PERFORMANCE_WORK_STATEMENT_-_Quality_Assurance_Software_and_Support.pdf

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

FOR

Quality Assurance Software and Support

1. General Information and Scope of Work.

1.1 Agency. The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) serves the dependents of United

States of America military and civilian employees by providing PK-12 instruction to approximately 70,000 students in 162 brick-and-mortar schools and one virtual high school.

DoDEA schools are located in 11 countries, seven states, and two territories. DoDEA operates across ten time zones resulting in schools that are in session every day of the week. Student enrollment is based primarily on deployment of military troops worldwide. In the Americas, DoDEA operates 51 schools located in seven states, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In Europe and the Middle East, DoDEA operates 64 schools located in:

Germany, Italy, England, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Turkey and Bahrain. In the Pacific, DoDEA operates 45 schools located in South Korea, Japan (mainland and Okinawa), and territorial

Guam.

1.2 Background. DoDEA public websites operate under one domain, www.dodea.edu. Each one of

DoDEA’s 163 schools is assigned a subsite directory which houses all content related to that school, consequently, each school has a unique URL; e.g. http://www.dodea.edu/DexterES. In addition, DoDEA manages several micro sites for supporting office content and other marketing and agency programs. Each one of these subsites are managed by a designated content manager who is responsible for ensuring all content in the subsite is up to date, clear and free of errors, including misspellings and links to other websites and other internal and external resources.

DoDEA implemented a Quality Assurance solution 5 years ago that automatically crawls dodea.edu at specific intervals and provides designated content managers with comprehensive

Quality Assurance, Analytics, 508 compliance and policy reports. These reports are segmented so that only designated content contributors get information related to their specific content;

e.g. the Dexter Elementary School Content Manager receives a weekly Quality Assurance report that identifies any broken links and suspected misspellings. The same Content Manager receives a monthly analytics report highlighting key data related to their subsite, and the same content manager receives detailed 508 compliance reports alerting them to issues that should be addressed in order to ensure the site meets 508 accessibility criteria. These reports are emailed and also available in an online dashboard for easy access and reference by either the report recipient or website administrators.

1.3 Scope. The Contractor shall provide a Software as a Service (SaaS) Site Governance solution that includes access to a secure online dashboard with support for scheduled email reports for

DoDEA’s public facing website (www.dodea.edu). The reports should be generated based on

DoDEA defined groups (URL/Page match) in order to segment the site into manageable collections. Reports should be generated for Quality Assurance, Accessibility, Search Engine

Optimization (SEO), Analytics, and Policy. DoDEA expects to make a firm-fixed-price award for a

12-month base period with four 12-month option periods.

2. Requirement (Objectives)

2.1 Quality Assurance (QA): The Contractor shall provide a SaaS, cloud-based solution, used for scanning DoDEA’s publicly accessible web pages, Quality Assurance Crawler (QA Crawler), 508 compliance checker, Policy checker and Analytics tracker, must be hosted outside DoDEA’s servers and function without the need to install any plug-ins or add-ons on DoDEA’s WCMS or public website server.

The tasks listed below are provided to help the Contractor in gaining a better understanding of the requirements in order to successfully meet the objective. The tasks are not all inclusive as the

Contractor is expected to develop the total solution for meeting all the requirements of the objective in accordance with a performance-based approach.

2.1.1. Supporting Task

(Task 1) CDN Access. The SaaS shall provide an IP that can be whitelisted by DoDEA’s Content

Delivery network provider, Akamai.

(Task 2) Robots.txt. The SaaS solution shall respect DoDEA’s current robots.txt file (i.e., not crawl or index anything specified in the file.)

(Task 3) Account Representative. The Contractor shall designate an account representative to guide DoDEA’s Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) or Point of Contact (POC) in the initial set-up and configuration of the platform. The Contractor’s representative shall serve as DoDEA’s primary POC for any issues and questions related to the service.

(Task 4) Support Channel. The Contractor shall provide industry-standard support via telephone, ticketing system or email within one (1) business day or less from the initial contact to include, but not limited to providing assistance with service problems, product setup, configuration, and troubleshooting throughout the life of the contract.

(Task 5) Training and Help Documentation. Due to the nature of DoDEA’s global school system, DoDEA opts for virtual on-demand training. The Contractor shall provide at least one (1) webinar lasting one to two hours during regular business hours (EST) to introduce key personnel to the platform. The webinar will be recorded for reference by key DoDEA. personnel. An outline with topics to be reviewed shall be forwarded to the COR or POC for review and approval prior to the webinar. The Contractor shall have an on-demand searchable library of documents to assist

DoDEA personnel with the configuration and day-to-day management of the SaaS solution.

(Task 6) Software Updates. The Contractor shall maintain the SaaS and ensure it is up-to-date to ensure there are no vulnerability or scrutiny issues which may pose a threat to DoDEA’s public web presence.

(Task 7) Online Dashboard. The Contractor shall provide access to the DoDEA’s website administrator to login to the hosted administrative web interface to manage, review, and generate any reports related to the SaaS activities and capabilities.

2.1.1 Technical Requirements. The Contractor’s solution shall include the following technical capabilities:

2.1.1.1 SaaS Availability. The SaaS shall maintain a 99.9% uptime capability and shall be accessible 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.

2.1.1.2 Website Crawl. The SaaS solution shall crawl DoDEA.edu at specific intervals defined by DoDEA and generate priority based actionable detailed reports that highlight broken links and other anomalies, including misspelled words and shall be able to upload a user-based dictionary (i.e., the report will not always flag

“DoDEA” as misspelled). The reports shall be accessible for use and reference ensuring dodea.edu is maintained and updated. The reports shall be archived on the platform for a period of at least one year and emailed (PDF or HTML format) to designated users defined in the system after the completion of the scheduled crawl.

2.1.1.2.1 The solution shall also provide the ability to run on-demand reports of the entire site or portions of the site which deliver the same reporting capabilities.

2.1.1.3 User and Group Management. The SaaS solution shall allow DoDEA web administrators to create groups with unlimited user access for designated subdirectories from dodea.edu. Each group can be setup to receive some or all of the designated reports under section 1.3 above. The Contractor shall provide access to the group members to access archived reports specific to their group membership and sent to them for reference. Users and groups shall be configured to access all or only a portion of the reports and functionalities available in the platform.

2.1.1.4 Quality Assurance Reports. After every scheduled crawl, the solution shall generate a QA report identifying website quality issues, including misspelling and broken link issues. Ability to offer readability reports is desirable but not mandatory.

2.1.1.4.1 Misspelling. The report shall offer an overall and comprehensive status of misspellings found on crawled pages. The users must be able to add common words used on dodea.edu to a platform dictionary to avoid continual misspelling matches (e.g., DoDEA, DoD, EBIS, etc.)

2.1.1.4.2 Broken Links. The report shall provide an overall and comprehensive status of broken links found on crawled pages. The users must be able to configure the platform to ignore some links to internal resources not available to external users.

2.1.1.4.3 Readability. The report shall provide score of page readability based on the most common readability tests, including but not limited to automated ARI, Flesch Kincaid, etc.

2.1.1.5 Accessibility Reports. The SaaS solution shall check the website against selected

WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards and after every designated crawl will generate an accessibility report that highlights the number of and top level A, AA, and AAA issues with the crawled pages/PDF documents. The solution shall provide prompts on how to fix the issue along with reference documentation related to the identified issue.

2.1.1.5.1 The solution shall provide HTML and CSS validation tools.

2.1.1.6 SEO Reports. The platform shall generate a report that highlights technical and content-related issues that affect search engine rankings and traffic to the website and offer tips on how to correct those issues.

2.1.1.7 Analytics Reports. The solution shall provide access to detailed website analytics and page statistics, including but not limited to:

• Most pages visited

• Most downloaded documents

• Least pages visited

• Least downloaded documents

• Regional analytics, country and city specific data

• Visits per specific DoDEA website segment, i.e. School website, Initiative website (CCR, RSA, etc.)

• Analytic snapshots – region, device, platform, browser, screen resolution

• Traffic sources and external search phrases

• Track internal search engine search phrases

• User defined paths (track how users get from point A to point B) –

Link/Navigation Depth – number of clicks to get to a specific content item

• Entry and exit pages

• Event and Campaign tracking

• Visit length

• Traffic Sources/Social Media

2.1.1.7.1 The solution shall also provide a comprehensive online dashboard which allows generating analytic reports for the user’s defined time periods in the user’s defined sections of the website.

2.1.1.7.2 The platform shall provide support for DoDEA defined metrics for tracking marketing campaigns, and User Behavior maps for DoDEA defined pages.

2.1.1.8 Policy Reports. The solution shall allow DoDEA designated users to define agency policies to ensure content consistency (e.g., All instances of “DoDEA” should follow the case specified, all phone numbers should be (###) ###-####, etc.) DoDEA administrators must be able to define unlimited policies.

Performance Standards and Acceptable Quality Levels (Objective)

Performance Standards (PS1) – All tasks completed per 2.1 and its subparts by the required completion date.

Acceptable Quality Level (AQL 1) – 100% of tasks completed by the agreed-upon completion date per applicable policies and procedures.

3. Constraints. The following are the constraints associated with this Performance Work Statement

(PWS). The Contractor shall comply with the constraints during the duration of the contract unless otherwise stated by the Government.

3.1. The SaaS solution shall not require any software other than a necessary scrip on a DoDEA web page, be installed on DoDEA’s IT infrastructure.

3.2. The Contractor must participate and attend the post-Award conference call to review the contract, coordinate and setup login details, and to the administrative interface.

3.3. Place of Performance. The Government designates the place of performance for meeting or training at DoDEA Headquarters 4800 Mark Center Drive, Alexandria, VA 22311. However, if at all possible, meetings, technical support, and maintenance shall be conducted remotely and via telephone.

3.4. Hours of Operations. The Government’s primary operations are conducted Monday through

Friday between the hours of 7:00 am EST through 3:30 pm EST, except Federal holidays or when the Government facility is closed due to local or national emergencies, administrative closings, or similar Government directed facility closings. The ten (10) Federal holidays include New Year’s

Day, Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day.

3.5. Coordination of Work. The Contractor shall coordinate all work with DoDEA’s COR or POC, and shall be performed during hours as coordinated.

3.6. Physical Security/Facility Access. The place of performance is a controlled facility and requires all visitors to request access. For personnel needing temporary access or do not need access to the

DoDEA information system, the Contractor will require an escort with a current CAC and a temporary visitor badge obtained at the Visitor Control Center (VCC).

3.7. 508 Compliance. All electronic hardware and software procured under this contract must comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d) as amended, and the

Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board Electronic Information Technology

(EIT) Accessibility Standards (36 CFR part 1194). Further information is available via the Internet at http://www.section508.gov/.

3.8. Electronic Submission of Payment Request. Submit all invoices per the Defense Federal

Acquisition Regulations System DFARS 252.232-7003 using the Wide Area WorkFlow (WAWF) online database system. Invoices must clearly identify the work completed, and the Contractor shall provide supporting documents. Passage of time is not an acceptable measure for payment.

To become a registered user, go to https://wawf.eb.mil.

4. Government-Furnished Resources. N/A

5. Contract Deliverables. The deliverables will consist of SaaS solution installation, configuration, testing and webinar training. The Contractor shall submit all deliverables under the required completion date and format requested by the Government per occurrence.

Milestone/ Deliverable Format Number of

Copies

PWS

Reference

Planned Frequency

Post-Award Meeting Conference Call N/A 3.1 Five (5) business days after the award date

Technical Support Remote/Virtual or Call N/A 2.3.2 As needed

Webinar Training Remove/Virtual or Call N/A 2.1.1

(Task 5)

0-30 days after the award date

Software Update Remote/Virtual N/A 2.1.1

(Task 6)

As needed

SaaS Dashboard Login Email N/A 2.1.1

(Task 7)

Five (5) business days after the award date

Quality Assurance Reports

PDF or HTML email and shall be accessible via platform

N/A 2.1.1.4 After every scheduled crawl

6. Acronyms and Definitions. Alphabetical list of definitions of key words used or acronyms.

AQL Acceptable Quality Level

ARI Automated Readability Index

CLIN Contract Line Item Number

CMR Contractor Manpower Reporting http://www.section508.gov/ https://wawf.eb.mil/

COR Contracting Officer Representative

CSS Cascading Style Sheets

DFARS Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations System

DoD Department of Defense

DoDEA Department of Defense Education Activity

EIT Electronic Information Technology

EST Eastern Standard Time

HTML Hypertext Markup Language

NSP Not Separately Priced

NTE Not-to-Exceed

PDF Portable Document Format

POC Point of Contact

PRS Performance Requirement Summary

PWS Performance Work Statement

QA Quality Assurance

SaaS Software as a Software

SEO Search Engine Optimization

TBD To Be Determined

URL Uniform Resource Locator

VCC Visitor Control Center

WAWF Wide Area WorkFlow

WCAG Web Content Accessibility Guideline

7. Performance Requirement Summary (PRS)

Performance Objective Performance Standard AQL Inspection Method

PWS 2.1 All tasks and deliverables completed by the

100% of tasks completed by the

100% inspection by

COR/POC

Post-Award Conference General

Requirements Technical

Requirements

Webinar Training required completion date specified in the PWS agreed-upon completion date.

No deviation from

PWS