Application_Development.pdf

Industry Day Questions Application Development

Question Answer What is the current mechanism and process for collaboratively communicating mission requirements from the Regions and Offices to

OIT?

This varies, but FEMA will be working to ensure all organizations' requirements will be able to be met through the scope of the contract.

Please provide the "Agile Systems Compliance Guidelines" and the "Agile Systems Compliance

Checklist.” When was it developed, adopted, and used today?

This may be provided at release of soliciation or at the task order level.

It is evident that much thought and consideration has been given to alternate application development methods like RAD, JAD and incremental delivery. What experience does OIT and the business/mission organizations have with Agile Scrum or Kanban development approaches?

The experience varies from project to project. It is FEMA's hope that the offerors explain how they may use methods such as these to enhance FEMA's ability to serve the public, but please refer to the final instructions and evaluation criteria once finalized and issued.

What is FEMA’s strategy for leveraging open source software and toolsets?

DHS approved software.

What application development tools are currently deployed?

There are several and FEMA may include with its solicitation.

What percentage of the applications in production today are CMMI L3 compliant?

Unknown

What is FEMA’s strategy for use of enterprise cloud environments for common systems development and delivery? Public, hybrid, private?

This is under development.

Please describe in greater detail the "Associated Contractor” relationship and intended objective?

Does the government intend to contractually link multiple contractors to single performance standards and metrics across multiple contracts/IDIQ’s?

No, the government plans to hold each winning offeror to the performance standards within their contract.

Question Answer How does FEMA envision establishing collaboration among development and O&M teams for incremental delivery?

This will depend on the size and complexity of the project.

Will the government allow a single contractor to receive multiple awards? For example, can the same contractor be given and award for the "Application Development Engineering and

Sustainment” contract and the “Operations & Maintenance" contract?

See Industry Day slides. FEMA understands its responsibility to conduct the acquisition process with the highest of integrity and in a manner that is fair, impartial, and biased toward none. To this end, FEMA will execute its Information Technology acquisitions in compliance with the guidelines that govern both Conflicts of Interest

(COI) and Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI). These guidelines include the criteria set forth at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 9.5, Subpart 3.11, and other sources which serve to govern the identification, prevention, and handling of COIs and OCIs during the conduct of the federal acquisition process.

FEMA is currently planning to award multiple contracts aligned to functional performance areas to include Mission Requirements and IV&V QA.

How does the government envision contractor teams working together in a manner that enables transparency and facilitates frequent incremental product delivery?

TBD and will depend on the project/task orders.

Question Answer

Section 2.1 States that "FEMA intends to conduct a full and open competition to award a single

Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) type contract." However, there are various references throughout the ADES draft SOW to the EAGLE II contract requirements. Would the government please confirm that it is the government’s intent to conduct a full and open competition? Will the Government issue a separate full and open IDIQ contract?

It is FEMA's intent to conduct a full and open competition and issue its own IDIQ contract.

Please provide a list of which and how many awardable Task Orders or Work Orders the government intends to issue with the ADES RFP.

Assuming Task Orders if it is a Full and Open contract and Work Orders if issued on EAGLE II.

The number of task orders/work orders is not known at this time, but FEMA expects multiple orders issued.

ADES draft SOW section 3.1 states: "The migration to the target architecture shall continue under this effort unless formally changed by a contract modification." Please provide detailed specifications for "the target architecture" or specify how this will be determined or on which contract.

Target architecture is under review and not ready to be published.

Question Answer

ADES draft SOW section 5 states that there are four work order under the IDIQ. The four work orders are “Sustainment Support”, “Business Area Applications Development and integration”, “Exigency Applications Development, Engineering, and Integration”, and ”Developmental Systems

Engineering and Platform Services”. Section 5.2.1 states: "Sustainment work is estimated to be approximately 80 percent of the work under this contract." Would the government please allocate the remaining 20 percent to the other three work orders?

Work is determined by the mission need. These percentages are subject to change based on the needs of FEMA.

Are the work orders in ADES draft SOW sections

5.2.1 through 5.2.4 intended to cover all areas of work as defined in sections 3 - Scope and Purpose, and section 4 - Requirements? It is not clear which work orders would contain the engineering work described in sections 3.6 through 3.14, and where some of the Requirements would fit. Can you provide more detail?

Further definition will be added to SOW by date of RFP.

ADES draft SOW Section 2 states: "The OCIO Roadmap serves as a guide for FEMA’s modernization initiatives" Please provide the OCIO Roadmap, and identify how this is maintained.

The Roadmap is being remapped. This will be available as an artifact at time of solicitation.

Question Answer ADES draft SOW section 3.1 item number 5 states:

"The contractor shall provide classified and unclassified information technology systems engineering and technical assistance support services to FEMA." Please specify the classification level and scope for the classified work.

Clearance level is project specific.

ADES draft SOW section 3.1 item number 6 states:

"Contractors participating in this area will be prohibited from participation in other areas due to obvious conflicts of interest." Is this prohibition limited to individuals working on ITA PES task? How will firewalls be used to allow companies to work on the ITA PES task and the ADES contract?

If firewalls are required, the contractor is expected to provide solutions for the government to evaluate.

ADES draft SOW section 3 - Scope and Purpose focuses on the systems engineering and communications scope. Section 4 - Requirements and Section 5 - Work Definitions are focused on Application Sustainment and Development. This is confusing. Could the government provide additional clarification by adding development and sustainment related details in section 3 - Scope and Purpose, and adding systems engineering and communications engineering related requirements to Section 4, and updating Section 5 to include the systems and communications engineering related work packages and work orders?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Question Answer

ADES draft SOW section 4.3 RAD development approach indicates that all agile products will comply with the Agile Systems Compliance Guidelines. Can the government provide Agile

Systems Compliance Guidelines

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

ADES draft SOW Section 4.4.1 indicates that all developed solutions and requirements shall be compliant with FEMA EA and HLS EA. What is involved with compliance with these architectures? Can these architectures be provided?'

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Could the government clarify which mission goals listed in the introduction are accomplished, and which remain to be accomplished via ADES?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

The ADES SOW references the OCIO Roadmap, is the development of this roadmap within the scope of ADES?

Yes.

Where will be the physical location(s) of the GOCO mentioned in section 3.1 of ADES draft

SOW?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

ADES draft SOW Section 5 states the 80% of the work is Sustainment. Can the government provide sustainment scope definition and work activities expected during sustainment? Can the government also provide size and scale metrics such as average number of change requests and defect requests, number of releases per year per application, and number of applications in sustainment stage?

Question Answer

The ADES SOW references system modernization in several places and explains that to be the movement from older legacy languages to new languages. Along with migration to new languages, are there architecture changes, or additional functionality included in the modernization? Which of these changes would classify this as a sustainment activity versus a modernization activity?

Yes, sustainment is determined by parameters established by DHS in the SELC.

Can the Government please provide following attachments referenced in the ADES draft SOW?

Work Packages, National Information Exchange Model, Agile Systems Compliance Guidelines, OCIO Roadmap, Future Information Technology Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Modernization Roadmap, Reference Architecture for Future Applications Development, FEMA’s

Technical Reference Model

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

In the context of organizational conflict of interest and ADES draft SOW section 4.5: Is FEMA concerned about a vendor performing a technology assessment and selection on products that are made by that company?

We expect offerors to present the product that best serves FEMA's need.

Will FEMA consider as a way of lowering cost, use of remote site or telecommuting for personnel performing software development of unclassified systems under the ADES contract?

The developer site must be approved by FEMA.

FEMA would consider a government-approved developer site.

Question Answer

Will the requirements defined by the RES contractor be system requirements or business and functional requirements? Will the RES and

ADES contractors work as integrated product teams to handle changes in requirements during software development?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

As stated in the PMO SOW the PMO contractor is responsible for the CPIC process. Many of the artifacts listed in RES SOW under Section 4 are artifacts of the CPIC process. Do these two requirements overlap or is this just coordination between the two?

Coordination will occur between the two.

The following are not currently identified in RES contract scope "Business Needs definition, Concept of Operations, Business Case Analysis, Business Vision Definition, Security Standards, as well as Enterprise Architecture" Are these functions within scope for this RES contract?

Yes

The OCIO procurement diagram indicates ADES will address enterprise data/information standards and Business Intelligence. How will you incorporate this into the SOW?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

The OCIO procurement diagram indicates ADES will address Change Management and Knowledge Transfer. How will you incorporate this into the

SOW?

Question Answer How will you ensure costs from contractors are realistic? How will productivity be measured and relate to cost? What methods will you use to ensure quality people can be hired for rates that are bid?

The government staff has the responsibility of generating Independent Government Costs

Estimates and they will scrutinize and review all cost proposals.

How long will the ADES transition phase take? Unknown

What mechanisms will the government use to assess how well contractor's approaches to ADES application development enable mission business processes and fulfills program and mission end user needs?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

ADES draft SOW Section 4.1 states "The contractor is expected to provide detailed sizing…for full-scale production". Will the ADES contractor have access to the production environment to understand how it is setup and configured so that a appropriate sizing can be estimated?

The contractor will be receiving the level of access necessary to complete the work.

Is FEMA looking for hybrid cloud solution with commercial cloud provider as primary and onsite private cloud as back-up?

Not particularly.

ADES draft SOW Section 3.1 described Policy Support as part of the scope of this contract and

Contractors participating in this area will be prohibited from participation in other areas.

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

(a) Does the government plan to award a separate work order under this Task Order to provide Policy Support or is this completely out of scope for this Task Order because of the stated conflict of interest?

Question Answer

(b) If this is in scope of the Task Order, is the government looking for a Conflict of Interest Risk

Mitigation Plan (e.g., OCI firewall established between organization/resources performing this activity from the rest of the organizations/resources within the overall Task

Order)?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Will the GOCO have the same set of development and management tools available in the COCO today?

Tools change based on the needs of the mission.

ADES draft SOW Section 5.2.1 describes User Technical Support Tier 1 and Tier 2 support.

Typically, Tier 1/2 support is provided by the

Production Support group (O&M help desk) while Tier 3 support comes to the Sustainment group for advanced problem solving and resolution (e.g., those that include code changes or configuration that the O&M/Production Support group would not be able to handle in a tier 1 or tier 2 call). Tier 3 would be similar to what is described in this section as Operations Interface Support with the O&M / Production Operations contractor.

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Would the government clarify between these levels of support provided under this contract versus what another vendor supporting O&M / Production Support will provide to users? Is it really tier 1 and 2 support or actually tier 3 - for application sustainment?

Question Answer

ADES draft SOW Section 5.2.2 states that "list of work package activities, deliverables, artifacts, and work product requirements shall be documented in a Project Plan to define the project deliverables and ensure required documentation is produced consistent with that required for CMMI Level 3 performance.

TBD

FEMA places a high importance on CMMI Level 3 requirements, would this be a minimum requirement for all bidders to have as a minimum level maturity rating and experience in order to ensure the winning bidder would adequately support FEMA's goal to move towards this higher level and quality for delivering solutions?

Yes

How does FEMA intend to ensure that the contractor continues to maintain this minimum level CMMI or higher requirement throughout the life of the contract in order to ensure that FEMA is receiving the highest level of support in not only achieving its current goal to improve its service and that the contractor can "walk the walk" and is in a good position to advise FEMA on continuous process improvement?

The burden is on the contractor to maintain their level of certification.

ADES draft SOW Section 5.3 states that contractor shall provide sufficient work space, equipment, services, and facilities to support its staffing for each work order. It also states that it may be government furnished by individual work order.

Yes

Question Answer

Would the government provide the percentage of staff that are expected to be on government site for which the government will furnish these resources and space versus those for which the contractor must provide their own equipment and space in order to determine the appropriate rates for bidding staff on-contractor site vs. on-government site?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Can the government provide the current OCIO Strategic plan?

Artifacts will be provided at the time of solicitation.

Can the government provide current SELC Tailoring plans?

Artifacts will be provided at the time of solicitation.

How will the government ensure that contractors are unbiased and provide products that most appropriately meet government needs (e.g.

Vendor recommends own products)?

The government will use all means at their disposal to ensure that a product meets their needs.

What are the service level agreement requirements for operations of the GOCO under

ADES contract?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

ADES draft SOW is very specific on how the activities need to be accomplished and does not allow for innovative approaches. What are the government’s expectations surrounding innovative approaches to solving mission

As stated in the key note of the Industry Day, FEMA is looking for innovative ideas.

Question Answer

Application Development, Engineering & Sustainment SOW is overly prescriptive on directing how work should be performed, ultimately limiting innovative solutions and approaches. • SOW should place a greater emphasis on work that should be performed and FEMA’s desired objectives/outcomes • FEMA should consider using the GAO: Enterprise Application Development and Integration DRAFT

Statement of Work. 8 May 2014 draft RFP as a starting point and supplement with additional requirements (e.g. 3.14 Satellite System Engineering). This RFP tightly aligns to the FEMA

OCIO Procurement Strategy for Application Develop, Engineering, and Sustainment

Question Answer

Application Development, Engineering & Sustainment SOW scope does not include scope for Change Management & Knowledge Transfer, and Enterprise Data/Information Management & Business Intelligence resulting in a misalignment with the OCIO procurement diagram and strategy

• See Page 2: IDIQ/BPA Technical Approach (b)

Technical Approach • FEMA should consider using the GAO: Enterprise Application. Development and Integration DRAFT Statement of Work. 8 May 2014 draft RFP as a starting point and supplement with additional requirements (e.g. 3.14 Satellite System Engineering). This RFP tightly aligns to the FEMA OCIO Procurement Strategy for Application

Develop, Engineering, and Sustainment

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

For the EADIS opportunity, what are the IBM software’s on which the contractor is required to perform the Enterprise-wide application development and information systems support?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Will the GOCO environment include all in-scope systems/applications to provide a single integrated development environment? If not, what systems/applications will be included versus excluded (based on the systems presented in section 7 Systems Inventory)?

Question Answer

Regarding the statement on pages 6 and 39, “Propel FEMA Software Application development, integration, implementation, and operations forward to Capability Maturity Model Level 3 and/or Capability Maturity Model Integrated

Level 3 as defined by the Software Engineering Institute.” • Can you confirm that this work is already appraised at CMMI Level 3? If so, can you elaborate on what this statement is trying to convey if it’s already operating at CMMI Level 3?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is CMMI’s role going forward with ongoing and future software development activities?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Does agile development fit into the future of software development at FEMA? If so, how and where? (Page 37 mentions “Rapid Applications

Development (RAD) efforts,” but it appears to be limited in scope and subjectively applied on a case-by-case basis.)

Yes, as stated applied on a case-by-case basis.

What current training programs are within the scope of this contract? For example, is the FEMA

Enterprise Data Warehouse – MT Data Mart Training part of Business Area 03: Preparedness > Disaster Training > f. Hazard Mitigation (pages 24-

25)?

Question Answer

Regarding the statement on page 37, “All Agile products will comply with the requirements defined in the Agile Systems Compliance Guidelines.” Where can we get a copy of the

“Agile Systems Compliance Guidelines” referenced in the FBO package materials?

Artifacts will be provided at the time of solicitation.

Given that there are “…approximately 100 mission application systems across FEMA” (page

44), how many systems/applications are integrated with those 100, but NOT within the scope of this contract?

Artifacts will be provided at the time of solicitation. There are more than 200 systems in the FEMA inventory, most are tightly coupled.

On page 44, it states that ~80% of the work on this contract is sustainment. Can you define what you mean by “sustainment” in the context of this contract? And what does the remaining ~20% cover?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Can you provide mappings of the systems (from pages 60-64) to business areas (from page 20) and principal functional areas (from pages 23-31)?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

The “Mission Needs (Requirements)” and “Application Development and Engineering” contracts are highly dependent on each other to succeed. What methods will be used to ensure they perform and deliver work in a unified, consistent, and traceable manner?

Question Answer

My company is interested in attending the FEMA Industry Day to find out more about opportunities at FEMA, but specifically to hear about the

REQUIREMENTS, ESTIMATES, AND SCOPE (RES)

effort. I know that DHS typically uses the EAGLE contract vehicle, which my company does not hold. The announcement doesn’t mention EAGLE.

Do you intend to acquire this service via EAGLE, another contract vehicle or is the Industry Day intended to identify potential contract vehicles?

Thank you.

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What requirements engineering standards and tools are currently used at FEMA and will they be required for execution of this SOW. E.g. User Stories, Use Cases, IBM Rational Tools…etc.

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Reference was made to a roadmap migration plan, replacing the existing tightly coupled interfaces with a SOA based architecture. The Draft Applications Development, Engineering & Sustainment RFP mentions “an aggressive effort to virtualize all of the enterprise servers to include the various flavors of UNIX and Windows operating system” Will FEMA make these roadmaps available to Industry?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Reference was made to the fact that FEMA has many automated tools in use. Will FEMA issue a definitive list of these tools and their current use?

Question Answer

Draft RFP: Requirements, Estimates and Scope.

Minor changes to requirements can have significant impact on implementation and support, so a successful requirements process incorporate advice on implementation and support options. We heard CIO Adrian Gardner state that FEMA expects consistent dialogue across the proposed towers, using common standards. Would FEMA provide more information on how it intends to ensure that its various contractors work together effectively and how issues will be resolved?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Draft RFP: Technology and Modernization Support. The Emerging Technology and

Modernization Support element of this RFP seeks to broker the development of processes and modernization of the conventional technology.

The service will allow for Laboratory research that solves complex problems in areas of computer science, information technology, communications, networking, and socio-technical systems. What is the intended mechanism to decide what activities will be pursued and is the intent to allow Industry to outline potential proposals to assist FEMA address is technology challenge? If so, what it the intended mechanism?

TBD

Question Answer

Draft RFP: Applications Development, Engineering & Sustainment. This discusses an “Agile based Rapid Applications Development strategy”, which was also a topic of conversation during the related Industry Day break out session. Would FEMA provide further detail on how it implements Agile and how this aligns with the SDLC process, with examples?

The determination of development methods to include AGILE is project specific. The contractor shall work with FEMA Gov staff to determine the correct model for a given project.

Draft RFP: Applications Development, Engineering & Sustainment. This includes Radio, Cellular, WiFi/WiMAx/WLAN and Satellite engineering support, which are not usually part of a standard application development contract.

Would FEMA further clarify the program areas where these services will be used?

Question Answer

FEMA currently includes the below sections in the Application Development, Engineering &

Sustainment (ADES) SOW: Section 3.8, Video Systems Engineering

Section 3.10, Voice Systems Engineering Section 3.11, Wireless Domain Radio Engineering

Section 3.12, Wireless Domain Cellular Engineering

Section 3.13, Wireless domain WiFI/WiMax/WLAN Engineering

Section 3.14, Satellite System Engineering

These video and telecommunications areas also appear in the Production Management

(Operations & Maintenance) SOW. Please clarify how ADES and O&M contracts will support video and telecommunications needs.

The engineering of the solution vs the operations and maintenance of the solution.

Section 3.4 of the ADES SOW is Information Technology (IT) Security Engineering and Support

Services. FEMA has indicated that it will have a separate contract for IT Security. Please clarify what IT Security services will be implemented under ADES.

ADES contractors must ensure that all projects, deliverables, and services fit within the IT Security guidelines.

Question Answer

On Page 6 of the ADES states, “Propel FEMA Software Application development, integration, implementation, and operations forward to Capability Maturity Model Level 3 and/or

Capability Maturity Model Integrated Level 3 as defined by the Software Engineering Institute.”

Please clarify that is FEMA's intent for the vendor performing to be CMMI Level 3 certified, not have

FEMA OCIO itself get CMMI Level 3 certified.

FEMA aspires to reach CMMI level 3, however, the contractor is not responsible for ensuring that the FEMA reaches that goal.

Does FEMA intend to procure the Application Development, Engineering & Sustainment (ADES) under the DHS EAGLE II FC(1) Unrestricted contract? The ADES SOW references EAGLE II in several places, but FEMA has stated elsewhere that ADES will be a full and open procurement.

FEMA will not be using EAGLE II for the ADES line of business.

Can one be a sub on the Application Development, Engineering & Sustainment and prime the Information Technology Security contract?

TBD. FEMA will comply with all OCI regulations in accordance with the Federal Acquisition

Regulation.

What date projection can FEMA provide for the release of the final RFP for the Applications

Development and Engineering requirement?

TBD

Does FEMA plan to utilize a Draft RFP in the future for the Applications Development and Engineering requirement, and if so, what date projection could be provided for that Draft RFP?

Question Answer

Of the eleven requirement areas identified on the “Socioeconomic Disadvantage Concerns” document provided by FEMA, would FEMA please identify which of these is anticipated to use the

DHS EAGLE II contract, and for those what EAGLE II Functional Category (FC) would be used. For example, will the requirement for the PMO capability be an EAGLE II Small business FC2 category opportunity?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

How does the scope of the ADES line of business align to the scope of the current FEMA EADIS task area? Which areas of the scope are the same?

Where is it different?

There is no direct correlation.

Would FEMA please confirm the anticipated socioeconomic subcontracting business goals for the Applications Development and Engineering

Requirement by percentage goals in each anticipated area?

TBD

Will FEMA take advantage of oral presentations in the evaluation of the large Application

Development and Engineering requirement source selection process?

TBD

What transition period does FEMA anticipate from the current EADIS contractor to the new

Applications Development and Engineering team?

Six months

How is FEMA going to level the playing field for COCO environment given that there are proprietary tools in the current solution?

The COCO environment will be migrated to a GOCO environment by the time of award.

Question Answer What contract type, or mix of contract types is anticipated for the ADES requirement? For example CPAF, FFP and/or any other types or incentive structures.

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Would FEMA please provide the goals for the relative sequence of RFPs in 2015/2016? For example, PMO first, followed by X, then Y. This would greatly assist industry in preparing the correct teams to best meet FEMA objectives.

The tentative dates are in the slides from Industry Day, although this is subject to change. The

Security line of business will be the first to be issued.

Will the Application Development and Engineering requirement include the need for reach-back and integrated Tier support of 7x24 disaster operations?

Yes

Will the Application Development and Engineering requirement include requirements for DOD Secret or Top Secret clearances for some of the contractor staff?

Yes

Can FEMA outline how much of the total Application Development and Engineering staff may be required to perform on FEMA sites as a primary duty location? Some insight into the ratio of onsite vs. offsite labor rates would be helpful information for industry planning and staff hiring.

Less than 20%

Question Answer

When in the acquisition schedule for the Application Development and Engineering requirement will FEMA be sharing the available data on current Work Orders and hours expended on each? The availability of this information would make a more competitive environment and allow offerors to analyze relative effort within the overall requirement and plan for future efficiencies.

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Does the incumbent ADES contract has a provision for transition out support? If none, what support will the incumbent contractor provide to the transitioning in team?

There will be a transition objective.

Would FEMA please confirm that the ADES requirement will take advantage of a Best Value source selection approach?

Yes

What is the official name of the contract: ADES, EADIS, or EEADIS?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is the scope of enterprise architecture (EA) work within the ADES contract?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

How does ADES contribute to the definition of the

FEMA EA?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

How is target architecture defined and agreed to? FEMA OCIO will publish before solicitation.

We understand that EA falls under both ADES (4.4 in the ADES SOW) and “Mission Needs &

Requirements” (4.4 in the RES SOW). What is the segregation of responsibilities between those two contracts in terms of EA?

Question Answer Who maintains the configurations of developer desktops – FEMA or contractor?

Both

We read that the government is responsible for all licenses and maintenance of tools and services.

What is the complete list of government provided tools and services?

Artifacts will be provided at the time of solicitation.

Section 5.3 of the ADES draft SOW states that the facilities, equipment, services, and workspace will be contractor provided, but Section 3.1 of the draft SOW states that all of these are Government

Owned. What is the delineation of equipment, services, software, and facilities responsibilities between the contractor and government?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is the extent of classified information that ADES will be responsible for handling?

Public Trust to Top Secret

What are the personnel requirements for handling classified (versus unclassified) data and software?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is ADES role and participation in the ITAPES process?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is the process that ITAPES follows to identify and communicate gaps in services to

ADES?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What are the expectations for ADES’ response to ITAPES findings?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

The ITAPES description states that contractors participating in this area will be prohibited from participation in other areas. Since ADES is a single award, how can we participate in both ITAPES and other areas (as required by the draft ADES SOW)?

Question Answer

Where are the DHS enterprise infrastructure and related SLAs that ADES needs to support defined?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

To what extent will ADES set, monitor, and enforce FEMA IT policies? Is the scope of ADES participation in this limited to the ADES contract, or does it expand to other contracts?

It extends to other contracts.

The Policy Support description (Section 3.1 of the draft ADES SOW) states that contractors participating in this area will be prohibited from participation in other areas. Since ADES is a single award, how can we participate in both Policy Support and other areas (as required by the draft

ADES SOW)?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Quality Assurance (Section 3.1 of the draft ADES SOW) requires an independent capability to ensure compliance with program requirements.

How can ADES serve in this role as independent?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is the difference between “Architecture Engineering” and “Enterprise Architecture”?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What qualifications are necessary to support the Architecture Engineering on the ADES contract?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

How many databases are maintained under the ADES contract?

Inventory list will be provided at time of final solicitation.

What size are the databases maintained within the ADES contract?

Inventory list will be provided at time of final solicitation.

What is the size and complexity of the ETL jobs maintained by the ADES contract?

Question Answer What is the level of support required for database maintenance tasks?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is the level of support required for information technology security engineering and support services activities on the ADES contract?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What are the infrastructure details for which information technology security engineering and support services are expected?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

To what extent is the ADES contract expected to develop Computer Aided Design (CAD) artifacts?

As needed. Providing network and systems diagrams, rack elevations, and other illustrations are required.

For support of FEMA’s enterprise voice, video, and data networks, how many sites will be supported under the ADES contract? Are these sites the same as the ones mentioned in section 5.4?

Headquarters, Regions, and remote sites.

What virtualization technology is in use today? VMWare

What is the scope of voice systems simulation and modeling within the ADES contract?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What are the current technologies that are used for voice systems and networks?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

How many installations of voice systems occur on a monthly basis?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is the scope of development of specifications and standards of voice systems on the ADES contract?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is the extent of the FEMA Enterprise cellular network environment?

Question Answer

Will FEMA provide a mapping of each FEMA organizational business area to their related the FEMA Directorates, Offices, Divisions, Regional Offices, Joint Field Offices, Territorial Recovery

Offices, and FEMA Partners in Emergency management prior to the RFP?

Yes

What electronic fingerprinting technologies are in use today as part of Business Area 02: Security and Access Control?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Will FEMA please provide copies of the FEMA SDLC guidelines, the Agile Systems Compliance Guidelines, and the Agile Systems Compliance

Checklist?

FEMA follows DHS Guidelines, and SELC.

Will FEMA please provide a copy of the DHS Enterprise Architecture policies, standards, and procedures?

Artifacts will be provided at time of solicitation.

Will FEMA please provide a copy of the FEMA EA, the HLS EA, the FEMA Technology Standards, and the HLS EA Technical Reference Model?

Yes

What is the process for submitting data assets, information exchanges, and data standards to the

FEMA Enterprise Data Management Office (EDMO) and the DHS EDMO?

Outlined within the OCIO Standard Operation Procedures.

What is the DHS tool used for certification / accreditation?

Multiple tools. Information will be provided at time of solicitation.

What is the difference between the requirements analysis that is performed as part of ADES and the work performed under the “Mission Needs & Requirements” contract?

Question Answer

The RES SOW and the ADES SOW both state that the solutions will be in compliance with the FEMA Enterprise Architecture. The OCIO Procurement diagram lists Enterprise Architecture under the

Mission Needs contract, but the SOW provides no scope to implement it. Which organization will be responsible for developing the Enterprise Architecture?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

The Federal Business Opportunities site and the OCIO Procurement Diagram state, the key functionalities which fall under this line of business are the Business Needs definition, Concept of Operations, Business Case Analysis, Business Vision Definition, Security Standards, as well as Enterprise Architecture, the Statement of Work for Requirements Estimates and Scope list the scope as only including Requirements Analysis and Requirements Management. Does the scope of this contract allow for the identification of modernization initiatives? This is not apparent from the SOW.

Yes

The Application Development, Engineering & Sustainment SOW references the OCIO Roadmap, is the development of this roadmap within the scope of this ADES contract or would it be within the Mission Needs & Requirements?

The development of this roadmap will be a collaborative effort across all contracts.

Question Answer

In the Application Development, Engineering & Sustainment SOW sections 3.6 - 3.14 refer to specific categories of system engineering.

Additionally, the Mission Needs and CONOPS development are typically performed in the acquisition cycles as technical assistance. Many government contracting best practices would group System Engineering and Technical Assistance activities together and defines this in FAR Part 37.201(c). Will you considering moving the scope from ADES 3.6 – 3.14 to the Mission

Needs and Requirements contract?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Most individuals currently performing system engineering tasks at FEMA work for small businesses, additionally this work is currently within the scope of the FEMA SETA IDIQ, moving this work to a large business contract eliminates small business contracting opportunities. Would you consider separating the system engineering scope onto a separate small business set aside?

Already considered, and a determination was made to execute as described in the draft statement of work.

Have you identified the physical location(s) of the GOCO? If so, where?

Mount Weather

Are there any specific requirements about the location of the development staff?

Yes, clarification will come with the final SOW.

Section 3"Scope and Purpose" includes many services that are not listed under 3.1 "Scope".

This seems disconnected and provides confusion to the scope of work. Can you clarify what is in scope?

Question Answer

ADES SOW Section 3.1 Number 6 "Independent Technical Assistance and Program Enterprise Services (ITAPES)" states that "Contractors participating in this area will be prohibited from participation in other areas due to obvious conflicts of interest." If this is a single award isn't this piece of scope in conflict with the SOW?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

ADES SOW Section 4 references an Agile Support Development as well as a Rapid Application

Development. Is there a difference between these two? Is there a preferred method?

No

As stated in the ADES SOW major enhancements, work greater than $2.5 Million, will be treated as an independent project or task does this mean they will be separate work orders?

No

Will the RES Contractor work with the ADES Contractor as an integrate product team defining requirements and performing development, such as could be the case in a typical agile development methodology?

No

Question Answer

In recent years many government contracts have been awarded to the lowest price contractor and then in some cases that contractor has failed to deliver qualified resources to perform the work and have not accomplished the goals of the mission. In some cases the government has ended up paying for the work to be performed again which resulted in a higher cost instead of a lower cost as was the goal. How will the government ensure the contractor selected is able to provide the best value to FEMA and the taxpayers of the United States?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

The following are not currently identified in scope in the RES SOW "Business Needs definition, Concept of Operations, Business Case Analysis, Business Vision Definition, Security Standards, as well as Enterprise Architecture" Are these functions within scope for this RES contract?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

The ADES SOW references the EAGLE II contract but states that this work will be full and open. Is

Full and Open correct?

Yes, Full and Open.

Question Answer

Which of the potential acquisitions present OCI’s amongst them. Specifically will it be allowed to hold a prime position on both O&M and Application Development? Secondarily can you hold a sub position on one and prime on the other? Can a large business be a sub on any of the socioeconomic set-a-sides and still be a prime on either O&M or App Dev?

FEMA understands its responsibility to conduct the acquisition process with the highest of integrity and in a manner that is fair, impartial, and biased toward none. To this end, FEMA will execute its Information Technology acquisitions in compliance with the guidelines that govern both

Conflicts of Interest (COI) and Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI). These guidelines include the criteria set forth at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 9.5, Subpart 3.11, and other sources which serve to govern the identification, prevention, and handling of COIs and OCIs during the conduct of the federal acquisition process.

What is the anticipated timing and ceiling values of each of these acquisitions? Is there any particular sequencing of the acquisitions?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Will there be a reading room provided for any or all of the acquisitions?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

What is the relationship between these acquisitions and the two DHS data centers. How much of the infrastructure and shared services will be in the DHS Data centers

Undetermined

Will the government provide (pre-RFP) copies of the IT SOA Modernization Roadmap [ref 2.0]

(developed by IBM)? And, will the government provide (pre-RFP) a copy of the FEMA TRM [ref

4.1.2]?

Artifacts will be made available at the time of solicitation.

Question Answer

The Requirements, Estimates and Scope (RES) SOW indicates that it will be competed under the EAGLE II contract. Does FEMA anticipate utilizing

DHS’s strategic-sourcing vehicles for all of the anticipated contracts? Will FEMA provide information regarding anticipated contract vehicle or procurement type for the other SOWs provided?

Question Answer

During the Industry Day it was said that the appropriate EAGLE II labor categories and qualification levels would be used by FEMA for the OCIO procurements. The EAGLE II education and experience levels (I, II, and III) are very broad in terms of years of experience (i.e., Level I is 1–4 years, Level II is 5–15 years, and Level III is greater than 15 years). Moreover, if an individual meets a certain education level, no other experience is required (i.e., Level I only requires a high school diploma or GED, Level II requires an associate’s degree, and Level III requires a master’s degree).

Given these very broad qualification bands, it appears FEMA may pay higher prices for resources using this EAGLE II qualification scheme.

Contractors will need to ensure their rates can cover the cost of individuals ranging from associate’s with no experience to a bachelor’s and up to 15 years within the same labor category level. This would put FEMA at risk of paying a higher rate for individuals that just meet the qualification. We urge FEMA to develop more granular qualification levels pairing education and years of experience to achieve more accurate pricing for their OCIO procurements.

Thank you for your suggestion.

What requirements engineering standards and tools are currently used at FEMA?

Question Answer

We attended the Industry Day earlier this month and have been monitoring the FBO listing for any updates to the solicitation. The information provided during the Industry Day as well as the information on FBO does not provide any estimated values for the overall IT effort or the individual lines of business. Is that information you would be able to provide us with or will that get posted to FBO? If so, is there a timeline for when that information will be published?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Can a small business bid the PMO or Mission Needs opportunity and be on a team as a subcontractor for other efforts, like the

Applications Development, Engineering & Sustainment effort, for example? If they win the PMO effort, can they perform on other efforts?

Recommendation: Work a manner whereby this could occur using OCI firewalls, etc.

No

The Emerging Technology and Modernization SOW is not listed on the FEMA Phased Contract Award Approach document nor is it highlighted anywhere on the OCIO Procurement Strategy document. Is this an oversight or will there be clarification?

Not aware of an Emerging Technology and Modernization SOW.

This SOW is very similar to the Security Officer Support SOW. Can we get clarification on what areas these SOWs address and how they are tied and differ to/from each other?

Question Answer

Would you reconsider dividing the AppDev/ Engineering and sustainment work into socio-economic set aside? We have done mobile AppDev work at CBP that can be reused at FEMA.

No, not likely.

Would you consider 8a, EDWOSB, or Hubzone tracks for AppDev work stream?

Full and Open Competition

Are there any OCI’s amongst the various acquisitions?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Will there be a reading room set up? How much time will be allowed for the RR?

Yes, time undetermined.

Do you have small business req’s thought-out on this acquisition?

Full and Open Competition

What/describe current tools/products in use? Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Are you looking to become an agile development AppDev group?

No

Are you considering platforms as a service to improve your deployment capabilities?

Possibly

Why didn’t FEMA elect to make this contract a multi-award IDIQ? Other DHS components and government agencies have proven that multi-award IDIQ’s ensure consideration and provide a higher quality solicitation at a lower cost.

The needs of FEMA’s mission dictate the direction.

Both are targeted as single award IDIQ. Since most contract action and procurements will be in these areas, what is the rational for single award?

It is the best solution for the existing environment.

What is the big data analytics and module data strategy?

Question Answer What is the program for product choice? Is there a tech review board or software selection committee or will the chosen IDIQ partner make these selections?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Will implementation of a new core financial system be included as part of the applications development line of business?

Yes

Would you share the information regarding the over 200 FEMA systems? (ie: functions, platforms)

Artifacts will be available at the time of solicitation.

Who are the contractors helping in developing the requirements for these solicitations? Are they

OCI’s from any of these?

Contractors involved with the drafting of the SOW are confidential.

We have heard conflicting information regarding web content management requirements for new apps. Is there a directive from FEMA or DHS regarding the CMS apps and stack?

Clarification will come with the final SOW.

Is FEMA encouraging a specific development methodology? ie: agile, waterfall, etc.

No

Does FEMA have a vision or roadmap for IT which would include Business Process improvements? If not, will there be one in the RFP Release?

Yes

Have you defined the small business goals for ADE&S full and open RFP?

No

EADIS is the current contract in this area – will it re-compete or will it be cancelled in favor of a whole new IDIQ type processor under the new roadmap?

The EADIS replacement contract is defined by the

ADES SOW.

Question Answer

During AD&ES group session, it was mentioned that FEMA currently has approximately more than

200 systems that may or may not be interconnected; will FEMA consider releasing an attachment of a summary list of those systems?

The information will be made available at the time of solicitation.

Will the department consider releasing an attachment of a summary list of most used code language, applications, and technologies in order to allow for better draft statement of work feedback?

Yes

What kind of data driven analytics are often lacking in FEMA that would drive application development projects?

FEMA does not lack analytics that drive application…