{please provide information about your job/role in the acquisition process as well as your organization}
Adrian Irby; Managing Principal/Owner of Avid Technology Professionals
Section of RFQ documents
{please be specific about the section of the RFQ documents you have a question or comment about, if applicable} Section 1 and Section 4
Question/Comment
{ask away!}
This assessment mentions gotchas from an analysis of what needs to be done and the listed or anticipated staff.
Questions:
1) Is the below assessment of required staff off-base or on-base? If it is on-base, it appears that an additional 1.75 FTEs are needed to get done what is required (unless this work is outsourced to some one else).
2) Are the years of experience realistic for the work to be accomplished?
3) Expand Capabilities ... in what ways?
4) Modernize Infrastructure .... how? using AWS in what way?
5) Are these observations unrealistic?
In order to acquire personnel with the listed skill sets, they will either need to have more experience, or be "fairly green / new" having recently learned all the contemporary web tools with a focus on linux, PHP, & Python. However the newer / younger developers will be prone to making certain mistakes, that more experienced developers have learned not to make, and therefore require an involved manager.
6) From Section 1: What is meant by this statement?
"Data.gov seeks technical services support to continuously develop the Data.gov application, expand Data.gov capabilities, modernize the Data.gov infrastructure and provide general development, operations, and infrastructure support required to maintain Data.gov’s website(s)."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Based on Section 4.0 Requirements, what is being asked for / suggested in the way of personnel is impractical. With all the deliverable requirements and the few FTE positions, some aspects of the requirements will never be accomplished. While the positions described are:
Also required will be, unless these services are provided by another org (on loan):
0.25 FTE - Network Engineer (Network / Server / System patching & updates, AWS)
0.25 FTE - ISSE (Security updates / configurations)
0.25 FTE - DBA (MySQL & PostgreSQL)
1 FTE - Content Management Specialist / Manager & Help desk support
While most Web Application Developers, a long with a seasoned Deployment Specialist, with "full stack" experience could handle most of the above, if they were required to there would be very little time in a fiscal / calendar year to actually maintain or develop code.
That being said, I'm focusing on the middle 3 positions:
Architect -
Required:
15+ years experience* to include:
Designing web applications
Content Management Systems (CMS)
Content scraping from other data sources Database design Public Key Infrastructure (PKI / digital certificate) processing Internet Security Protocols Session Management Information Security Security and privacy protection Understanding of and compliance with security requirements of federal agencies Capable of defining a virtual private cloud (VPC), access control lists bound to security groups, multifactor authentication, SSH access, and a publickey infrastructure (PKI) Certification and accreditation processes
Optional (working knowledge of the following):
Contemporary software languages, frameworks, and tools WordPress CKAN / Python PHP & CodeIgniter Jekyll and Jekyllrebuilder MySQL PostgreSQL Amazon Web Services (AWS) Apache Nginx OpenSSL and Let's Encrypt Github Programmer -
Required:
10+ years experience* to include:
Designing web applications
Contemporary software languages, frameworks, and tools Content Management Systems (CMS) Python / PHP Relational Database Management Systems (MySQL, PostgreSQL) Apache Nginx / Lunix / Unix Content scraping from other data sources Public Key Infrastructure (PKI / digital certificate) processing & multi-factor authentication Internet Security Protocols Session Management Information Security Security and privacy protection Understanding of and compliance with security requirements of federal agencies
Optional (working knowledge of the following):
WordPress
CKAN
CodeIgniter
Jekyll and Jekyllrebuilder
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
OpenSSL and Let's Encrypt
Github
Certification and accreditation processes
Deployment Specialist -
Required:
10+ years experience* to include:
Apache & Deploying web applications
Relational Database Management Systems (MySQL, PostgreSQL) Content Management Systems (CMS) Internet Security Protocols Information Security Understanding of and compliance with security requirements of federal agencies Certification and accreditation processes Nginx / Linux / Unix
Optional (working knowledge of the following):
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Virtual private cloud (VPC), access control lists bound to security groups, multifactor authentication, SSH access, and a publickey infrastructure (PKI) Contemporary software languages, frameworks, and tools WordPress CKAN / Python PHP & CodeIgniter Jekyll and Jekyllrebuilder OpenSSL and Let's Encrypt Github
* Years of experience are a SWAG, and most likely conservative on the low end.
Question/Comment
Name and affiliation
{please provide information about your job/role in the acquisition process as well as your organization} Adrian Irby; Managing Principal/Owner of Avid Technology Professionals
Section of RFQ documents
{please be specific about the section of the RFQ documents you have a question or comment about, if applicable} Section 1 and Section 4
Question/Comment
{ask away!}
This assessment mentions gotchas from an analysis of what needs to be done and the listed or anticipated staff. Questions:
1) Is the below assessment of required staff off-base or on-base? If it is on-base, it appears that an additional 1.75 FTEs are needed to get done what is required (unless this work is outsourced to some one else).
2) Are the years of experience realistic for the work to be accomplished?
3) Expand Capabilities ... in what ways?
4) Modernize Infrastructure .... how? using AWS in what way?
5) Are these observations unrealistic?
In order to acquire personnel with the listed skill sets, they will either need to have more experience, or be "fairly green / new" having recently learned all the contemporary web tools with a focus on linux, PHP, & Python. However the newer / younger developers will be prone to making certain mistakes, that more experienced developers have learned not to make, and therefore require an involved manager.
6) From Section 1: What is meant by this statement?
"Data.gov seeks technical services support to continuously develop the Data.gov application, expand Data.gov capabilities, modernize the Data.gov infrastructure and provide general development, operations, and infrastructure support required to maintain Data.gov’s website(s)."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Based on Section 4.0 Requirements, what is being asked for / suggested in the way of personnel is impractical. With all the deliverable requirements and the few FTE positions, some aspects of the requirements will never be accomplished. While the positions described are:
1 FTE – Project Manager .5 FTE – Architect 2 FTE – Programmer 1 FTE – Deployment Specialist .5 FTE – Quality Assurance/testing
Also required will be, unless these services are provided by another org (on loan): 0.25 FTE - Network Engineer (Network / Server / System patching & updates, AWS) 0.25 FTE - ISSE (Security updates / configurations) 0.25 FTE - DBA (MySQL & PostgreSQL) 1 FTE - Content Management Specialist / Manager & Help desk support
While most Web Application Developers, a long with a seasoned Deployment Specialist, with "full stack" experience could handle most of the above, if they were required to there would be very little time in a fiscal / calendar year to actually maintain or develop code.
That being said, I'm focusing on the middle 3 positions:
Architect - Required: 15+ years experience* to include: Designing web applications Content Management Systems (CMS) Content scraping from other data sources Database design Public Key Infrastructure (PKI / digital certificate) processing Internet Security Protocols Session Management Information Security Security and privacy protection Understanding of and compliance with security requirements of federal agencies Capable of defining a virtual private cloud (VPC), access control lists bound to security groups, multifactor authentication, SSH access, and a publickey infrastructure (PKI) Certification and accreditation processes
Optional (working knowledge of the following): Contemporary software languages, frameworks, and tools WordPress CKAN / Python PHP & CodeIgniter Jekyll and Jekyllrebuilder MySQL PostgreSQL Amazon Web Services (AWS) Apache Nginx OpenSSL and Let's Encrypt Github Programmer - Required: 10+ years experience* to include: Designing web applications Contemporary software languages, frameworks, and tools Content Management Systems (CMS) Python / PHP Relational Database Management Systems (MySQL, PostgreSQL) Apache Nginx / Lunix / Unix Content scraping from other data sources Public Key Infrastructure (PKI / digital certificate) processing & multi-factor authentication Internet Security Protocols Session Management Information Security Security and privacy protection Understanding of and compliance with security requirements of federal agencies
Optional (working knowledge of the following): WordPress CKAN CodeIgniter Jekyll and Jekyllrebuilder Amazon Web Services (AWS) OpenSSL and Let's Encrypt Github Certification and accreditation processes
Deployment Specialist - Required: 10+ years experience* to include: Apache & Deploying web applications Relational Database Management Systems (MySQL, PostgreSQL) Content Management Systems (CMS) Internet Security Protocols Information Security Understanding of and compliance with security requirements of federal agencies Certification and accreditation processes Nginx / Linux / Unix
Optional (working knowledge of the following): Amazon Web Services (AWS) Virtual private cloud (VPC), access control lists bound to security groups, multifactor authentication, SSH access, and a publickey infrastructure (PKI) Contemporary software languages, frameworks, and tools WordPress CKAN / Python PHP & CodeIgniter Jekyll and Jekyllrebuilder OpenSSL and Let's Encrypt Github
* Years of experience are a SWAG, and most likely conservative on the low end.