sow-itkv42016.docx

STATEMENT OF WORK

PROJECT TITLE: Help Desk and Information Technology Support for the Insight Toolkit 2016 (ITK-v4) A. Background In 1999, the NLM Office of High Performance Computing and Communications awarded multiple contracts for the formation of a software development consortium to create and develop an application programmer interface (API) and first implementation of a segmentation and registration toolkit, subsequently named the Insight Toolkit (ITK). The original awards included six contractors: GE Global Research, Insightful, Inc., Kitware, Inc., the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Tennessee. The six contractors were partnered with five subcontractors: Harvard University Medical School, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, Columbia University, and the University of Utah. The period of performance for the original ITK awards began in 1999 and ended in 2003.

The resulting system was originally intended for computer-assisted exploration of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Visible Human (VHP) Male and Female data sets. The final deliverable for this group was an open-source software library concentrating on segmentation and registration algorithms, directly inserted into the public domain that now helps support research worldwide in image analysis and in other domains.

Open-source initiatives such as ITK help to lower the barriers to entry in complex research fields by providing the foundations of the software infrastructure necessary to conduct advanced investigations. Revising ITK is considered a contribution to the nation’s infrastructure through software. Careful thought has been placed on the cultivation and maintenance of this software, assuring developers that the software will remain supported with new releases, bug fixes, and continuing growth. A maintenance contract, ITK Systems Technologies, was awarded after an open competition in 2004 to Kitware, Inc. The period of performance for the maintenance contract ends September 2009.

Under funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, in 2010 NLM undertook a major revision of ITK, making awards to six contractors: GE Global Research, Kitware, Inc., the University of Pennsylvania, CoSMo Software, the University of Iowa, and Harvard University. The period of performance for these awards began in 2010 and some were extended as late as 2013. A major release, ITK-v4.0 was made in December 2011.

B. Project Purpose In order to continue to provide leadership within the national research community in the area of software development for image analysis, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) seeks to provide help desk and information technology support for its open-source image processing application programmers interface (API), known as the Insight Toolkit (ITK). In 1999, NLM organized a software development program along with support from across NIH, NSF and DoD. The resulting open source software library has become the very successful initiative known as the Insight Toolkit (ITK). ITK operates across multiple computing platforms, supporting many combinations of operating systems and compilers. ITK is currently in use in over 45 countries by thousands of researchers in hundreds of laboratories spanning research topics from traditional medical disciplines such as neurology, pathology, radiology, and oncology, to electron microscopy, systems biology, remote sensing and even astronomy.

In a research contract program from 2010 to 2013, NLM revisited the foundations of the toolkit to assure its viability for the next ten years. In the intervening decade since the original design of ITK, computing technologies made radical advances including the advent of multi-core microprocessors, 64-bit CPU architectures, and a proliferation of graphics processing units (GPUs) capable of general purpose computing. The result of the NLM program was a major software release, ITK version 4.0, which targeted these emerging features of contemporary computing.

NLM is actively seeking to incubate the revised version of ITK, now in release ITK-v4.9, encouraging users to migrate to the new release and grow the user community. A maintenance award is required to accomplish this goal.

C. Objectives and Desired Results The Insight Toolkit (ITK) is currently available with the release, ITK version 4.9, announced in February 2016 (see the URL: http://www.itk.org). NLM wishes to maintain the underlying design and software architecture for ITK as well as support and grow the user community at this time.

The purpose of this procurement is to obtain contract software support services for the Insight Toolkit (ITK), the image processing tools initiative of the Visible Human Project. The goal is to support ITK to attempt to allow it to perform and evolve for the research community for up to another five years.

All deliverables will be released under the existing ITK license as public, open-source software, and so all deliverables must be free from encumbering licenses or restrictions.

NLM intends to select a single contractor to address these issues, with the emphasis on experienced ITK programming talent either from a systems development perspective or from the application developer point of view. All respondents to this announcement are encouraged to assemble expert teams, and subcontracting and consulting relationships are permitted as part of any proposed award.

D. Technical Requirements Supporting ITK and its user community as a maintainable and sustainable software toolkit for the next five years is the goal, and it will require a breadth of expertise as well as in-depth knowledge of the existing toolkit and its application programmers interface (API). Potential contractors should have a keen appreciation for the existing community, its needs, and the processes and work-flow of ITK users.

NLM encourages the growth of ITK through peer-reviewed software additions. The current mechanism for proposing and evaluating new code is through submissions to the Insight Journal. Respondents should have the technical capability to manage an online journal as well as the subject matter expertise to moderate reviews and discussions of software and data for medical image analysis.

Integration is considered the key to success for both this contract action as well as the success of the ITK toolkit in general. All offerors should be prepared to work closely with other NLM contractors and with the existing Insight software community. All software deliverables will be checked-in to the current source code control system and vetted through the style checker and regression testing dashboards currently in place. Respondents to this announcement should demonstrate their proficiency with the software tools and processes in use by the ITK users including GIT and Gerrit as well as their experience supporting user information through wiki pages, mailing lists, and other communication vehicles.

The prospective contractor should be able to identify and correct bugs in ITK. This requires extensive knowledge of C++ programming including the use of templates as well as the techniques for providing language bindings for allowing access to ITK software capabilities called through other programming languages. Deep knowledge of the existing ITK-v4.3 code is required. Proficiency in Python, in particular, is considered essential.

NLM encourages outreach activities with other programming groups and user communities. The contractor should be able to show their demonstrated capacity to organize tutorials and to teach ITK programming.

Prospective contractors should not assume that all outreach will be performed under this funding. Rather, the successful contractor will organize and invite other members of the ITK community to join in the presentation of tutorials and workshops promoting ITK.

E. Subordinate tasks or types of work The contractor will be required to participate in the following tasks or prepare the following deliverables:

1. Maintain and monitor communications with the ITK user community. This includes the running of mailing lists/list-serves and responding user questions and complaints. It also includes conducting and moderating weekly teleconference meetings for ITK developers, keeping minutes and maintaining meeting agendas.

2. Identify and correct bugs and other software flaws in ITK.

3. Contribute documentation, tutorial materials, and courseware. Organize outreach activities such as one or two symposia, tutorials, or workshops in conjunction with related conferences per year.

4. Produce semi-annual software releases of ITK.

5. Perform all software and documentation development under the style guidelines and architectural rules of the Insight Toolkit.

6. Maintain the ITK software repository using a source code control system. The current distributed revision control and source code management system for ITK is Git. The contractor will support ITK through Git until and unless the ITK developer community adopts a different system.

7. Support the quality of ITK software through the use of software code review tools. The current system for software review is Gerrit, a free, web-based team software code review tool that integrates with Git version control software. The contractor will promote software quality in ITK by supporting Gerrit until and unless the ITK developer community adopts a different system.

F. Quality Control In keeping with the practices for the development of the current Insight Toolkit, all software deliverables will be required to pass through the ITK dashboard, the open-source system for regression testing and quality control. No deliverables will be considered acceptable without checking in the software to the source code repository, and cleared through the dashboard regression testing process. All software, including examples, must be accompanied by software tests, both run-time and regression test, suitable for implementation in the dashboard system. All deliverables must pass their own tests as well as not break other tests in the toolkit.

Coding style and software will be reviewed for style, documentation, completeness, comprehensiveness and coverage of the software tests, and the correctness of the implementation. A web-based team software code review tool will be used (currently Gerrit).

G. Reporting Requirements The successful contractor will hold weekly teleconferences, videoconferences, or virtual conferences to provide continuing communication among the ITK developer community. Attendance at these weekly meetings is required for the contractor. Deliverables will be checked-in to a source code repository and testing of deliverables will be covered in an automatic build and regression testing environment. Annual reports of the activity of the contractor and the state of the community are required.

H. Period of Performance

It is anticipated that an award will be made on or about August 9, 2016. It is anticipated that the award(s) from this solicitation will be for a one year period of performance with options for two (2) successive one-year periods. The period of performance begins on or about August 9, 2016.

I. Place of Performance Vendor site.

J. Labor Categories

The following is a sample of positions and experience levels that would be appropriate for performance of this requirement, but not limited to. The vendor may propose other labor categories and experience levels, if they would contribute to a better more efficient solution; however, the vendor must demonstrate that the personnel and proposed level of effort/total labor hours meet the Government’s requirement.

The government estimates that the following average level of effort/average total labor hours will be needed from the contractor to perform the required services.

Base Year

(not to exceed 6 months)

Option Year 1

(not to exceed 6 months)

Option Year 2

(not to exceed 6 months)

K. Key Personnel

The key personnel specified in this contract are considered to be essential to work performance. At least 30 days prior to the contractor voluntarily diverting any of the specified individuals to other programs or contracts the Contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer and shall submit a justification for the diversion or replacement and a request to replace the individual. The request must identify the proposed replacement and provide an explanation of how the replacement's skills, experience, and credentials meet or exceed the requirements of the contract (including, when applicable, Human Subjects Testing requirements). If the employee of the contractor is terminated for cause or separates from the contractor voluntarily with less than thirty day notice, the Contractor shall provide the maximum notice practicable under the circumstances. The Contractor shall not divert, replace, or announce any such change to key personnel without the written consent of the Contracting Officer.

The contract will be modified to add or delete key personnel as necessary to reflect the agreement of the parties.

The following individual(s) is/are considered to be essential to the work being performed hereunder:

Key Personnel (TBD)

L. Deliverables.

All deliverables will reside in the public domain (either through controlled Internet distribution from the NLM or through a third party electronic publisher), including all source code. The NLM will use the Visible Human Project rights and data clause with this requirement, claiming ownership of all data and software generated under this requirement, including all source code. NLM intends to place the ITK license on all software and release it in the public domain. The eventual software developers will be held to high software standards, and extensive documentation for the software tools (including tutorials, manuals, and examples) are required. All deliverables will be checked-in to a source code repository.

M. Travel and Transportation NLM anticipates that the contractor will travel to promote ITK through one or two symposia, tutorials, and workshops per year held in conjunction with technical conferences where medical image analysis is being discussed. The contractor shall be responsible for all costs associated with travel to and from the NLM including parking costs.

N. Transition Plan

Contract Start-Up The contractor shall present a plan for the start-up of this new contract and the transition of activities and materials, as appropriate, from the incumbent to the new contractor. The contractor shall acknowledge and incorporate the likelihood that different existing tasks are complex and may require significantly different types of transition as well as length of time for such transition.

Due to the critical nature of certain tasks, there may be a need to coordinate with the incumbent contractor for an extended period to ensure continuity of services.

The contractor shall describe an approach to maintaining effective communication, coordination, and liaison between the Government and the Contractor and between the contractors themselves, during the transition period. The plan should discuss how Government Furnished Property will be transferred. The plan should also include the transfer of historical materials that shall be maintained by the current contractor. The plan should discuss how the contractor plans to accomplish this transition while minimizing the disruption of Government Services.

Final Transition / Contract End In the event the incumbent is not successful in the recompetition the Contractor shall:

a) present a plan and timetable, within sixty (60) days of the expiration of this contract, that stipulates the assistance that will be provided in the transfer of responsibility to another contractor. The plan should discuss how Government Furnished Property will be transferred. The contractor shall describe an approach to maintaining effective communication, coordination, and liaison between the Government and the Contractor (also between the contractors themselves) during the phase-out period. The plan should discuss how the contractor plans to accomplish this transition while minimizing the disruption of Government Services.

b) fully cooperate with the successor contractor. The contractor shall deliver, in accordance with the delivery schedule, all data, files, records, and documentation to any organization or group selected by the government. The contractor shall provide for the transfer of all information gathered during this contract to the successor contractor’s site or to an alternate site designated by the government.”

O. Section 508

This language is applicable to Statements of Work (SOW) generated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that require a contractor or consultant to (1) produce content in any format that could be placed on a Department-owned or Department-funded Web site; or (2) write, create or produce any communications materials intended for public or internal use; to include reports, documents, charts, posters, presentations (such as Microsoft PowerPoint) or video material that could be placed on a Department-owned or Department-funded Web site.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d) requires Federal agencies to purchase electronic and information technologies (EIT) that meet specific accessibility standards. This law helps to ensure that federal employees with disabilities have access to, and use of, the information and data they need to do their jobs. Furthermore, this law ensures that members of the public with disabilities have the ability to access government information and services.

There are three regulations addressing the requirements detailed in Section 508. The Section 508 technical and functional standards are codified at 36 CFR Part 1194 and may be accessed through the Access Board’s Web site at http://www.access-board.gov. The second regulation issued to implement Section 508 is the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). FAR Part 39.2 requires that agency acquisitions of Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) comply with the Access Board’s standards. The entire FAR is found at Chapter 1 of the Code of Federal Register (CFR) Title 48, located at http://www.acquisition.gov. The FAR rule implementing Section 508 can be found at http://www.section508.gov. The third applicable regulation is the HHS Acquisition Regulation (HHSAR).

Regardless of format, all Web content or communications materials produced for publication on or delivery via HHS Web sites - including text, audio or video - must conform to applicable Section 508 standards to allow federal employees and members of the public with disabilities to access information that is comparable to information provided to persons without disabilities.

All contractors (including subcontractors1) or consultants responsible for preparing or posting content intended for use on an HHS-funded or HHS-managed Web site must comply with applicable Section 508 accessibility standards, and where applicable, those set forth in the referenced policy or standards documents below. Remediation of any materials that do not comply with the applicable provisions of 36 CFR Part 1194 as set forth in the SOW or PWS, shall be the responsibility of the contractor or consultant retained to produce the Web-suitable content or communications material.

The following Section 508 provisions apply to the content or communications material identified in this SOW:

1194.21 Software Applications and Operating Systems

1194.22 Web-based intranet and internet information and applications

1194.31 Functional performance criteria

1194.41 Information, documentation, and support

These provisions can be found at http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/standards.htm

Section 508 Product Requirements Technical standards from 36 CFR part 1194 Subpart B have been determined to apply to this acquisition. Solicitation respondents must describe how their proposed Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) deliverables meet at least those technical provisions identified as applicable in the attached Government Product/Service Accessibility Template (GPAT).

Functional performance criteria from 36 CFR part 1194 Subpart C have been determined to apply to this acquisition. Solicitation respondents must describe how their proposed Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) deliverables meet at least those functional performance criteria identified as applicable in the attached Government Product/Service Accessibility Template (GPAT).

Information, documentation, and support requirements from 36 CFR part 1194 Subpart D have been determined to apply to this acquisition. Solicitation respondents must describe how the information, documentation, and support proposed for Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) deliverables meet at least the information, documentation, and support requirements identified as applicable in the attached Government Product/Service Accessibility Template (GPAT).

Section 508 Evaluation Factors Responses to this solicitation will only be considered for award after it has been determined that the proposal adequately addresses the requirements for Section 508. Only proposals which contain adequate information to document their responsiveness to the Section 508 requirements (e.g. a completed GPAT, VPAT or equivalent and supporting documentation) will be eligible for any additional merit consideration.

Section 508 Acceptance Criteria The deliverable, as a result of this solicitation, will be accepted based in part on satisfaction of identified Section 508 requirements for accessibility. The deliverable must include a completed GPAT, a sample of which is included as a part of this solicitation.

Section 508 Annual Report The contractor shall submit an annual Section 508 report in accordance with the schedule set forth in the ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACCESSIBILITY Article in SECTION H of this contract. The Section 508 Report Template and Instructions for completing the report are available at: http://www.hhs.gov/od/vendors/index.html

References:

HHS Section 508 General Information and Guidance Web site: http://www.hhs.gov/web/508/index.html HHS ASPA Web Communications Division Web site: http://www.hhs.gov/web/policies/index.html HHS Section 508 Documentation Compliance Checklists http://www.hhs.gov/web/508/checklists/index.html

Comprehensive plan for meeting the needs of the Government, addressing each of the requirements of the statement of work and explaining the proposed technical approach to be used. Failure to provide the information required to evaluate the proposal may result in the rejection of the proposal without further consideration.