Questions
All questions concerning this RFQ must be submitted electronically through [this Google Form] by the deadline provided above.
Questions should be written in a way that enables clear understanding of the contractors' issues or concerns and must follow the format provided in the Google form. Statements expressing opinions, sentiments, or conjectures are not considered valid inquiries and will not receive a response. Further, contractors are reminded that the government will not address hypothetical questions aimed at receiving a potential "evaluation" decision.
Answers will be provided as an amendment to the solicitation.
Quotes will be evaluated on the factors listed below. Failure to follow the instructions may result in the quote being removed from further consideration for award. Contractors are cautioned not to include assumptions, caveats, or exceptions within any part of their submission. Inclusion of assumptions, caveats, or exceptions to the requirement of any kind may result in the quote no longer being considered. Contractors should ONLY submit information explicitly requested in this RFQ.
Technical submissions must consist of:
- Criteria 1: a technical approach of no more than four (4) additional pages to the performance work statement (PWS),
- Criteria 2: a staffing plan of no more than three (3) pages plus resumes and signed letters of intent to participate, and
- Criteria 3: references to one or more source code samples.
Technical submissions may also include user research plans and design artifacts of no more than 3 pages combined.
Technical approach and staffing plans must be submitted using 12-point type. Submissions over the page limits above will not be considered.
The technical approach must set forth the contractor's proposed approach to providing the services required, including the base software (if any) and programming language(s) the contractor proposes to use. The technical approach must also make clear that the contractor understands the details of the project requirements. The technical approach must also identify potential obstacles to efficient development and include plans to overcome those potential obstacles. The technical approach must also include a description of the contractor's plans, if any, to provide services through a joint venture, teaming partner, or subcontractors.
Contractors must complete the sections in RED of attached (PWS). Submission of any other template will constitute a non-responsive quote.
The staffing plan must set forth the contractor's proposed approach to staffing the requirements of this project, including the titles of each of the labor categories proposed and proposed level of effort for each member of the contractor's development team (i.e. full time, half time, etc.). The staffing plan must also identify the proposed Facilitator, Technical Lead and Design Lead by name, and include a resume for each. The resumes must include a brief description of the experience and capability for each individual, but cannot exceed one (1) page in length each. Contractors proposing Key Personnel who are not currently employed by the contractor or a teaming partner must include a signed letter of intent from the individual proposed as Key Personnel that he/she intends to participate in this project for at least one year. The staffing plan must also set forth the extent to which the proposed team for this project was involved in the development of the source code referred to in the next paragraph.
The staffing plan must set forth and explain the extent to which the contractor will provide individuals with experience in most the following areas:
- Agile development practices
- Automated (unit/integration/end-to-end) testing
- Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment
- Refactoring to minimize technical debt
- Application Protocol Interface (API) development and documentation
- Open-source software development
- Cloud deployment
- Open-source login/authentication services
- Product management and strategy
- Usability research, such as (but not limited to) contextual inquiry, stakeholder interviews, and usability testing
- User experience design
- Sketching, wireframing, and/or prototyping, and user-task flow development
- Visual design
- Content design and copywriting
- Building and testing public facing sites and tools
- User outreach / user adoption
- Database design and SQL queries
- Security / compliance
The similar experience references to one or more source code samples must be either links to Git repositories (either credentialed or public) or to equivalent version-controlled repositories that provide the evaluation team with the full revision history for all files. If a contractor submits a link to a private Git repository hosted with GitHub, the government will provide the contractor with one or more GitHub user identities by email, and the contractor will be expected to promptly provide the identified user(s) with access to the private Git repository.
The source code samples should be for projects that are similar in size, scope, and complexity to the project contemplated here. The source code must have been developed by either (i) the contractor itself, (ii) a teaming partner that is proposed in response to this RFQ, or (iii) an individual that is being proposed as Key Personnel for this project. The government would prefer that the source code samples have been for recent projects involving teams of approximately four to seven full-time equivalent (FTE) personnel.
If the references to source code samples provided do not include associated references to user research plans and design artifacts demonstrating how ongoing user research was incorporated into the project, then the contractor must submit a user research plan and design artifacts relating to at least one (1) of the source code samples provided.
General Information
Format. After review of Phase 1 -- Technical Submissions, the government will invite all contractors with a rating of "Some Confidence" or "High Confidence" to Phase 2 - Verbal Interview. Each contractor will be scheduled a 60-minute interview with the evaluation team so they can ask questions based on contractor's technical submission. Contractors should also introduce their team members who will be part of the support team. Lastly, the evaluation team will ask questions in regards to their expertise relative to the project.
Location. The interview sessions will be conducted by video chat, though audio may be substituted as needed. The government will coordinate and set up the virtual meeting space accordingly (by providing dial-in or links).
Date and Time. The government will schedule the date and time of the interviews with each contractor after the RFQ closing date and receipt of "Some Confidence" or "High Confidence" quote submissions. The government reserves the right to reschedule any contractor's interview date at the discretion of the Contracting Officer.
Each interview will include an unstructured question and answer session, during which contractors will be asked questions about the technical aspects of their quote and their approach to software development. The government expects these interviews will assist in assessing the technical abilities of the proposed development team and to better understand the proposed technical approach described in the contractor's written submission. All of the contractor's proposed Key Personnel must participate in the interview.
The Introductions phase of each interview will last no more than 5 minutes, during which the contractor and government interview team members will introduce themselves.
The Open Technical Session of each interview will last no more than 45 minutes, during which the Contractor interview team will respond to the government's questions related to the technical aspects of the contractor's quote. Contractors will NOT be able to use or present any slides, graphs, charts, or other written presentation materials, including handouts. There will be no follow-up session for further questions after this part of the interview.
The Closing Remarks phase of each interview will no more than 5 minutes, during which the contractor may make a short presentation summarizing the contractor's responses to the government's questions.
The interview associated with this RFQ does not and will not constitute discussions or negotiations as defined in FAR Part 15. Statements made during an interview will not become part of the contract. The government will not determine a competitive range, conduct discussions, nor solicit or allow revised quotes.
Once interviews are complete, each contractor will be assigned a confidence rating.
The government expects that the labor categories and staffing levels set forth by the contractor in the Excel workbook will be consistent with the contractor's staffing plan and with their GSA Schedule contract pricing.
The Contractor will be compensated at fully loaded hourly rates. The evaluation team intends to evaluate quotes without discussions with contractors, and therefore the contractor's initial quote should contain the contractor's best terms.
In an effort to receive the highest quality solution at the lowest possible price, the government requires discounts on all materials and services offered by contractors for this requirement in order to be considered for award. Contractors are encouraged to offer discounts below schedule contract rates, whichever is applicable. When discounts are offered, quotations must clearly identify the contract rate, the discount rate, and the percentage discount for each item or labor rate being discounted.
The contractor must provide a copy of their GSA Price Lists for all three (3) years for verification of pricing. If submitting a quote as a CTA, each member must submit their schedule pricing for each SIN they are eligible to perform under. If price discounts are not provided on the GSA price list, then the contractor will be deemed unacceptable.
For contractors that do not have out-year pricing, your task order pricing may be escalated at the same percentage of your GSA multiple award schedule (MAS) contract provided you submit a copy of a valid executed modification of your GSA MAS schedule to the CO.
The government is expecting price reductions for every rate proposed for the entire period(s) of performance. Prices will be verified to ensure they do not exceed the contractor's Schedule contract price. Prices will be evaluated with regard to whether discounted rates are offered or not. Quotes proposing labor rates that exceed those established in the contractor's BPA contract will not be considered for award.
Contractors will submit an Excel-based spreadsheet detailing the labor categories, contract rates, discount rates and discount percentages. This submission must not be submitted in PDF format.
Contractors must complete the sections in BLUE of the attached the Pricing Sheet. The Pricing Sheet attached to this solicitation must be completed and returned in Excel format with formulae intact. Submission of any other price sheet will constitute a non-responsive quote.
The government will evaluate the submitted quotes against the criteria set forth below and then make an award based on best value using tradeoffs. The government intends to utilize a phased approach for this procurement as described below. To be considered for award, contractors must successfully pass through each phase.
The government will award a task order resulting from this RFQ to the responsible contractor whose quote conforms to the RFQ that represents the best value to the government, price and the other criteria specified below. Contractors are advised that the non-price evaluation factors combined are significantly more important than price. As non-price ratings become closer, price will become more important.
- Phase 1 -- Technical Submission
- Criteria 1: Technical Approach
- Criteria 2: Staffing Plan
- Criteria 3: Similar Experience
- Phase 2 - Criteria 4: Verbal interview
- Phase 3 - Price Submission
Contractors must meet all requirements in Phase 1 and will be assigned a confidence rating. After the initial Phase 1 confidence assignment, contractors with a ranking of "Some Confidence" or "High Confidence" will be invited for Phase 2 - Verbal Interview.
Quotes that have failed to meet the criteria established in Phase 1 will no longer be considered for award. Contractors that pass Phase 2 with a "Some Confidence" or "High Confidence" will be evaluated based on their price submission.
The government will evaluate price quotes for award purposes by evaluating the hourly rate for each labor category and the overall discount provided off the contractor's GSA schedule pricing. This will include evaluating estimated hours submitted by the contractor for the purpose of considering the estimated total cost to the government. The government may determine that a quote is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options under FAR 52.217-8 will be accomplished by using the prices offered for the last option period to determine the price for a 6-month option period, which will be added to the base and other option years to arrive at the total price. Evaluation of options will not obligate the government to exercise the option(s).
The government also reserves the right to make no award.
NOTE: The government anticipates selecting an awardee based upon initial quotes received; therefore, contractors are cautioned to submit their best price and technical quotes in the initial submission.
In evaluating a contractor's technical approach, the government will consider (a) the quality of the contractor's plans to provide the open source, agile development services required, including user research and design, (b) the extent of the contractor's understanding of the details of the project requirements, and (c) the extent to which the contractor has identified potential obstacles to efficient development, and has proposed realistic approaches to overcome those potential obstacles.
In evaluating a contractor's staffing plan, the government will consider (a) the skills and experience of the Key Personnel and other individuals that the contractor plans to use to provide the required services, (b) the mix of labor categories that will comprise the contractor's proposed development team, and (c) the contractor's proposed number of hours of services to be provided by each member of the contractor's proposed development team.
In evaluating a contractor's similar experience, the government will consider the extent to which the contractor has recently provided software development services for projects that are similar in size, scope, and complexity to the project described in this RFQ, and the quality of those services. In evaluating the quality of those services, the evaluation team will consider, among other things, the revision history for all files in the source code samples provided. The government will also consider the user research and design-related artifacts that were associated with the source code samples provided or submitted separately. In considering a contractor's similar experience, the government may also consider information from any other source, including contractor's prior customers and public websites.
In evaluating a contractor's price, the government will consider the total of the contractor's estimated costs for the development services, and travel expenses proposed, for three years (a base year period plus two one-year option periods). Contractors will use this Excel [workbook] to submit pricing information.