RFI Questions Veteran Experience Services (VES) Product Development.docx

Request for Information Veteran Experience Services (VES) Product Development

1. Introduction:

The purpose is to provide Product Development support for critical and non-critical applications and products in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) VRM Product Line. Support includes software development (Dev), product security management (Sec), and information-technology operations (Ops) and maintenance services. The VA follows a DevSecOps software engineering methodology. DevSecOps is a culture-based software engineering approach that aims at unifying software development, security, and software operation, and mandates collaboration between the business and the IT organizations that develop, deliver, and manage applications for that business. The new culture will enable project teams to utilize self-service and have more autonomy with the approach used to meet customer needs.

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a proven approach that will allow VA to deliver solutions to customers faster and more efficiently using Lean, Agile and DevOps principles, practices and processes. DevOps will improve the experience of OI&T customers, enable OI&T to deploy new systems and update existing systems more quickly and frequently, and will lower costs by leveraging industry best practices and innovation. The Contractor shall also provide product and delivery management, systems architecture design, user research/feedback, user experience strategy, interaction design, Accessibility analysis and mitigation of defects, integration support, and data analytics to build and continuously improve new and existing Veteran experience solutions.

This Request for Information (RFI) is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered an Invitation for Bid, Request for Task Execution Plan, Request for Quotation or a Request for Proposal. Additionally, there is no obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services described in this RFI. Your response to this RFI will be treated only as information for the Government to consider. You will not be entitled to payment for direct or indirect costs that you incur in responding to this RFI. This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated or received for this effort. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government does not intend to pay for the information submitted in response to this RFI.

2. Submittal Information:

All responsible sources may submit a response in accordance with the below information.

There is a page limitation for this RFI of 10 pages. The Government will not review any other information or attachments included, that are in excess of the 10-page limit. NO MARKETING MATERIALS ARE ALLOWED AS PART OF THIS RFI. Generic capability statements will not be accepted or reviewed. Your response must address capabilities specific to the services required in the attached PWS and must include the following:

a. Interested Vendors shall at a minimum, provide the following information in the initial paragraph of the submission:

Name of Company Address Point of Contact Phone Number Fax Number Email address Company Business Size and Status For VOSB and SDVOSBs, proof of verification in VIP.

NAICS code(s) Socioeconomic data Unique Entity ID (SAM) Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number Existing Contractual Vehicles

b. Provide a summary of your capability to meet the requirements contained within the draft PWS for the following areas:

1. Does the draft PWS have enough information to submit a proposal for this work? If no, please provide your technical comments/recommendations on elements of the draft PWS that may contribute to a more accurate proposal submission.

2. Has the draft PWS provided sufficient detail to describe the technical requirements that encompass the software development and production operations support services to be performed under this effort.

3. Provide and describe 3 examples as a prime of current or past performances working on the development or modernization of contact center CRM tools using low/no code technologies such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365. What went well and what didn’t go well?

4. Provide and describe an example as a prime of current or past performances working on contact center tools using low/no code technologies where you developed a methodology for recording/measuring success with the tools themselves and the contact center callers.

5. Provide and describe 3 examples of experiences where you have had to attract, hire, retain over 150 team members, over dozens of scrum teams.

Responses are due no later than 11:00 AM EST, November 21, 2024 via email to Amber Davis, Contract Specialist at amber.quivers-davis@va.gov@va.gov. Please note “Veteran Experience Services (VES) Product Development” in the subject line of your response. Mark your response as “Proprietary Information” if the information is considered business sensitive.

See attached documents: Draft PWS RFI Veteran Experience Services (VES) Product Development