JAIC DRAID BOA RFP Questions Matrix - FINAL- 21APR2021.xlsx
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- Data Readiness for Artificial Intelligence Development (DRAID) Services; Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) for The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) Federal contract opportunity
- Solicitation number
- W52P1J-21-R-0030
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Q&A
| W52P1J-21-R-0030 DRAID BOA Q&A | ||||||
| No. | DOCUMENT | SECTION | PARAGRAPH | PAGE | QUESTION/COMMENT | RESPONSE |
| 1 | It was not clear from you BOA whether you were looking for broad and general capabilities, or if you are looking for experience with very specific data sets. | Proposing companies may use very specific data sets or general capabilities to determine experience in the Questionnaire. Is it up to the proposing company to determine the amount of specificity they will provide for supporting documentation. |
The purpose of the Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) is to establish a pool of vendors to compete on specific data preparation requirements at the task order level. Task orders will only be competed amongst DRAID BOA holders.
| 2 | We submitted a proposal about a month ago similar to this and wanted to make sure this was a different contract or if it was the same contract as the one titled “Joint Artificial Intelligence Center Test and Evaluation Blanket Purchase Agreement Request for Proposal.” As far as these two opportunities, are these related in any way or are these two opportunities completely different? | The JAIC AI T&E BPA and the JAIC DRAID BOA are interrelated, however, the requirements themselves are two different entities. The DRAID BOA is for acquisition vehicle for data preparation for AI development and the T&E BPA is the acquisition vehicle for the testing and evaluation of the prepared data sets. | |
| 3 | Is there any reason we cannot be on both the BPA and the BOA for this requirement? Or if we are awarded onto one, we cannot be on the other? | No, the U.S. Government has not put restrictions for competing on the requirements. Companies can compete on both the AI T&E BPA and the DRAID BOA. | |
| 4 | Can a new vendor register directly? | To compete on this requirement, interested vendors will need to obtain a DUNS number and register their company(ies) in SAM. We created the Accessibility Guide to assist new companies with registration and preparation to do business with the U.S. Government. Please see the DRAID Accessibility Guide for information on company registration. | |
| 5 | I am wondering if it is possible to provide services outside the US with employees who do not live in the US? | No, services must be provided in the U.S. by U.S. companies. Task order will specify overseas requirements. | |
| 6 | SF1449 & Attachment 0003 | NAICS in SF1449 - 518210 |
NAICS in Attachment 0003 - 512810
| Please clarify that NAICS 518210 is the correct NAICS. | NAICS 518210 - Data Processing, Hosting and Related Services is the correct NAICS. | ||||
| 7 | Attachment 0001-DRAID Questionnaire | 3 | Does the Government want contracts listed in the table or cloud services utilized by the offeror? |
to clarify question 1, in the attachment the RFP asks: “Does your company utilize cloud based technologies to achieve results in the field of Data Readiness and Preparation? If yes, please identify no more than three data related cloud based services which your company has demonstrated technical competency in and provide example(s) of their usage to completed past projects. Examples may be from previous government work, research, or work in industry. Provide support documentation with relevant excerpts from the Performance Work Statement or an Unclassified Description of the Work.”
Specifically you ask offerors to “identify no more than three data related cloud based services” in the table. The table however asks for Contract Number (if applicable) / Name of Project, Period of Performance, and Customer/Agency which leads us to believe you want the contracts we provided the services on an not the list of services themselves.
| Q4 has been updated to include a column for data related cloud based services. Please answer the question as written, including providing the written examples as requested with support documentation with relevant excerpts. | |||||||
| 8 | Attachment 0003-DRAID BOA Instructions and Evaluation Criteria | 3 | Did the government mean NAICS code 518210 vice the listed 512810 | NAICS 518210 - Data Processing, Hosting and Related Services is the correct NAICS. | |||
| 9 | Please clarify whether the contracts/engagement experience information required by the solicitation at the BOA level (questions 1-6) may include include experience from wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Prime/Offeror. | The U.S. Government will accept for review the contracts/engagement experience from wholly owned subsidiaries of the Prime. | |||||
| 10 | will you fund the development of open-source tools and their extension/customization for JAIC applications? | The scope of this contract vehicle extends beyond the JAIC itself and the exact details of execution would not be defined at the BOA level, but rather in each awarded Call Order. Usage and customization of open source tools is a possible requirement but that would be determined in scoping an individual call order. | |||||
| 11 | can universities submit proposals? or do you require (or prefer) proposals from companies? | The JAIC will accept proposals from universities, FFRDCs, and companies. | |||||
| 12 | Can we add subcontractors post award at the TO level? | At the Task Order level, it will be Ordering Activity’s determination to allow subcontractors. Each task order may have different instructions and evaluation criteria depending on the Ordering Activity’s requirement needs. | |||||
| 13 | Is it required that bidders respond to all optional areas for an award at the BOA level? If not, if we provide a response to all the optional tasks, will we increase our chances for award? | Attachment 0001 and 0003 are updated. Per Attachment 0003 – Instructions and Evaluations, to be eligible for award Offerors must receive a rating of acceptable for all of the required questions (Q1-5) in the Questionnaire and a rating of acceptable for only one of the optional questions (Q6-18). It is up to the responding company to determine the number of optional questions the company chooses to respond to. | |||||
| 14 | SF1499 | N/A | N/A | 6 & 9 | (1) Page 6 of 42 lists FAR clause 52.246-6 INSPECTION--TIME-AND-MATERIAL AND LABOR-HOUR; |
(2) Page 9 of 42 includes full text version of 52.212-4 CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS--COMMERCIAL ITEMS (OCT 2018) ALTERNATE I (JAN 2017) which has its own set for the Inspection/Acceptance in para (a).
| While two clauses have significant overlap, there are also meaningful differences (e.g. FAR 52.246-6 requires an inspection system; FAR 52.212-4 sets a default portion of the "hourly rate" attributable to profit). Therefore, selection of a clause has effect on composition of hourly rates. To ensure comparable interpretation and pricing by all offerors, we ask for the Government to consider selection of a single Inspection clause. | Removed 52.246-6. | |||||||
| 15 | AF1499 | 10 | N/A | 1 | Will all the anticipated Task Orders have the same NAICS: 518210? | Yes. | ||
| 16 | Please describe the method for determining prices for supplies or services delivered under the DRAID BOA. | Prices will be established at the task order level by the Ordering Activities. No prices will be established at the BOA level. | ||||||
| 17 | We kindly request further guidance on Certified Teaming Arrangements and their application to this acquisition. We are aware of and have utilized Contractor Teaming Arrangements (CTAs) as defined in FAR 9.601, we however are not familiar with a Certified Teaming Arrangements. We are requesting the government provide a definition of a Certified Teaming Arrangement and instructions on its use. We also request that in the event a Certified Teaming Arrangement is utilized that you provide additional time for proposal submission as creating these documents generally requires coordination between outside counsel and the business which can take a significant amount of time. | The correct expansion for CTA is Contractor Teaming Arrangement as described in FAR Subpart 9.6. Attachment 0001 has been corrected. |
18 "Attachment 0003 Section 3.2
Attachment 0001 Instruction C
W52P1J21R0030" Att 0003: "Contractor Teaming Arrangements (CTAs) are allowed to submit proposals at the BOA level. The non-primary vendor, or subcontractor, of the CTA can only submit responses and supporting documentation for required tasks questions; Question 4-6. Only the primary vendor of the CTA can submit responses and supporting documentation for the optional tasks/subtask questions; Questions 7-19."
Att 0001: "c. Certified Teaming Arrangements (CTAs): The non-primary vendor, or the subcontractor, of any CTA submitting a proposal may only submit responses and supporting documentation for required task questions; Questions 4-6. Only the primary vendor of CTAs may submit responses and support documentation for the optional task questions; Questions 7-19."
Solicitation W52P1J21R0030: "Any BOA awarded to a Contractor Team Arrangement (CTA) IAW FAR Subpart 9.6, which the CTA partners choose to dissolve or change its CTA will have to recompete for another BOA during the onramp period." "According to FAR Subpart 9.6, a CTA may comprise a prime contractor/ subcontractor relationship. This is usually established through a contractual Teaming Agreement.
Will the government accept submissions from prime offerors who select subcontractors in a prime/sub relationship to complement capabilities for Questions 4 - 6? If so, is any documentation required to demonstrate the prime/ sub relationship, or is it sufficient to list the subcontractor(s) in Section 1 of the proposal response?"
| The USG allows prime-subcontractors to submit proposals as CTAs for the DRAID BOA. See Attachment 0003 - DRAID BOA Instructions and Evaluations for CTA requirements. | ||||||
| 19 | Attachment 003 | 3.2 Section 1 "The Cover Letter shall be limited to two 8.5x11 inch pages, single-spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12-point font with each page numbered." | 3 | Given the amount of information requested for basic compliance, will the Government please increase the cover letter page count from 2 pages to 3 pages to accommodate larger team lists? | Attachment 0003, Subparagrah 3.2, Section 1 has been updated to increase the cover letter page count to 3 pages. | |
| 20 | Attachment 003 | 3.2 Section 2 "The non-primary vendor, or subcontractor, of the CTA can only submit responses and supporting documentation for required tasks questions; Question 4-6. Only the primary vendor of the CTA can submit responses and supporting documentaion for the optional tasks/subtask questions; Questions 7-19." | 4 | As the requirement is currently written, non-leading CTA members and subcontractors may only respond to questions 4, 5 and 6 of Attachment 1. |
| To accurately convey the full breadth and depth of experience teams offer to the Government, we encourage the Government to allow non-leading CTA members and subcontractors to respond to Questionnaire Attachment 1 questions 1-19. At a minimum, we suggest the Government allow the team lead and all CTA members to respond to all questions. | Attachment 0001 and 0003 are updated to remove the Technology Outreach Program required question from the Questionnaire. CTA subcontractors may respond to Q4 and 5 in Attachment 0001. The instructions for the optional questions remains as is. | ||||||
| 21 | Attachment 003 | 3.2 Section 2 "The non-primary vendor, or subcontractor, of the CTA can only submit responses and supporting documentation for required tasks questions; Question 4-6. Only the primary vendor of the CTA can submit responses and supporting documentaion for the optional tasks/subtask questions; Questions 7-19." | 4 | Will the Government please clarify its definition of "non-leading CTA member"? | The non-primary CTA is the subcontractor. | ||
| 22 | Attachment 003 | 3.2 Section 3 "Only one Cover Page is allowable, stating the name of the supporting documents and the question number(s) it supports….Supporting documentation for each question the proposal is submitting for should be clearly marked indicating which question it is supporting. Otherwise, it shall be provided using a 8.5x11 inch page, single spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12 point font. Tables and illustrations shall be no smaller than 8-point Arial font. The pdf shall not exceed a total of 12 pages of supporting documetnation for the overall Questionnaire." | 4 | Considering there are 19 questions total on the Questionnaire and 3 examples requested for most of the questions, will the government please extend the page limitation for supporting documentation from 12 pages to 20 pages so that we have appropriate space for past experience and supporting documentation relevancy discussion? | The 12 page limitation for support documentation remains as is. | ||
| 23 | Attachment 003 | 3.2 Section 3 "Only one Cover Page is allowable, stating the name of the supporting documents and the question number(s) it supports….Supporting documentation for each question the proposal is submitting for should be clearly marked indicating which question it is supporting. Otherwise, it shall be provided using a 8.5x11 inch page, single spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12 point font. Tables and illustrations shall be no smaller than 8-point Arial font. The pdf shall not exceed a total of 12 pages of supporting documetnation for the overall Questionnaire." | 4 | For supporting documentation, may we submit demos and videos files? | The Government will NOT accept demos and videos files. | ||
| 24 | Attachment 003 | 3.2 Section 3 "Only one Cover Page is allowable, stating the name of the supporting documents and the question number(s) it supports….Supporting documentation for each question the proposal is submitting for should be clearly marked indicating which question it is supporting. Otherwise, it shall be provided using a 8.5x11 inch page, single spaced with 1-inch margins, using Arial size 12 point font. Tables and illustrations shall be no smaller than 8-point Arial font. The pdf shall not exceed a total of 12 pages of supporting documetnation for the overall Questionnaire." | 4 | For supporting documentation, may we submit monthly status reports that were submitted to the Government? | Performance Work Statement or an Unclassified Description of Work allows the offeror to highlight worked preformed under different circumstances (Government Contracts, Private Contracts, research, and etc). We are looking for relevant examples of experience not past performance. CPARS and monthly performance reports indicates there is a contract so there should be some type of Performance Work Statement or Statement of Work. Monthly status reports could be submitted if the offeror believes it clearly provides the need experience requested. | ||
| 25 | 1. Attachment 0001, Question 6, seems to require experience with Hackathons or Kaggle type competitions. Is this the case, or will evidence of other types of managed technology outreach programs for a Government Agency be considered? | Q6, Technology Outreach Programs, has been deleted. | |||||
| 26 | 2. Attachment 0001, multiple questions, make reference to providing supporting documentation and specifically mention excerpts from the Performance Work Statement or an Unclassified Description of Work. Can you specify what other types of documentation would be considered acceptable? For example, can we use excerpts from a CPAR or the required Monthly Status Report? | Performance Work Statement or an Unclassified Description of Work allows the offeror to highlight worked preformed under different circumstances (Government Contracts, Private Contracts, research, and etc). We are looking for relevant examples of experience not past performance. CPARS and monthly performance reports indicates there is a contract so there should be some type of Performance Work Statement or Statement of Work. | |||||
| 27 | Attachment 0002 PWS | 2.1 Key Personnel | 6 to 7 | The PWS states that “all DRAID BOA holders must identify a DRAID BOA Manager.” It goes on to say that “the contractor shall identify a PM by name.” Since this requirement is for BOA holders, not offerors, and since there is no key personnel section discussed in the instructions/evaluation criteria, our understanding is that offerors are not required to name a PM at the time of proposal submission, but rather after award. Will the Government please confirm or clarify this understanding? | The BOA Manager is not the same as the PM. The Contractor shall identify a DRAID BOA Manager by name who shall provide management, direction, administration, quality management, and leadership of the execution of the BOA. The BOA manage answers questions at the BOA level and is the POC when task order solicitations are sent out. You should name the BOA manager in Section 1 – Cover letter. PMs will be identified at the individual task order level IAW the task order instructions. | ||
| 28 | Attachment 0003 Instructions and Evaluation Criteria | 3.2 Specific Instructions by Section – Section 1 | 3 | Required item number 6 for the cover letter4 is “6) Teaming arrangements (to include company names of all CTA members).” Please confirm that the Government is only requesting the names of all team members, not copies of each executed teaming agreement? |
| If copies of teaming agreements are required, please confirm that they are exempt from page count? | The USG is only requesting the names of the companies that make up the CTA. See Attachment 0003 for more information. | ||||||||
| 29 | Are you funding applied research at a lower TRL? Are research and development proposals appropriate for this solicitation, or only operationally-ready commercial applications? | For this vehicle, operationally-ready commericial applications are more appropriate than R&D proposals. | |||||||
| 30 | Should we identify an existing DoD mission requirement, user, or software system to which we are contributing, or are we allowed to propose new applications that DoD is not already funding (subject of course to the tasks in the RFP)? | New applications will be considered. | |||||||
| 31 | BOA Questionnaire | #6 | Can the Government provide a formal definition for “technology outreach program”? | Q6, Technology Outreach Programs, has been deleted. | |||||
| 32 | BOA Questionnaire | #6 | The question references a “Government Agency” in the first sentence but says that “examples may be from previous government work, research, or work in industry.” Can the Government clarify whether examples of managing technology outreach programs from the private sector are acceptable? | Examples from the private sector are acceptable. | |||||
| 33 | BOA Questionnaire | #6 | Can the “Government Agency” referenced be a non-U.S. Government Agency? | While work with U.S. government agencies is preferred, the JAIC will accept proposals that contain references to non-U.S. Government Agencies. | |||||
| 34 | BOA Questionnaire | #6 | Does an internal corporate Hackathon organized with external industry partners qualify as a "technology outreach program"? | Q6, Technology Outreach Programs, has been deleted. | |||||
| 35 | BOA Questionnaire | All Questions | Can respondents use non-U.S. government or non-U.S. industry references? | While work with U.S. government agencies is preferred, the JAIC will accept proposals that contain references to non-U.S. Industry Agencies. | |||||
| 36 | BOA Questionnaire | All Questions | Each question asks the respondent to provide "past engagements." Are ongoing engagements (i.e. active contracts) acceptable references? | Yes. | |||||
| 37 | Attachment 0003- Instructions and Evaluation Criteria | Evaluation Methodology 2. BOA Selection Process | 3rd paragraph | 6 | Is it the Government's intention that as Task Orders are released, that contractors will only be able to bid on Task Orders where they received an "Acceptable" score? In other words, it a contractor received an acceptable score in 2 of the categories, will they only be allowed to bid on task orders related to those 2 areas? | No, the DRAID BOA has established only ONE pool. All BOA holders will be allowed to compete on all task orders, per the instructions of the task order RFPs. | |||
| 38 | Attachment 0002- PWS | 2.1 Key Personnel | 1st paragraph | 6 | In Section 2.1, the Government states a BOA Manager and a Project Manager as Key Personnel. Please clarify if these are a single position. | The BOA Manager is not the same as the PM. The Contractor shall identify a DRAID BOA Manager by name who shall provide management, direction, administration, quality management, and leadership of the execution of the BOA. The BOA manage answers questions at the BOA level and is the POC when task order solicitations are sent out. You should name the BOA manager in Section 1 – Cover letter. PMs will be identified at the individual task order level IAW the task order instructions. | |||
| 39 | Attachment 0002- PWS | 2.1 Key Personnel | 4th paragraph | 6 | In Section 2.1, the Government does not provide a place for submitting the name of BOA Manager or PM. Please indicate where this information should be included in our submission. | Per Attachment 0003 – DRAID BOA Instructions and Evaluations Section 1: Cover Letter. The BOA Manager information is to be included in the cover letter. PM is only identified at task order level. | |||
| 40 | Questionnaire | Instructions | "c. Certified Teaming Arrangements (CTAs): The non-primary vendor, or the subcontractor, of any CTA submitting a proposal may only submit responses and supporting documentation for required task questions; Questions 4-6. Only the primary vendor of CTAs may submit responses and support documentation for the optional task questions; Questions 7-19." | The text here says "non-primary vendor" (singular) and not "non-primary vendors" -- we would like to confirm that a CTA can include more than just two companies, that there could be two (or more) non-primary vendors. | CTAs can comprise of more than two companies. All companies part of the CTA must be disclosed IAW Attachment 0003 - DRAID BOA Instructions and Evaluation Criteria. | ||||
| 41 | Questionnaire | Question 6 | 6. | Has your company managed technology outreach programs for a Government Agency, to include but not limited to, Hackathons or Kaggle type competitions? If yes, please list no more than three past engagements to include a contract number (if applicable), period of performance, and Customer/Agency in the table below. Examples may be from previous government work, research, or work in industry. Please also provide support documentation with relevant from the Performance Work Statement or an Unclassified Description of the Work | This question is unduly restrictive to small businsses who are otherwise qualified for the DRAID procurement. Please move this from a go/no-go Gate question and treat it as an optional task/subtask question to support small business inclusion. | Q6, Technology Outreach Programs, has been deleted. | |||
| 42 | Attachment 0002 JAIC DRAID BOA/PWS | 1.4 | 1 | 5 | The Basic Ordering Agreement Solicitation provides that 3 contract types may be awarded at the task order level – FFP, T&M, and hybrid FFP+T&M. The Solicitation also calls for labor hour cost information, but it does not ask for software, SAAS, or PAAS pricing, or provide any guidance on the use of software, SAAS, or PAAS in lieu of labor to perform expected tasks. | ||||
| a. | Does JAIC expect task orders will be primarily labor hour based? | ||||||||
| b. | Given JAIC’s statement that it wishes to consume “cutting edge commercial services,” does JAIC have a preference for labor based professional services over SAAS/PAAS offerings? |
| Clarification: The language used in the DRAID BOA and Attachment 0004 (Labor Categories) are focused on awarding labor hour based task orders to vendors who can provide the services to develop unique solutions for DoD Components using cloud services and structured programming. However, it is unclear from the BOA how commercial software that is already built and proven, and that already performs the BOA tasks with minimal to no labor, will be considered in the government’s evaluation (mix of software + services). How will JAIC consider awarding task orders for commercial software? | AIC expects a wide range of Government users that will specify their requirement at task order level. The BOA gives Government requirements offices a wider range of contract options. | |||||||
| 43 | Attachment 0002 JAIC DRAID BOA/PWS | 1.7 | 1 | 5 | Given Section 1.7 “Non-Personal Services” that “[t]he Government shall neither supervise Contractor employees nor control the methods by which the Contractor performs the required tasks”, how does JAIC intend to evaluate offers based on software/SAAS vs labor hours only. | Task orders will be for non-personal services. Government requirements offices will specify their requirement and evaluation methodology at task order level. | ||
| 44 | Attachment 0002 JAIC DRAID BOA/PWS | 1.7 | 1 | 5 | Does JAIC intend to use a lowest price technically acceptable approach to ensure that the “Government [will not] control the methods by which the Contractor performs the required tasks?” | Task orders will be for non-personnel services. Government requirements offices will specify their requirement and evaluation methodology at task order level. Lowest price technically acceptable is an acceptable approach if requirements office deems it appropriate. | ||
| 45 | Attachment 0002 JAIC DRAID BOA/PWS | 1.7 | 1 | 5 | If not (referring to question 3), how will the government evaluate either technical acceptability or best value to avoid favoring a labor hours approach over the use of COTS or commercial software to perform the services? | Government requirements offices will specify their requirement and evaluation methodology at task order level. This will not be set at the BOA level. | ||
| 46 | Attachment 0002 JAIC DRAID BOA/PWS | 3.5.2 | 1 | 9 | Will the Quality Management System and related QA requirements be modified for commercial items or COTs SaaS/PAAS offerings in accordance with FAR 46.202-1? |
| Clarification: FAR 12.208 and 46.202-1 require the Government to rely on a contractor’s existing commercial QMS where such contractor is providing a commercial item. The present solicitation suggests that the JAIC will impose higher level QMS requirements on a task order basis. Will JAIC impose additional quality requirements to those in FAR 12.208 for commercial software that produces the desired results of services under the BOA Solicitation or related Task Orders? | All task order under the BOA are projected to be commercial so Contract Quality Requirements should follow commercial procedures. Government requirements offices will be allowed specify their requirement and quality requirements at task order level. | ||||||
| 47 | Attachment 0003 DRAID BOA Instructions and Evaluations | 2 | a | 6 | There do not appear to be evaluation criteria disclosed about how the JAIC will evaluate offers containing a mix of software and services. How will JAIC evaluate BOA offers providing a mix of commercial SAAS/PAAS offerings and labor in lieu of labor only offerings? |
| Clarification: Similar to Question 1. How will commercial software that is already built and successfully proven, and that already performs the BOA tasks with minimal to no labor, be considered in the government’s evaluation (mix of software + services)? | Government requirements offices will specify their requirement and evaluation methodology at task order level. This will not be set at the BOA level. | ||||||||
| 48 | Attachment 0003 DRAID BOA Instructions and Evaluations | 2 | a | 6 | Would the JAIC consider a pre-built COTS product that provides a cohesive developer, data science and user experience across all DRAID requirements, or does JAIC intend to procure primarily labor-hour based services to develop such a product? If the latter, how does JAIC plan to integrate and interoperate all of the disparate software solutions into a common reusable platform across their use cases? | Yes, the JAIC would consider COTS. COTS solutions may be purchased through integration with the Tradewind vehicle. | |||
| 49 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Project Management, Software Configuration, Cloud Integration | #4 | 3 | Is JAIC seeking data management operations in different cloud environments? If so, what cloud platforms is JAIC interested in (e.g., Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM Cloud)? Is the JAIC seeking technologies that would also support private cloud, multi-cloud, or hybrid cloud data management operations? | This level of detail is not required at the BOA level and will be defined in individual call orders and their associated projects. | |||
| 50 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Project Management, Software Configuration, Cloud Integration | #4 | 3 | In addition to core compute services, which of the native cloud services are in scope: | ||||
| a. | Data processing (batch, micro-batch, map-reduce parallel processing, distributed in-memory iterative data services, streaming data analysis) | ||||||||
| b. | Containerization (e.g. Kubernetes, Docker) | ||||||||
| c. | Persistence in a multiplicity of data stores including distributed file systems, key value stores, relational stores, network stores, object/document stores | ||||||||
| d. | Platform services (e.g., data encryption for data at rest and data in motion, data transposition/etl, queueing services, multi-tenancy, auto-scaling, auditing, access control - authentication, authorization, time series support, logging) | ||||||||
| e. | Native cloud AI/ML services (e.g., image recognition, video, text to speech, ocr) | ||||||||
| f. | Storage services | All items could potential be considered in scope. This is a BOA and the exact requirements for execution are not defined in detail at this level. | |||||||
| 51 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Project Management, Software Configuration, Cloud Integration | #5 | 4 | In addition to supporting Agile processes, would a COTS product that would support best-practice Agile DevSecOps processes be in scope? Such a product would include the ability to package data ingest, transformation, and persistence development tasks as part of best practice CI/CD processes, build software artifacts that include data transformations, and provide integrated support for tests. | Yes. | |||
| 52 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Ingest, Integration, Architecture, and ETL | #7 | 5 | Is the JAIC seeking a unified and cohesive data integration capability across different integration pathways – including streaming, batch, API/message-based integrations and other related ETL tasks? | This level of detail is not required at the BOA level and will be defined in individual call orders and their associated projects | |||
| 53 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Ingest, Integration, Architecture, and ETL | #7 | 5 | Is the JAIC seeking to leverage underlying cloud technologies (e.g., cloud streaming services) as part of data integration pipelines? | This level of detail is not required at the BOA level and will be defined in individual call orders and their associated projects | |||
| 54 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Ingest, Integration, Architecture, and ETL | #8 | 5 | What capabilities is the JAIC seeking to optimize data transformation and persistence at scale for AI Applications? Is the JAIC looking for the ability to optimize data storage across a multiplicity of persistent stores - e.g., distributed file systems, relational stores, distributed key value stores – to optimize data access patterns (reads, writes) for application requirements? | This level of detail is not required at the BOA level and will be defined in individual call orders and their associated projects | |||
| 55 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Ingest, Integration, Architecture, and ETL | #8 | 5 | Is the JAIC looking for solutions that provide pre-built, extensible, and scalable data integration connectors to a wide range of common data sources – including to relational stores columnar stores, key value stores, distributed file systems and to other commercial software products. | This level of detail is not required at the BOA level and will be defined in individual call orders and their associated projects | |||
| 56 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Accessibility and API’s | #11 | 7 | Is the JAIC interested in solutions that automatically generate standards-based APIs (e.g., REST-based APIs) for all data sources, data transforms, data objects, analytics features, AI/ML services, and other application logic and user interface capabilities? And also provide the ability to manage access controls (i.e., authorization and authentication) and access patterns for those APIs? | This level of detail is not required at the BOA level and will be defined in individual call orders and their associated projects | |||
| 57 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Accessibility and API’s | #11 | 7 | Would the JAIC be interested in products that automatically support enterprise-scale metadata management, with metadata support not just for data entities – but also for source systems, data transformations, application logic, data processing logic, AI/ML features, AI/ML services which can be composable into more complex AI/ML services, and UI components? | Possibly but this level of detail is not required at the BOA level and will be defined in individual call orders and their associated projects. | |||
| 58 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Quality, Feature Engineering and NLP | #13 | 8 | Which of the following data quality assessment and data cleansing services are in scope? | ||||
| a. | data quality scores | ||||||||
| b. | data distribution analysis | ||||||||
| c. | calendarization capabilities | ||||||||
| d. | identification of gaps/ missing data | ||||||||
| e. | implementation of custom interpolation functions | ||||||||
| f. | anomaly/ outlier detection | ||||||||
| g. | full data lineage management capabilities | ||||||||
| h. | master data management capabilities for automatic entity resolution | All items would possibly be in scope. As noted in Attachment 0003, "The Government will not |
address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision"."
| 59 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Quality, Feature Engineering and NLP | #14 | 9 | Which of the following feature engineering tasks are in scope? | |||
| a. | outlier handling | |||||||
| b. | imputation | |||||||
| c. | random/ reservoir/stratified/ bootstrap sampling | |||||||
| d. | one-hot encoding | |||||||
| e. | both interactive model experimentation support | |||||||
| f. | creation of corresponding feature engineering metadata for the production operation of models? | All items would possibly be in scope. As noted in Attachment 0003, "The Government will not |
address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision"."
| 60 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Quality, Feature Engineering and NLP | #14 | 9 | What kind of NLP capabilities are in scope and through which libraries? | |||
| a. | NLTK | |||||||
| b. | Gensim | |||||||
| c. | polyglot | |||||||
| d. | textblob | |||||||
| e. | tesserocr | |||||||
| f. | spaCy? | All items would possibly be in scope. As noted in Attachment 0003, "The Government will not |
address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision"."
| 61 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Quality, Feature Engineering and NLP | #14 | 9 | Further, is the JAIC looking for pre-built ML pipelines that support common NLP tasks at scale, and that support the promotion and management of NLP models into production? | Yes | |||
| 62 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Synthetic Data | #15 | 9 | What kinds of pre-built capabilities and techniques are in scope? | ||||
| a. | Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) | ||||||||
| b. | variational Autoencoders | ||||||||
| c. | Deep-fake | ||||||||
| d. | Monte Carlo methods. | ||||||||
| e. | Further, is the JAIC looking to use these methods by pre-integrating and enabling libraries such as Pytorch, Tensorflow, Faker and PyMC? | All items would possibly be in scope. As noted in Attachment 0003, "The Government will not |
address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision"."
| 63 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Anonymization | #16 | 10 | What kinds of pre-built, configurable, and programable capabilities and tools for data anonymization are in scope including: | |||
| a. | data masking | |||||||
| b. | generalization | |||||||
| c. | data swapping | |||||||
| d. | data perturbation? | All items would possibly be in scope. As noted in Attachment 0003, "The Government will not |
address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision"."
| 64 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Anonymization | #16 | 10 | Further, is the ability to combine data science techniques with rules of interest to JAIC? For example: | |||
| a. | the management of minimum representative sample sizes for query responses, | |||||||
| b. | custom aggregation (of disaggregated query responses), and | |||||||
| c. | rules to obfuscate certain data elements from certain end-users? | Yes | ||||||
| 65 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Labeling | #17 | 10 | What kinds of data labeling capabilities are in scope, including: | |||
| a. | for image and text data | |||||||
| b. | for labeling of timeseries data | All items would possibly be in scope. As noted in Attachment 0003, "The Government will not |
address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision"."
| 66 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | AI Security | #18 | 11 | What kinds of AI Security capabilities are in scope, including: | |||
| a. | ensuring model integrity (unique model key tracking) | |||||||
| b. | tracking model performance at scale and potential adversarial drift | |||||||
| c. | adapting models based on adversarial challenges | |||||||
| d. | providing the ability to leverage libraries for penetration data and synthetic fake data | |||||||
| e. | Underlying platform-level and code-security (e.g., key management, encryption methodology, encryption in transit/at-rest, source code scans) | |||||||
| f. | Underlying platform security certifications (e.g., NERC/CIP, ATO, SOC 1, 2) | All items would possibly be in scope. As noted in Attachment 0003, "The Government will not |
address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision"."
| 67 | Section 2 JAIC DRAID BPA Questionnaire | Data Representativeness | #19 | 11 | What kinds of data representativeness capabilities are in scope, including | |||
| a. | Prejudice removal, reweighing, adversarial debiasing | |||||||
| b. | examination, reporting, and mitigation of discrimination | |||||||
| c. | bias and data sufficiency requirements | |||||||
| d. | support for generic analytic capabilities to model bias and representativeness | All items would possibly be in scope. As noted in Attachment 0003, "The Government will not |
address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential “evaluation decision"."
| 68 | Can you please specify whether a BOA requires that each member of a CTA requires a GSA schedule | No, the Contractor Teaming Arrangements are in accordance with FAR Subpart 9.6. | ||||||
| 69 | Attachment 0001 - DRAID BOA Questionnaire 30 March 2021 | "Provide support documentation with relevant excerpts from the Performance Work Statement or an Unclassified Description of the Work." | Multple Pages (Questions 3-9) | Is the Government requesting examples of government issued Performance Work Statements and Unclassified Descriptions of Work for each contract example OR can the offeror provide a writeup prepared by the submittor? | The offeror can submit their own write up to highlighting relevant examples of their experience. | |||
| 70 | Attachment 0003, DRAID BOA solicitation instructions and Evaluation | Tables and illustrations shall be no smaller than 8-point Arial font. The pdf shall not exceed a total of 12 pages of supporting documentation for the overall Questionnaire | Page 4, Section 3, Support Documentation Per Attachment 0001 - JAIC DRAID BOA | |||||
| Questionnaire | Does the 12 page limit include government issued Performance Work Statements and Unclassified Descriptions of Work in response to the questions? | Yes, the offeror can submit their own write up of the PWS to highlighting relevant examples of their experience. | ||||||
| 71 | Attachment 0003, DRAID BOA solicitation instructions and Evaluation | This subsection states, "...To be considered for award, Offerors | ||||||
| must receive ...and a rating of “Acceptable” for at least one of the optional tasks/subtask questions (questions 7-19)." | Page 6, Section 2, BOA Selection Process, SubSection b. | 1) Will all optional tasks be evaluated, and the offeror has to score "acceptable in only one" to be eligbe for an award? |
| Once the offer is acceptable in one option task the rest of the optional tasks will not be evaluated since they will already be eligible for a BOA award. If the offeror is unacceptable in one option task the evaluators will continue to the next option task until one option task is found acceptable or all are found unacceptable. | ||||||||
| 72 | Attachment 0003, DRAID BOA solicitation instructions and Evaluation | This subsection states, "...To be considered for award, Offerors | ||||||
| must receive ...and a rating of “Acceptable” for at least one of the optional tasks/subtask questions (questions 7-19)." | Page 6, Section 2, BOA Selection Process, SubSection b. | 2) Can an offeror only write to one subtask, and be eligble at a later date to provide support for any other sub task during the on-boarding process? | Once the offer is acceptable in one option task the rest of the optional tasks will not be evaluated since they will already be eligible for a BOA award. If the offeror is unacceptable in one option task the evaluators will continue to the next option task until one option task is found acceptable or all are found unacceptable. | |||||
| 73 | Attachment 0003, DRAID BOA solicitation instructions and Evaluation | This subsection states, "...To be considered for award, Offerors | ||||||
| must receive ...and a rating of “Acceptable” for at least one of the optional tasks/subtask questions (questions 7-19)." | Page 6, Section 2, BOA Selection Process, SubSection b. | 3) Please clarify if the Government intends to make the multiple awards based on 1) the required task area and all optional tasks combined, and/or 2) BOAs based on the required task area and then each task area individually; and/or 3) BOAs for the required task area and a combination of task areas, based on all or part of an offeror’s proposal. | The Government will issue numerous BOAs to offerors that meet the required tasks and at least one optional task. If an offeror is qualified for one or multiple optional tasks they will be able to complete for all future task orders if they meet the requirements of the individual task orders. There is not separate pools for each individual optional task. | |||||
| 74 | Attachment 0003, DRAID BOA solicitation instructions and Evaluation | If the Offeror provides no example contract/reference, their experience will be rated as “Unacceptable”. | Page 7, 2, BOA Selection Process, Subsection f, QUESTIONS 7-19 | How would the government like offerors to reference commercial contracts that were awarded with a Master Service Agreement (MSA) and not a traditional FAR based DoD contract? | Provide enough information to clearly show the type of contract and relevant examples of experience, no set format. | |||
| 75 | Attachment 0002 DRAID BOA PWS | This section states, "All DRAID BOA holders must identify a DRAID BOA Manager at the BOA level" and a "PM". Both, as stated in this section, shall provided "management, direction, administration, quality management, and leadership of the execution of the BOA". | Page 6, Section 2.1, Key Personnel | Please clarify if the intent is to have a BRAID BOA Manager and Project Manager (PM) at the BOA level or have the PM as key at the individual task level versus both at the task and BOA level. | The BOA Manager is not the same as the PM. The Contractor shall identify a DRAID BOA Manager by name who shall provide management, direction, administration, quality management, and leadership of the execution of the BOA. The BOA manager answers questions at the BOA level and is the POC when task order solicitations are sent out. You should name the BOA manager in Section 1 – Cover letter. PMs will be identified at the individual task order level IAW the task order instructions. | |||
| 76 | Attachment 0002 DRAID BOA PWS | This section states a "DD Form 254, Contract Security Classification Specification, applies to this BOA. Task Orders issued under this BOA can support up to a Top Secret (SCI/SAP) level classification." | Page 7, Section 3..2, Other Security Requirements | The documentation for this solicitation does not include the DD254. Please clarify if offerors are to provide evidence of their ability to support Top Secret Level classification at submission of proposals or at the Task Order quote submission levels as appropriate. | There is no requirement to show evidence of a Security Clearance at the BOA level. Each Task order will have their own security requirement. | |||
| 77 | Attachment 0002 DRAID BOA PWS | This section states, "The Small Business Subcontracting Plan requirement is required for Contractors with a business size designation of “other than small” and "Unrestricted task orders shall include Small Business Subcontracting Plan requirements. The Small Business Subcontracting Plan shall be defined by the OCO at the task order level." | Page 10, Section 3.5.5, Subcontracting Plans | Per FAR 52.219-9 and in accordance with 19.708(b) Small business Subcontracting Plans are required for incorporation in solicitations and contracts "expected to exceed $750,000". The PWS does not state anticipated overall value for the BOA. |
| Therefore, please clarify if the intent is to include a Small Business Subcontracting Plan with the submission in response to the BOA or at the individual Task Order level as applicable. | Small Business Subcontracting Plans, if required, will be at the Task Order level. | ||||||
| 78 | Attachment 0002 DRAID BOA PWS | This section requires the Contractor to attend post-award conferences, as well as meet periodically, and "shall be at no additional cost to the Government." | Page 16, Section 5.1 Conferences | The Contractor understands the actual meetings are intended to be at no additional cost, however, please clarify if these meetings are intended to be in person - in light of COVID - or held virtually. Also, if they will be required for in person, will travel expenses be authorized as applicable? | There is no travel for BOA level meetings and meetings should be minimal after BOA award. | ||
| 79 | Attachment 0003, DRAID BOA solicitation instructions and Evaluation | SubSection 1: Cover Letter, subitem 7) Business Size and socioeconomic status of prime under NAICS 512810 - the "Note" makes reference to a "self-certification" as it pertains to the business size and socioeconomic status of the Offeror. | Page 3, Section 3.2 Specific Instructions by Section, SubSection 1, Cover Letter | 1) The NAICS referenced appears to be incorrect. Please clarify if the correct NAICS is 518210, Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services, with a Size Standard of $35M. |
| 2) Please clarify if the "self-certification" is merely a statement, contained within the cover letter, if the offeror represents its self to be a small or large business based on NAICS 518210 | The correct NAICS is 518210 - Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services. Attachment 0003 has been corrected. | |||||
| 80 | Attachment 0003, DRAID BOA solicitation instructions and Evaluation | SubSection 2f: QUESTION 7-19, states "If the vendor receives an “Acceptable” rating on any one of the Questions 7-19, the Government is not required to evaluate further since the requirement has been met and the BOA can be awarded." | Page 7, Section 2, BOA Selection Process, SubSection 2f: QUESTION 7-19 | This statement is a bit confusing as to the evaluation intent and as it coorrelates to the definition of "Unacceptable" provided therein. |
Please clarify potential interpretations of this section, as it pertains to the evaluation, as follows:
1) Are offerors are required to respond to all questions - #7-19 - in order to be considered for a BOA award; or
2) If an offeror responds "yes" to the first question - #7 - provides proof of experience, via supporting documentation, and receives an "acceptable" rating they are considered to have met the requirements w/o any further response and/or supporting documentation and can receive a BOA - as the Government is not required to evaluate further; or
3) If an Offeror responds to all questions - #7-19 - but is not rated as "acceptable" in all of the questions, however, "receives an “Acceptable” rating on any one of the Questions 7-19, the Government is not required to evaluate further since the requirement has been met and the BOA can be awarded." Can the offeror assume it still can be awarded a BOA in this instance? Offers are not required to respond to all questions #6-18 - in order to be considered for a BOA award. Once the offer is acceptable in one option task (Questions 6-18) the rest of the optional tasks will not be evaluated since they will already be eligible for a BOA award. If the offeror is unacceptable in one option task the evaluators will continue to the next option task until one option task is found acceptable making them eligible for BOA award or all are found unacceptable making them ineligible for award .
Q6, Technology Outreach Programs, has been removed. Attachment 0001 and 0003 have been updated accordingly.
| 81 | Attachment 0003, DRAID BOA solicitation instructions and Evaluation | The pdf shall not exceed a total of 12 pages of supporting documentation for the overall Questionnaire | Page 4, Section 3, Support Documentation Per Attachment 0001 - JAIC DRAID BOA | ||||||
| Questionnaire | Given the limited page count, can we offer a matrix that’s does a cross walk between use case/example writeup and the question(s) it is providing a response to? can we use the same write up for more then one response | Yes, a matrix is allowable and yes, the same write up for multiple questions is allowable. See Attachment 0003 - DRAID BOA Instructions and Evaluations for more information. | |||||||
| 82 | General | Page 2 - Question 2 | Will there be a small business set-asides at the task order level? | Small business set asides at the task order level will be determined by the Ordering Activities at the task order level. |
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