Atch_008_Questions_and_Answers_(3_May_2016).pdf

W912PX‐16‐R‐0001

Software Programming Support

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. Question: Is this requirement currently being performed?

Answer: The task order requirement for SharePoint Migration is not currently being performed. It is a new requirement. The overall IDIQ requirement for Software Programming has been performed by multiple sources, by both government and contractors. In the past our organization has utilized contracts issued by other agencies for software programming support. We have also issued contacts and task orders for this type of support. Currently, JIATFS has no active requirements being supported by contracts or task orders issued internally.

2. Ref: Page 50 2.7.1 ‐ Factor 1: Will the government provide access the Database cited in order to allow industry the ability to determine the magnitude of the effort required to migrate the database?

ANSWER: No – Section L, Para 2.7.1, Sub‐Factor 1 refers to the instruction to provide a description of methodology and approach to the migrating of data. The intent of this Sub‐Factor is to demonstrate knowledge and capability of data migration. This is a scenario‐based factor tied to the IDIQ PWS, not an actual Task Order requirement. The submission will be evaluated based on Section M evaluation procedures.

3. Will there be a period of time for software engineers to conduct code inspection?

ANSWER: No. If this question is in relation to the previous question: this is a scenario‐based factor tied to the IDIQ PWS, not an actual Task Order requirement.

4. Ref: Page 50 2.7.1 – Factor‐2: Will the government allow offerors the ability to perform a site visit in order to quantify the resource requirements of these Solicitation tasks?

ANSWER: No – Section L, Para 2.7.1, Sub‐Factor 2 refers to the instruction to provide a description of methodology and approach to secure code development, together with a description of the top five risk/threat areas with respect to programming in the Java language. This is a scenario‐based factor tied to the IDIQ PWS, not an actual Task Order requirement. The submission will be evaluated based on Section M evaluation procedures.

5. Ref: Page 50 2.7.1 – Factor‐2: In what environment and on what network will the Secure Code development be performed? SCIF? Secure Facility? SIPRNet?

ANSWER: Section L, Para 2.7.1, Sub‐Factor 2 refers “to secure code development”, not to develop Secure (classified) Code. The development environment is unclassified. The request is for the methodology the Offeror will use to secure the code from unauthorized access. This is a scenario‐ based factor tied to the IDIQ PWS, not an actual Task Order requirement. The submission will be evaluated based on Section M evaluation procedures.

6. Ref: Page 50 2.7.1 – Factor‐2: Will the government provide the Information Assurance provisions for this development, or will the contractor be required to provide this capability.

ANSWER: Section L, Para 2.7.1, Sub‐Factor 2 is a scenario‐based factor tied to the IDIQ PWS, not an actual Task Order requirement. See Question #5 for clarification of the proposal instructions of this sub‐factor.

7. Ref: Page 50 2.7.1 – Factor‐3: What is the Period of Performance or date that this requirement will be required to be completed?

ANSWER: Section L, Para 2.7.1, Sub‐Factor 3 refers to the instruction to provide a description of methodology and approach to Systems Analysis and Design with specifics as to configuration management. This is a scenario‐based factor tied to the IDIQ PWS, not an actual Task Order requirement. The submission will be evaluated based on Section M evaluation procedures.

8. Ref: Page 50 2.7.1 – Factor‐3: Is this requirement completely on site at JIATFS or would the government entertain a virtual effort in part or whole at the contractor site?

ANSWER: Section L, Para 2.7.1, Sub‐Factor 3 refers to the instruction to provide a description of methodology and approach to Systems Analysis and Design with specifics as to configuration management. This is a scenario‐based factor tied to the IDIQ PWS, not an actual Task Order requirement. The submission will be evaluated based on Section M evaluation procedures. All services shall be provided on‐site at JIATF‐S located at NAS Key West, FL as stated in Paragraph 1.1 of the IDIQ PWS.

9. Ref: Page 51 2.9: In order to ensure that industry can provide the rates required for the work anticipated on this entire IDIQ, we believe that the government needs to expand the Labor Categories in the PWS Pages 4 & 5 to include “System Architect Level 2,” Program Manager, Information Assurance Specialists (CISSP Certified), Instructional Designer (ISD) and Cost Analyst.

ANSWER: Offerors can include additional labor categories in the submission of Volume III, IDIQ Labor Pricing. The intent of IDIQ PWS Paragraph 1.6.11 is to establish the baseline competency levels required to meet expectations of performance.

10. Ref: Page 52 2.11.1, Factors 1 & 2: There is no mention of schedule in either sample task. Does the government have expected completion date for these tasks?

ANSWER: Section L, Para 2.11.1, Sub‐Factors 1 & 2 refer to the instruction to provide a description of methodology and approach to the building out of farms (1) and migrating of data (2). There is no request for a schedule.

11. Ref: Page 52 2.11.1 Factor 3: In order to effectively respond to this task will the government provide as GFI a Front End Analysis of the number of students to be trained, their current level of training, the specific tasks to be trained, the desired method of training delivery (IE: Courseware, Interactive Multi‐Media, Platform instruction) the frequency of training. Will the government have a Learning Management System desired/used and will the government require student tracking and reporting?

ANSWER: Section L, Para 2.11.1, Sub‐Factor 3 directly references Task Order PWS Paragraph 5.3 which contains the answer to this question.

a. Is there an existing Learning Management System (LMS)?

ANSWER: No

b. Will the government maintain the LMS or is the contractor required to?

ANSWER: If the contractor provides this service then the contractor will maintain it.

c. Is there a requirement for hosting the training? or is hosting service provided by gov?

ANSWER: The Government will provide the contractor with the training space identified in the Task Order PWS Para 5.3.

12. Will the contractor be required to provide Acceptance Test Procedures?

ANSWER: Yes

13. What type of government attended S/W Development reviews are there? PDR/CDR?

ANSWER: Typical development is conducted in an agile environment, so the Government will expect a review prior to any sprint release.

14. PWS Section 5.4.4 "Contractor to provide milestone plan...."

a. Will the solicitation include defined milestone requirements?

ANSWER: Question refers to the IDIQ PWS where there is not a requirement to base milestones.

b. Is there a current S/W development schedule/milestone/calendar for the current baseline?

ANSWER: Question refers to the IDIQ PWS where there is not a requirement to base milestones.

15. Are there any specific technologies required or restrictions as part of the solicitation?

ANSWER: See solicitation attachments.

16. Which Operating Systems need to be supported?

ANSWER: See Task Order PWS.

17. Ref: Page 50, 2.7.1. Is PostgreSQL the only acceptable solution or is the government receptive to alternatives?

ANSWER: Section L, Para 2.7.1, Sub‐Factor 1 refers to the instruction to provide a description of methodology and approach to the migrating of data to demonstrate knowledge and capability of database systems prominently used in our organization. This is a scenario‐based factor tied to the

IDIQ PWS, not an actual Task Order requirement. The submission will be evaluated based on Section M evaluation procedures.

18. Are there any bandwidth limitations?

ANSWER: This question does not provide sufficient context or PWS reference to provide any meaningful response.

19. How many current, future/anticipated, concurrent SharePoint users?

ANSWER: See Task Order PWS Paragraph 5.3.

20. PWS 5.4.1 "modification to existing hardware...." What is the existing hardware and specifications?

ANSWER: Question references IDIQ PWS. There is not actual work associated with the IDIQ PWS.

The purpose of the IDIQ PWS is to define the scope for the types of work that can be issued as task orders.

21. Will the hardware be provided as GFE?

ANSWER: See Part 3 of Task Order PWS.

22. What is the current IT configuration?

23. Is the contractor required to provide the IT labor resources and maintain the site?

24. Ref: Page 3 A‐2: In order to ensure the JIATFS obtains the optimal Software Development services, will the government provide and Industry day for this requirement?

ANSWER: There will not be an Industry Day for this requirement.

25. Ref: Page 3 A‐2: Will the government entertain requests for One‐On‐One with the Program Office?

ANSWER: There will not be one‐on‐one meetings with the program office.

26. Is this contract going to be a combination of FFP, CPFF and T&M or just FFP?

ANSWER: Task Orders will be FFP.

27. What are the deliverables for each CLIN listed?

ANSWER: The CLINs listed in the solicitation are for the IDIQ Contract award. There are not deliverables at the contract level. Requirements are fulfilled on Task Orders.

28. Ref: Section L, Para 2.8. Given that similar efforts are performed regularly across the federal enterprise, would the government allow for contractors to provide non‐DOD past performances?

ANSWER: The assumption that similar efforts are performed across other federal agencies is incorrect. There is a significantly higher level of complexity in working DOD programs driven by agency specific regulations, instructions, directives and policies. The instructions, directives and policies are documented in the IDIQ PWS, Part 6 Applicable Publications.

29. Ref: Section L, Para 2.8. Will the Government accept past performance from a subcontractor on the prime contractor’s team?

ANSWER: Subcontractor past performance will not be evaluated.

30. Ref: Section L, Para 1.1.10 Acceptance. I would like the opportunity for my firm to respond to this opportunity for Software Programming Support; however at this time my firm does not possess a Top Secret Facility Clearance (FCL). Please advise if any exceptions can be made to the referenced paragraph.

ANSWER: Exceptions cannot be made to this requirement. A company cannot certify/sponsor their employees or subcontractors at a clearance level that is higher than their FCL. Performance of task orders under this contract requires contractor staff to work within Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIF). Top Secret clearances are required to access the SCIF workspace; there is not an alternate workspace location to utilize for performance while the contractor obtains a Top Secret FCL which could take up to a year.

31. Follow up to Question 28. The intent of the question provided below was "will non ‐ DOD Past Performances be allowed for submission and evaluated.”

ANSWER: Recent Past Performance submissions which do not demonstrate DOD Experience in any of the Relevancy Factors will be evaluated as “Not Relevant.” The Relevancy Factors and Past Performance Evaluation Process are located in Section M, Paragraph 5.3.1.

32. Ref: RFP L.2.9 Volume III. Is the Government referring to a total compensation plan in accordance with FAR 52.222‐46? If so, rephrasing to include FAR clause by reference would ensure compliance with clause requirements.

ANSWER: This submission is not the total compensation plan described in FAR 52.222‐46. The IDIQ Labor Pricing submission will be evaluated as stated in Section M, Para 5.4.1. The intent of this evaluation is to determine fair and reasonableness of labor rates at the IDIQ Contract level. Task Orders utilizing labor rates that were already determined fair and reasonable at the IDIQ level will streamline some of the task order award processes.

33. Ref: RFP L.2.5. Will the Government accept PDF format documents for all narrative volumes to reduce formatting errors from software version differences?

ANSWER: PDF is an acceptable format for narrative volumes.

34. Ref: RFP L.2.3. Will the title page or glossary be included in the page count for all volumes?

ANSWER: Section L, Para 2.6 states that the Table of Contents is not included in the page count. A title or cover page preceding each volume will not be included in the page count. The RFP does not include submission instructions to provide a glossary. If the offeror provides a glossary as part of their volume, it will be counted towards the page count for that volume. An executive summary is not required and will be counted towards the page count.

35. Ref: IDIQ PWS 1.6.11 & 5.4. The Level 1 description for software programmer in PWS 1.6.11 has a minimum experience requirement of 4 years that is to be applied across the IDIQ. The minimum experience requirement in PWS 5.4 (Software Programming) is 3 years. Is it the Government’s intention to apply the three (3) level experience and education requirements approach across all functional areas (PWS 5.1‐5.4) and if so should the 5.1‐5.4 requirements match experience and educational requirements in 1.6.11?

ANSWER: The requirement is a minimum of 4 years of experience. Updated IDIQ PWS Paragraphs 5.1.2, 5.2.3, 5.3.2, and 5.4.6 to reflect the requirement stated in Paragraph 1.6.11. The revised Attachment 001 IDIQ PWS will be amended to the RFP.

36. Ref: IDIQ PWS 1.6.11. Will the Government include a junior level equivalent for personnel from 1‐3 years’ experience to allow for entry level tasking or is it the Government’s intention to utilize only more experienced personnel during contract performance?

ANSWER: The Government only requires experienced personnel which meet or exceed the minimum qualification levels.

37. Ref: TO PWS. Travel is not addressed in the TO PWS. Does the Government anticipate any travel requirements for the SharePoint task order?

ANSWER: All work will be performed on‐site, with the exception training content development identified in the response to question 49. Servers are located on‐site. There will be no travel required.

38. Ref: RFP & IDIQ PWS 1.6.10. The IDIQ PWS references identifying by name the primary technical and managerial interface with the KO. There are no instructions in Section L or evaluation criteria in M regarding naming key personnel or inclusion of resumes. Suggest the inclusion of resumes be a requirement at submission and included in section L and as evaluation criteria in M. Does the Government expect the offeror to name or provide resumes of key personnel at the time of submission?

ANSWER: The identification of the managerial interface point of contact (POC) is not required until after contract award. The identification of the primary technical POC is not required until after task order award. Resumes of key personnel are not included in Section L – Instruction to Offerors because they are not required as part of this solicitation.

39. Ref: IDIQ PWS 1.6.11. Allowing substitution of experience for education such as 2 years of experience is equal to 1 year of education would greatly decrease risk of finding qualified personnel.

Will the Government allow for the substitution of experience for degree/education requirements?

ANSWER: The substitution of education for experience is not acceptable for the technical positions identified in IDIQ PWS 1.6.11. See Question #9, these minimum qualification requirements are intended to establish the baseline for the primary technical positions. Additional labor categories may utilize other qualifications appropriate to their function.

40. Ref: RFP M.5.3.1 “Relevancy Assessment”: Would the government consider including SharePoint 2013 specific migration, SharePoint development and SharePoint training to the evaluation portions of the table for past performance to allow the offeror the ability to demonstrate applicable past performance to the Sample TO?

ANSWER: The Government has considered the inclusion of SharePoint in the relevancy assessment and determined the following: Although the SharePoint Migration requirement falls within the scope of the IDIQ, it is not representative of the majority of work required under future task orders.

SharePoint will not be included in the relevancy assessment.

41. Ref: TO PWS 5.3.2. Will the government provide additional information on the current configuration of the training room? For example, will the government confirm that computers will be available for all attendees, with access to the SharePoint environments?

ANSWER: Computers with access to both SharePoint environments will be available for each student in the classroom.

42. Ref: TO PWS. Can the government provide clarification on the Period of Performance and Level of Effort for the Sample TO? Specifically, can the government provide information on how the contractor should develop their WBS and pricing if certain elements (i.e. the initial SharePoint migration) will only require certain manpower support for a limited of period of time? Does the government intend for the contractor to account for temporary employees’ costs (i.e. housing, rental car, etc.) in their FFP Cost?

ANSWER: The task order requirement should not take longer than 1 year. All pricing elements attributed to this requirement shall be captured in the total Firm‐Fixed Price (FFP).

43. Ref: TO PWS 5.2.4. Does the government intend for the contractor to price and staff for the initial migration and then transition to a sustainment and training staff? What level of sustainment does the government intend for the contractor to provide on the SharePoint environment after migration? Can the government provide updates to “Part 7 Technical Exhibit 1, Performance Requirements Summary” to include the threshold and objective requirements allow the contractor to determine the level of effort needed in staffing?

ANSWER: The “end‐user support prior to and following migration” stated Paragraph 5.2.4 refers to the phased migration by directorate identified in Paragraph 5.2.1 where each directorate shall be migrated and trained consecutively. Each directorate will have end‐users which require instruction and feedback pre‐migration, then feedback and training post migration.

44. Ref: RFP Section L, Para 2.12. Due to the complexity of the Task Order pricing requirements, can the offeror create an excel workbook as a supplemental attachment to Volume VI?

ANSWER: Yes. See RFP Section L, Para 2.3. There is no page limit on Volume VI – Task Order Pricing.

45. Ref: RFP Section L, Para 2.9. In addition to providing a compensation plan with salaries and benefits, is the offeror to provide fully loaded labor rates for all proposed labor categories at the IDIQ level?

ANSWER: See Questions 9 and 32. Offerors can include additional labor categories in the submission of Volume III, IDIQ Labor Pricing. The intent of this evaluation is to determine fair and reasonableness of labor rates at the IDIQ Contract level. Task Orders utilizing labor rates that were already determined fair and reasonable at the IDIQ level will streamline some of the task order award processes.

46. Ref: IDIQ PWS Para 1.6.14.1.1. Is being a CHESS Prime or teammates considered an Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI)?

ANSWER: No.

47. Ref: IDIQ PWS Para 5.13 & 5.4 (page 14). These two sections do not follow the outline order of the prior PWS sections. Will the government correct the numbering of these sections or was this intentional to include these sections in that order?

ANSWER: IDIQ PWS Paragraph 5.4 is renumbered as 5.14. The revised Attachment 001 IDIQ PWS will be amended to the RFP.

48. Ref: RFP Section L, Para 2.8. May we use a DoD subcontract as a past performance reference? The reference is very relevant but the DoD organization the prime supported is no longer in existence.

The prime has agreed to provide a completed questionnaire.

ANSWER: Past performance references must be based on efforts performed by the offeror.

Accordingly, past performance references where the offeror performed as a subcontractor on a DoD contract are acceptable.

49. Ref: RFP Section L, Para 2.11. Will the government consider allowing training content development to occur offsite vice all contract training staff being collocated to the learning and performance environment?

ANSWER: Training content development can occur off‐site. The training itself must occur on‐site.

50. Ref: RFP & PWS. Should Section L numbering be used in response to this RFP or the section numbering used in the PWS?

ANSWER: There is no requirement for specific paragraph numbering.

51. Ref: TO PWS Para 1.2. The PWS references the setup of two Environments / farms. Does the government define each of those environments to include development, testing, staging, production, and potentially COOP instances?

ANSWER: The requirements are defined at Part 5 of the PWS, in Paragraph 5 and its sub‐paragraphs.

There is not a requirement for the contractor to provide COOP instances.

52. Ref: TO PWS Para 5.1.1. Does JIATFS currently utilize any COTS/Open Source products for Records Management, and if so, will the government provide that information to bidders for consideration in proposing a technical solution? Further, are there already custom workflows in place in the current environment to support the Information Management processes?

ANSWER: JIATFS currently does not use any COTS/Open Source products for Records Management.

The Records Management portion will have to be developed to satisfy Records Management requirements levied by higher headquarters. There are custom workflows already in place in the current environment which support various JIATFS business processes. All workflows will need to be duplicated, complete with workflow history, in the new environment.

53. Ref: TO PWS Para 5.1.3. The PWS states that the contractor shall be responsible for setting up and implementing a granular item level backup and recovery solution to a predefined backup location.

TO PWS Part 4 (Contractor Furnished Terms and Services) references Backup Software. Will the government disclose whether JIATFS already has a backup solution in place for the current environment, or any contractual constraints on what solution can be used?

ANSWER: JIATFS does already have a backup solution in place for the current computing environment. The contractor is required to provide a backup solution for the new environment. Any software that is placed on our networks must have an ATO from DISA at the appropriate network security level. We require that the new backup software provides a granular item level backup and recovery solution as we do not want to restore an entire backup for 1 or 2 items.

54. Ref: TO PWS Para 5.1.4. The PWS states that the contractor shall be responsible for planning, configuring, and building out a Binary Large Object (BLOB) or Media server solution for each environment to store images, audio, or other multimedia objects. Does the government require this solution to be directly integrated into the SharePoint Solution?

ANSWER: If ‘directly integrated into the SharePoint Solution’ is meant to describe that the BLOB or Media server contents would be available by links contained within list or libraries within the SharePoint solution, the answer is yes.

55. Ref: TO PWS Para 5.1.4. The PWS states that the contractor shall be responsible for planning, configuring, and building out a Binary Large Object (BLOB) or Media server solution for each environment to store images, audio, or other multimedia objects. Will the government disclose the approximate size or size range of the images, audio, or other multimedia objects?

ANSWER: Most images are between 2MB ‐ 4MB in size. Video files are typically >500MB ‐ 2GB.

56. Ref: TO PWS Para 5.1.6. The PWS references a Task Management Solution. Are the associated task management processes already documented, or should bidders plan to conduct business analysis to document those processes?

ANSWER: This question references a PWS Paragraph 5.1.6 which states that a Task Management Solution will be negotiated separately if the Government chooses to implement. Task Management Alternatives in PWS 5.1.5 requires the delivery of 3 alternatives for Task Management Solutions. As stated in PWS 5.1.5 the alternatives must be capable of utilizing the current directorate specific business processes. The business processes are not already documented and research may be required by the contractor to provide these alternatives.

57. Ref: TO PWS Para 5.1.9. In reference to the contractor ensuring load balancing and high availability, does the government intend to purchase licenses for the load balancing solution outside the scope of the contract, or should bidders incorporate those ODCs into their proposals?

ANSWER: Offerors should incorporate licenses for the load balancing solution into their proposals.

58. Ref: TO PWS Para 5.2.2. Will the government provide information on the current data sources to be migrated? TO PWS Part 4 (Contractor Furnished Items and Services) references Migration Software.

Does the government own or intend to purchase migration software licenses, or should bidders incorporate those ODCs into their proposals?

ANSWER: The source of the data migrated to the new NIPRNET SharePoint environment is the old NIPRNET SharePoint environment. The source of the data migrated to the new SIPRNET SharePoint environment is the old SIPRNET SharePoint environment. All current data shall be migrated. Offerors should incorporate migration software licenses into their proposals.

59. Ref: TO PWS Para 5.8. Will the government provide additional information regarding which positions will require a Top Secret (versus Secret) clearance?

ANSWER: All on‐site personnel will require clearance at the Top Secret level.

60. Ref: TO PWS Para 1.2 and 5.2. The Scope defines that the contractor will be responsible for migration of the data. However paragraph 5.2 does not indicate any service other than planning, software selection, testing, and user support. Is the contractor responsible for the actual migration of the data?

ANSWER: Yes, the contractor is responsible for data migration.

61. Ref: IDIQ PWS Para 1.6.11.1. The paragraph states “Minimum of 4 years of experience working in the specific field e.g. a developer must have 5 years of direct JAVA experience.” Are there any specifics that can be given on the preferred programming language? We see JAVA is just used as an example.

ANSWER: Most of our development is done using Java. On top of Java we utilize Bootstrap, Angular, JavaScript, Prime Faces and HTML5. There may also be some.Net development services using C#.

62. Ref: IDIQ PWS Para 5.1.2. The paragraph states “Personnel assigned to or utilized by the contractor in the performance of this task shall, as a minimum have DoD 8570.01‐M, Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program, Information Assurance Technical (IAT) Level II certification”. Do personnel have to possess this certification prior to beginning work or are they able to obtain this within a certain time frame, i.e. 90 days or 6 months?

ANSWER: Due to the fact that acquiring any level of system access at JIATFS requires IAWIP certification, personnel reporting to work at JIATFS shall have the appropriate certifications prior to reporting to work.