JA - General Counsel Agile Modernization- 8.20.24 -JB-S_Redacted.pdf

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JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed Firm Fixed Price sole source action is for General Counsel Agile Modernization (GCAM) which supports the ongoing operations, maintenance and enhancements for the products assigned to the Secretary of VA/Congressional/Legal Affairs (SCLA) Product Line. The proposed contractor for this action is AdaptiveVets Solutions Inc. (AVS) 623 N. Grandview Ave. Suite 104, Daytona Beach FL, 32118.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action will provide Scalable Agile Framework (SAFe) practices, or other suitable Agile techniques (e.g., Scrum), to plan, manage, execute the work required to analyze, develop, test, and deploy a solution that meets the needs of the General Counsel Automated Workload System (GCLAWS) Government off the Shelf (GOTS) product consisting of the Records Management (RM) and Court of Appeals Law Group (CALG) products. The contractor will be required to follow the SAFe body of knowledge, or other suitable Agile technique, using the Microsoft Azure DevOps (ADO) product hosted at the VA. Items such as, but not limited to, Epics, Features and Stories shall be documented within the ADO and .Net applications to manage the lifecycle of features and work items necessary for the RM and CALG products.

The period of performance (PoP) shall consist of one 12-month base period from date of award plus one 6-month option period, and 5 Optional Tasks for additional software development lifecycle enhancements. The total estimated value of the proposed action is

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition for this acquisition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(5), “Authorized or Required by Statute”, as implemented by FAR 6.302-5. For this action, 38 U.S.C. 8127(c), known as the Veterans First Contracting Program provides the authority to directly contract with a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) or a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB).

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this acquisition is AVS who is a certified SDVOSB and is technically qualified to support the GCAM requirements. The work under this requirement work was previously part of the VA’s Consolidated Corporate Support Services (CCSS) task order (TO), in which CivitasDX LLC is the contractor. The CCSS TO consists of four Portfolios within Software Product Management (SPM), however the CCSS order has reached its ceiling. The subject requirement is just for one of the four Portfolios - SCLA. If the SCLA work does not continue, the CALG module is at risk of missing performance deadlines. The new CCSS contract (CCSS 2.0) has yet to be solicited. The target is to

General Counsel Agile Modernization Control Number have it award by end of January and when this effort is over, the work will move back to CCSS 2.0. At this time the current system is no longer Technical Reference Model compliant because it is Delphi desktop. This means that the system will be out of compliance with their policy and poses security risks due to vulnerabilities with unsupported software that is still running in production. Therefore, the goal is to keep the work on schedule and have this requirement conduct the development work on CALG and Records Management. This will act as a bridge to the CCSS 2.0 contract where it is expected that the work will be transitioned over for sustainment support by the CCSS 2.0 contractor. It is best to avoid handing over development work to another vendor. Software should transition to the sustainment phase after development is completed. Thus, using this requirement to complete all of the development work of this module is in the customer’s best interest.

AVS demonstrates technical excellence, management capability, personnel qualifications, past performance, and reasonable pricing. AVS has demonstrated experience with the National Surgery Office (NSO) Systems, Transplant, and Web Tools (NSOSTWT), Office of Research Oversight (ORO), and Compliance Assessment and Tracking System (CATS). Additionally, AVS utilizes the Agile development methodology, specifically the SAFe, to manage project timelines and deliverables effectively. AVS conducts Program Increment (PI) Planning sessions every 8-12 weeks, where it plans work for the upcoming increment, sets objectives, and identifies dependencies, aligning teams on common goals and establishing a clear roadmap. The GCAM effort requires almost identical management process and methods. Thereby, demonstrating that team AVS is an ideal fit for the GCAM effort. Lastly, AVS is an agile DevSecOps product-centric company experienced in using the VA’s TRM approved technology stack utilizing scrum teams consisting of full stack developers, automated and functional test engineers practicing SAFe agile processes. AVS uses Azure DevOps Server for its set of collaborative software development tools replacing Team Foundation.

Therefore, AVS has demonstrated level of experience and expertise in similar development efforts with the VA, AVS possesses unique capabilities and specialized expertise in the required services. AVS’ deep understanding of the VA’s needs and its innovative approach to problem-solving ensure high-quality outcomes. AVS has been determined to be a responsible contractor with respect to performance demonstrating a strong track record in delivering similar projects successfully. This relevant experience and expertise will prove valuable to this contract effort.

Additionally, awarding this contract to AVS is in the best interest of the Government, as AVS is not only a SDVOSB, it is also a Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Zone Small Business. Although federal agencies are collectively required to obligate 3 percent of their small business eligible dollars to HUBZone small businesses, many have never met that goal. Therefore, by awarding this contract to AVS, it will increase the likelihood of VA reaching its HUBZone small business goal.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted in July 2024, as discussed in Section 8. Upon determination that a sole source award to AVS was in the

10. Technical/Requirements Certification

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination

I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on price analysis and comparison with the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

12. Contracting Officer Certification/Approval

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition for GCAM on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.