RFI_Attachment_1_-_DRAFT_PWS_IFTDSS_O_M_DME_1.pdf

Interagency Fuel Treatment Decision

Support System (IFTDSS) Wildland Fire and Fuel

Operations & Maintenance

Development, Modernization, and Enhancement

Department of the Interior (DOI)

Performance Work Statement 4-2025

Table of Contents

A. PRICING SCHEDULE 4

B. PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT 4

1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 4

1.1 Contracts – Type and Modular Contracting for Information Technology 5

1.2 Capacity-based Contracting Approach 7

1.3 Business Need and Goals 7

2.0 SCOPE 10

2.1 Categories 11

2.2 Operations and Maintenance (O&M) (Firm Fixed Price) 11

2.3 Development, Modernization, and Enhancement (Labor Hour) 15

2.4 Transitions / Migrations (Labor Hour) 20

2.5 Key Scope Elements 21

3.0 SECURITY 35

4.0 PERFORMANCE 39

4.1 Period of Performance 40

4.2 Place of Performance 40

5.0 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED EQUIPMENT, INFORMATION, AND MATERIALS 40

5.1 Disclosure of Information 42

5.2 Ownership of Developed System and Data 43

6.0 BROAD CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS 43

6.1 Organizational Management 43

6.2 Quality Assurance 44

6.3 Performance Expectations and Acceptance Criteria 45

6.4 Deliverables and Submissions 46

6.5 Configuration Management 47

6.6 Accessibility Compliance - 508 47

7.0 CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION 47

7.1 Technical Leads 47

7.2 Key Contractor Personnel 48

7.3 Change Management 50

7.4 Travel 50

7.5 Government Holidays, Shutdowns, etc. 51

7.6 Permits and Licenses 51

8.0 STANDARDS OF CONDUCT 51

8.1 Background Checks for Contractor Personnel 53

APPENDICIES 55

APPENDIX: A - Acronyms 55

APPENDIX: B - System Description and Example User Stories 59

APPENDIX: C - System Structure, Configuration, Architecture 63

APPENDIX: D - Transition/Migration Elements 67

APPENDIX: E - HelpDesk 69

APPENDIX: F - Security 72

A. PRICING SCHEDULE

See attached pricing schedule.

B. PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The Department of the Interior (DOI), Interior Business Center (IBC), Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), on behalf of the Office of Wildland Fire (OWF), anticipates a single award contract where the awardee will provide services to support for the system and data work for primarily the Interagency Fuel Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS) including the Fuel Treatment Effectiveness Monitoring (FTEM) module and secondarily other identified decision support tools or modules.

This contract is focused on three (3) principal Categories:

1) Operations and Maintenance (O&M) inclusive of system, data, and security;

2) Development, Modernization, and Enhancement (DME) work, and

3) Transition and Migration Services

This contract employs an agile approach, not only for software development and operations and maintenance but for all work performed under this Delivery Order. The Contractor will need the ability to scale up and down to accommodate changes in the workflow within this PWS (section 2.0). A short description along with system specifications that need to be managed and supported can be found in the appendices (appendix B and C).

The OWF coordinates the DOI Wildland Fire program with other Federal and non-federal partners (National Association of State Foresters [NASF]) on Wildland Fire programs, policies, budgets, information technology enterprise systems, and decision support tools. OWF bridges the individual fire programs of the four (4) land management bureaus with Wildland Fire Management Programs in DOI, to create a cohesive department-wide fire program that supports consolidated budgeting and data management operations to facilitate program oversight by one organization. An example of this is with the National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy. OWF reports to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Safety, Resource Protection, and Emergency Services, under the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget. Government management and oversight of this contract may be performed by OWF, DOI bureaus, or in partnership with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) principally with Fire and Aviation Management (FAM) and groups such as the Wildland Fire Management Research Development and Applications (WFM RD&A). There is also coordination through the Wildland Fire Information and Technology (WFIT) group and National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) with its committees and sub-committees at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

Governance and funding for wildland fire IT investments (applications, systems, data) are provided by DOI and the FS, with DOI serving as the lead agency relative to this contract. OWF, FAM, and WFITs goal is to connect or consolidate many of its specialized individual application(s), tools, or databases from various arrangements and environments to a highly innovative, creative, cost-effective, and adaptive environment. This goal encompasses a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) where data and applications are either integrated directly (FTEM module) or linked via services (including but not limited to LANDFIRE Products Service {LFPS}, Fire Modeling Services Framework {FMSF}, weather service, etc.) for increased efficiencies. All of this work is tied to delivering application technology functions and capabilities that are understandable and applicable to field users with appropriate technology transfer support (section 1.3).

Background and History

IFTDSS and FTEM are the results of nearly two decades of research, analysis, and discussion surrounding software systems and architecture in the interagency fire and fuels community. Beginning as a Joint Fire Sciences Funded research analysis in 2006, IFTDSS version 1 was released as a proof of concept in 2009 with Version 2.0 release in 2012. In 2014, additional development was paused pending an independent evaluation regarding the potential for this service-oriented integration framework to meet business needs and be operationalized. A final report released in 2013 affirmed adoption of IFTDSS for operationalization by the interagency fuels community and in 2014, responsibility for the future development was given to the Wildland Fire Management Research, Development, and Applications Team (WFMRDA) with oversight by OWF. Version 3.0, released in 2017 included a complete underlying infrastructure, data systems, and architecture overhaul with the goal of maintenance through continuous updates, integrations, and modernization efforts. Between 2017 and 2022, this vision for IFTDSS has been realized with multiple integrations and updates, incorporating connections to existing frameworks, systems, and data platforms. IFTDSS has over 6,000 users and is being used to support critical decision making for fuels managers and agency administrators, as well as providing a reporting mechanism by which DOI and USFS managers can meet policy needs around fuel treatment effectiveness.

As a result of this background, key scope element requirements (critical/crucial) of this contract have been identified in section 2.5. These key elements ensure that the Contractor provide staffing resources that possess the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA’s) to provide timely and efficient work based on an understanding of the IFTDSS user community. These KSA’s include staffing that possess:

• Working understanding and operational experience with multiple existing/developing wildland fire program systems, models, and tools (Section 2.3, Tables 1-3)

• High level (as opposed to moderate or low) working knowledge of wildland fire business, management, and operations (partially)

• Information Technology (IT) coding/structure of the existing IFTDSS application in order to maintain and continue development (Section 2.3, Tables 1-3) o Because this is an existing system, it is critical that the contractor for this effort is able to quickly and efficiently (1-2 months optimal) be up to speed with maintenance and development work on the system (2.5.8.1).

1.1 Contracts – Type and Modular Contracting for

Information Technology

TYPE

The Government anticipates a hybrid contract that utilizes both Firm Fixed Price (FFP) and Time and Materials (T&M).

The overarching approach for this hybrid approach is that management along with system O&M will be FFP while DME and capacity based scaling up and down of the contract will be T&M.

MODULAR CONTRACTING FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The DOI OWF uses the principals of modular contracting for information technology using separate acquisition increments to cover the full extent of the service needs to support the Interagency Fuel Treatment Decision Support System (IFTDSS). OWF uses two (2) separate contract vehicles to cover the full extent of service needs, a “cloud” contract and this contract referred to as the “system” contract.

Cloud Contract: OWF obtains cloud hosting with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and security services through a Cloud Service Provider (CSP), approach under a separate acquisition. It is the governments requirement that the Production environment be within this DOI FCHS cloud contract. In the future the Government may organize the OWF cloud into modular cloud contracts based on the systems requirements/needs. Some of this cloud’s requirements are described in this PWS to provide context and to facilitate scoping this contract correctly and coordination across contracts. The CSP(s) has the primary responsibility to provide for cloud hosting services and security as it relates to the cloud environment where the application or system is hosted. This may include many of the following but the roles and responsibilities will be established in joint conversations between vendors and the government. Items may include: maintaining the environment and operating system (OS) with Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs), upgrades, improvements, innovations, and enhancements along with database configuration, and administration. The broad cloud work in support of this system contract has intersections with deployments, configuration, management, and maintenance of the cloud and there is some security work that are cloud specific vs system specific where documentation is required to support the Assessment and Authorization (A&A) process as required by DOI to maintain the systems authority to operate (ATO) that is included in this statement for awareness and planning purposes. The DOI Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) provides security oversight principally through an assigned Information System Security Officer (ISSO).

System Contract: The contract awardee (Contractor) of this contract will have the primary responsibility to provide for system O&M, DME and associated security components of the application or system, system security as applicable based on system security controls), and transition/migration for the system with its associated data.

The OWF obtained AWS cloud is structured so the contractor (of this contract) may use all of the available cloud services (lower {Dev - Development, Sandbox, OAT/UAT – Operational/User Acceptance Testing, or QA – Quality Assurance} to higher environments {Prod - Production}) or choose to only use the higher Production environment and do lower environment system development outside of this the OWF obtained AWS cloud contract(s). If the contractor of this contract determines to complete lower environment work outside of the DOI contract, the alternate cloud being used by the contractor must be FedRAMP authorized (Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, or Google Cloud Platform).

The expectation is that contractors (cloud and system) along with the government will work closely together to ensure that the full extent of service needs are met as a seamless team and may be part of a Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) configuration with multi-team development and work with CSP using the SAFE methodology. This coordinated work will be based off of a formal collaboration structure where major decision points are agreed to and documented with each items timeline. The Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed (RACI) structure in the current cloud documentation will be updated to account for this formalized approach and be used to manage cloud work items. The CSP will be the lead contractor in setting up and managing this structure as these things interface with the cloud working with the application group(s). The government system PMs and government ISSOs will be the governing structure to ensure that the RACI approach is implemented. The timelines for security updates/fixes for system vulnerabilities due to scanning results will be coordinated collaboratively with the ISSO and the systems development team. The CSP will have their own vulnerability updates/fixes to coordinate and address with the ISSO and the timing of these cloud vulnerabilities will be coordinated and implemented with the system with the application teams.

1.2 Capacity-based Contracting Approach

This Delivery Order employs multiple categories as described in 2.1. The precise timing and duration of the categories and associated work (requirements with models, tools, frameworks, or databases implemented within the system) required is subject to change over the duration of the period of performance of this contract.

As a result, the Government (DOI and partners) is employing, in part, a capacity-based contract pricing model where the known and predictable Project Management and O&M for the system are provided on a FFP basis and the DME work, Transition and Migration Services, and other Capacity based services are provided on a labor hour basis. This model provides flexibility to the Government (DOI and partners) to adjust to various changes in requirements over time. The intent of capacity-based contracting is to provide a mechanism that achieves several key goals:

A. Addresses the inherent uncertainty and variability of software DME, O&M, and other work described in this solicitation;

B. Supports time efficiencies between when the application requirements are defined (much of the work is based on predecessor/dependent tasks) and when the design, development, and testing work is performed;

C. Provides for serge capacity when needed as well as the ability to scale down based on funding constraints. This scaling up or down will be implemented with the increase or decrease of contracted personnel as directed by the Contracting Officer. Unless otherwise stated the Contractor shall propose capacity candidates no later than within 15 business days of notification by the Contracting Officer.

The Contractor is not pricing and executing a comprehensive or exhaustive list of “shall” statements (or equivalent) but general work based on the business need, goals, and general scope outlined herein as executed through contractor labor type / skills (2.5.8 & Table 4) and the resultant capacity to implement work within the categories of this contract. The Government (DOI and partners) is acquiring “capacity” to perform various types of work for this contract and the specific elements of the work will be outlined in agile User Stories (User Stories are the equivalent to past contract “shall” statements) as defined during, roadmap planning, backlog grooming and sprint planning. The term ‘capacity’ in this context refers to human resources with skills, expertise, and experience to perform the work required. The categories and scope defined in this PWS provide the type of the work that will be performed during the period of performance of this contract.

1.3 Business Need and Goals

The overarching vision is to obtain a pliable, resilient and enduring structure of data/IT services that allows for evidence-based planning, implementation, tracking, reporting, monitoring, evaluating, and improving mission delivery for all levels of wildland fire management.

The business needs and goals are focused on providing fire and fuel management practitioners, administrators, and analysts with IT platforms that facilitate wildland fire decision support by means of project planning and preparation, fire behavior and effects modeling, data management, analysis workflows (threat, hazard, risk), implementation reports and analyses, monitoring tracking (supporting adaptive management), accounting, and reporting that is able to be transformed and re-used through sharing of data, analyses, (inputs and outputs) across applications and through services with other applications. This business need and goal focus is through IT applications and systems that provide support at the local/unit, regional, and national levels. Therefore, the system needs to be structured to not only support local/unit data entry and information collection, but to also be configured to support regional and national business needs. Examples of this regional and national level work includes supporting reports and evaluations to demonstrate progress on program-level priorities, gaps, opportunities, performance, and accountability. Agency policy has established that FTEM is a required application by both DOI and USFS in order to support/communicate effectiveness with fuels work.

The primary goals for this IT system are to provide O&M and DME services for IFTDSS to ensure that it continues to function and meet users’ needs.

• O&M includes elements such as (but not limited to) project management of the system, help desk and user support services, sustaining the system with its capabilities and performance, taking corrective actions for any hardware and software maintenance, along with the reporting and documentation. Maintenance sustains the systems reliability and availability (e.g., adding more memory to support processing and work speed) to support and meet the user base needs while preventing or decreasing the possibility of premature failure. Maintenance excludes activities aimed at expanding the capacity (e.g., adding a new module or workflow) or upgrading to serve needs different from, or significantly greater than, those that have been completed in the version of the system to present.

• DME is comprised of work that substantively adds capability or performance to the system, or development to support initiatives, new legislation, or regulatory requirements. Some DME work may incorporate new science as it is vetted and becomes available in a DevSecOps approach using the SAFE methodology.

Business elements of the system(s) and data work in this contract (categories) include:

1) Decision Support for Fire management and fuel planning:

The expectation is that the contractor of this contract will not only specifically work on the outlined elements in this statement for the IFTDSS/FTEM system(s) but may be called upon to collaborate or work with other contracted development teams on projects within the wildland fire management arena (WFDSS, InFORM, etc.). Wildland fire system work is not an island unto itself. The systems being developed are for the entire interagency wildland fire community (Federal, State, Tribal, private) and work completed on one system or supporting another system with contracted expertise supports the entire whole.

Support wildland fire specialists and practitioners with capabilities and functionality to improve their work. Tables 1-3 (Section 2.3 DME) include some of the capabilities and functions that have been incorporated and possible future elements as part of a fuel management program area workflow. The overarching management and planning encompass the following:

a. Tools to streamline wildland fire planning, analysis, assessments, implementation, monitoring, reporting, and documentation as part of a comprehensive management process (factoring in threat, hazard, risk) that enables personnel to be more effective and efficient in their jobs (e.g. fire managers can assess landscape, compare multiple alternatives, select and implement actions that consider potential consequences to firefighter and/or public safety, communities, infrastructure, habitats, and other values).

b. Data reporting and summarization tools to accurately capture information for Bureau and Departmental Leadership as well as Congress and other interested stakeholders regarding program status, performance (program effectiveness for both work completed and forecasted with tools for measurement and reporting), and outcomes with program evidence and accountability on the portion or amount of change toward risk reduction.

c. Analysis and analytic tools that facilitate measurement and evaluation for evidence-based decision making, evaluation (e.g., comparison, trends, causation/ correlation, forecasting, compliance, etc.), and reporting.

d. Bureau/agency level authoritative data will be entered, interfaced, or rolled up to a National level and National data will be available or interfaced with other National efforts.

2) Data alignment and system performance –

a. Provide for data connections (alignment) with tools or models via services through structured workflows. These connected services are based on authoritative data and systems of record. This includes structured data display, formatting, etc. across systems to reduce or minimize customization and provide for a uniform use of services.

b. System performance evaluation and assessment is implemented throughout the life of the system leveraging functions or services through the CSP such as Tenable, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Trusted Advisor, etc. to provide efficiencies and cost effectiveness.

3) Data Management & Documentation – Develops and maintains data definitions, standards, and metadata that support structured and coordinated management. This includes specific data dictionaries, methodologies, and workflow logic that is documented in both technical and user consumable formats. Ensure the system/users can securely access and/or share data across systems (as well as either connect to or leverage legacy fire and natural resource management data (wildland fire internal and external data sources) in an enterprise data management approach that provides the ability to archive data. The IT structure enables links/services for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Intelligence (BI) tools (such as Tableau) for interactive data visualization and BI. This includes common functions such as but not limited to reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, dashboard development, data mining, process mining, complex event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics. Data service monitoring (such as Splunk or Atlassian) for searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generated data via a Web-style interface and other tools for geospatial analysis, assessment, and reporting to provide real time information (for internal and external audiences). There is a possibility with some connection or data services (maybe future storage) with the system under this Contract with a proposed Interagency Data Cache project or “Data Lake House”.

a. Provide non-sensitive federally managed data access that is available to the public in conformance with the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Quality Act (data downloads such as Excel files, etc.).

b. Provide for efficient and seamless incorporation of new types/sources of data toward supporting the Program in making progress closing gaps and inefficiencies.

4) Helpdesk, user support, and training: Currently this support is mainly covered by a combination of government and other contracted resources, however for this contract the goal is for contractor resources to increase the role of taking on a larger amount of this work. The vision is that developers who are knowledgeable with the systems workflow and logic are better able to manage information, provide adequate documentation (both technical and user), work through technical issues or bug fixes, troubleshoot system functions, and develop user tutorials and information. Tickets would start with the Dev team and then the government would be pulled in as needed. The timing on this work is seasonal with a peak for training occurring in the winter/spring. Contractor will provide support for information management and documentation support. This support will include elements such as development of user tutorials, user guides, technical writing, webinars, etc. that aligns with NWCG curriculum along with other wildland fire training courses through the Wildland Fire Learning Portal (Learning Portal); e.g. IFTDSS NWCG courses as well as in classes at the college level.

5) Alignment with DOI and USDA Strategic Plan Goals

a. USDA Strategic Plan for 2022-2026:

i. Goal 1. Combat Climate Change to Support America’s Working Lands, Natural Resources, and Communities

1. Objective 1.1 – Use Climate-Smart Management and Sound Science to Enhance the Health and Productivity of Agricultural Lands

2. Objective 1.2 – Lead Efforts to Adapt to the Consequences of Climate Change in Agriculture and Forestry

3. Objective 1.4 – Increase Carbon Sequestration, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Create Economic Opportunities (and Develop Low- Carbon Energy Solutions).

b. DOI 2022-2026 Strategic Plan:

i. STRATEGIC GOAL 2: Conserve, Protect, Manage, and Restore Natural and

Cultural Resources in the

1. STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 2.2: SPECIES, HABITATS, AND ECOSYSTEMS ARE

PROTECTED, SUSTAINED, AND HEALTHY

a. 2.2.4 DOI-managed lands have a reduced risk from wildfire and fire’s negative impacts.

2.0 SCOPE

The scope of this Contract is to provide system (under the umbrella of O&M, DME, and transition/migrations) work with associated required security services support to provide a structure that is reliable, maintainable, and available (RMA). This Delivery Order will employ multiple categories as described throughout this statement and the precise timing and duration of these categories and the precise nature of the work required is subject to variation over the duration of the period of performance. As a result of this variability, the DOI and partners is employing a hybrid capacity-based contract pricing model, described in section 1.2. This model provides flexibility to the DOI and partners to adjust to various changes over time. This contract employs an Agile approach, not only for software development and operations and maintenance but for all work performed under this Delivery Order.

This Agile approach is described in Section 2.5.1. The combination of an Agile approach and the capacity-based contract pricing model are designed to create the circumstance where the contract will be scaled up or scaled down based on combinations of funding and priority requirements. This scaling up or down will be implemented with the increase or decrease of contracted personnel. The Government will not exercise any supervision or control over the contract service provider’s staff performing the services herein. Such contract service providers are accountable solely to the Contractor who, in turn, is responsible to the Government. The Contractor is directly responsible for ensuring completion of all work under this effort. The Contractor must furnish all personnel, facilities, equipment, materials, supplies, and/or services in performing the work described in this PWS under this contract, unless otherwise stated herein.

The Contractor must plan for and provide the necessary redundancy and contingency features as well as support the incorporation of state-of-the-art technology enhancements to improve user experience, minimize service disruption, and ensure security. The Government retains all rights and privileges of the software, data, and related documentation developed or procured (more information this section 5.2).

2.1 Categories

OWF seeks an agile solution to support and manage the system under the following four (4) umbrella categories for work with O&M, DME, Transition/Migration, and Capacity Based as follows:

Category One – Project Management / Operations and Maintenance (O&M); FFP Category Two – Development, Modernization, and Enhancement (DME); T&M / Labor hours Category Three – Transition/Migration for the Cloud OR System; T&M / Labor hours Category Four – Capacity Based (scale up / down); T&M / Labor hours

The intent of this contract is to provide flexibility and scalability where additional DME to increase capacity and momentum can be achieved within this contract during the period of performances of the contract. When the contract is awarded, everything cannot be known or planned for so this part of the contract provides the ability of the government to ramp up (or ramp down) to meet the needs of the government as well as based on available funding.

2.2 Operations and Maintenance (O&M) (Firm Fixed Price)

One of the three (3) categories of this contract is the performance of O&M work on the existing system.

The Contractor shall inherit and utilize the code from the incumbent vendor upon issuance of this contract. See appendix B and C for more information on the structure, configuration, architecture, and software associated with the system. This general O&M scope section provides the basic elements for the system. O&M work is based on definitions and standards for sustained functionality for users and supports a contemporary foundation of software and licenses meeting evolving technology changes.

Contractor timeliness with getting up to speed with the existing IFTDSS/FTEM system is the fundamental element that the contractor has extensive fire management business knowledge (2.5.8.1) to quickly and efficiently (1-2 months optimal) be in a position to maintain the system and continue development (2-3 months preferred). Contractors’ ability to demonstrate that they can perform at this level is a determinate criterion for award.

Broad overarching intent of this O&M work is the following:

Although listed here under the O&M section, Project Management encompasses all of O&M, DME, and Transition work. This information is provided here within this section but will be referenced for all three of these (O&M, DME, and Transition) categories.

The following are key elements to be done as part of this O&M work. The Contractor shall provide project management services commensurate with the complexity of the system and associated sister projects (more on Teaming is listed in section 2.5.8). The Contractor shall provide strict integrity checks of incoming and outgoing data to ensure data quality. To lower the risk caused by data format changes, the system team shall continue to remain in close communications with Government staff (business leads, technical leads, and project managers) and any collaborating applications. The Contractor shall provide and manage the system and database on the CSPs platform and provide for possible relocation in accordance with direction from the COR and/or DOI cloud services COR in the OCIO. Project management services shall include, but are not limited to:

1. Developing and maintaining a Project Management Plan (PMP) and an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Plan.

a. Section on roles and responsibilities between contractors, Government oversight and collaborators.

b. Alternatives Analysis / requirements matrices plan or sub-section.

c. Risk Management plan or sub-section.

d. Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) with schedules/timeframes and costs delineated.

e. Quality Control Plan (QCP).

f. Change Control Board Structure and Process

2. Providing quality control of all work products and deliverables.

3. Ensuring efforts and work products conform to Government standards and regulations.

4. Coordinate with Government stakeholders

5. Participate in coordination and collaboration efforts with other Fire Management systems or applications and their contracted resources (outside of this awarded contract – see 2.5.8 teaming) as directed by the government team Project Manager of this contract in order to ensure consistency and compatibility between applications and systems and facilitate greater functionality of the whole instead of the individual system.

6. Documentation

a. Annual documentation updates need to occur on documents (both individually and collectively for IFTDSS and FTEM) such as but not limited to: project plan, technical docs (system design, functions, business rules, etc.) architecture, entity relationship diagrams, data dictionaries, infrastructure, system requirements, specifications, operational readiness, data flows, workflows, and business logic, etc. The documents shall be delivered in an editable format (i.e., MS Word) as well as a 508 compliant format (i.e., PDF).

b. Data definitions and standards alignment will be completed and updated annually. Data mapping that supports not only the system but the Fuels program area as well as the wildland fire management program as a whole is a deliverable. This effort (working with the Government staff) will work with the NWCG Data Management Committee (DMC) on the following:

i. Supporting effective definitions and standards.

1. Identifying definitions and standards that are deficient, with recommendations on how to improve/address.

2. Identifying requirements for new definitions and standards that are absent with recommendations on what to add.

ii. Updating system connections and supporting documentation to maintain currency tied to authoritative data sources.

c. Documentation of changes as they relate to data exchange.

7. Provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, tools, materials, supervision, and all other items necessary to operate and maintain the system. Manage all staff and staff contributions to ensure achievement of the PMP and elements outlined within this PWS.

8. Use a government enterprise source code repository (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, etc.) or similar tool that supports code storage, Version Control System (VCS), bug tracking, system releases and project change requests. Managing and use will track/log all activities, including code changes to the system with change requests through government management.

a. Manage code and system deployments via a CI/CD process using an approved build pipeline – DevOps.

i. Modern Software Development Lifecycle – CI/CD pipeline

ii. Build docker images using ant and PowerShell scripts

iii. Use git-based VCS using industry standards such as but not limited to tagging and branch management.

iv. Provide access to all repositories to the government ISSO and technical Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

9. Provide status reports.

a. Monthly project management report

i. Reporting on software performance and usage statistics.

ii. Tracking funding, deliverables, and schedule.

iii. Providing objective measurement of Earned Value as part of Earned Value Management tracking and reporting for cost, schedule, and performance.

b. Annually, list of modifications and adequate documentation on their structure (IT programing perspective) and purposes (user perspective).

10. Set up and facilitate calls/meetings status and performance reporting meetings. The frequency and timing of these will be established between the COR and Contractor PM.

11. System Management and Performance

a. Provide system support for administration (login and user support), data administration, software/hardware/licenses (in collaboration with the government) and configuration management, maintenance (updates to software, system code and architecture, etc.).

b. Annual recommendations are provided from the contractor on upgrades including organizational pathways for the logical incorporation of new software, licenses, and hardware to replace older technology as part of providing for ongoing O&M activities. Work is done through consulting with the agency IT community to ensure decisions align with other applications.

i. O&M upgrades shall be managed by the Contractor to ensure other systems or applications can connect sharing data and information as well as security compliance.

c. Provide for the identification, coordination, and resolution of documented bugs or system crashes (also through data connections or other applications that affect data exchange) and manage and address backlog. In the event of a transition this includes inherited backlog items.

i. Bugs or issues need to be managed at an appropriate level such that the system is functional/operational. Work will be prioritized by the government staff including continuous evaluation and incorporation of technical debt into the development planning process.

ii. Bug or Issue tracking system is transparent to the government team and incorporates feedback from the support desk and information to the support desk to support communication to users on updates.

iii. Technical debt is assessed and addressed at an appropriate level as such that the system is functional/operational.

d. Implement approved changes through the system change control board structure (government product owners) and process as specified in the project management plan.

e. Support data validation and user acceptance testing (regression testing – both non and automated).

i. Roles and responsibilities (including CSP, Contractors of this contract, where applicable other system contractors, and government Team) for regression testing for various environments will be outlined in the PMP.

f. Provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, tools, materials, supervision, and all other items necessary to manage and support users at the identified minimum numbers for the system (range 100-150 users in the system with heavier use in the 12-hour day) with the ability to increase and decrease capacity based on use. Manage and maintain the system to accommodate user load-based performance optimization.

g. Provide appropriate README’s and technical documentation in the form of Markdown that provides a schedule where documentation is updated bi-annually.

h. Support and manage the following cloud environments for the system:

1). Production 2). Quality Assurance

3). Development Support government SMEs to review, test, and approve the functionality prior to release. System releases are tested, documented (including user manuals and technical information) and revised until deemed ready and approved for deployment with each release.

i. Provide for and maintain system monitoring software and tools (Key Performance Indicators – KPIs) that is transparent to the Government and can be monitored remotely. Notify Contractor and Government personnel in the event of a failure to the system. Monitor the load and performance and adjust as needed to optimize and streamline performance (load/stress testing). Monitor server performance and coordinate with cloud hosting vendor to perform maintenance, server restarts and data archive as necessary.

j. Ensure the system provides features, functionality and capabilities that meet industry performance and interoperability standards and utilize industry best practices.

k. Ensure the system is up to date with security compliant technology, which provides for Data Centric Testing (DCT) with the capability for robust validation of data and reporting.

l. Each year, the Integrated Reporting of Wildland Fire Information (IRWIN) project team and the participating applications teams conduct a series of tests to assure readiness for release to production. Teams will participate in this testing to ensure the relevant applications meet the requirements defined by the business community.

m. Provide IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM) for key service delivery of the system (such as through Atlassian or Splunk). Provide a plan and implement the IT structure for incident prevention, prediction, and management with the goal of maintaining service availability and performance at the highest possible levels before, during, and after a disaster-level incident. The goal of ITSCM for IFTDSS is to reduce the downtime, costs, and business impact of incidents by putting effective, standardized processes in place. This work includes working with other service or micros service provider teams to maintain continuity of operations when there are issues with services that the IFTDSS application depends on.

12. Security and Documentation:

a. Support regular scanning and remediation of vulnerabilities that are transparent to the Government and can be monitored. These scans shall be completed by using industry standard best practices as well as follow DOI procedures and protocols as provided by the DOI OCIO.

i. Coordinate remediation with Government Team, ISSO, and CSP to ensure efficiencies in deployment frequency and appropriate prioritization relative to other tasks.

ii. Apply java patches based on scanning reports to the system

iii. Mitigate security vulnerabilities in a complex java library tree, resolve class loading issues pertaining to similar library but different versions thereof.

iv. Deep Knowledge of Linux and subsystems as relates to security

b. Provide documentation and updates on the systems (configuration/architecture), Assessment and Authorization (A&A) (security controls, COOP plans, etc.) and reports.

c. Ensure the system is compatible with all approved versions of browsers as determined by the USDA and DOI through coordination with COR. Periodic testing should be accomplished when browser versions are updated to ensure continued compatibility.

c. More on information on Security is found in sections 2.5.5, 3, 8, and the appendices in appendix F.

2.3 Development, Modernization, and Enhancement (Labor Hour)

The second category of this contract is the performance of DME work on existing and new system functions. This section (2.3) provides a broad overview of DME for this contract before getting into specific details of the scope of work in section 2.5. The Contractor shall inherit and work with the code of the IFTDSS system. See appendix B and C for more information on the structure, configuration, architecture, and software associated with the system. DME work will be done on the workflows that incorporate or leverage wildland fire data, model and tool outputs within the planning, analysis, implementation, monitoring, and reporting structure of IFTDSS.

1. Discovery, Planning, and Design:

A key component of DME work is the discovery, planning, and design of the new functionality of the system. The Contractor will organize, conduct, and lead meetings or workshops for discovery, planning, and design work as part of the agile process (figure 2 – section 2.5.1). These discovery, planning, and design sessions will account for both the holistic level as well as the detailed sprints for DME. These efforts will help determine the optimum configuration and implementation of the work. The Contractor shall provide labor, materials, and software, and project management / administration for the design and implementation of designed elements.

The Contractor shall provide comprehensive management plan documents which include sections or separate plans on the management of the system. One of the key plans or sections will be the documentation of associated roles and responsibilities of individuals along with connections and interface with the other groups (Government / Cloud). In addition to the documentation described in Section 2.2 Project Management, the Contractor shall also develop and maintain a project schedule that includes key elements and major milestones.

As identified and needed, the CSP & government technical SMEs will participate in the discovery, planning, and design workshops and meetings to contribute to the discussions where applicable. These sessions will serve to identify components and functionality requirements and establish a close working relationship between the Contractor and the CSP. These sessions will ensure smooth team collaboration and system functions across cloud services and security compliance for the composite whole as well as ongoing upgrades, improvements, innovations, and enhancements. The management plans will outline the operating picture on how the three

(3) groups (Contractor, CSP, and Government) will work together. Contractor will:

(a) Provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, tools, materials, supervision, and all other items necessary to facilitate - improvements, innovations, and changes.

(b) Provide recommendations with cost/benefit analysis on changing industry capabilities and technological advances that could improve efficiency and reduce costs through new DME including development for mobile platforms (for example, possible relationship with the InFORM (Interagency Fire Occurrence Reporting Modules) system for mobile device data collection and syncing of application(s) data). Provide a cost-based spectrum of options for refinement recommendations relative to new workflows as budget allows.

Quantities of items or work associated with this DME work will be structured with the Contractor in the following manner:

(a) Concept – Discovery/Discussions Phase: Conversations and brainstorming between the Government and Contractor on the conceptual aspects of the desired functionality.

(b) Elements – Design/Documentation Phase: Documentation of DME elements to potentially be built and completed where sizing and prioritization is outlined.

(c) Security Phase: Coordination and review of security requirements to ensure what is built is compliant.

(d) Testing and Acceptance Phase: In this final phase, the Contractor will take the first and primary role of testing their work to ensure that functionality meets outlined Government requirements. Once this is completed the Government will review the work testing functionality to ensure it meets desired capability.

The Contractor is required to have experience working with, and an understanding of, a significant number of the tools, models, frameworks, or databases (especially those identified as priority {*}) for the IFTDSS system. Many of the capabilities and functions alluded to so far in this statement are incorporated in the applications/systems, models, tools, frameworks, or databases listed in the three (3) tables below. These tables cover the following information (these lists are not comprehensive, and as such, work performed under this contract is not limited to the items listed in these tables):

• Table 1: Current Incorporated/Connected Models, tools, frameworks, or databases: Monitoring, O&M and possible development adjustments

• Table 2: Existing applications/systems within the wildland fire arena where connections possibly need to be established.

• Table 3: Other possible or potential models, tools, frameworks, or databases that may be considered for incorporation as part of the IFTDSS workflow with key parts of the capabilities and functionality that could benefit wildland fire operations by streamlining functions and providing efficiencies.

Table 1. Current Incorporated/Connected models, tools, frameworks or databases

Title or Name Capability or Functionality Type FlamMap / Basic Simulated potential fire behavior characteristics (spread rate, flame length, fireline intensity, etc.), fire growth and spread and conditional burn probabilities based on weather and fuel moisture. Raster display of fire behavior

Multi-Factor Authentication

(MFA)

Two – Factor Authentication for all users with PIV/CAC cards for government users and Login.gov non-agency users through FamAuth.

Fire Modeling Services Framework (FMSF)

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) using Model as a Service (MaaS) with cloud computing and hosted models and tool

MTT (Minimum Time Travel) / Short-Term Fire Behavior

(STFB)

Major flow paths; arrival times analysis/modeling

Forest Service ACtivity Tracking System (FACTS)

USDA FS system. Fuels data (Reporting and information)

Integrated Interagency Fuels Service

Data consolidation platform principally for spatial data (e.g., Fuel Treatment Integrator of FACTs and NFPORS data) using a Feature Manipulation Engine (FME)

Integrated Reporting of Wildland-Fire Information

(IRWIN)

Data exchange / consolidation service, authoritative data, synchronization

Data as a Service Examples include but are not limited to NIFC AGOL, many other services that include values and risk data, and ArcPro connections

National Fire Plan Operations and Reporting System

(NFPORS)

DOI Fuels data (Reporting information) NOTE: Is transitioning to IFPRS – Interior Fuel & Post Fire Reporting System

National Incident Feature Service (NIFS)

Data as a Service – national polygon/perimeters of fires

RANDIG (Random Ignition) Simulated random fire ignitions / probability LANDFIRE Product Service

(LFPS)

Application Programming Interface Data as a Service; Representational state transfer (REST); Web Coverage Service (WCS). LF provides multiagency program data of 20+ national geo-spatial layers (e.g., vegetation, fuel, disturbance, etc.), databases, and ecological models for all lands of the U.S. and insular areas.

Table 2. Existing applications/systems within the wildland fire arena where possible connections need to be established Title or Name Capability or Functionality Type

Behave / Behave Plus Windows based computer program to calculate fire behavior using fuel and moisture conditions to simulate surface and crown fire rate of fire spread and intensity, probability of ignition, fire size, spotting distance, and tree mortality

BlueSky Links fuel loading, fire consumption, fire emissions (CO2/PM2.5), and smoke dispersion (vertical plumes, trajectories, and concentrations)

FEAT FIREMON Integrated (FFI) Monitoring software for the collection, storage and analysis of ecological information (vegetation and surface fuel plot data)

Financial Business Management System (FBMS)

Costs / budget tracking and accounting

Fire Environment Mapping System (FEMS)

Calculate scalable forecasted burn probability, timing, and severity with fire weather

FSPro (Fire Spread Probability) Probability surface fire behavior spread model Fire Effects Information System

(FEIS)

Fire Regime syntheses and reports, fire studies covering biology, ecology, and fire effects (characteristics, burning conditions, fire behavior, and effects)

FireFamily Plus (FF+) Calculates fuel moistures and indices from the US National Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) using hourly or daily fire weather observations / percentile weather and climatology Forest…