NCSES Web Support Services SOW 2026 DRAFT.pdf

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics

Web Support Services

DRAFT Statement of Work

December 2025

1.0 BACKGROUND

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National Science Foundation (NSF) is one of 13 independent U.S. federal statistical agencies. It is broadly responsible for collecting, interpreting, and disseminating information on the state of science and engineering and research and development in the U.S. NCSES publishes approximately 50 publications and online products per year and maintains a website with online resources and database systems.

2.0 OBJECTIVE

The website contains data and information in a variety of formats, including data tables, data tools, and applications for online data interaction. All NCSES’s reports are released in electronic format. NCSES posts its reports on NSF’s centrally administered web server https://ncses.nsf.gov/. Support for this work is critical for NCSES to meet its mandate according to the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 by Section 505 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010.

3.0 CURRENT ENVIRONMENT

NCSES has shifted its emphasis from paper publications to a more ‘on demand’, user-centric presentation of data and information. To do this, NCSES has transitioned to a dissemination framework that emphasizes electronic presentation powered by database systems over static data presentation formats. The NCSES website is an integral component to this shift as it is the conduit to the public and is NCSES’s public face to the world. The separate NCSES data systems contract will provide the infrastructure to store, maintain, and disseminate NCSES data. This contract will support integration and presentation of data from the data systems on the website. NCSES has shifted to automation for electronic publishing with its custom-built Content Management System (CMS). The CMS application development is ongoing. NCSES will continue to streamline the production of online publications using its CMS, support mobile devices, and explore new and emerging areas of social media. NCSES in the process of moving all IT systems from an on-premises data center to a cloud environment as part of the overall NSF migration to the cloud.

The NCSES web team’s skillsets cover the range of NCSES’s activities. Technologies used on the website include, but are not limited to: HTML5, XML, CSS, ColdFusion, Sybase, Java/JSP, Oracle, HighCharts, and PDFReactor. Future technologies are expected to include, but are not limited to, migration to the cloud (Amazon Web Services) and Postgres database software. The web team supports a continuous integration environment as part https://ncses.nsf.gov/ https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/about/BILLS-111hr5116enr.pdf#page=26 https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/about/BILLS-111hr5116enr.pdf#page=26 of an Agile development and release process. However, for its publication workflow NCSES uses the Waterfall methodology.

4.0 SCOPE OF WORK

The contractor shall provide web programming and design services to maintain, modify, and enhance the existing NCSES web presence. Support is required for the NCSES portion of the NSF website (https://ncses.nsf.gov), which includes, but is not limited to, website design and redesign (including usability and accessibility), development, and maintenance; applications development and maintenance, electronic publication of statistical reports and related information; documentation; quality assurance; and accessibility. Work activities will be primarily in a Linux environment. The contractor shall provide a team with demonstrated experience maintaining a large and complex website.

The contractor shall bring both management and technical skills to accomplish a variety of programming, presentation, and user- oriented activities. The contractor shall have demonstrated experience relevant to building a Content Management System and relevant to conversion of a variety of content types, including statistical data and products, for presentation on the web. In particular, the contractor shall have demonstrated experience with complex documents such as reports consisting largely of statistical data (both tabular and graphical form) and analysis.

A thorough understanding of the federal accessibility standards contained in the Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the ability to implement them on a federal website is mandatory. The contractor is encouraged to recommend alternate approaches to staffing that increase efficiencies, contribute to staff retention, and decrease time to production.

We expect a balanced approach to developing new features, system modernization, regression testing, documentation, and ensuring broad accessibility, including Section 508 compliance.

5.0 REQUIREMENTS

5.1 Task 1. Project Management

The contractor shall provide project management to oversee the successful completion of all tasks in the statement of work.

Task 5.1.1: Planning (roadmap)

Within 2 months after the contract has been awarded, the contractor shall work with the COR in creating a roadmap for this contract. The roadmap will include not only the continued development of the CMS approach but all web-related projects and initiatives. The contractor shall develop project-specific milestones and https://ncses.nsf.gov/ schedules as needed. The contractor shall provide monthly updates on the status of NCSES’s desired milestones and goals. The contractor shall provide quarterly and an annual presentation to the COR and NCSES Leadership to outline past year outcomes and upcoming quarterly or yearly milestones and goals.

Agile development is currently being used for software development of the CMS.

The contractor and the COR will reevaluate if Agile development is the best model for the team.

Task 5.1.2: Risk management

The contractor shall produce a risk management plan and maintain and review projects, schedules and resources and report any risks on a monthly or time-sensitive basis that might affect the outcome and how to avoid and/or correct it.

Task 5.1.3: Schedule building and mitigation

The contractor shall prioritize tasks in the sprint developments and other web-related projects and initiatives based on feedback from the COR. The contractor shall work with the COR and other key staff to develop milestone schedules, establish targeted scheduling for publications and other web-based projects to meet NCSES’s deadlines. The contractor shall provide solutions if needed to meet or exceed target deadlines. The contractor shall provide weekly status reports on priorities and risks to the COR.

Task 5.1.4: Documentation

The contractor shall draft and maintain technical documentation to include, but not be limited to the NCSES website, all custom applications and/or tools, publication conversion processes, and quality assurance plans as determined by the COR. The contractor shall create new documentation for new products and create or update documentation for existing systems that lack proper documentation or as they are updated. The contractor shall also provide training documentation and support on the CMS as it is being developed and/or retooled. The contractor shall provide meeting notes, as structured and determined by the COR. All documentation shall be stored in the designated storage location.

Task 5.1.5: Communication management

The contractor shall propose the implement a communication plan outlining communication protocol in at least the following areas: status meetings and reports, system documentation, system monitoring and reporting, and interacting and coordination with NCSES staff and contract-related personnel. As needed, the contractor shall work with the COR and other key staff to suggest communication strategies to alert, inform, coordinate, update and brief NCSES staff, including Leadership, on any new or ongoing projects and initiatives.

Task 5.1.6: Financial management, resources and procurement of hardware and software

The contractor shall manage the contract budget and maintain a detailed financial record. The contractor shall propose a financial management plan, including invoice submission procedures and a proposal for a monthly financial report to the COR. The monthly financial report shall include, at a minimum, the monthly break-down of the actual labor costs, projected labor costs, and other direct costs for the entirety of the contract. The financial management reports shall be incorporated in the monthly, quarterly, and year-end deliverable. The contractor shall work with the COR and NCSES staff to identify requirements and manage the procurement of hardware and software needed for NCSES’s website and associated projects. The contractor shall also propose a resource plan, that includes staffing and other resources needed to achieve NCSES milestones goals and known projects within a month of the contract start date.

Task 5.1.7: Transition activities

• Transition In

At the start of this contract, the incumbent contractor will be available for a limited time to assist the new contractor with some transition-related activities for a period of time. Within 2 weeks of the contract being awarded the new contractor shall develop and present a transition plan and schedule detailing how they will handle the transition-in. At the minimum, the contractor shall include in the transition-in plan an approach with tasks and subtasks to be accomplished, and a schedule for completion, to be approved by the COR. At the end of the transition-in period, the contractor shall provide a summary report documenting accomplished goals and identified risks associated with transition-in activities.

• Transition Out

To ensure the smooth transition-out of the project to a potential new contractor at the end of this contract, the contractor shall develop and execute a COR approved transition-out plan for the project to a new contractor. This plan will be delivered 6 months before the expected end of the contract.

5.2 Task 2. Website support

The contractor shall provide services to maintain and enhance the current NCSES presence on the externally facing NSF website. The site includes database-driven pages, static content pages, and site search capabilities. The contractor shall maintain current content and investigate opportunities to enhance the NCSES site. This activity will also include continued maintenance and enhancement of the database structure behind the NCSES site. The purpose of any enhancements will be to provide a more usable and accessible site, to improve navigation, and to improve integration and presentation of new and existing NCSES information and data resources. The contractor shall continue the redesign and continuous improvement of the current NCSES website. The redesign effort may include site structure changes as well as navigation changes. The contractor shall continue to archive site content on a scheduled timeline determined and approved by the COR. The contractor shall monitor the site for broken links and coding problems and propose and implement solutions. The contractor shall work with NSF’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) to jointly maintain servers that host NCSES legacy and new systems in various environments and execute security scans for vulnerabilities, validations, and provide remediation recommendations. The contractor shall provide services to maintain internal SharePoint pages. The contractor shall provide usability testing to support NCSES annual usability review. The contractor shall run site metrics reports monthly and ad hoc metrics reports per the request from the COR.

Task 5.2.1: Site redesign and restructuring

The contractor shall continue the redesign and restructuring effort of the NCSES website. The contractor shall use existing research and input from work conducted to refine and implement the design and associated changes to the website. The contractor shall work across a wide variety of NCSES stakeholders to review implemented designs, solicit feedback, and update redesign elements as needed to meet the needs of NCSES and their data users. The website is CMS driven.

NCSES website must adhere to guidance outlined in the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) (designsystem.digital.gov), use plain Language (plainlanguage.gov), and follow processes outlined by NSF’s Web governance team (DCAB).

Task 5.2.2: System Administration tasks. This task requires 24/7 uptime and off hours maintenance and support.

• Monitor server development/buildout/setup, configuration, patching, and maintenance activities;

• Validation activities (testing/approving);

• Monitor security scan results and respond as needed;

• Build and test automation;

• Coordinate and collaborate with NSF/OCIO;

• Application patching and validation;

The contractor shall engage with NCSES and NSF staff to architect a cloud-based implementation of the NCSES web services and cutover the existing services to the new cloud-based environment per established schedule.

Task 5.2.4: Archiving content from the website on the scheduled rotation

• NCSES currently uses Archive IT for its archive project. The contractor shall evaluate and propose technical solutions for archiving NCSES content using best practices and provide an analysis report to the COR for review and approval.

• Research and implement archive solution for CMS managed content. NCSES currently does not have a way to archive content managed in the CMS. The contractor will need to research and implement an archive solution for CMS managed content.

Task 5.2.5: Database update and maintenance

• Databases are managed and maintained by OCIO. The contractor should be able to maintain web services that are associated with the following database platform (ASW PostgreSQLs). Task 5.2.6: UI/UX support

The contractor shall apply best practices for user-centric web design. If a particular design option will provide a better user experience, the contractor shall make a recommendation to NCSES regarding the design and cost. UI/UX support includes accessibility, mobile responsiveness, website design, publications, tools, and CMS user interface. The contractor shall provide a timely report (within 6 weeks of testing) summarizing usability testing of the website and CMS interface at least once a year. The focus of this testing and report is to improve user experience as the website pages and CMS features develop.

Task 5.2.7: Help desk support and Knowledge base maintenance

The contractor shall provide help desk support for the CMS. This support includes a help desk ticketing system to manage the requests. The contractor shall maintain the CMS Knowledge base (NSF ServiceNow) with updated articles based on not only new developments and features but also updates and changes to the system of current features.

• The contractor shall work with the NSF ServiceNow team to resolve any issues related to that platform.

• The contractor shall provide training for the CMS. The contractor will work with the COR on the training content and scheduling of the training.

Task 5.2.8: Analytics/metrics

The contractor shall produce and deliver monthly and ad hoc website metrics reports. At the direction of the COR, the contractor shall provide analysis, high-level narratives, summaries, and other recommendations resulting from website metrics.

Task 5.2.9: Search engine optimization (SEO)

The contractor shall recommend and engage in activities that optimize NCSES’ search engine and search result rankings in major external search engines including but not limited to Google and Bing. The contractor shall assess SEO annually and deliver a report within six weeks of assessment.

The COR shall provide a sample of key terms for the contractor to use in the assessments. SEO assessments are not limited to the COR’s list of keywords.

Task 5.2.10: Website content tagging

The Center stives to make products on the website as findable as possible. The current strategy for that is to tag products with topics that are integrated into the search interface. The contractor shall continue to assist NCSES in tagging all website content with these topics through manual and/or automated processes.

Task 5.2.11: Section 508 of Rehabilitation Act and general accessibility

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) requires that when federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use information and communication technology (ICT), it shall be accessible to people with disabilities. Federal employees and members of the public who have disabilities must have access to, and use of, information and data that is comparable to people without disabilities.

Products, platforms and services delivered as part of this performance work statement that are ICT, or contain ICT, must conform to the Revised 508 Standards, which are located at 36 C.F.R. § 1194.1 & Apps. A, C & D, and available at https://www.access- board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict- refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines.

Item that contains ICT: NCSES website, NCSES Content Management System (CMS) and Publication Management System (PMS) application, and NCSES publications and documents.

The contractor shall work towards full implementation of Section 508 standards and practices for the NCSES website and provide recommendations to the COR and other key staff to achieve and maintain compliance with these standards.

In addition, the contractor, in conjunction with the COR, shall work to continuously improve accessibility on NCSES website beyond meeting the minimum requirements of Section 508 of Rehabilitation Act.

Task 5.2.12: Electronic publishing

The contractor shall provide services to prepare and convert NCSES publications for posting on the NCSES website. For some of our products, documents are provided to the contractor in final file formats. Primary file formats typically include Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, HTML, MS Word, MS Excel and PDF. These files shall be converted into web-readable formats, in accordance with NCSES and NSF web development, composition, and graphic guidelines.

Task 5.2.13: Cloud environment

Working with NSF, the contractor shall propose cost-effective cloud architecture that incorporates best practices and meets NSF/OCIO requirements for dev/sec/ops processes. The contractor shall continue to perform system administration, to include application patching and configuration. The contractor shall also continuously monitor website performance and make recommendations for system resource needs that balance cost and performance.

Task 5.2.14: Ad-Hoc website related activities

The contractor shall provide support for various ad-hoc requests and projects, including but not limited to the development of new data products, applications, web pages or new sites that extend beyond the normal operating process. These types of requests and work orders are considered ad-hoc activities. The Contractor shall provide services for these ad-hoc requests.

5.3 Task 3. Applications

NCSES applications require development and maintenance. These applications are responsible for tracking, composing, and publishing content.

Task 5.3.1 Content Management System (CMS)

The contractor shall continue to develop and maintain the NCSES CMS. The CMS is a custom build Java based web application. The CMs allows users from outside the web team to create and/or import publication content and website pages that are stored in an PostGreSQL database. It provides users with collaborative content development features including the ability to import content (text, data, and images) from a variety of source formats. The CMS can create complex charts and graphics.

When content is ready to be published, the CMS is used to publish it to the website.

One of the main features of the CMS is the ability to produce multiple output formats based on a single source input.

• The contractor shall continue maintenance, bug fixes, technical support and training related to the CMS.

• The contractor shall complete CMS feature development from roadmap tasks.

This entails continued development of features to the CMS that might have been mapped out before the beginning of the contract. New features most likely will be added to the roadmap as NCSES understands its needs. Those features will be prioritized with consultation with the COR and NCSES leadership.

• The contractor shall advise the COR on ways to improve the publication process, for example by simplifying product templates or providing editorial and review features.

• The contractor shall annually review the current plugins and software to ensure the best tools are in use. As part of the review, the contractor shall make recommendations for technical stack upgrades and their priority.

• The contractor shall partner with other teams, when necessary, to create data tools that can be integrated into the NCSES website. This may include building or providing requirements for APIs to communicate between the CMS and these new tools, design work to ensure consistent look and feel, and coordinated testing of the website and these integrated tools.

Task 5.3.2 Open-source code sharing

To the extent it is feasible, code developed as part of this contract should be made available to the public via Code.gov in such a way that it is re-usable for other website development projects. The contractor shall provide an annual review of sharable code to the COR for review and approval. To the extent it is allowable, and in consultation with the COR, the contractor shall facilitate sharing of code on other government platforms.

6.0 Government Furnished Equipment

The Contractor shall acquire laptops for onboarded staff according to NSF specifications and ensure each is provisioned to NSF protocols by NSFs IT Help Desk staff.

7.0 DELIVERABLE SCHEDULE

The delivery schedule of key written management products is specified in the delivery schedule table. The contractor may propose amendments to this schedule in writing to the

Government in advance of existing deadlines. The contractor shall deliver the following items listed in the Delivery Schedule Table list.

7.1 Delivery Instructions

One copy of each report will be submitted to the client representative. The contractor shall deliver each report in a mutually agreed upon format. Deliverables are to be transmitted with a cover letter, on the prime contractor’s letterhead, describing the contents.

Only the client representative (CR), their designated alternate, the Project Manager (PM) or Contracting Officer (CO) has the authority to inspect, accept, or reject all deliverables. Final acceptance of all deliverables will be provided in writing, or in electronic format, to the PM or CO within 30 days from the end of the task order.

7.2 Quality Control

The contractor shall establish and maintain a complete Quality Control Plan (QCP) to ensure the services are performed in accordance with PWS and commonly accepted commercial practices. The contractor shall develop and implement procedures to identify, prevent and ensure non-recurrence of defective services.

The government reserves the right to perform inspections on services provided to the extent deemed necessary to protect the government’s interests. The contractor must control the quality of the services and deliverables provided in support of this task and maintain substantiating evidence that services conform to contract quality requirements and furnish such information to the government if requested. The QCP shall include a quality control matrix (QCM). The QCM shall reflect the quality approach of the vendor as it applies to the key areas of the offeror’s proposed TA.