Redacted JA.pdf

VA-24-00073347

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

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

2. Description of Action: The proposed Contract is for a one year firm-fixed price (FFP) effort with one option period for Scaled Agile, Inc’s ® piplanning.io or equivalent for technical application support services and application licenses.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed contract is for licenses, installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and user administration, virtual system/server support for containerized applications and their virtual environments, vulnerability remediation in the virtual environment, and all other support services as described in the PWS. The brand name portion’s estimated value of the proposed action is 8 (inclusive of the option period and optional tasks) and the total estimated value is inclusive of the option period.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 1903 as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.501, entitled “Special Documentation Requirements”.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Scaled Agile, Inc. piplanning.io is the only software that can continue to build upon VA’s existing proprietary implementation of piplanning.io. Any other brand name software (e.g., Jira Align, Mural) is unable to meet the breadth of services offered in piplanning.io as outlined in the PWS. piplanning.io provides bi-directional real-time synchronized team and program boards, visualization of cross-ART dependencies, automatic capacity and team load planning indicators which enhances team engagement and focus. The aforementioned features are proprietary and not available in other software solutions such as Jira Align and Mural.

VA’s historical level of effort in support of piplanning.io is around $664,134.00. VA FTE from Technical Solutions, VA Platform One (VAPO), VA Section 508 team, Cybersecurity support, and Office of People Readiness (PR) have made substantial contributions to the success of the piplanning.io application. VA FTE in conjunction with the vendor have collaborated to refine the product for VA’s environment and to comply with Section 508 conformance. Testing of piplanning.io is a collective effort between VA OIT and VA’s Section 508 team. Also, VA has partnered with the vendor of this product to implement numerous product enhancements to include refinement of application security roles to comply with Authority to Operate (ATO), additional enhancements are captured in the vendor’s backlog. VA has partnered with VAPO team to modify their environments to support the piplanning.io software.

Scaled Agile, Inc’s ® piplanning.io or equivalent PI Planning Software VA-24-00073347

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in Section 8 of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities Page in accordance with FAR 5.201. Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the market-place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research by conducting web searches, trial software, vendor day demonstrations and reviews of other similar software. This market research is an ongoing process starting in 2021 and continuously being conducted by VA technical experts, as recently as April 2024. VA technical experts reviewed other alternative software including InVision, Kendis and Mural. Based on reviews of these products, VA’s technical experts determined that none of these products can meet the Government’s interoperability and compatibility requirements previously discussed.

Additional market research was conducted April 23, 2024, by posting a Market Research Request (MRR) to all contract holders on the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup Tool to determine whether there were resellers available to provide the piplanning.io license and maintenance support. The Government received one response to the SEWP request from a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) reseller, but it only addressed licenses and did not include the additional support requirements from the PWS. A follow up email to the respondent asking about the additional services requested did not receive a response.

A Request for Information was issued via SAM.gov (Notice ID 36C10B24Q0368) on April 29, 2024 with a closing date of May 6, 2024, 4:00 PM EDT. Three companies responded to the SAM request: an SBA certified small business, an SBA certified 8(a), WOSB, EDWOSB business, and a private, small business Limited Liability Company. All SAM respondents were determined to be technically acceptable. piplanning.io is a proprietary containerized application; sustainment of licenses already implemented requires continuation of services via the brand name product from the manufacturer through their authorized resellers.

9. Other Facts: None

Scaled Agile, Inc’s ® piplanning.io or equivalent PI Planning Software VA-24-00073347

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

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on competition.

Matthew Newell Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. As this contract action exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold, but does not exceed $750,000, the certification required by FAR 13.501(a)(2)(i) serves as the Contracting Officer’s approval.

Matthew Newell Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

MATTHEW

NEWELL

Digitally signed by

MATTHEW NEWELL

Date: 2024.06.21 09:29:28 -04'00'

MATTHEW

NEWELL

Digitally signed by

MATTHEW NEWELL

Date: 2024.06.21 09:30:04 -04'00'