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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF AUGUST 02, 2015 FBO #5000
DOCUMENT

D -- SQUIRE Support Services - Attachment

Notice Date

7/31/2015
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Technology Acquisition Center;23 Christopher Way;Eatontown NJ 07724
 

ZIP Code

07724
 

Solicitation Number

VA11815Q0589
 

Response Due

8/14/2015
 

Archive Date

10/13/2015
 

Point of Contact

Colleen E Grasso
 

E-Mail Address

0-9689<br
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is hereby soliciting information about potential sources for the Software Quality Integration Results and Evaluation (SQUIRE) Services. The VA Office of Information and Technology(OIT) Product Development (PD) is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including Small, Small Disadvantaged (SDB), 8(a), Woman-owned (WOSB), Veteran Owned (VOSB), Service Disabled Veteran Owned (SD-VOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) businesses, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI) for the purpose of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for the SQUIRE procurement. The Government reserves the right to consider a SDVOSB, VOSB, Small, 8(a), WOSB, or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses hereto. BACKGROUND INFORMATION The SQUIRE Program strives to improve software maintainability, reliability, and quality of VA programs and missions through effective application of systems and software independent verification and validation (IV&V) methods, practices, and techniques. The SQUIRE Program applies software engineering best practices to evaluate the correctness and quality of critical and complex software systems throughout the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The SQUIRE Program's analytical approaches enable efficient, cost effective system and software assurance services through the usage of broad-based expertise, adaptive software engineering best practices, and tools that are in place at the SQUIRE Program within OIT PD. The SQUIRE Program requires a multi-disciplinary team and a qualitative software risk and criticality assessment capability coupled with extensive multiphase, phase-independent analytical processes for the performance of software assurance services. IV&V has been demonstrated to be an effective technique on large, complex software systems to provide assurance that the software being delivered meets requirements, including protection from cyber-attack, and is within cost and on schedule. Additionally, information assurance (IA) and other systems and software assurance activities, such as reliability analysis, independent testing, and quality assurance, generate additional technical evidence that a system and/or its software are ready for deployment and operation in today's rapidly changing security environment. SQUIRE's independent analysis objectively reviews the project software code and documentation to determine the software code quality, identifying key areas for code improvement. This end-to-end process, shown in the figure below, can be initiated at any point in the software development life cycle (SDLC). The scope of the SQUIRE effort is contained in the attached Draft Performance Work Statement (PWS). The PWS contains descriptions of the specific analysis tasks (in Section 5.2, SQUIRE Support) as well as the technical proficiency and expertise required to support the analysis effort. The SQUIRE-specific documents contained within Section 2, Applicable Documents of the PWS, SQUIRE Concept of Operations, SQUIRE Implementation Plan, SQUIRE Training Material, and SQUIRE Standard Operating Procedures will be provided in a subsequent Request for Information (RFI) or with the Request for Quote (RFQ). POTENTIAL ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND MITIGATION VA tentatively plans to use the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology (T4) contract. However, it is recognized that utilization of this and other contract vehicles may result in an Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 9.5. A potential Impaired Objectivity OCI may exist which cannot be mitigated. Since the primary purpose of SQUIRE is to conduct independent, impartial evaluation of software developed for VA use, the SQUIRE prime contractor and its subcontractors may be precluded from providing information technology (IT) software development or software support services on other VA contracts. These services include, but are not limited to, software development and maintenance, IT security compliance management, incident remediation, security plan development and maintenance, and systems management and administration. This restriction shall remain in effect throughout the solicitation and award period of performance for the respective contracts. The intent of this restriction is to create a separation between the provision of IT services, which includes the development of software and software intensive systems, and the provision of quality assurance and validation auditing functions. RESPONSES TO THE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION In response to this RFI, interested Offerors shall address the following requirements by August 14, 2015. Respond to each item below (identify by number) by describing your corporate ability to fully perform each activity. Document your demonstrated experience for each activity by providing objective evidence of that experience (give specific but brief examples; clearly indicate if the demonstrated experience was in a software development, software quality assurance, and/or an IV&V environment). If you are unable to fully perform an activity, identify and address how your organization will meet the SQUIRE requirements. For each response, indicate if the effort was major or minor. 1.Describe or provide evidence where you performed technical assessment of a full lifecycle IV&V project. Identify the tools utilized and products produced. 2.Describe or provide evidence of systems knowledge and experience in performing technical analysis of development projects across a wide range of development life cycle philosophies (e.g., Waterfall, Spiral, Agile, etc.). 3.Describe or provide evidence where you defined, documented, improved, and executed process and product management of software assurance activities (software quality assurance [SQA], software safety, software reliability, verification and validation [V&V], software security) within a software development, at both a system and software level. 4.Describe your corporate experience in applying "Cybersecurity and Software Assurance Measurement and Analysis" concepts from the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-53, or the Committee on National Security Systems guidance. 5.Describe, based on the SQUIRE description provided with this RFI, your opinion on the feasibility of using SQUIRE to evaluate VA Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) programs. 6.Describe or provide evidence of your ability to plan, scope, and implement a successful system and/or software test program. Describe or provide evidence where you performed the integration, application, and advancement of software analysis tools in support of a software quality analysis workflow. 7.Describe or provide evidence of relevant experience with VA standards for software development, software quality, systems engineering, and program management as well as similar experience with industry standards in the same areas. 8.Provide your response to the proposed restriction on future contracting: a.Do you find the potential conflict of interest language to be overly restrictive or appropriate and why? b.What other information would be helpful to include in the description of either the organizational conflict of interest or the prohibition of future contracting? c.What affect would this restriction have on your interest and willingness to compete on the SQUIRE effort if this language was included in the final solicitation and award? d. Do you currently provide any of the IT functions defined for the VA? If so, as a prime or a subcontractor? Please provide the relevant contract/task order number(s) and period of performance. e.What other methods could the Government use in order to prevent the SQUIRE contractor team from having OCI? 9.Describe your process for providing the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) (PWS 5.3) within the timeframe required by VA. VA is particularly interested in the level of expertise in software languages associated with VistA. 10.Provide a rough order magnitude (ROM) cost for providing the SQUIRE services. a.ROM cost for PWS 5.2.1, SQUIRE Software Analysis Support based on the following: i. Full Evaluation - 240 hours per analysis ii.Code Wash - 40 hours per analysis b.ROM costs for PWS 5.2.2, Maintenance and Documentation Support 11.Has the draft PWS provided sufficient detail to describe the technical and functional requirements that encompass the desired solution? If "NO", please provide your technical and functional comments/recommendations on elements of the draft PWS that may contribute to a more accurate proposal submission and efficient, cost effective solution. RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS All written documents shall be in Microsoft Word and shall be no more than 15 pages (8.5" x 11", using not smaller than 12 point font) in length. Provide comments and recommendations on the draft SQUIRE PWS provided with the RFI. Comments on the VA draft documents are not included in the page limit. A one-page summary shall be included with your capability statement(s), which identifies your company's specific capabilities that are relevant to the requirement. In addition, the summary should also include the following: name and address of company, average annual revenue for the past three years, number of employees, type of business ownership (i.e., Large Business, Small Business, Women-Owned Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, 8(a) Business, HUBZone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, Veteran-Owned Small Business), your interest in this procurement as a prime contractor and/or subcontractor, and location of business. The one page summary page will not count against the maximum page limit. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized in FedBizOpps. It is the potential Offerors responsibility to monitor this site for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. Interested Offerors shall address the requirements of this RFI in written format by electronic mail to Colleen Grasso at colleen.grasso@va.gov no later than August 14, 2015. When responding, reference SQUIRE Services RFI. All questions and/or comments shall be directed to colleen.grasso@va.gov through electronic mail only. This RFI is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for the information submitted in response. This document is for information and planning purposes and to allow industry the opportunity to express the range of capability in the market. Respondents will not be notified of the results. As stipulated in FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. This RFI is subject to FAR 52.215-3. To the full extent that it is protected pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and other laws and regulations, information identified by a respondent as "Proprietary or Confidential" will be kept confidential. It is emphasized that this RFI is for planning and information purposes only and is NOT to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contractual agreement, nor will the Government pay for information solicited.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/0d7fb90765609e69e8f38188d5a82e3c)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: VA118-15-Q-0589 VA118-15-N-0589.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2205375&FileName=VA118-15-Q-0589-000.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2205375&FileName=VA118-15-Q-0589-000.docx

 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Record

SN03819864-W 20150802/150731235625-0d7fb90765609e69e8f38188d5a82e3c (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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