RFI __Engineering support and services for the Core Systems Division - Affordable Care Act (ACA) Program Management Office (PMO).

Request For Information (RFI) 1. Introduction/Purpose The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act were signed into law in March 2010 to constitute the US Health Care Reform Act of 2010. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) established the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Program Management Office (PMO) as a functional division under the Information Technology Services (ITS) organization to support the legislative requirements of the PPACA. The ACA PMO is responsible for administering, managing, building and implementing new Information Technology (IT) solutions that do not currently exist to support select provisions of the legislation. The purpose of the RFI is to describe the general nature of the IRS need, the information desired of industry, and to provide instructions for submission of industry responses. In planning for the following procurement(s), the IRS is seeking innovative and cost-effective solutions that will ensure reliable performance, and increased efficiency and customer satisfaction. The purpose of this RFI is to obtain unique vendor Technical Subject Matter Expertise (SME) and Technical IT Specialists support and services, and project level support who possess extensive knowledge of IRS Current Processing Environment (CPE)/Legacy Systems, Computer Associates (CA) Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products including but not limited to: (e.g. CA Directory, SiteMinder, eTrust, MQSeries), and ACA PMO projects to facilitate engineering analysis, configuration, system integration, installation, research and documentation of process design diagrams. The Vendor shall provide technical leadership related to software engineering, design, infrastructure development, testing, deployment and operations and maintenance. In addition, the Vendor will provide technical engineering support and services needed for Exchange and/or Non-Exchange ACA projects. These include but are not limited to ACA Information Returns (AIR), ACA Income Family Size Verification (I&FSV), ACA Information Sharing and Reporting (ISR), Coverage Data Repository (CDR), Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure Engineering Support, and other IRS/ACA PMO Projects as requested. 2. Response The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses to this RFI nor otherwise reimburse vendors for the preparation of any information submitted or Government use of such information. Acknowledgement of receipt of responses will not be made, nor will respondents be notified regarding the outcome of the information received. Proprietary information should be clearly marked. Responses must be submitted in accordance with Section 17 of this RFI and should be limited to: Executive Summary - 2 page limit Technical Approach - 25 page limit Management Plan - 6 page limit Previous/Corporate Experience - 5 page limit 3. IRS Contact Information Responses must be submitted to Tanya M. Conner within 10 calendar days after issuance of the RFI and no later than 12:00 noon(EST) April 15th, 2013. Clarification questions must be received by 12:00 noon(EST) April 10th, 2013 in order to allow answers to questions to be publicly posted before the required response date of April 15th, 2013. Clarification questions in response to the RFI and final responses to the RFI may be emailed to Tanya.M.Conner@irs.gov on or before 12:00 noon(EST) April 10th, 2013. No telephonic inquiries will be accepted. 4. The Vendor will work as part of an Integrated Project Team (IPT): - Reviewing ACA Legislative Provisions, Enterprise Architecture/Solutions Engineering and AIR Project design documentation to facilitate clear understanding of new IT systems development and operation - Establishing contacts within the eServices/eFile Application, Modernized Electronic File (eFile), Cyber Security and Tax Processing Domains including Compliance, Corporate, Internal Management, and Submission Domains in an effort to understand IRS Enterprise documentation development standards and processes - Reviewing new systems requirements and /or enhancements to existing systems related to ACA Legislative Provisions and their impacts to other affected areas Desired Outcomes: Initiate the communication process between the Government and Vendor, assure a common understanding of Task Order requirements and objectives; delivery of Briefing minutes to the COR. 5. GENERAL PROGRAM-LEVEL OVERSIGHT & REPORTING General Program-Level Oversight & Reporting shall be completed throughout the lifecycle of the project to include project close-out. 6. Project Management Services The Vendor shall organize its delivery capability to be part of an Integrated Project Team (IPT) consisting of IRS staff and Vendor staff. The Vendor shall perform tasks on-schedule and on-budget, integrate efforts with the ACA PMO and designated ACA Projects, and conform to the IRS's Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and/or Enterprise Life Cycle (ELC) development path and methodologies. The Vendor shall support the functional and technical activities needed for management, including but not limited to: productivity and management methods such as quality assurance. Specific tasks shall include the following: - The Vendor shall assign a Project Manager (PjM) to report on-site at New Carrolton Federal Building. The PjM shall provide guidance, oversight, and control on the work performed under this Work Request (WR). The Vendor PjM shall report to an IRS Program Manager (PgM) or PjM as designated - The Vendor shall manage the deliverables, activities, and costs for the project team and other support Vendors to ensure timely delivery of services. The deliverables shall include the creation of Meeting Presentations (Decks); and facilitation of project meetings to include recording Meeting Minutes and Meeting Issue Tracking documents - Develop a Project Management Plan that provides at a minimum, Project Management, Configuration Management, Quality Management and Communications Management - Conduct customer status meetings on a bi-weekly basis or as specified by the IRS PgM or PjM - Conduct software maintenance activities, change control reporting, assist with COTS problems/defects and resolution and identify external project dependencies - Perform work activities during weekends, holidays, off-work hours, designated maintenance windows and during scheduled project builds as required - Monitor, report and provide input related to ACA PMO project status using IRS agreed reporting formats and schedules, to include project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS); Integrated Master Schedule (IMS); IRS agreed Key Performance Indicator Reports; and other IRS requested program management information - Upon request of the IRS PgM or PjM the Vendor shall periodically integrate schedules with other IRS/ACA Vendors schedules due to the number of overlapping dependencies or initiatives - Provide and support all functions of complex technology applications development including, design, development, systems engineering, integration and comprehensive testing - Provide technical support and services to include, but not limited to architecture, design, common services, prototyping, full-scale development, testing, migration, deployment, production roll-out and operational support - Record, track and report status of all assistance provided in a user service log, capturing problem identification and resolution information - The Vendor shall support the ACA PMO project team(s) with document control and archiving. This includes providing support in administering one or more of the following document repositories: Microsoft SharePoint, IRS Shared Drives, or DocIT - The Vendor shall adhere to all IRS Privacy Information Protection and Data Security standards as referenced in IRM 10.8.8. Detailed information about IRS IRM 10.8.8 will be provided to the vendor upon Task Order award - The Vendor shall adhere to IRM 2.25.2, Web Services, IRS Portal and Extranet Usage Standard. Detailed information about IRS IRM 2.25.2 will be provided to the Vendor upon Task Order award Desired Outcomes: The Vendor shall organize its delivery capability to be part of an Integrated Project Team (IPT) consisting of IRS staff and Vendor staff. The Vendor shall perform tasks on-schedule and on-budget, integrate efforts with the ACA PMO, and conform to the IRS's Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and/or Enterprise Life Cycle (ELC) development path and methodologies. The Vendor shall provide technical advice and consultation to the IRS and its Business users in the use and integration of CA COTS products as requested. 7. ACA INFORMATION RETURNS (AIR) Project ACA Information Returns (AIR) Project support shall be completed throughout the lifecycle of the project for Exchange and/or Non-Exchange Provisions 8. The vendor shall perform the following task: - Provide subject matter expertise and technical services/support related to the development and testing of infrastructure components and requirements - Provide subject matter expertise and technical services/support related to design, development, testing and implementation of CA COTS products (e.g. CA Directory, SiteMinder, eTrust) - Provide infrastructure subject matter expertise and technical services/support for IRS common services, software engineering and implementation enhancements to common services components - Provide engineering subject matter expertise and technical services/support related to configuration and installation of CA COTS portal components - Provide infrastructure subject matter expertise and technical services/support related to development, testing and deployment of external role provisions, authorization and authentication requirements - Provide engineering subject matter expertise and technical services/support related to real-time messaging and data access services and requirements - Provide subject matter expertise and technical services/support related to Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) package automation and configuration management - Assist in the development of high level requirements relating to common services and common service components - Implement tools required for software development. This includes tools required for design, code, integration, and testing of deliverable software. The Vendor shall configure, customize, and/or develop software and perform software unit testing. Vendor shall integrate unit tested software into a fully integrated CSCI, ready for acceptance test - Provide all documentation, design/process flow diagrams, Computer Operator Handbooks (COH), Functional Specification Packages and manuals required for operation and maintenance related to COTS products - Maintain all existing documentation and software manuals required to meet the requirements of this PWS. Appropriate change pages to all existing documentation shall be provided to the IRS/ACA PMO whenever a software change is made throughout the contract life, regardless of whether it is requested in an individuals Task Order - Provide all documentation for all software that is modified, newly developed or acquired after the contract award, in the format described which the IRS/ACA PMO may assume maintenance and modifications responsibilities. The Vendor shall supply the number of copies as specified in Task Orders issued by the Contracting Officer or authorized IRS Designee - Provide all relocatable code listings for all specially developed IRS/ACA PMO Project(s) IT systems upon written request by the IRS Contracting Officer or authorized IRS Designee at no cost to the Government. The Vendor shall not be required to provide these listings more than once per quarter - All documentation provided to the Government shall become and remain the property of the Government - Conduct technical reviews, to include preparation of presentation material, review of documentation pertinent to the review, attendance at review meetings, and completion of review action items Desired Outcomes: The Vendor shall provide subject matter expertise and technical services/support related to design, development, testing and implementation of CA COTS products (e.g. CA Directory, SiteMinder, eTrust). Conduct technical reviews, to include preparation of presentation material, review of documentation pertinent to the review, attendance at review meetings, and completion of review action items 9. ACA INFORMATION RETURNS (AIR) Project Testing ACA Information Returns (AIR) Project Testing shall be completed as required throughout the lifecycle of the project. 10. AIR Project Testing Services and Support Vendor shall provide technical services/support for Unit, Developer Integration Testing (DIT), Development Systems Integration Testing (DSIT), and support of eServices/eFile Application and Front-End Submitter Test of all software prior to transmittal to ACA Implementation & Testing (I&T) and AD Enterprise Systems Testing (EST) for formal Systems Acceptability Test (SAT), Final Integration Testing (FIT) or Production. Vendor shall provide the systems testing elements defined below as requested. - Unit Testing - Conduct unit test on all system level and application specific changes prior to transmittal to I&T and/or EST - Create unit Test Reports in such a way that it can be easily associated with the software version provided in the transmittal and listed in the Transmittal Memorandum in compliance with IRM 2553.32 - Document the Unit Testing in such a way that it can be easily associated with the software version provided in the transmittal and listed in the Transmittal Memorandum. The IRS reserves the right to review the Unit Test reports. The IRS will notify the Vendor, in writing via the ACA PMO COR, three (3) working days prior to the requested review - Provide support during Unit Testing, including training as necessary to familiarize IRS test personnel with the functionality of the software in accordance with the requirements and any process/application/system changes required for the new software version - Create and maintain Test Cases and Test Case traceability mappings to verify functionalities have met stated requirements during testing of the application - Provide development support and project level testing of the application functionalities through defect resolution - Support the coordination of program level integration and testing of the AIR program solution 11. Developer Integration Testing and Development Systems Integration Testing - Integration-test all system level and application specific changes prior to transmittal to I&T and/or EST. DIT and DSIT activities are required by IRM 2.5.2 - Systems Development, Software Testing Standards and Procedures, and confirmed in the Vendor Software Quality Assurance Plan - Perform and document DIT in a manner by which the IRS can verify, by inspection, that the objectives of DIT and DSIT have been met - Document the DIT and DSIT in such a way that it can be easily associated with the software version provided in the transmittal and listed in the Transmittal Memorandum. The IRS reserves the right to review the DIT and DSIT reports. The IRS will notify the Vendor, in writing via the ACA PMO COR three (3) working days prior to the requested review - Provide support during Systems Testing, including training as necessary to familiarize IRS test personnel with the functionality of the COTS software in accordance with the requirements and any process/application/system changes required for the new software version - Create and maintain Test Cases and Test Case traceability mappings to verify functionalities have met stated requirements during testing of the application - Provide development support and project level testing of the application functionalities through defect resolution - Support the coordination of program and project level integration and testing of the AIR program solution Desired Outcomes: The Vendor shall provide development support and project level testing of the application functionalities through defect resolution. Create and maintain Test Cases and Test Case traceability mappings to verify functionalities have met stated requirements during testing of the application. Provide support during Systems Testing, including training as necessary to familiarize IRS test personnel with the functionality of the COTS software in accordance with the requirements and any process/application/system changes required for the new software version. 12. Systems Acceptability Test (SAT) and Problem Definition Reporting Support The Vendor shall be responsible for supporting a Functional Systems Test, Systems Acceptability Test (SAT) and/or Final Integration Testing (FIT), Problem Definition Reporting and Transmittal Processing Support as defined below: 13. Problem Reporting SAT Problem Definitions Identified Deficiencies and System Problem Control which includes response timeframes, shall be accomplished as specified within IRM 2.6.1 - Test, Assurance & Documentation (TAD) Standards and Procedures. The timeframes for responding to Problems Definitions are: ? Priority 1 5 calendar days ? Priority 2 10 calendar days ? Priority 3 15 calendar days Respond to the Problem Definitions via the KISAM system. The Government will provide KISAM access and training to the Vendor as required. The Vendor shall be allowed access to the IRS network using the following equipment: ? PC (laptop or desktop) ? Modem (up to 56k) ? Safe Net Card ? Safe Net Smart D (desktop) or Safe Net Smart P (laptop) Resolutions to Problem Definitions, which require a change to system documentation, are not considered closed until the change page(s) have been received, verified and closed by ACA Implementation & Testing (I&T) and/or AD Enterprise Systems Testing (EST). Respond to the Problem Definitions via the KISAM system. The Government will provide KISAM access and training to the Vendor as required. Vendor shall not respond to a Problem Definition until the complete application, documentation, or IRS supported responses have been included on a transmittal and delivered to I&T and/or EST. 14. Transmittals Processing and Support Initial Transmittal Delivery - Provide delivery of ACA 4.1 and ACA 5.0 in accordance with the AIR Project and ACA PMO IMS - Provide correction transmittals on a bi-weekly basis following the acceptance of the applications for testing and continuing until the successful completion of I&T, SAT and/or FIT - Provide transmittals in exception to the bi-weekly schedule to respond to a Priority 1 Problem Definition Correction Transmittals - Deliver all software and documentation corrections in response to Problem Definitions in three (3) bi-weekly transmittals on Tuesdays - Deliver all transmittals NLT 7:30 a.m. or during the authorized maintenance window or in accord with Service Level Agreement on the scheduled transmittal delivery date Transmittal Deferrals or Exceptions - Submit a memorandum to the IRS Contracting Officer for each request for deferral or exception to a complete delivery, and for each subsequent deferral or exception to each subsequent delivery - Issue the memorandum requesting deferral or exception ten (10) workdays in advance of the transmittal for which the deferral or exception is being requested Transmittal Documentation - Provide a Ready for Use Letter for each transmittal to I&T and/or EST. The Vendor shall include the Ready for Use Letter in the Transmittal Package with the Transmittal Memorandum and installation instructions - Provide a Transmittal Memorandum in the Transmittal Package for each transmittal to I&T, SAT and/or FIT. The Vendor shall produce Transmittal Memoranda in compliance with applicable IRM directives and guidance. The Transmittal Memoranda must completely and accurately reflect the software transmitted. The Transmittal Memoranda must be consistent with the Vendor's Problem Definition (or KISAM) responses Transmittal Schedules and Scheduled Contents - Vendor shall schedule all transmittals with I&T and/or EST team's concurrence. Changes to the schedule of transmittals, once negotiated, can be made only with the concurrence of the Contracting Officer (or designated representative) and I&T concurrence. In the absence of the I&T PgM/PjM or designated representative, the transmittal shall be rescheduled directly with the AIR PgM/PjM - Delayed or incomplete transmittals, deferrals, exceptions, or transmittals containing "open issues" or known defects are not acceptable. Requests for deferrals and exceptions may be granted - Vendor shall not make changes to the scheduled contents of scheduled transmittals without the concurrence of the Contracting Officer and I&T Management - Vendor shall not transmit software changes or corrections before the scheduled transmittal date. All software transmitted must execute upon installation 15. Test Readiness Review - Prepare for and support the conduct of Test Readiness Review(s) (TRR) as defined by the IRS ELC PMO prior to performing ACA Functional Release Testing, SAT/FIT and/or formal system/regression testing in an operational/production-like environment. Detailed information about the TRR will be provided to the Vendor upon contract award - Provide system access and documentation necessary to demonstrate and verify readiness for I&T and/or EST End-to-End testing, implementation and deployment Desired Outcomes: The Vendor shall provide delivery of ACA 4.1 and ACA 5.0 in accordance with the AIR Project and ACA PMO IMS. Provide a Ready for Use Letter for each transmittal to I&T and/or EST. The Vendor shall include the Ready for Use Letter in the Transmittal Package with the Transmittal Memorandum and installation instructions. Prepare for and support the conduct of Test Readiness Review(s) (TRR) as defined by the IRS ELC PMO prior to performing ACA Functional Release Testing, SAT/FIT and/or formal system/regression testing in an operational/production-like environment. Detailed information about the TRR will be provided to the Vendor upon contract award. 16. Skill Requirements The Vendor shall be working with IRS staff to evaluate and/or implement the following operating systems, applications and software packages; including, but not limited to: o CA SiteMinder o CA Directory o CA Indentify Minder o WebSphere Application Sever o WebSphere MQ o WebMethods o Vignette (OpenText) o Informatica o Qmail o Arcsight o Forum Sentry Security Gateway o Java o C++ o C# o Cobol o IBM Rational Tool Suite o Microsoft Project o Microsoft Visio o Linux o Sun/Solaris o Java o XML o HTML o HP o JBoss/JMS o Oracle 10g/11g Environment o Oracle Access Manager o Oracle Real Application Clusters o Oracle Automatic Storage Management Specialized experience and expertise shall also include, but not limited to such areas as: o eAuthentication o InFlowSuite COTS framework o Disaster Recovery o Modernized Electronic Filing (MeF) o Security Audit and Analysis System (SAAS) o Enterprise Security Audit Trails (ESAT) 17. RFI Response The IRS is interested in obtaining the following information from industry to consider when determining its acquisition strategy and development of the Request for Proposal (RFP): 1. How many years of experience does your firm have performing IT development as described in this RFI? 2. What type of Software Engineering and Development services does your organization currently provide? 3. The IRS has extremely high security and privacy concerns. Preventing disclosure of privacy data (e.g., tax account data) is a major factor in any IRS application design. Describe your experience and best practices in tightly securing a devoplement platform including Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) policy servers, intrusion detection, and external and internal communications protocols. 4. Describe how you would provide the technical services and meet the workload information indicated in this RFI? 5. Are there new technologies and/or unique approached your organization can provide to accomplish our objectives as described in this RFI? If so, please describe. 6. What approach would you take to ensure that the IRS is operating on the latest or most appropriate versions of software, consistent with a release management strategy that effectively deals with compatibility issues? 7. What standard operating procedures does your firm/organization use to mitigate impacts to a production environment when deploying new applications and upgrades/enhancements on a continuing basis? 8. Please provide technology standards you support (i.e., .NET, J2EE, etc). 9. Describe your systems and development approach. Do you use open source, proprietary written code or a hybrid? What are the business reasons for choosing one over the other? 10. What capacity operations and planning analysis does your company perform to improve the capabilities of platforms and applications? 11. Describe your corporation's Capability Maturity Model (CMM) level compliance. 12. What testing/lab operations do you conduct in order to test new components and products being deployed to mitigate the impact to the shared infrastructure? 13. What parts of the architectural infrastructure are you able to test to identify risk or triage trouble reporting? Explain the nature of this testing. 14. A face-to-face/telephone meeting to review the vendor's response with IRS functional and technical personnel may be requested. Abbreviations and Acronyms ADA Americans with Disabilities Act API Application Programming Interface BPM Business Process Model BPMN Business Process Modeling Language BRE Business Rule Engine BREM Business Rules Enterprise Management BRME Business Rules Management Environment CADE Customer Account Data Engine COTS Commercial Off the Shelf CSV Comma Separated Values DBMS Database Management System DML Data Manipulation Language EA Enterprise Architecture GAO General Accountability Office GUI Graphic User Interface IRS Internal Revenue Service MOF Metadata Object Framework OMG Object Management Group RFP Request for Proposal RFS Request for Solution RIS Request for Information Services SBU Sensitive But Unclassified STIR Security and Technology Infrastructure Release TIGTA Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration UML Unified Modeling Language XMI XML Metadata Interchange XML Extensible Markup Language