RFP_Appendix_A_-_SOW_NexGen_OSCAR_2018.docx

Statement of Work For NextGen OSCAR System (June 29, 2018)

I. Background The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (hereinafter known as either the AO or Government), Human Resources Office, Policy and Strategic Initiatives Division (HRO-PSID) manages human resources initiatives on behalf of the federal judiciary, including web-based recruitment systems for law clerks and staff attorneys and related recruitment initiatives.

The Online System for Clerkship Application and Review (OSCAR) is a web-based information and application system for law clerk and staff attorney recruitment. OSCAR supports a user community of approximately 50,000 both in the judiciary and the public. Judges and appellate staff attorney offices maintain hiring profiles, post positions, accept electronic applications, and manage their applications. Applicants research position postings, review hiring profiles, upload application documents, identify their recommenders, and submit applications. Recommenders upload recommendation letters on behalf of the applicant. Law schools manage their applicants and faculty recommenders who use OSCAR, and court human resources staff assists their judges in the clerkship hiring process.

II. Objective

With the OSCAR system being over 10 years old, the AO is soliciting proposals from vendors to implement the next generation of OSCAR (NextGen OSCAR). This Request for Proposal (RFP) solicits vendor solutions for software, hosting, and professional services to support this effort. The AO seeks a feature rich, highly configurable applicant tracking solution available via a Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model. The AO will not consider solutions that require custom coding or require on-premise hosting.

The NextGen OSCAR system will provide all the core functionality and associated data that is available in the current system, as well as additional capabilities available with today’s applicant tracking systems (ATS.) This document identifies core mandatory requirements and optional features. The AO recognizes that the selection of a vendor’s solution will impact design decisions and that more detailed specifications will be required post award. Prototype deployments will be used to gather stakeholder input that will guide requirements for a full production release.

In addition, the Government requires the vendor to provide professional services for project management, configuration management training, and system security management needs. These requirements are identified to ensure that the offeror can provide the requisite level of infrastructure and professional services to meet AO requirements.

III. Current Environment

The AO currently supports the recruitment needs of approximately 1,700 federal judges out of a total of approximately 2,200 federal judges and 13 appellate staff attorney offices via a secure online system that facilitates federal law clerk and staff attorney hiring. The name of the system is Online System for Clerkship Application and Review (OSCAR) (URL: https://oscar.uscourts.gov/). The system is both an informational website and an applicant tracking system (ATS). The scope of the OSCAR system is limited to this subset of federal judiciary hiring.

The system provides informational and training resources to assist the various user groups of the system via public web pages. The format of this content includes text, graphics, pdf files, links, and videos. Some of the content provides frequently updated alerts, news, and online help. Additional user-specific content is available only to registered users who have logged into the system.

The applicant tracking components of the current system provide customized interfaces for specific user groups. The objective of the customization is to minimize complexity for each type of user, while ensuring that their unique data and workflow needs are addressed. Easy access, intuitive navigation, and targeted functionality are crucial to OSCAR because of the system’s usage patterns.

The current system supports the following user roles in support of law clerk and staff attorney recruitment:

· Judges and chambers staff enter information about the judge’s specific hiring preferences and plans in a judge profile, post positions, review and manage applications, communicate with their applicants and law schools, and create/manage chambers staff accounts. Even when not hiring, judges still maintain a current judge profile that is viewable and searchable to applicants and law schools.

· Appellate staff attorney offices enter information about their hiring preferences in an office profile; post positions, review and manage applications, communicate with their applicants and law schools, and create/manage office staff accounts. Even when not hiring, appellate staff attorney offices maintain a current office profile that is viewable and searchable to applicants and law schools.

· Court human resources staff maintain administrator accounts on behalf of their court to assist in the recruitment of law clerks and staff attorneys. They have full system access to perform the same functions as their judges and/or staff attorney offices. In addition, they maintain their court’s profile, post positions, and run reports.

· Applicants research judges and staff attorney office profiles, view and search law clerk and staff attorney positions, upload application documents, identify their recommenders, and submit electronic applications. Applicants also initiate requests for letters of recommendation from pre-populated lists of law school faculty members or other recommenders that they identify. The system will notify recommenders via email and track the status of recommendation requests.

· OSCAR provides recommenders login credentials for access to an interface where they view recommendation requests and create/upload letters of recommendation for clerkship and staff attorney applicants. Uploaded recommendation letters are only viewable by the judges/chambers staff and staff attorney offices as part of the application.

· The current system also provides an interface for Law School Administrators (LSAs). LSAs are employees from the career services offices of American Bar Association (ABA)-approved law schools. LSAs maintain a law school profile and serve as first-line support for their law school’s applicants and faculty recommenders. LSAs support applicants and recommenders via direct OSCAR support and training, alert applicants to appropriate law clerk and staff attorney opportunities, assist applicants in preparing applications, track hiring preferences and deadlines, and upload letters of recommendation on behalf of recommenders. They also carry out a variety of administrative tasks such as maintaining system data (e.g. lists of active faculty recommenders, school profiles, etc.), and running reports. They provide extensive support and they maintain elevated system administrative access over the user accounts associated with their schools. One significant feature of the current OSCAR system is the ability of authorized users to assume the role of other users. This allows them to interact with the system and see the same data that is available to the other user. LSAs use this functionality to assume the role of applicants and recommenders associated with their school so that they can provide direct assistance to them. LSAs do not have access to data or accounts associated with other schools.

· The AO provides direct support to the OSCAR program with a small team of judiciary employees and contract staff who have OSCAR system administrator access. OSCAR system administrators have rights to maintain all users accounts in the system to include logging in as those users; manage program data, content, and training resources; perform all functions of each of the user types; communicate with each of the user types; access searchable and sortable listings of data; track and review all system events; manage the selections available on drop down menu pick lists; view and manage selected system settings; run reports; and download report data. OSCAR system administrators complete these tasks using elevated rights to general user interfaces and via dedicated administrator only interfaces. OSCAR system administrators do NOT have access to the system at an operating system (OS) or database administrator (DBA) level. OS and DBA support are provided by a third-party vendor responsible for system development and operation.

Appendix E is an abridged version of a previously prepared functional requirements document (FRD) for the existing OSCAR system. The document is included to provide offerors with a general understanding of the overall functionality of the current OSCAR system. This document does not reflect the most recent modifications and was edited to remove extraneous details. FRD does not provide the requirements for the NextGen OSCAR system. Offerors should only use it to assess general high-level scope of functionality and data that could be transferred to NextGen OSCAR.

IV. General Requirements

IV.1 Functional Scope

NextGen OSCAR will need to support the roles of both an informational website and a highly configurable Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

The Government requires a web-based ATS product that can be used on a wide variety of desktops, laptops, and other mobile devices. The solution shall incorporate responsive design techniques to provide optimized user experiences on a wide variety of desktop and mobile devices by leveraging technologies such as HTML 5 and CSS 3. A locally installed client server solution, or a solution that otherwise requires local installation of software components, will not meet our requirements. The Government will consider the use of a stand-alone mobile app that supports both iOS and Android devices only if it delivers a significant benefit for OSCAR users that cannot be provided via a standard responsive design website.

The AO seeks a solution that can be modified via configuration changes rather than one that requires custom coding. Configuration options shall encompass user interface design, data elements, application workflow, security and access rights, reporting, and other elements needed to implement OSCAR-specific requirements. The configuration options shall be presented via graphical user interfaces (GUIs) designed for use by Government system administrators without development of code, scripts, or other similar items to configure the ATS. Configuration options shall be accessible to the Government to allow modification of the system with minimal vendor support after the initial production implementation.

IV.1.1 Informational Website

As an informational website, the solution shall support both publicly accessible information and information that is only available to registered users. General information about federal law clerk and staff attorney recruitment, points of contact, etc. shall be available without a user account. In addition, the system serves as an information website with the complete listing of all federal judges (approximately 2,200) where applicants and law schools can view judge profiles. This information shall be presented in a visually appealing manner that follows web content best practices and consistently applies AO branding. Offerors can review the publicly accessible content at https://oscar.uscourts.gov/ for an example of the types of public content that shall be supported.

IV.1.2 Applicant Tracking System

The vendor’s solution must provide robust applicant tracking functionality that can be effectively used with minimal end user training. Interfaces for judges and other judiciary personnel shall facilitate easy updating of judge and staff attorney office profiles, posting of positions, searching and evaluating applicants, selecting candidates for interviews, and communicating with applicants and law schools. An interface for law school administrators shall facilitate their roles in guiding law school students and alumni to position postings that best match their interests and skills. Interfaces for applicants shall help them easily identify available positions, required qualifications, and application requirements. The system shall help the applicants compile required documentation such as resumes, transcripts, letters of recommendation, and writing samples. Upon submission of application packages, applicants shall be able to track the status of their applications. Recommenders shall be able to view recommendation requests, upload letters, and view completed letters. System administrators shall have access to all information necessary to assist users and troubleshoot issues. The solution shall provide the Government with full access to application data to support reporting needs.

IV.2 User Scope and Scale

The AO is seeking proposals for an ATS to replace the existing OSCAR system that supports law clerk and staff attorney recruitment. While its usage by judges is voluntary, approximately 1,700 of all federal judges have accounts to utilize OSCAR for law clerk recruitment. This includes posting positions when hiring or only maintaining a current judge profile to identify their hiring status when not hiring. The current system also maintains approximately 500 chambers staff and 130 court HR administrator accounts that assist in law clerk recruitment. In addition, all 13 appellate staff attorney offices use OSCAR for staff attorney recruitment with approximately 50 account holders. Judges and appellate staff attorney offices post approximately 1,200 positions per year. The current scope of the replacement system is law clerk and staff attorney hiring only.

While hiring for other federal judiciary positions is not currently planned, the system design shall provide proven scalability to address the full contingent of judicial employee recruitment if expansion is desired in the future. The current judiciary work force is composed of approximately 32,000 employees.

All ABA-approved law schools[footnoteRef:1] are offered LSA accounts for staff members who assist their law schools students and alumni with OSCAR. They also assist faculty members who may supply letters of recommendation. LSA accounts have elevated privileges to assist users associated with their schools. Currently there are approximately 850 LSA accounts established in the OSCAR system with varying levels of access and administrative capabilities. [1: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/aba_approved_law_schools/in_alphabetical_order.html]

The current OSCAR system maintains approximately 35,000 applicant accounts. During the 2016 calendar year 9,785 of these account holders submitted applications. A significant number of applicant accounts exist simply for research purposes and may never be used to complete an online application via the OSCAR system. Applicant eligibility for positions and system access is tightly controlled based upon years of law school. Due to the competitive nature of law clerk hiring, many of these accounts are established well in advance of when a candidate has completed requisite coursework to be eligible to apply for a position. Law school students seek early access to the system to learn more about the application process and about the future hiring plans of the judges using OSCAR. Approximately 125,000 applications are submitted via OSCAR each year.

The current OSCAR system maintains approximately 24,000 accounts used by recommenders. The majority of recommender accounts are used by law school faculty members, but there are also recommenders who are not affiliated with law schools. The AO is evaluating options to improve processes related to recommendation letters with the implementation of NextGen OSCAR.

The AO provides direct support to the OSCAR program with a small, dedicated team that provides program management, educational, administrative, and tier 1 help desk user support. Approximately 8 members of this team utilize OSCAR system administrator accounts that possess elevated privileges needed to provide user support and system review. These accounts access both the regular user interfaces and additional pages that are only accessed by system administrators. These accounts do not have operating system or database administrator level access.

IV.3 NextGen OSCAR – Currently Out of Scope

Unlike many recruiting scenarios, the existence of federal law clerk and staff attorney positions is well known to the pool of eligible candidates and law schools who monitor such hiring. Law school students work with career placement officials at their schools to pursue specific opportunities several months or years before they graduate. As such, functionality to broadcast job postings to numerous external job boards is of less importance to the federal judiciary than it might be to typical talent acquisition customers. Offerors may describe related capabilities in their solution set, but they should not include optional add-on “job board broadcasting” components in their price proposals.

The judiciary does not currently expect to provide on-boarding functionality as part of NextGen OSCAR. Vendors are welcome to briefly describe related capabilities in their proposals, but they should not include optional on-boarding components in their price proposal.

The judiciary is not seeking a solution to address the wider range of human capital management (HCM) functionality through this RFP. Vendors should not include related features in their proposals.

IV.4 Configurable SaaS Offering

The AO is seeking a SaaS offering that provides a highly configurable applicant tracking system solution. This specification is based upon the following factors:

· Marketplace research conducted by the AO identified highly configurable applicant tracking systems that can be tailored to meet the AO’s requirements for law clerk and staff attorney recruitment.

· This approach can provide a working product more rapidly, at a lower price, and with less risk than would be inherent in custom software development.

· These offerings can incorporate future changes at a lower cost versus custom development.

· These solutions provide periodic upgrades and feature enhancements in response to marketplace drivers, technological changes, and requests from other customers. These enhancements do not require specific work requests to be processed by the AO, and the Government would not incur charges for most of these updates beyond normal maintenance or subscription fees.

IV.5 Staged Delivery

The AO is seeking a vendor to develop and deploy the solution in stages. The delivery model will leverage prototypes to gather user feedback, document implementation requirements, conduct required testing, and compile information needed to secure a go/no-go decision for deployment to all production users.

Generally speaking, prototyping should produce components that are the basis or foundation for the production implementation. For example, when populating reference data such as a list of court locations, real data should be incorporated, in whole or in part, whenever possible. Screen layouts and navigation should be created within the vendor toolset rather than via disposable wireframe diagrams or related tools whenever possible.

The recommendation for the use of evolutionary prototypes is based upon the following:

· The use of real data will reduce stakeholder distraction that could be caused by the need to “translate” demo placeholder elements into more familiar OSCAR items.

· Because NextGen OSCAR will utilize a highly configurable SaaS solution that has already been developed and deployed, the prototype activities won’t need to wait for “code development” to be completed.

Stage 1 will focus on information sharing between the awardee and AO staff. In addition to general startup activities, the awardee will educate AO OSCAR program staff on implementation best practices, toolset functionality, and other topics that will ensure the success of the overall engagement. During Stage 1 AO staff will share information about core functional requirements, business drivers, and other critical success factors that will need to be met to secure a “Go” decision at the end of prototyping. Initial solution prototyping will occur during this stage to facilitate communication between the vendor and AO team members. Stage 1 product licensing will be limited to the relatively small number of AO users and additional stage 2 stakeholders involved in prototype development and assessment.

Stage 2 will build upon the base requirements implemented during stage 1 with the addition of functionality that will support NextGen OSCAR specific needs. During Stage 2 a small group of stakeholders and user representatives will assist the engagement, and they will provide input on options and priorities. Prototypes will be used to facilitate communication with these stakeholders. Stage 2 decisions will be formally reviewed and incorporated into associated project deliverables such as requirements documents, data models, project schedules, security plans, resource plans, etc. The critical success factors necessary to support the “Go/No-Go” decision will be evaluated and documented during Stage 2.

The government will complete a formal evaluation of the Stage 1 and Stage 2 activities and deliverables. The government will decide if the engagement should proceed to Stage 3.

Stage 3 will configure and deploy a fully functional production application to all NextGen OSCAR users. Stage 3 will also complete all supporting activities and deliverables necessary to deploy a production SaaS solution in accordance with AO policies and standards. This will include items such as security testing and documentation, capacity planning, performance testing, service level agreement execution, etc. Stage 3 will include the purchase of licensing to support the full population of NextGen OSCAR users for law clerk and staff attorney recruitment.

Subsequent stages will involve ongoing production support and routine system enhancements in option years.

Offerors may propose an alternative delivery model based upon their experience with similar engagements. If an alternative delivery model is proposed, offerors shall meet the following core objectives with their proposed solution:

· The solution shall fully demonstrate specific functionality needed to meet all AO business and technical objectives.

· The solution shall incorporate stakeholder input prior to final design and/or production implementation.

· The solution shall incorporate a distinct go/no-go decision point prior to funding of production level licensing or other production level expenses.

· While the AO will consider offeror timeline recommendations, full production implementation (Stage 3) must be completed within 9 months from the date of contract award or at an earlier date.

IV.6 Hosting

The AO is seeking proposals for a robust web-accessible hosted solution. Offerors must ensure that all components of the solution are highly available and highly secure. The term “highly available” can be understood as a requirement that the system maintains a minimum availability of 99.9% or greater. The term “highly secure” is a requirement that system security processes, procedures, and facilities shall comply with FedRAMP “moderate” baseline security controls where applicable to NextGen OSCAR. It should be noted that specific security requirements and standards for NextGen OSCAR will be developed during the prototype stage. The selected vendor will work in partnership with the Government to review, document, and implement appropriate security controls prior to production deployment.

Hosting policies, services, and facilities must be audited by a qualified independent party on a periodic basis. The schedule for these audits shall be documented in a service level agreement (SLA) that will be executed prior to Stage 3 of the engagement. A copy of the audit findings shall be provided to the Government. The timeframe for this will be documented in the SLA.

Offerors may provide hosting services directly or via partnership with a third-party hosting provider. The use of third-party vendors must be disclosed to, and approved by, the Government. Offerors must directly manage all aspects of their relationships with any third-party partners. Offerors must promptly resolve all business or technical issues with third-party vendors to ensure that users of NextGen OSCAR do not experience disruptions in service.

All production content (data, software, and any supporting files) must be stored only in facilities that are physically located in the continental United States. Accordingly, the organizations storing this data must adhere to all regulations and requirements governing operations within the United States. This requirement is applicable to the production content regardless of how it is being utilized. For example, the requirement would still apply to backup media, or copies used to support development or training environments, etc.

Offerors may propose the preliminary use of facilities located outside the continental United States to support Stage 1 and Stage 2 prototyping activities only. Any offeror proposing this must provide full information on how they would secure hosting within the continental United States prior to Stage 3 production implementation. All content used in support of the system after production implementation must be stored in facilities physically located with the United States. This includes all development, test, training, backup data, and other content used during and after the production implementation stage.

In addition to access to a production environment, the vendor shall support the Government’s ongoing development, testing, and training needs. Offerors shall provide separate environments and/or separate configurations as needed to address this requirement. Offerors must describe how they would address these needs in their proposals.

Offerors shall fully describe how the targeted infrastructure will be configured to ensure maximum availability. This information shall detail system redundancy, backup, and failover capabilities. Offerors shall describe any virtualization technologies that are leveraged by their infrastructure to support system availability, backup, or release management. Offerors shall also describe the proposed system tenancy model proposed for NextGen OSCAR. Offerors shall fully describe how the proposed system would meet scalability requirements. This information shall include information regarding proactive monitoring of usage changes, peak capacity handling and “elastic” provisioning capabilities. Offerors shall indicate how quickly the proposed infrastructure will respond to changes in system utilization, and any financial cost impacts.

IV.7 Software Licensing Scope

Offerors are reminded that the current scope of this RFP is for law clerk and staff attorney recruitment only. Offerors shall only factor in NextGen OSCAR users when estimating licensing and professional services costs for this RFP. Offerors shall not base cost estimates upon the wider population of judiciary employees or staffing needs. Any price models based upon total judiciary staffing levels will not align with the intended system usage.

The attached Current System Metrics is a general capacity and licensing needs of the existing OSCAR system.

V. Professional Services

The Government requires offerors to design, develop, test, deploy, and maintain NextGen OSCAR in accordance with industry best practices and AO standards. The information below documents professional services that the AO requires throughout the stages of system delivery and support. Offerors shall address these requirements in their proposals and identify additional professional services that are recommended based upon their specific delivery methodology and characteristics of their solution set.

V.1 Program and Administrative Support

The AO requires offerors to provide the following program and administrative support.

V.1.1 Account Management

Offerors must identify a primary point of contact (POC) responsible for overall management of the solution between the AO and the offeror. This resource shall provide critical support during the initial engagement between the AO and the offeror. This resource will serve as the primary POC responsible for resolution of any issues that arise during the contract.

Offerors shall describe the specific services that would be provided by this resource.

V.1.2 Financial and Technical Management and Reporting

The offeror will provide a monthly status report to the Government that documents financial costs and technical accomplishments and issues throughout the delivery model. The monthly reports shall provide full documentation of any past, current, or future estimated costs associated with the engagement. The documentation must include both granular and summary level support for all billings. For example, professional services billings must provide details about the resources utilized, hours billed, and related deliverables. In a similar fashion, billing tied to system storage, bandwidth, or other infrastructure metrics must identify underlying details.

V.1.3 Security Management, Documentation, and Reporting

The offeror will provide ongoing proactive maintenance and enhancement of all system security controls. This service includes, but is not limited, to proactively securing all system code, data, operating systems, ancillary software, servers, facilities, policies, and procedures. The offeror will work with the Government to ensure that NextGen OSCAR fully complies with AO security standards.

The offeror will work with the Government to complete all required security auditing procedures and documentation. The offeror shall refer to FedRAMP (www.FedRAMP.gov) guidance for cloud systems in the “moderate” classification for controls that will be the focus of these efforts.

The AO will collaborate with the offeror during the prototype stages to identify the specific security related deliverables and appropriate security controls. These future deliverables shall be based upon the guidance by the Government.

Robust security management will be an ongoing core service requirement throughout the duration of the contract. The offeror must proactively maintain, monitor, and enhance all aspects of system security for NextGen OSCAR on an ongoing basis. The offeror will also be required to support periodic auditing and documentation processes.

V.1.4 Change and Configuration Management

The offeror will ensure that change management procedures are identified, documented, communicated, and followed throughout the contract. These change management processes must align with AO policy. The use of a highly configurable SaaS solution will facilitate rapid modification of our system. This capability needs to be properly governed to ensure that only appropriate, approved, and tested changes are implemented.

In support of this objective, the offeror shall:

· Identify and document full change management processes as related to the vendor’s handling of review and release of application changes, new features, and updates.

· Identify best practices for change management processes relevant to the offeror’s SaaS solution.

· Identify, implement, and periodically test backup/restore processes incorporated into change management rollback procedures.

· Identify, implement, and periodically audit user rights to ensure proper alignment with change management policies.

· Identify appropriate archiving procedures that are aligned with change management procedures and efficient use of system resources.

V.1.5 Training

The AO requires an offeror to provide training services and supporting materials to ensure program support staff, stakeholders, and end users can quickly gain the skills required by their role with NextGen OSCAR.

The AO requires in-depth training on system design and configuration options, implementation best practices, system administrative interfaces, security configuration processes, data management and reporting options, and other technical details of the offeror’s solution. While the offeror will complete the initial implementation of NextGen OSCAR, the AO will assume responsibility for many routine administrative tasks and basic configuration changes at some point after the initial production release is produced. The specific responsibilities, timing, and other details related to system support duties will be documented during the prototype stages of the engagement.

The AO will work with the selected offeror to identify training needs for various user groups in alignment with their roles. The AO will provide training directly to judges, chambers staff, staff attorney offices, court HR staff, and LSAs. To facilitate this, the offeror shall provide “train the trainer” instruction to the Government. Training for applicants will be provided by the Government and LSAs.

The AO will require and hold full ownership rights to reproduce and/or distribute all training materials and resources on an as needed basis.

V.2 Technical Support Services

The AO requires offerors to provide the following services to ensure successful planning and implementation of their solution. Proposals must identify the key processes and deliverables that would be completed by the offeror to ensure delivery of a solution that fully meets AO requirements for quality, scope, and budget.

V.2.1 Requirements Definition and Documentation

The AO requires offerors to provide services to assist the Government in gathering and documenting all requirements for NextGen OSCAR. The offeror will work with the Government to collect input from various stakeholder groups. Requirements will be compiled to address a wide range of needs, including: technical, functional, business, security, and usability.

Requirements shall be collected in a systematic method (preferably using a requirements tracking database) that will facilitate review, collaborative editing, versioning, release assignment, and development of testing criteria. Proposals should include information about the tools and processes that will be used by the offeror in support of requirements tracking.

Requirements shall be documented in accordance with the project’s change management process to facilitate formal approval of functionality that will be delivered in each system release. Functionality that is delivered with each release shall be documented in release notes.

V.2.2 Ongoing Compliance with AO Standards

The AO requires offerors to provide services needed to verify that all system policies and procedures are in full compliance with AO policies and procedures, industry best practices, and established security standards. The offeror will work in conjunction with AO staff to complete all required audit procedures or documentation as required by various AO divisions providing system oversight and support services. Audit procedures may include, but will not be limited to, the use of automated tools to probe for system vulnerabilities.

V.2.3 System Design and Configuration

The vendor shall provide services to configure their SaaS solution to meet the AO’s requirements. This configuration shall address the full range of system components and contents including items such as data elements, user interfaces, dashboards, reports, template documents, user credentials, security model entries, and all administrative and auditing functionality.

V.2.4 System Testing

The vendor shall provide comprehensive testing services to ensure that NextGen OSCAR provides expected functionality and maintains the security and integrity of all components. Testing shall be conducted in a fully documented and traceable manner that follows agreed upon change management procedures. Offerors shall describe their testing processes, tools, and methodology that will be applied with NextGen OSCAR with their proposals.

V.2.5 System Deployment

The AO requires offerors to provide services to deploy approved system updates and releases following documented processes that maximize the quality of releases and minimize disruption to users. The offeror will work in collaboration with the AO to define and document the processes, gateways, roles, and responsibilities that will support system deployment activities.

As a replacement to an existing system, NextGen OSCAR must provide robust, full functionality to users with the initial production release. The offeror will be required to complete technical and user documentation prior to deployment of the initial production release.

The offeror shall work in conjunction with the AO on the following:

· Develop an operational support plan, a legacy retirement plan, and a system deployment plan;

· Document and perform operational readiness review activities;

· Deploy the tested and approved solution; and

· Assist with the retirement of the legacy system.

V.3 Ongoing System Operation, Maintenance, and Support

V.3.1 Hardware and Software Maintenance

The offeror shall maintain all development, test, and production environments needed to support the project objectives. The offeror shall proactively manage all system infrastructure to maintain a minimum system availability of 99.9% for the production environment. Offerors must identify the processes and procedures they have instituted to ensure proactive and timely identification and remediation of system hardware vulnerabilities, maintenance requirements, or capacity limits.

The offeror shall provide functional and security updates to the Government on an ongoing basis to address all known bugs and vulnerabilities in system software and firmware. Offerors must identify the processes and procedures they have instituted to ensure timely identification and remediation of system vulnerabilities.

V.3.2 Ongoing System Support

The offeror shall maintain all development, test, and production environments needed to support the project objectives. The selected offeror shall execute a service level agreement (SLA) as one of the initial deliverables. The SLA shall identify key aspects of the ongoing support and associated performance standards.

The offeror shall provide support to the AO via phone, email, and web conference in accordance with terms specified in the SLA. Respondents shall include details of their proposed support methods and operational hours in their proposals.

The offeror must provide access to a system for submission of bug reports and enhancement requests. This system and related processes must be fully documented. The system must facilitate tracking on the status of all bug reports and enhancement requests on an as needed basis.

The offeror shall facilitate and support the updating of supporting system data and content on an as needed basis. A few examples include the following:

· The monthly full list of federal judges employed by the federal judiciary,

· The list of ABA approved law schools and their LSAs, and

· Notifications to users regarding system access and support schedules.

While it is expected that AO will have access to maintain this data directly, the offeror shall provide any support needed to complete these activities.

V.3.3 System Enhancements

The offeror shall provide system updates in response to the AO on an ongoing basis. Enhancements will be subject to formal change management processes that will be established during the prototyping stages. The offeror shall also describe their current release schedule.

VI. Deliverables

VI.1 Preliminary Guidance

The deliverables listed herein provide preliminary guidance to offerors regarding objectives of each proposed stage. Additional deliverables will be defined to incorporate input from the offeror and details of the specific functionality of their SaaS ATS. The deliverables may also be adjusted to reflect the findings of phase end assessments.

Offerors shall identify their recommended project engagement methodology and associated deliverables. The AO is using this RFP to identify offerors who have a clearly defined repeatable process to ensure successful implementation. Offerors shall apply knowledge they have gained from prior implementations of their solution in similar environments. The AO’s current preferred software development methodology is based upon Agile principles; however, offerors are welcome to propose alternative approaches based upon their experience with previous engagements similar to the NextGen OSCAR project.

VI.2 Acceptance Criteria

General quality measures as set forth below will be applied to each work product received from the contractor.

· Accuracy – Work products shall be accurate in presentation, technical content, and adherence in style.

· Clarity – Work products shall be clear and concise, engineering terms shall be used sparingly, with an emphasis on plain language. All diagrams shall be easy to understand and be relevant to the supporting narrative.

· Consistency to Requirements – Work products must satisfy the requirements of the work requests.

· File Editing – All text and diagrammatic files shall be editable by the Government.

· Format – Work products shall be submitted in hard copy (where applicable) and in digital media defined in the Work Request. The work product format may change from subtask to subtask. Hard copy and digital media formats shall follow any specified directives or manuals.

· Timeliness – Work products shall be submitted on or before the due date specified in the Work Request or submitted in accordance with a later scheduled date determined by the Government.

· Ownership – All work products are the property of the AO and may not be used or distributed without the permission of the AO.

VI.3 Project Initiation Meeting

A formal project initiation meeting will be conducted by the offeror to introduce team members, share project background information, identify critical success factors and how they will measure and align with project objectives and management processes, and review and approve the project implementation plan. The project initiation meeting shall be conducted within 10 business days of award of contract. The meeting will be held at the following location:

Administrative Office of the United States Courts Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building One Columbus Circle, NE Washington, DC 20544-0001

The selected offeror’s project manager shall attend this meeting in person at the AO. Other contractor resources may attend in person, or remotely, at the discretion of the offeror. Proposals shall identify the resources proposed by the offeror, which resources will attend the project initiation meeting in person versus remotely and the proposed meeting agenda.

Project Initiation

(Initial Guidance)

· Briefing on project management process, contacts, schedule, and deliverables including, but not limited to financial and technical status reports, phase begin and phase end deliverables, and other routine communications with NextGen OSCAR management.

· Briefing on implementation recommendations for NextGen OSCAR.

· Identification of outstanding issues and action items.

Meeting to be held within 10 business days of contract award

VI.4 Project Management Deliverables

Several deliverables will be required to support overall project management and communication between the selected vendor and the Government. Some of these deliverables will be produced at the beginning of the engagement and updated as needed throughout the period of performance. Other deliverables will be prepared on a recurring basis.

Project Management Deliverables

(Initial Guidance)

· Technical status report

· Risk status and management report Monthly (delivered within the first 5 business days of each month)

VI.5 Stage 1 - Prototyping

The objectives of Stage 1 are to produce a highly functional prototype that demonstrates functionality of the solution, gathers input from AO staff and other stakeholders, facilitates creation of all project documentation needed to support implementation, and produces a full proof of concept version that will support a formal go/no-go decision by the government.

A foundational prototype will be created and additional refined prototypes will be developed to focus on the unique needs of each stakeholder group. The precise content and number of prototypes will be refined based upon the vendor’s development methodology and NextGen OSCAR requirements.

The foundational prototype will be developed in coordination with the AO. During the development of this prototype, the selected vendor shall provide training to the Government. The training shall help AO staff understand best practices for design, implementation, and management of the solution. The training shall also cover technical aspects related to product configuration, data conversion, user and system security, and other details needed to support planning and documentation activities. The foundational prototype will be used by the AO to communicate upcoming changes with OSCAR users.

Prototypes developed in this phase will incorporate real world judiciary specific data, graphic elements, business rules, and other components to ensure that reviewers are not distracted by information unrelated to OSCAR. Furthermore, the prototype will be developed in a manner that produces the foundation for the production release. Reusable, functional, and scalable components are preferable to disposable mock-ups.

Licensing for this stage of the engagement shall be limited to what is needed to deploy a prototype and gather requirements from a small number (less than 30) of stakeholders.

In addition to producing a functional, visually appealing, web accessible prototype, the following activities and deliverables will be included in Stage 1:

Stage 1 – Prototyping with OSCAR Project Team

(Initial Guidance)

· Review and update deliverables and acceptance criteria

· Review and update of resource planning

· Review and update of requirements documentation

· Review and update of risk management plan

· Review and update of change control processes

· Identification of outstanding issues and action items

· Analyze key stakeholder requirements and priorities

· Reference data (e.g. law schools, undergraduate schools, judiciary districts, judges, etc.) needed to support prototype

· Sample data to support prototype

· Preliminary source to target mapping for conversion of data from legacy system and gap analysis

· Provide Data Dictionary for system documentation and support of report development

· Provide data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) needed to support prototype

· Solution capabilities, components, and configuration options

· Requirements development best practices for vendor solution set

· System administration, monitoring, and troubleshooting

· Assess customization needs

· Prepare materials to support prototype review and collection of feedback

· Proactive vulnerability assessment and remediation activities

· Auditing requirements and frequency including internal and 3rd party assessments

· Security documentation requirements and processing time

· Incidence notification policies and procedures

· Document system performance metrics and acceptable ranges

· Document system patching process, schedule and verification process

· Document system data and code backup process, schedule, and validation process

· Process and Schedule for delivery of data backups to government

· Identify and document any issues that require remediation prior to production implementation to secure authority to operate

· AO user and testing accounts (approx. 10-15)

· Stakeholder feedback accounts (approx. 15)

· Test user accounts for all user roles

· Provide functional interactive interfaces with the following:

· Entry/informational pages

· Branding and graphic elements

· Information for users

· Multimedia content

· Account login, management, and automated password reset

· Interfaces for all user types

· Design and prototyping of user groups and access rights

· Workflow rules design and prototype implementation

· Customized help content

· Provide preliminary reports and dashboards

· Conduct formal review of findings and recommendations with project management with identification of impacts to project requirements and plans