TAC-18-50881 App Tester

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services/items prepared in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested. This solicitation is issued as a Request for Proposal (RFP); the solicitation number is 36C10B18R2935 (see attached document: 36C10B18R2935).
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (NCPTSD), Dissemination and Training Division, has a requirement to more rapidly provide feedback to the VA mobile app developers, to more rapidly generate content for new apps, to be more responsive to requests for updates to existing apps in the portfolio, and to have an additional layer of clinical review to ensure appropriateness and utility for Veterans with PTSD. NCPTSD requires support with clinical content writing (including development of clinically-supported, evidence-based, user-friendly patient education materials), clinical review of existing content to ensure appropriateness to the Veteran population and consistency with the latest clinical evidence on PTSD treatment and recovery, Veteran-focused user experience testing to evaluate apps to ensure that they are easy to use, relatable, and inviting to Veterans with PTSD (e.g., making sure the user experience is not frustrating for Veterans and suggesting alternative approaches that could improve the user interface to better meet the needs of those with PTSD), and mobile app testing to ensure that app functionality and user interfaces are consistent with iOS and Android user interface guidelines, and expectancies of adult Veterans. This effort will assist NCPTSD in more quickly turning around builds to the mobile app developers to speed mobile app design, development, and maintenance. This action is part of a set of activities designed to maintain, redesign, and upgrade existing mobile apps previously built for NCPTSD, in order to provide reliable, high-quality mental health service to Veterans, their families, health care providers, and others. The specific work assignments will be determined throughout the period of performance, as Apple s successive updates to iOS and Google s successive updates to Android introduce new bugs and performance problems to the apps over the year, and as NCPTSD staff consider and develop possible new features. The Contractor shall provide mobile app testing to include functional testing, user experience testing, and ensuring the apps are clinically sound and current. The Contractor shall also generate clinical content for the mobile apps. It is required that the Contractor have clinical psychology expertise from an American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited program, have clinical experience in working with Veterans with PTSD, conducting behavioral research, have expertise in science and evidence-based recommendations for the treatment of PTSD, and clinical experience in delivering mobile interventions to Veterans with PTSD.
The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this effort is 541512.
This solicitation shall close on August 23, 2018 at 12:00PM EST.
Comparative evaluation will be performed in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.106-2(b)(3). Please refer to Section E of the solicitation for Quote Submission Instructions.
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