RFP__-_PIMS_12-12-14_Post.pdf

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)

Pension Insurance Modeling System (PIMS)

PBGC01-RP-15-0010

1. RFQ ISSUE DATE: December 12, 2014

2. ISSUED BY: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)

Procurement Department, 1200 K Street NW Suite 1090, Washington, DC 20005-4026.

3. FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:

NAME: Patrick McFarlane, Contracting Officer PHONE: (202) 326-4000 Ext. 3334

FAX: (202) 326-4162

E-MAIL: mcfarlane.patrick@pbgc.gov

4. QUESTIONS: Any questions regarding this RFP or the Statement of Work (SOW) shall be submitted to Mr. Patrick McFarlane no later than December 19, 2014 by 9:00 AM EST.

5. PROPOSAL DUE DATE/TIME: January 8, 2015 by 9:00 AM EST *

6. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL: Submit One (1) electronic copy of your technical and price proposal no later than the specified time listed in paragraph 5 above. Quotations shall reference PBGC01-RP-15-0010. *See Section L

7. STATEMENT OF WORK, SEE SECTION C.

8. PROVISIONS AND CLAUSES: Provisions and clauses are included in various Sections of this solicitation.

mailto:mcfarlane.patrick@pbgc.gov

SECTION B

SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICE COSTS

B.1. PBGC-11-001 DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES (OCT 2004)

The Contractor shall provide the personnel and services necessary to perform the effort described in Section C, the Statement of Work (SOW) resulting from this Request for Proposal No.

PBGC01-RP-15-0010. A labor hour contract will be awarded for this effort.

B.2 GENERAL DESCRIPTION

PBGC is seeking to obtain Actuarial Support Services as well as Actuarial systems engineering services to include development, modernization, enhancement (DME) support as well as Operations and Maintenance (O&M) support for the Single employer and Multiemployer versions of the Pension Insurance Modeling System (PIMS).

B.3. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

PBGC anticipates the period of performance to be a twelve (12) month base period plus (4) four option years. The Contractor shall commence work immediately upon notice of award

*Note: The actual dates of the Period of Performance will be entered at the time of award.

B.4 PRICING SCHEDULE

Offerors shall provide Labor Rates for CLINs listed below and described in the Statement of Work. The Contractor shall provide fully burdened labor to be used for billing under this contract. The contractor shall invoice monthly in arrears.

Base Year:

Period of Performance: June 1, 2015 thru May 31, 2016

0001 (LH) Labor Categories Estimated

Hours Labor Rate Total Amount

Senior Management Official 150 Project Manager 2000 Senior Actuary (2) 4000 Actuary (2 ) 4000 Subject Matter Expert Consultant 200 Analyst/Programmer (3) 6000 Senior Analyst/Software

Engineer

Associate Analyst 1500 Technical Writer 500 Total Estimated Price

Option Year One

Period of Performance: June 1, 2016 thru May 31, 2017

1001 (LH) Labor Categories Estimated

Hours Labor Rate Total Amount

Senior Management Official 150 Project Manager 2000 Senior Actuary (2) 4000 Actuary (2) 4000 Subject Matter Expert Consultant 200 Analyst/Programmer (3) 6000 Senior Analyst/Software

Engineer

Associate Analyst 1500

Option Year Two

Period of Performance: June 1, 2017 thru May 31, 2018

2001 (LH) Labor Categories Estimated Labor Rate Total Amount

Hours Senior Management Official 150 Project Manager 2000 Senior Actuary (2) 4000 Actuary (2) 4000 Subject Matter Expert Consultant 200 Analyst/Programmer (3) 6000 Senior Analyst/Software

Engineer

Associate Analyst 1500

Option Year Three

Period of Performance: June 1, 2018 thru May 31, 2019

3001 (LH) Labor Categories Estimated

Hours Labor Rate Total Amount

Senior Management Official 150 Project Manager 2000 Senior Actuary (2) 4000 Actuary (2) 4000 Subject Matter Expert Consultant 200 Analyst/Programmer (3) 6000 Senior Analyst/Software

Engineer

Associate Analyst 1500

Option Year Four

Period of Performance: June 1, 2019 thru May 31, 2020

4001 (LH) Labor Categories Estimated

Hours Labor Rate Total Amount

Senior Management Official 150 Project Manager 2000 Senior Actuary (2) 4000 Actuary (2) 4000 Subject Matter Expert Consultant 200

Analyst/Programmer (3) 6000 Senior Analyst/Software

Engineer

Associate Analyst 1500 Technical Writer 500

Total Ceiling Price (Base Year plus 4 Option Years) $________________________

PBGC-16-003 CEILING PRICE (FEB 2013)

It is anticipated that the total cost to the Government for performance of this contract shall not exceed the ceiling price set forth in Section B for the Base Year Performance Period, and any Option Periods, and the contractor agrees to use its best efforts to perform the work specified in the schedule and all obligations under this contract within the ceiling price. If at any time the contractor has reason to believe that the hourly rate payments and material costs that will accrue in performing this contract in the succeeding 30 days, if added to all other payments and costs previously accrued, will exceed 85 percent of the ceiling price set forth in this clause, the contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer in writing, giving a revised estimate of the total price to the Government for performing this contract, with supporting reasons and documentation. If, at any time during the performance of this contract, the contractor has reason to believe the total price to the Government for performing this contract will be substantially greater or less than the stated ceiling price the contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer in writing, giving a revised estimate of the total price to the Government for performing this contract, with supporting reasons and documentation. If, at any time during the performance of this contract, the Government has reason to believe the work required in performing this contract will be substantially greater or less than the stated ceiling price, the Contracting Officer will so advise the contractor, giving them the revised estimate of the total amount of effort to be required under this contract. The ceiling price for each contract period is shown in the clause title Price/Cost. The Government shall not be obligated to pay the contractor any amount in excess of the ceiling price, and the contractor will not be obligated to continue performance, if to do so would exceed the ceiling price, unless and until the Contracting Officer notifies the contractor in writing that the ceiling price has been increased and of the new ceiling price of the contract.

Once the Contracting Officer increases the ceiling price, any otherwise allowable hours and material costs incurred by the contractor which were in excess of the previous ceiling price before the increase shall be allowable to the same extent as if the hours had been expended or costs incurred after the increase in the ceiling price.

SECTION C

STATEMENT OF WORK

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) was established to develop and administer the pension plan insurance programs as provided in Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974. PBGC’s mission is primarily to: 1) encourage the continuation and maintenance of voluntary private pension plans for the benefit of their participants, 2) provide for the timely and uninterrupted payment of pension benefits to participants and beneficiaries under plans to which Title IV applies, and 3) maintain PBGC insurance premiums at the lowest level consistent with carrying out its obligations under Title IV.

ERISA established two insurance programs to be administered by PBGC. The single-employer program covers plans maintained by one employer, or by a group of employers, but not pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement. The multiemployer program covers plans that are collectively bargained and cover the employees of two or more unrelated employers. Each insurance program is operated and financed separately from the other, and assets from one cannot be used to support the other.

The single-employer program is by far the larger of the two programs, insuring about 31.9 million workers and retirees covered by nearly 22,000 plans. This program guarantees payment of benefits, subject to limits set by law. If an insured plan terminates without enough money to pay all benefits, then PBGC trustees the plan, takes over any assets and assumes the responsibility to pay plan participants. As of September 30, 2012, PBGC has trusteed more than 4,400 terminated single-employer plans and assumed responsibility for the benefits of nearly 2.0 million workers and retirees. In fiscal year 2012, PBGC paid a total of nearly $5.3 billion in benefits, and by the end of the year, it was paying retirement benefits to more than 780,000 people each month.

There are about 1,450 multiemployer plans that cover more than 10.4 million workers and retirees. Unlike the single-employer program, under which PBGC guarantees payment of benefits upon termination of an underfunded plan, under the multiemployer program, PBGC guarantees payment of benefits if a covered plan is insolvent and unable to pay basic PBGC guaranteed benefits when due. Also unlike the single-employer program, insolvent multiemployer plans are not trusteed by PBGC. Rather PBGC financially assists insolvent plans to enable them to continue paying guaranteed benefits themselves. As of September 30, 2012, PBGC has provided $788 million in total financial assistance, net of repayments, to 73 multiemployer plans. Only one plan has ever repaid PBGC.

Single-Employer PIMS – - PBGC’s Policy Research & Analysis Department (PRAD) began development of the Pension Insurance Modeling System (PIMS) for the single-employer insurance program (SE PIMS) in 1992. The initial version went into production in 1997. SE PIMS is a stochastic (i.e., random) simulation model that PBGC uses to evaluate its exposure and likelihood of future claims and to quantify the amount of risk facing the single-employer insurance program. SE PIMS portrays PBGC’s future financial condition as a function of a variety of economic parameters. For further discussion, please see the PIMS webpage at

PBGC.GOV.

SE PIMS has over 55,000 lines of computer code written in the C++ programming language and is currently run under Windows 7. The input database for the model includes significant details on a sample of about 500 pension plans, key financial variables from approximately 400 companies that sponsor those pension plans, details on the PBGC's current assets and benefit payment obligations, and recent history of key financial market returns. Pension plan and actuarial data is taken from the Form 5500, the Schedule SB (MB for Multiemployer PIMS, see below) and attachments, and includes benefit formulae, age-service matrices of active workers, number of retirees, benefit payouts, actuarial assumptions, and schedules of amortization bases. SE PIMS has undergone considerable expansion over its existence in terms of the number of simulations it runs, the variety of plan types modeled and the alternatives that it models. Continued expansion of the capabilities of the model should be anticipated.

The program simulates thousands of random scenarios of potential future outcomes using a pseudo-random number generator and measures of the volatility of key variables and the correlation among them. The scenarios projected in the simulation extend up to 20 years into the future. In each year of a scenario, the program simulates:

1. Annual returns of stock and bond market indices; changes to the financial variables of each plan sponsor;

2. Changes to each pension plan's liabilities reflecting advancements in age and service, as well as retirements and other employment separations, among the active participants, hiring and retirement rates consistent with changes to sponsors' total employment levels, advancement in ages and mortality rates among the retired population, benefit and/or salary level increases, and changes to valuation discount rates;

3. Changes to the asset level of each plan, including asset returns determined by plans' portfolio selections and the simulated market returns, benefit payments to retired participants, and contributions from the plan sponsor meeting the constraints of Internal Revenue Code funding rules;

4. Random occurrences of bankruptcy among the pension plan sponsors, with bankruptcy probabilities being determined by each firm's financial variables, and calculation of whether the funding levels of plans sponsored by bankrupt firms implies a claim on the PBGC; and

5. Changes to PBGC assets and liabilities which reflect premium payments from plan sponsors, benefit payments to trusteed beneficiaries, asset returns and changes to liability discount rates, age advancement and mortality among beneficiaries, and new claims presented by underfunded plans of bankrupt firms.

The program stores output on key variables related to pension funding and PBGC assets and liabilities. The output is analyzed by the PBGC to develop probability distributions over the range of financial outcomes the PBGC could experience in the future.

The actuarial component of the program, which tracks plans' liabilities, assets and contribution requirements through time, represents the most significant component of the model in terms of programming detail and complexity. It is also the component that is the most likely focus for continued development/enhancement of the model.

PBGC uses SE PIMS to satisfy statutory requirements under ERISA Section 4008 as amended by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA of 2006) to produce annually, an actuarial evaluation of PBGC’s expected operations for the next five years for publication in PBGC’s report. PBGC has chosen in the past to extend this projection to ten years instead of the required five.

SE PIMS is updated regularly for legislative, regulatory and/or policy changes. The model was critical to the legislative processes that led to enactment of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, PPA of 2006 and the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, having been used to evaluate the financial impact upon ongoing pension plans, their sponsors and participants, PBGC and the Federal budget of numerous and varied legislative proposals considered by the Executive and Legislative branches, the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

PBGC has also used SE PIMS at the request of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and other Federal agencies/Departments to conduct special analyses to assess the financial condition of PBGC’s single-employer program and evaluate legislative/regulatory/policy alternatives to eliminating PBGC’s long-term single-employer deficit.

SE PIMS also interfaces with PBGC’s deterministic Excel-based Budget Forecasting Model (Budget Model) to provide input on expected future claims and variable rate premium revenue for PBGC’s Federal budget forecasts submitted to the Department of Labor (DOL) and OMB. The Budget Model is a microcosm of PBGC’s accounting system and is capable of producing deterministic forecasts of the financial condition of PBGC’s single-employer and multiemployer insurance programs for up to 30 years.

Multiemployer PIMS – PBGC’s multiemployer insurance program (ME PIMS) was commissioned in 2009.

Like SE PIMS, ME PIMS is also a stochastic (i.e., random) simulation model that PBGC uses to evaluate its exposure and likelihood of future claims and to quantify the amount of risk facing the multi-employer insurance Program and to satisfy PBGC’s statutory requirement under Section 4022 of ERISA to conduct quinquennial studies of the multiemployer insurance program to determine the adequacy of multiemployer premium rates and benefit guarantees.

ME-PIMS shares many of the aforementioned features of SE-PIMS, as well as reflecting fundamental differences between the single-employer and multiemployer programs, including:

1. A different universe of plans – ME-PIMS currently contains data for roughly 260 multiemployer pension plans;

2. The failure-pattern for multiemployer plans: typically mass withdrawal of sponsorship in anticipation of insolvency, rather than bankruptcy of a single-employer sponsor;

3. Different measurement criteria for booking claims against PBGC, which are computed as present value of future financial assistance, booked when plans are in mass withdrawal and within 20 years of insolvency, or when they are ongoing but within 10 years of insolvency, and removed from PBGC’s books if they emerge from these criteria.

4. A different obligation toward failed plans than the single-employer model of sponsor-bankruptcy and PBGC-trusteeship: in the multiemployer realm PBGC pays enough cash assistance to allow insolvent plans to continue functioning as ongoing (if wasting) trusts, receiving withdrawal liability payments from former sponsors and continuing to pay benefits to participants;

5. The greater importance of accurate cash flows, as the program nears insolvency;

6. The unavailability of financial data from individual sponsors of most multiemployer plans, and the resultant need for stochastic modeling of the mass withdrawal event to use variables describing the condition of the plan rather than of its sponsors;

7. The collective bargaining framework of multiemployer plans, in which employer contribution rates are collectively bargained;

8. The ERISA environment, where multiemployer plans have their own rules concerning cost methods (traditional methods still used under PPA), amortization periods, special calculations associated with Reorganization status, and Funding Improvement and Rehabilitation plans, associated with Endangered and Critical statuses, under PPA;

9. Special computations for the Withdrawal Liability payments owed by sponsors who discontinue making contributions to a plan (individually or en masse);

10. Different benefit levels, than single employer plans, guaranteed by PBGC; and

11. Different PBGC premium levels than single employer plans pay.

As with SE PIMS, the actuarial component of the ME PIMS program, which tracks plans' liabilities, assets and contribution requirements through time, represents the most significant component of the model in terms of programming detail and complexity. It is also a component that is a likely focus for continued development/enhancement of ME PIMS.

C.2 DEFINITION OF WORK REQUIRED

The Contractor shall provide highly qualified professional personnel to the PBGC on a labor hour basis, in accordance with all terms and conditions of this contract, to perform the services set forth below. All communications between the Contractor and the PBGC shall be with the Contractor’s personnel in the Washington Office unless PBGC grants prior permission to do otherwise.

C.3 SCOPE OF CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITY

Work hereunder will be directed to the Contractor by work assignment(s), except all ad-hoc requests.

All urgent and ad-hoc request will be considered under the Other Assistance as Needed category.

The services required of the Contractor fall within seven major headings:

C.3.1 Actuarial Services, Actuarial Expertise, Actuarial Studies and PIMS related projects

The contractor shall provide on-site support for actuarial services, expertise, studies and other PIMS related projects. Services may include but are not limited to:

a. Annual actuarial evaluations of PBGC’s expected operations and financial status required under Section 4008 of ERISA;

b. Quinquennial studies of the multiemployer insurance program to determine the adequacy of multiemployer premium rates and benefit guarantees required under Section 4022 of

ERISA;

c. Analyses of legislative, regulatory and/or policy proposals to determine the impact on PBGC’s deficit;

d. The production of input to the annual and mid-session financial forecasts for PBGC’s President’s budget submissions to DOL and OMB;

e. Other special reports and analyses as requested by PBGC management or other Executive or Legislative branch staff.

C.3.2 Operation and Maintenance (O&M) to the existing SE-PIMS, and ME-PIMS

a. In order to maintain the PIMS application in production and provide user support, the contractor shall do the following to meet the customer’s needs, organization’s goals, and objectives to provide timely, accurate and responsive customer service and respond to and resolve operational problems. Contact users and provide technical assistance to ensure issues are resolved timely. Effectively communicate with the users to provide the status of the open issues;

b. Conduct analysis of problems reported by users and recommend functional and/or technical improvements, including the addition of business and technical features to existing software. Provide alternative solutions to improve the related processes and assist in exploring possibilities of using new features, functions and modules;

c. participate in root cause analysis in order to resolve production and user support issues effectively;

d. Effectively respond to questions about the system outages and errors. Resolve technical issues with Information Technology Infrastructure Operations (ITIO), production SQL Database Administrators (DBA’s), network support, other PBGC teams, and other systems;

e. provide support to ITIO to resolve application production issues;

f. support system administration duties as needed;

g. support application and system audits from external and internal auditors;

h. participate in corporate-wide IT initiatives such as System Security Plan (SSP) updates and assist with PIMS System Assessment and Accreditation (SA&A) process leading to the attainment of an Authority to Operate for ME-PIMS and SE-PIMS;

i. Provide technical assistance to PBGC as needed. Examples include, but are not limited to, testing and migration of applications to future versions of software, database and operating systems on servers;

j. Retire applications. The contractor may propose processes, and methods for retiring and archiving applications, as long as they do not conflict with the current PBGC guidelines for decommissioning systems and are approved by the COR and ITIOD;

k. plan and participate in Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) testing for the PIMS applications; develop COOP testing scenarios; work with users and COOP team to execute COOP tests and document results if requested;

l. support activities for transitioning applications from/to other teams;

m. support other PBGC teams responding to questions related to PIMS and/or related applications;

n. provide other production support as needed, such as Troubleshooting, debugging, identifying problems/errors, making corrections and improving efficiencies of PIMS and implementing changes in laws, policies and regulations as they occur;

o. ensure compliance with the PBGC infrastructure upgrades;

p. provide ongoing expert advice to PRAD in all areas of both Models, including their operation and capabilities;

q. Support the IT and Business Program Managers in conducing the annual operational analysis required by the PBGC Information Technology Portfolio Review Board

(ITPRB).

Following are examples of the type of support expected from the contractor, but not limited to:

i. giving ongoing expert advice in the operations and capabilities to users on all areas of the PIMS and related systems, regarding;

ii. Maintaining a "problem log" of reported PIMS problems. The "problem log" is an up-to-date list of PIMS system problems which have been reported to the contractor either by application users or by the contractor's own personnel;

iii. determining the scope and cost (in time and dollars) of proposed enhancements or corrections to the existing PIMS system;

iv. making enhancements or corrections to the PIMS as requested and approved by the Subject Matter Expert (SME) and the COR according to an agreed upon schedule;

v. providing regular progress reports (both oral and written) to management, weekly or as required; and

vi. Providing corrections to documentation according to an agreed upon schedule.

C.3.3 Development, Modernization, and Enhancements (DME)

Development/Modernization/Enhancement services are totally new development actions or are changes to the scope of existing applications that provide for new, changed and deleted functionality, features or capabilities. Changes are generally requested to improve software in response to PBGC business processes, user interface, technology advancements or changes, and industry mandates. In addition, other activities include moving the current capabilities to a target architecture necessary to support the PBGC’s strategic goals for customer service and the President’s Management Agenda.

Once the contractor is informed of the need for a DME project, the contractor shall deliver the following project artifacts:

a. Project High Level Scope

b. Project Management Plan (PMP)

c. Detailed scope of work

d. Detailed, resource loaded, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) compliant with the

Information Technology Solutions Life Cycle Management (ITSLCM) Framework and OMB Requirements.

PBGC will review and request revisions to the first two documents as necessary through discussions with the contractor. Upon PBGC’s approval of the first two documents, the contractor shall begin drafting of the two remaining deliverables.

To support the Development, Modernization, and Enhancement (DME) efforts, the contractor shall:

i. Perform and complete project initiation, planning, research, analysis, design, development, and testing and also implement any approved modernization enhancements and requirements to the existing application in compliance with the Information Technology Solutions Life Cycle Management (ITSLCM) Framework;

ii. Schedule and coordinate the DME releases with the integrated project/program team and deliver the releases on time and within budget;

iii. Deploy high quality DME software releases in production and minimize downtime in production due to quality issues;

iv. Leading the effort to analyze, prioritize and conduct meetings to determine system enhancements;

v. Ensure the design is interoperable with other integrated systems and meets Enterprise Architecture (EA) guidelines and other PBGC standards;

vi. Coordinate extensively with all stakeholders such as OIT, PRAD, Enterprise Information Security Office (EISO), and other applicable divisions and systems within PBGC and the Federal Government to ensure all impacts are identified before project implementation;

vii. Deploy all software enhancements through releases according to established PBGC Software Configuration Management Procedures and Change and Release Management Policy, Processes and Procedures and PBGC security policies to ensure the agency standards are accurately captured and incorporated into the releases;

viii. Work in partnership with OIT in anticipating and responding to future initiatives and technology evolutions that will enable OIT to respond to the customer and provide an efficient and robust system;

ix. Conduct appropriate system level tests (e.g., unit testing, parallel testing, regression testing, end-to-end testing, integration testing, performance testing, load testing, functionality testing) to enhance the quality of software releases. The contractor may use automated testing tools;

x. Support and assist application users in User Acceptance Testing (UAT) of the application, including, but not limited to, (1) the preparation of test plans, test cases/scripts and test results, (2) the use of automated testing tools, and (3) the development and maintenance of operation system documentation and procedures;

xi. Effectively coordinate the notification of the deployment of DME releases to users, stakeholders, Service Desk, COR, and other impacted parties in a timely manner to provide impacted parties time to prepare for the release;

xii. Providing enhancements that include the design, programming, testing and implementation of major upgrades or significant new modeling capabilities based on user requirements developed by PRAD;

xiii. Propose enhancements and corrections for both Models;

xiv. Implements enhancements or corrections to both Models as approved by PRAD management and in accordance with an agreed upon implementation schedule.

Sample enhancements for FY14 included:

• the capability to model cash balance plans (SE PIMS);

• updates to the bankruptcy model parameters in SE PIMS; and

• conversion of ME PIMS to a cash flow model.

Additional enhancements that may be included within the 5-year period include:

1. Moving to 10,000 economic simulations (at least for final runs) rather than 500.

2. Reducing run times to under 15 minutes (12 fold)

3. Adding functionality to model both genders and several forms of payment

4. Reviewing census generation for inactives (by plan? Plan type?)

5. Model additional hybrid plans

6. Developing systematic models of contribution strategies

7. Reviewing bankruptcy model (rather than just parameters)

8. Exploring contagion models

9. Exploring alternative capital market and market pricing models

10. Study de-risking

11. Adapt to changes in PBGC booking procedures and, importantly assumptions

(which may become more complex in some areas and less in others)

12. Improved user and system documentation

PRAD may request the contractor to provide additional resources on a temporary basis to implement enhancements within the contracting period.

C.3.4 Other Assistance as Needed

The Contractor shall provide miscellaneous support as needed including documenting processes and procedures, databases and worksheets, responding to ad-hoc report requests from Congress, providing technical writing services as requested , and end user training. Other assistance may include but is not limited to:

a. Developing System Documentation Documentation for the Models includes system (user) documentation, with instruction on how to operate the models and interpret their output, and programmer documentation.

The Contractor shall update system documentation as modifications are made to the models.

The updated documents must be reviewed and approved by PRAD's SMEs.

Upon request by the COR, the contractor shall provide training to users on PIMS and/or related systems.

b. Phase In/Phase Out Transition Plans

The offeror shall provide phase-in and phase-out plans describing actions, plans, and procedures to ensure a smooth transition from contract award to full operational status.

i. Phase In/Start Up Plan: The offeror shall propose a Phase-In Transition of

Operations Plan to ensure uninterrupted support and services are rendered while the transfer of knowledge and files is accomplished. The Phase-In plan shall begin at a date specified by the Contracting Officer’s Representative and be accomplished in no more than 60 calendar days. Immediately following award, the contractor shall develop a Plan to transition services that shall include, but not be limited to:

a. Continuance of any scheduled deliverables.

b. Continuance of standard operations during the 60-day transition period.

c. Transition of records, knowledge, files, procedures or other designated information important to the successful completion of this requirement.

ii. Phase Out/Shut Down Plan: The offeror shall propose a Phase Out/Shut Down plan, describing how the offeror would ensure the timely and efficient transition of their operations to a successful follow-on Contractor.

C.3.5 Project Management – Planning, Scheduling, Tracking, Managing, Reporting

For all work requested, the contractor shall produce a Level of Effort (LOE) document for efforts that require more than 120 staff hours to complete. The LOE document shall contain business need, scope, effort hours, cost, high level requirements, risks, feasibility analysis, alternatives, and comparative analysis of alternatives, recommended alternatives, risks, and project deliverables. The signed LOE document shall be submitted to the COR and/or designated CM/SME for approval/signatures to begin work. The contractor shall develop project schedules for all approved project initiatives. The COR and/or designated CM will review and approve the project schedule.

The contractor shall follow the ITSLCM framework in developing the schedule and ensure the schedule includes the deliverables, milestones, planned durations for each task, project start and end dates, resources, work breakdown structure of activities, and other specific information needed to track the projects.

a. The contractor shall develop and deliver the project documents required by the ITSLCM process, or any future framework, for each approved project.

b. The contractor shall conduct an impact assessment of each project and coordinate efforts with the appropriate groups and teams in order to complete the impact assessment.

c. The contractor shall adhere to all established and future OIT Project Management processes, in accordance with the ITSLCM, or any future framework.

d. The Contractor is expected to apply sound Project Management techniques throughout this effort. Sound project management techniques includes consideration of scope, cost, schedule, and performance using earned value risk management, stakeholder expectations, communications, etc. in completing the project. PBGC expects the contractor to follow a disciplined approach in managing the work outlined in this contract and all Work Assignments. All cost and schedule data must be maintained in PBGC’s Primavera P6 system, with data updated at least on a bi-weekly basis. The Contractor must have experience with the Primavera P6 Project management tool. The contractor will prepare appropriate materials for steering committee and other briefings.

e. General Expectations:

i. The contractor will provide the right skill mix of qualified personnel with actuarial and systems development skills for each effort.

ii. All documentation for system development will be done in accordance with

PBGC standards and guidelines.

iii. All users’ documents will be updated when changes occur in the application or process.

iv. The contractor will work with the subject matter experts and other stakeholders in eliciting requirements

f. Primavera Project Tracking Tool - The Primavera project tracking tool was implemented in an effort to provide accurate and timely information on a project’s schedule and cost performance so that management and other users could make informed decisions. The contractor shall use the Primavera project tracking tool to perform the following:

v. Develop, track, report and manage the project schedule; provide and report on specific project information requested by the Project Manager, COR, CM(s), and other stakeholders.

vi. Capture and track actual data, such as costs, hours, and dates; and maintain project baselines of the project schedules.

vii. Report on schedule, cost and earned value.

The contractor shall comply with and adhere to any future tracking tools and standards implemented at PBGC.

C.3.6 Reporting

At a minimum the reporting requirements are defined below, but shall also follow the requirements as identified in the ITSLCM:

a. Earned Value Management Report - The contractor shall track and report earned value on all DME projects meeting the earned value threshold defined by OIT. The method of reporting earned value must be approved by the COR.

b. Project Status and Reporting - The contractor shall, at a minimum, meet once a week with the COR to discuss activities, risks, issues and staff utilization for each reporting period. The contractor shall provide the following:

i. Project Status - Provide a status of all operations, maintenance and development, modernization or enhancement projects on a weekly basis to the COR, Project Managers and Program Managers.

ii. Weekly Status Reports – In a format approved by the COR, the contractor shall deliver weekly status reports to the COR containing information on accomplishments for the week, risks, issues, and plans for the next week. Reports should include an “Operations” section that summarizes major production issues, reports delivered, tickets open and closed per system, and any weekend support.

iii. PBGC will conduct regular weekly staff meetings that include PBGC staff and Contractor staff assigned to work under this contract. Reports required for these meetings will be as agreed to between the PBGC and Contractor staff.

c. Monthly Progress Report - In a format approved by the COR, the Contractor shall provide three (3) copies of the monthly progress report. The monthly progress report is due on the fifteenth of the month following the covered month and shall give a brief summary of the status of each work assignment currently in progress, including, but not limited to: Work Assignment name, Work Assignment number, date Work Assignment approved, target completion date. PBGC staff, Contractor staff, initial approved budget, actual cost (cumulative) at end-of-month, estimate of projected cost and progress comments, e.g., additional data/PBGC decisions required, data/procedural/policy problems encountered, reasons for delay, deliverables submitted, explanation of variance between the projected cost and the initial approved budget (in case of cost "overrun").

d. Meetings – Develop and distribute meeting agendas for all meetings; participate in meetings as requested by the COR to provide updates on projects, schedules, progress, risks, and provide explanations of any cost over-runs and schedule slippages; prepare presentations and artifacts and deliver management briefings as requested by the COR.

Meeting Minutes – Develop meeting minutes from any meetings attended by the contractor, which shall include information regarding the discussion, decisions made, risks, action items, and next steps. The meeting minutes shall be routed electronically via PBGC’s e-mail to all attendees for review within 48 hours after the meeting, and accepted as the official minutes upon Federal Government approval.

e. Management Reports - In a format approved by the COR, the contractor shall deliver a financial report to the COR by the fifteenth day of the month or earlier, for the previous month being reported. The report shall contain the following but is not limited to:

i. Approved work assignment estimates on labor category hours/charges, other charges, etc.

ii. Total charges, expenditures and hours of effort expended by individual and labor category during the reporting period.

iii. Cumulative total charges, expenditures and hours of effort by labor category through the reporting period from the inception of contract.

iv. On a separate summary page for all work assignments (both current and complete), cumulative expenditures and hours of effort through the reporting period from inception of the contract broken down by contract periods (base year, option year 1, option year 2, option year 3, option year 4).

v. Project-hours: Project-hours expended during the reporting period, actual vs.

planned, and a cumulative total;

vi. Funds: Funds expended during the reporting period, actual vs. planned and a cumulative total;

vii. Estimate to Completion: Project-hours and funding required for providing services through the completion of the current period by project.

f. Invoices – The contractor shall adhere to the PBGC clause on submitting and certification of proper invoice format and submission to PBGC.

g. Certificate of Report - In each report, the Contractor shall certify that all information submitted therein is correct and complete.

C.3.7 MANAGING WORK ASSIGNMENTS, REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES

a. Work under this contract shall be initiated only by the issuance of fully executed work assignments signed by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) and by the Contractor's authorized representative and assigned SME. The work to be performed under the work assignment shall be in accordance with the Statement of Work (Section C of the contract) including any modification(s). No work shall be initiated without approval from a duly authorized Government official.

b. Work assignments shall include a description of the work to be accomplished, anticipated equipment purchase or other direct costs, a list of deliverables including descriptions if not described in the Statement of Work, and any other information deemed necessary by the COR.

c. PBGC shall provide the Contractor with information relating to the task for the purposes of developing a work assignment proposal. The contractor's work assignment proposal shall include an estimated level of effort and cost by labor category and the estimated total costs. It is the option of the COR to accept or reject the Contractor's work assignment proposal.

d. If the Contractor has knowledge that the approved work assignment’s estimated costs will be exceeded, the Contractor must revise the work assignment in advance with an explanation for the additional cost. The written approval of the COR, or by the Contractor's authorized representative and assigned SME is required before incurring any additional cost. The Government is not obligated to pay amounts in excess of the approved work assignment ceiling.

e. For billing hours worked under the work assignment, the Contractor is required to use the contractual labor category rates in effect at the time the applicable work assignment was issued.

In addition, the Contractor may bill hours only under labor categories that are included in the work assignment and contract.

f. The Contractor shall accumulate and report hours worked by work assignment. The Contractor's invoices under the contract shall be submitted by work assignments or contain sufficient detail (categories, rates, hours and other direct costs) to determine amounts billed by work assignments.

Invoices shall detail the current and cumulative amount billed under each work assignment.

g. In order to be reimbursed all hours worked and costs under the contract must be associated with a particular work assignment under the contract. Hours and costs associated with a particular work assignment under the contract may not be transferred to other work assignment.

h. Should there be a conflict between the language in the work assignment and the contract, the language in the contract shall prevail.

i. Upon completion of each work assignment, the Contractor shall certify the accuracy and completeness of the work. This certificate must be in a format approved by the COR.

C.4 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY

For the Contractor's performance of the various services, the PBGC will supply technical assistance determined by the PBGC to be required by the Contractor which may include but not be limited to the following:

1. An initial briefing by PBGC to appropriate Contractor personnel in order to provide background on Corporate policies and procedures. The briefing will be conducted by qualified PBGC staff members who will also be available to the contractor on an ongoing basis for consultation and guidance as needed. The initial briefing will be held at the address shown below:

2. Office space for all work to be done under this contract at PBGC’s headquarters located at 1200 K St., NW, Washington DC 20005;

3. All computer hardware and software necessary for the Contractor to complete the work required under this contract;

4. Training in the use of computer programs and models (e.g., SE PIMS, ME PIMS, MS SQL, SAS, Compustat) sufficient to permit the Contractor to perform the functions required under this contract;

5. Applicable regulations issued by the PBGC and official interpretations thereof;

6. Policy and position papers by the PBGC that the Contractor specifically requires;

7. Existing documentation of the PIMS computer code, procedural instructions, forms and worksheets as required that are relevant to the services to be provided;

8. Such data as is sufficient and necessary, in the view of the PBGC, to complete the required work, and

9. The cost of all PBGC-provided training noted in this section will be borne by the PBGC.

C.5 AGENCY REQUIREMENTS

C.5.1 Earned Value Management

The contractor shall comply with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) 748-A-1998 (2002) Earned Value Management System guidelines on all DME projects as required by OMB.

The contractor shall actively manage and report on Earned Value (EV) on a monthly basis to support Quarterly Executive Steering Committee (ESC) Briefings and as requested.

The contractor shall conform to standards established by the Program Management Office (PMO) for tracking EV.

The contractor shall track and report EV using the agency’s EV methodology.

The contractor shall adhere to changes to the EV tracking and reporting methods as PBGC/OIT matures in automating and conforming to Federal Mandates for EV tracking and reporting.

The contractor may also be required to deliver management briefings using OIT’s established templates.

C.5.2 PBGC Ownership of Computer Code/Software Developed Under This Contract

The PBGC will own any computer code/software, databases, spreadsheets, system (user)/programmer documentation, procedures manuals and any other materials developed under this contract. The PBGC may request the Contractor to provide training to PBGC personnel in the use of any of these items.

C.5.3 Integrated Project Team

The Contractor shall be an active member of the Integrated Project Team (IPT). The IPT is comprised of members of the project team, contractor team, other impacted project teams, PBGC functional staff and other stakeholders as required.

The Contractor shall attend bi-weekly status meetings to review the project progress. Frequency of the meetings may change due to emergent need and issue resolution.

The Contractor shall present information regarding accomplishments over the previous period, plans for the next period, any issues or action items, deviations in schedule of effort, status of critical dependencies, risk status, and other areas of note.

The contractor shall reflect work to be performed by members of the IPT in their project schedules.

C.5.4 Configuration Management

The contractor shall be responsible for configuration management of all development configuration items, including hardware, system software, application software (both source and executable code), data files, stored procedures, and documentation acquired, developed or modified within the scope of this contract. PBGC has established a formal configuration management tool for development Configuration Management – Serena PVCS Tracker and Version Manager.

The contractor shall adhere to all published PBGC configuration management procedures and assign a Configuration Manager to participate in the Configuration Management PVCS User Group sessions.

The contractor shall develop Configuration Management Plans as necessary, per PBGC’s ITSLCM, to identify project Configuration Management procedures. Where detailed procedures have not been provided, the contractor is expected to implement a responsible configuration management program that includes – establishing baselines of source code, documentation, formal methods of initiating and tracking changes to the configuration items, procedures for storing, accessing, and releasing software, and standards and procedures to ensure that configuration documentation is current and accurate. The PBGC uses the capabilities of migration model in Serena PVCS to transition code from development to ITC to staging to production and COOP, as applicable.

All defects for the software are required to be tracked by the contractor in PVCS Tracker.

The contractor shall present defects at the periodic status meetings, with the COR and business representative, to prioritize and decide on releases and schedules. The contractor’s Serena PVCS repository may be audited at any given time. Results of the audit may require the contractor to fix deficiencies in their repository in a given time frame.

C.5.5 Change Management

PBGC has established a formal change management tool for production Change Management – HP Service Manager Change Queue and Task Queue.

The contractor shall be responsible for change management of all production configuration items, including hardware, system software, application software (both source and executable code), data files, stored procedures, and documentation acquired, developed or modified within the scope of this contract.

The contractor shall adhere to the PBGC Change and Release Management Policy, Process and Procedures Document and assign a Configuration Manager to participate in the weekly Change Management meetings.

The contractor shall use the PBGC change management tool for production and other environments – HP Service Manager Change Queue and Task Queue.

C.5.6 Testing

In order to provide quality solutions and software releases, the contractor shall perform testing prior to software going into production. The contractor shall, at a minimum, select and perform the appropriate testing for each project initiative. Examples include, but are not limited to: unit testing, system testing, functional testing, integration testing, performance testing, load testing, parallel testing, regression testing, end-to-end testing, user testing, user acceptance testing, and security testing. In addition, the contractor shall do the following:

a. Perform testing on all project initiatives to ensure the quality of the solutions and software releases delivered.

b. Work with the appropriate teams, groups and users to coordinate testing support and assist application users in User Acceptance Testing (UAT) of PIMS application including, but not limited to, the preparation of test plans, test cases/scripts and test results, and the use of automated testing tools such as WinRunner, Quick Test Pro, Load Runner or any other tools.

c. Use PVCS Tracker and Quality Center for tracking and reporting defects during testing.

d. Develop testing artifacts such as test plan, test cases/script, test scenarios, and others as identified in ITSLCM.

e. Recommend and propose additional testing solutions, processes, methods and standards, as long as they do not conflict with the current OIT processes, as approved by the COR.

C.5.7 Support for Corporate IT Initiatives

The contractor shall be required, from…