investments, gap resolution, technology forecasts and portfolio management. The purpose of the AGORA is to promote free-ridership and increase threat-related situational-awareness. It will also identify opportunities to reduce redundancy and cost. PARCA developed these concepts and wargamed their application in 2014. It is overseeing pilot implementations in 2015. AISA use would also make the need for Intelligence Mission Data (IMD) visible when systems are architected rather than as they are in development or production. It would enable acquisition to make IMD choices for programs and portfolios and allow the Intelligence Community to identify and manage internal resources across the acquisition program lifecycle – neither of which is currently feasible. The AGORA would push data to AISA signatories to inform of changes in threat, capabilities and technical achievements – advancing the goal of enterprise agility.

Under incumbent contract HQ0034-15-P-0154, 540.co successfully provided PARCA with an AISA tool proof of concept that met all the Government’s requirements. 540.co unique and innovative concepts improved agility in acquisition, intelligence and requirement processes; thus, addressing the who, what, why and where. This proof of concept successfully proved the ability to have an agile integrated enterprise that provides comprehensive insight for acquisition decision making, strategic investments, gap resolution, technology forecasts and portfolio management. PARCA further requires continued innovative concepts and strategies in Phase 2 and 3 of this requirement. 540.co has a proven track record of providing advanced analytics and technology strategies and for delivering rapid response to challenging technical design requirements. 540.co provides web applications, integration, system interfaces, dashboards, data analytics and transactional services. The quality of its software coding, architecture designs and operational systems will provide immediate value to PARCA. In Phase 2, PARCA requires the contractor to produce a deployable Version 1 of the current prototype, complete a feature and capability gap review, work with Government hosting and infrastructure teams to complete and execute information assurance steps, and execute a plan to deploy and maintain software. 540.co shall develop authentication and authorization strategies for AISA users on the SIPR network, and it shall finalize integration strategies for Defense Acquisition Management Information Retrieval (DAMIR) threat library integration and other integration points highlighted during the feature and capability gap review. The 540.co shall set up, host and maintain a secure development and test environment in support of the AISA tool. In Phase 3, PARCA requires 540.co to interactively build upon the core AISA transactions to provide additional knowledge sharing and visibility capabilities to acquisition and intelligence community users who participate in the intelligence request/fulfillment process, often referred to as AGORA capabilities.

Additionally, 540.co shall work with the Government to develop and deploy features that amplify the information captured in the AISA transactions while also working with partner systems to query other pertinent information to improve the request/fulfillment process between the acquisition and intelligence communities.

Phase 3 will also include supporting the Version 1 system post go-live with bug fixes and minor changes constrained by available develop manpower. Post go-live support for functional questions shall be handled by each organization, but technical issues shall be forwarded to the 540.co’s contractor team.

The estimated value of this acquisition is approximately $1,000,000.00 including all options.

4. STATUTORY AUTHORITY PERMITTING OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is FAR 6.302-1(a), 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1): the property or services needed by the agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of services will satisfy the needs of the agency.

5. DEMONSTRATION OF CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS

540.co is uniquely qualified to fulfill the PARCA requirements due to its ability to provide proof of concept for the AISA tool prototype, in-depth knowledge of the intelligence community, threat analysis, acquisition enterprise processes, databases and information technology service support activities. 540.co has been working within AT&L for several years supporting its database design and development, information transfer and data analysis requirements. It has a thorough working knowledge of acquisition enterprise database designs and applications, architectures and information management systems such as DAMIR, the AT&L MDAP enterprise information system. It has assisted AT&L in making educated business and management decisions due to its broad technical expertise and willingness to solve challenging problems. 540.co has a proven track record within AT&L: it provides analysts with visibility into program and budget data to ensure MDAPs and major automated information systems programs are on budget, on schedule and meeting performance metrics.

540.co is working with AT&L to define its strategy for collecting, tagging, correlating and exposing high priority acquisition data for MDAPs. It is also integrating data from multiple DoD silos across functional areas (acquisition, budget, procurement) to ensure Pentagon leadership has access to critical information for decision making. As such, 540.co has the requisite understanding of acquisition enterprise infrastructure, and business rules required to ensure successful implementation of a quick turnaround deployable Version 1 that integrates acquisition and intelligence information. Because meeting PARCA’s schedule is paramount, only a company with knowledge of the unique and innovative concept developed in the prototype can successfully implement the required solution. Using 540.co will assist in meeting the PARCA timeline and provide the initial deliverables needed to support AISA/AGORA initiatives. It will also has the capability to lay the foundation for future and follow-on development.

Further, 540.co is currently assisting AT&L by cataloging and deploying reusable application programing interfaces, visibility and visualization applications to share important data across the Department. In these ways, 540.co provides acquisition senior leadership the decision support tools needed to balance competing MDAP demands against near and far-term budget constraints. The technical expertise demonstrated by 540.co in supporting AT&L in these ways is directly applicable to addressing PARCA’s Better Buying Power 3.0 task of improving intelligence support to the acquisition enterprise.

6. PUBLICATION EFFORTS

This requirement was synopsized on Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps), the Governmentwide Point of Entry, via a Notice of Intent to Sole Source. A synopsis of the award will be posted in addition to this justification IAW FAR 6.305(a).

7. DETERMINATION OF FAIR AND REASONABLE COST

The contracting officer will determine that the estimated cost for the acquisition is fair and reasonable, using market research and historical data. Discounts will also be requested in the Request for Quotes.

8. DESCRIPTION OF MARKET RESEARCH

The incumbant contract, HQ0034-15-P-0154, was awarded to 540.co on a sole source basis.

540.co was determined to be uniquely qualified to fulfill the PARCA requirements due to its in-depth knowledge of acquisition enterprise processes, databases and information technology service support activities. 540.co LLC has been working with AT&L for several years supporting its database design and development, information transfer and data analysis requirements. A notice of intent to sole source was posted to Federal Business Opportunities, which only yielded one response. The program office reviewed the vendor’s capability statement and determined the vendor did not provide enough information to demonstrate their capability to perform the requisite support. The Government did not receive any capable vendors that can perform the requirement; therefore, it was determined there was a high risk that other potential contractors would not quote for the work.

The aforementioned synopsis was posted on FedBizOpps to potentially solicit the market interest from vendors. The Government did not receive capable responses. The synopsis yielded one vendor, Vintun, who submitted a capabilities statement on 5 November 2015;

however, the customer determined Vintun’s capabilities were in generalized Information Technology (IT) services, and their competencies are in areas which the AISA tool has no relevance. Vintun has experience in the DoD standard procurement system, risk reduction dashboards, intra-governmental funds transfers, but they did not show capabilities in the gamut of intelligence functions, info-sharing, intelligence-acquisition transition processes which are necessary competencies to build on the established prototype of Phase 1.

9. OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS

Better Buying Power 3.0 reflects the Department’s commitment to continuous improvements in the defense acquisition system. It is a high priority for PARCA, and it takes precedence as an acquisition agility enabler. Building a deployable Version 1 of the AISA tool and AGORA database will move the Department forward in bringing acquisition, requirements and intelligence community stakeholders together in recognizing information needs by each community throughout the lifecycle of an acquisition program. It will provide visibility into what information is needed when and by whom, and what information is and is not available.

Additionally, these tools may be used to support gap and cost analyses.

The risk to the Government in terms of disruption of support in both the short- and long-terms, would be too high to transition support to another contractor for such a limited time.

The Government requires Phase 3 to be completed no later than 1 January 2017. Given the highly technical nature of this requirement, it will take significant time to transition to a new vendor. The vendor would have to gain an understanding of how to operate the prototype system in addition to establishing relationships with a diverse network of stakeholders throughout the country, including members of the intelligence, acquisition, requirement, and operator communities. The customer conservatively estimates that this process will take at least 3 months. Coupled with a 4-month acquisition timeline for new award, it will take 7 months for a new contractor to be fully operational. The Government cannot compete and transition a new contractor in time to meet the anticipated delivery deadline. In addition, the Government has invested $125,000 and three (3) months’ time into a successful proof of concept prototype. Transitioning to another contractor would negate progress in terms of a successful prototype and require a new contractor to start the requirement from Phase 1, which would be a substantial duplication of cost to the Government. Given the high level of importance and attention from senior leadership, the Government determined that substantial delays could impact long-term feasibility for this essential program.

10. LIST OF INTERESTED SOURCES

The company, Vintun, which responded to the Notice of Intent with a capability statements, was reviewed by the Program Office. Vintun’s capability statement was deemed as not capable of meeting the government’s requirements. A summary review of the response received from small business indicates that they did not address the information requested or provide enough information to demonstrate their capability to perform the work contained in the PWS as posted on the notice of intent.

11. ACTIONS TAKEN TO REMOVE BARRIERS TO COMPETITION

Although the Government does not have the incumbent expertise to support this requirement, OUSD(AT&L) will continue to monitor innovative technologies for use to improve the AISA software. It is the Government’s expectation that the AISA web application shall be maintained by the Government, but it will most likely move from its current ownership within AT&L to a joint management organization consisting of acquisition, requirements and intelligence professionals. At that time, there will be a need for scheduled refreshes, regular maintenance and feature upgrades to ensure maximum utility by the joint user community.

The Government plans to solicit this follow-on support through full and open competition.