SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Information Technology Workforce Needs Analysis
- Notice Date
- 9/27/2002
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- Office of Personnel Management, Office of Contracting and Administrative Services, Contracting Division, 1900 E Street, N.W., Room 1342, Washington, DC, 20415-7710
- ZIP Code
- 20415-7710
- Solicitation Number
- SOL020000029
- Point of Contact
- Judy Brader, Contract Specialist, Phone (202) 606-1924, Fax (202) 606-1464,
- E-Mail Address
-
jcbrader@opm.gov
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- Development of Web-based Assessments for an Information Technology Workforce Needs Analysis STATEMENT OF WORK The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Employment Service (ES) is seeking proposals from contractors to perform work associated with development of web-based assessments for an Information Technology Workforce Needs Analysis. As part of the process, OPM will be providing several assessment tools that can be used in evaluating the agency?s current employees on critical IT competencies. This statement of work specifies the scope of work to develop a web-based assessment tool that measures the critical competencies identified for the analysis. To meet commitments to the client agency, the web-based assessment must be ready for implementation by January 24, 2003. The web-based assessment should measure the critical competencies for each of the following IT specialty titles: - Policy, Planning, & Management -develop, implement, and ensure compliance with plans, policies, standards, infrastructures, and architectures that establish the framework for the management of all IT programs. - Information Systems Security -plan, develop, implement, and maintain programs, policies, and procedures to protect the integrity and confidentiality of systems, networks, and data. - Systems Analysis -consult with customers to refine functional requirements and translate functional requirements into technical specifications. - Software Engineering, Applications -translate technical specifications into programming specifications; develop, customize, or acquire applications software programs; and test debug, and maintain software programs. - Software Engineering, Systems -install, configure, and maintain networks including hardware (servers, hubs, bridges, switches, and routers) and software that permit the sharing and transmission of information. - Network Services -test, install, configure, and maintain networks including hardware (servers, hubs, bridges, switches, and routers) and software that permit the sharing and transmission of information. - Data Management -develop and administer databases used to store and retrieve data and develop standards for the handling of data. - Internet -provide services that permit the publication and transmission of information about agency programs to internal and external audiences using the Internet. - Systems Administration -install, configure, troubleshoot, and maintain hardware and software to ensure the availability and functionality of systems. - Customer Support -provide technical support to customers who need advice, assistance, and training in applying hardware and software systems. The proposed work can only be done by professional staff who has worked in the area of assessment development. Typically, these people would be development staff of for-profit and not-for-profit assessment development organizations. These people must possess psychometric skills that are not generally available. The professional staff must have extensive experience in developing and administering assessments such as tests via the Internet. Product and Service Specification (1) Development of Web-based Measures of Competencies. The following criteria are used by OPM in preparing items of this type and must be adhered to under this contract. Application of these principles in item specification, writing, and editing would address, directly or indirectly, many of the concerns in the public sector relating to job-relatedness, privacy, individual control, accuracy, and fairness. 1. Items should be judged relevant (i.e., discernable to a knowledgeable person) to job performance. 2. Items need to be compliant with all Section 508 accessibility standards. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1998 requires that Federal electronic and information technology be accessible to Federal employees with disabilities and requires Federal agencies to provide comparable access to information to both individuals with disabilities and individuals without disabilities. Further information can be found at http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=12 3. The tests will need to be administered to approximately 500 employees during a 4 week period starting February 17, 2003 and concluding March 14, 2003. Vendors should include pricing for administrations of up to 800 employees. Use of Existing Contractor Items The contractor may provide proprietary items from its files for this project providing the Federal Government is given authority for the unlimited use of the items, during the analysis process, for Federal use. Further, an item may be used for more than one dimension providing that a sound rationale is provided for that use. (2) Automate and Secure Assessments, Database, Interfaces and Access Platforms. The assessments must be secure, web-based and completely automated. Data must be collected using the Internet. The data to be collected will include the employee?s name, social security number, citizenship, and test scores. Employees who attempt to take the tests more than once should be blocked from accessing the tests after one administration. The data for all employees will be transmitted to a site designated by OPM via an HTTPS post after each administration in real time. OPM will send an acknowledgement to let the vendor know that each employee record was successfully received. The vendor will retransmit with acknowledgement if not received, and will cooperate with OPM in the reconciliation of failed transmissions. The vendor must also provide an automated control to prevent an employee from taking a test more than one time. The vendor will provide some form of notice to the employee, which can be printed in hard copy and retained by the employee, as a confirmation when, and only when, he or she has taken all required tests. The notice will include a unique confirmation number that can be used for tracking and reconciliation purposes. At the end of the Period of Performance, the vendor will provide a file containing all employees. The file should be in the format of a Microsoft Excel file, or a Microsoft Excel-like format that is suitable for statistical analysis. The vendor needs to retain information for each employee that includes every question asked and every response given by the employee. (If the vendor uses a numbering system to catalog questions, and can make available the catalog of the questions, it will suffice for the employee record to contain the question ID number and the response instead of the actual question.) Further, the web-based assessment must be transparently interfaced with an OPM or client agency website. The interface must represent an OPM product.This will ensure continuity and enable a smoother data transition within the project. The vendor may be noted as the web site contractor, following the above standards are met; however, the web-site must have the look and feel of an OPM site. OPM can provide agency-specific graphics and logos to the vendor. 3) Documentation of Quality of the Assessments The contractor must provide detailed documentation of the appropriateness and quality of the assessment tool, including supporting evidence of the validity and reliability of the assessments. 4) Documentation of Correspondence between Contractor Assessments and OPM Competencies The contractor should provide detailed documentation demonstrating the correspondence between the contractor?s assessments and OPM?s IT competencies. 5) Evaluation of Products Produced The contractor will submit a timeline for the work products to ensure that the work is completed in a timely manner. Once the statement of work and timelines, with quality indicators, is agreed to, the contract may be stopped at anytime if the work has not been completed as specified in these documents. Criteria for Evaluation of Contractors The Government intends to award a firm, fixed-price purchase order for the services specified in the Statement of Work (SOW) to a source that will be of the best value to the Government, considering primarily technical excellence with price and other factors considered. The company offering the lowest price may not be selected if award to a higher priced proposal is deemed of better quality by OPM. The determination will be made by comparing the difference in value of technical features with differences in each offeror?s price. Subjective judgment on the part of the Government is implicit throughout the entire process if source selection. In making the best value comparison, the Government is more concerned with obtaining superior performance than price. However, the Government will not make an award at a significantly higher overall price to achieve only slightly superior performance capabilities and services. The Government will make this assessment through the development of trade-off analyses, and other analytic studies as necessary, that involve the assessment of benefits of superior performance capability and services versus added price. Price may become the ultimate determining factor for award of a contract as proposals become technically equal. The Government reserves the right to award without discussion. Proposals will be evaluated against, and should address the following requirements as further detailed in the SOW (from most important to least important factor): - Overall approach and methodology for accomplishing the work o Psychometric properties of assessments o Correspondence between assessments and IT competencies o User Interface o Data Security o Database (format, physical location, database software used) - Qualifications of contractor personnel Provide a resume for each staff member who will be assigned to this project; identifying, at a minimum their educational background and work experience, identifying prior specific projects of a nature similar to this one. If the offer intends to use any subcontractors, the offer should provide this same information for each potential subcontractor. - Past performance on similar projects. Offers should provide a list of all prior projects of a similar scope and magnitude to this project. This list should identify the name of the entity for which the work was performed, the contract number if applicable (or other method of identification), the date of performance, and a short description of the nature of the project. Additionally, for 3 to 5 of these prior projects, provide the name of a reference that can address contract performance. For each listed reference, include a current telephone number and address. Actual work samples or websites that the vendor has developed should be provided. - Managerial and administrative considerations. Provide a milestone chart which: Contains specific dates to complete each phase of the technical requirements; Contains delivery dates for interim and final products. - Managerial and administrative considerations. Provide a milestone chart which: Contains specific dates to complete each phase of the technical requirements; Contains delivery dates for interim and final products. - Cost (In situations where volume of administration is a consideration, it is appropriate for the contractor to specify pricing based on volume). The cost proposal should be broken down to show total fixed pricing proposed to accomplish each of the deliverables listed below. The total estimated proposed price per deliverable should be further broken down to show labor categories, the number of hours of effort for each labor category, and the fully loaded hourly rate for each labor category necessary to accomplish the deliverable. Additional Information Requests for additional information should be directed to Diane Johnson at 202-606-2335, fax 202-606-2961 or email dejohnso@opm.gov . Period of Performance: Date of award through April 4, 2003. Deliverables: - Delivery of Automated and Secure Assessments, Database, Interfaces and Access Platforms for testing January 24, 2003. - Delivery of Automated and Secure Assessments, Database, Interfaces and Access Platforms for live deployment by February 14, 2003. - Administration during the live deployment period of approximately 2000-2500 total test sessions (4-5 tests for each of up to 500 employees), with the electronic conveyance to OPM of all employee test results data. - Wrap up and reconciliation of records ? April 4, 2003. - Web-based interface for OPM staff to research the questions asked of an employee, and the responses given: Available for OPM use from January24, 2003 to January 21, 2005. THE DEADLINE FOR QUESTIONS IS OCTOBER 4, 2002 at 3:00 p.m. PROPOSAL DUE BY OCTOBER 11, 2002 AT 3:00 P.M. TO THE LOCATION INDICATED BELOW: OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT ATTN: MS. DIANE JOHNSON 1900 E STREET, NW, ROOM 6354 WASHINGTON, DC 20415 THE MAIL TO OPM CENTRAL OFFICE IS ERRATIC DUE TO THE ANTHRAX SITUATION. IT IS STRONGLY SUGGESTED THAT PROPOSALS BE DELIVERED BY CARRIER OR HAND DELIVERED. SEND ORIGINAL AND TWO COPIES OF THE TECHNICAL AND PRICE PROPOSAL. THE TECHNICAL PROPOSALS SHOULD BE SUBMITTED SEPERATLY FROM PRICE PROPOSAL.
- Place of Performance
- Address: 1900 E Street, NW, Washington, DC, ATTN: Diane Johnson
- Zip Code: 20415
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 20415
- Record
- SN00177767-W 20020929/020927213705 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
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