Proposal for the Emerging Technology Subcommittee,

Architecture and Infrastructure Committee

 

 Support for the Development of a Process to Identify Emerging Technologies

 

Technical Approach and Cost Estimate

 

1.0       INTRODUCTION

 

The Federal Government lacks a clear and open process to support the identification and validation of emerging technologies that support the President’s e-government goals, and the    introduction of these technologies into the Federal marketplace.   A process is needed that provides emerging technology vendors with a primary point of entry to the Federal IT community, and that promotes information sharing about these technologies across Federal agencies.

 

The Emerging Technology Subcommittee of the CIO Council’s Architecture and Infrastructure Committee is charged with examining cross-cutting emerging technology components and developing recommendations for their use in the Federal Government.   The Subcommittee has been tasked with defining a process that will allow the IT innovation life-cycle to be managed on a Governmentwide basis, and to accelerate the discovery, validation, and maturation of Federal Enterprise Architecture components that improve Federal performance and the delivery of citizen services.

 

It is expected that such a process will lead to better-coordinated and more productive response to submissions of components in support of the eGov initiatives and within the framework of the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA). The desired outcome is the well-coordinated availability of logically separable technology components for potential Government-wide usage that utilizes a sustainable, self-supporting process for the technical assessment of emerging technologies. 

 

2.0       SCOPE

 

The scope of this task will be Stage 1 of the process described in the U.S. CIO Council document titled “Managing the IT Innovation Life-Cycle: Proposed Stages/Schemas” of May 27, 2003. Stage 1 is known as the “Identification” stage, in which vendors, integrators, and other organizations (known as “submitters” in this document) can identify and “nominate” a proposed component merely be providing the required information in the form of an XML instance document, as specified by a group of XML schemas (known as “component XML schemas” in this document).

 

The XML instance document containing the component information would be stored on the submitter’s own Web site at a given URL. This URL - along with additional information regarding the component - would be registered through the use of a Web form with a site known as “ET.gov”. Both the Web form and the ET.gov site are to be created as part of this task. Selected metadata will then be “indexed” for each registered component at ET.gov, thereby enabling efficient discovery of available components through their metadata properties. Full-text search will also be available. Submitters may also develop their own user interfaces for submissions (e.g. e-forms), based on the component XML schemas.

 

We envision a relationship between the overall proposed process and CORE.gov. We envision that ET.gov will accept submissions from the vendor/integrator community while CORE.gov will focus on submissions from the federal community, and that a component will “graduate” from ET.gov to CORE.gov once a sufficient level of subscription and commitment to the component exists within the federal community. However, defining this relationship formally will be out of scope of this task, as it will require integration with stages beyond Stage 1.

 

3.0       OUR APPROACH

 

The Stage 1 process will involve the following major tasks:

 

  1. Establishment of ET.gov Web site
  2. Creation of submitter documentation
  3. Review and enhancement of proposed process (if necessary)
  4. Finalization of component XML schemas

 

Each of these tasks is described in general terms below, and more specifically in Section 4.

 

Task 1 - Establishment of ET.gov Web site: We will establish the “ET.gov” Web site and install all associated hardware. This will involve the creation of static and dynamic web pages, creation and configuration of a database to store information and the establishment of the ET.Gov brand, user interface, and site navigation.  We will also create the Web form that submitters will use to register the ET components, based on the component XML schemas. We intend to develop ET.Gov in conjunction with the Emerging Technology Subcommittee, to ensure that it meets the Subcommittee’s needs. We will also create an index on the ET.gov Web site that will enable efficient discovery of available components through their metadata properties.

 

Task 2 - Creation of submitter documentation: We will create the necessary documentation to help submitters create their component XML instance documents and register their components on the ET.gov Web site.

 

Task 3 - Enhancement of proposed process (if necessary): We will work with the ET Subcommittee to review the proposed process, and determine if any enhancements are required. If enhancements are required, we will work with the ET Subcommittee to enhance the proposed process as necessary.

 

Task 4 - Finalization of component XML schemas: We will work with the ET Subcommittee to finalize the current component XML schemas. This may involve adding additional XML artifacts to the XML schemas to represent additional component metadata.

 

4.0       TASKS, ACTIVITIES, AND WORK PRODUCTS

 

This section describes the activities and work products for each task listed in Section 3.  It is assumed that all infrastructure requirements (e.g. server, database product, etc.) are already in place and will therefore not be included in this document.

 

Task

Activity

Work Product

Task 1: Establishment of ET.gov Web site

Create ET.gov site

ET.gov site

 

Create draft ET component registration Web form with search index

N/A

 

Review draft ET component registration Web form with ET Subcommittee and enhance as necessary

N/A

 

Deliver final ET component registration Web form with search index

ET component registration Web form with index

 

Task 2: Creation of submitter documentation

Create draft submitter documentation

N/A

 

Review draft submitter documentation with ET Subcommittee and enhance as necessary

N/A

 

Deliver final submitter documentation

Submitter documentation

Task 3: Enhancement of proposed process (if necessary)

Review proposed Stage 1 process with ET Subcommittee and enhance as necessary

 N/A

 

Release final Stage 1 process

Finalized Stage 1 process

Task 4 - Finalization of component XML schemas

Review existing component XML schemas with ET Subcommittee and determine required enhancements

N/A

 

Enhance component XML schemas and review with ET Subcommittee

N/A

 

Deliver finalized component XML Schemas

Finalized component XML schemas

 

5.0              ESTIMATED COSTS

 

ANSWER Contract No:        GS09K99BHD0002                                       

Issuing Entity:                        Department of the Air Force,

Air Force Chief Information Office       

Contract Type:                       Time & Material

           

Total Hours (Mixed Labor Categories):                  [deleted]

Estimated Labor Costs:                                 [deleted]

ODC’s and GSA Fee’s:                                        [deleted]

 

 

6.0              ASSUMPTIONS

 

  1. During performance, Booz Allen may vary the labor mix within the categories set forth in the ANSWER contract to best meet the technical requirements, but will not exceed the NTE price.
  2. Booz Allen will work with the Emerging Technologies Subcommittee to identify a hosting facility for ET.Gov.
  3. ET.Gov will be responsible for the purchasing of all hardware, software, hosting fees, and licensing related to this task.
  4. ET.Gov performance criteria will be measured against 100 concurrent users.
  5. All requests outside the scope of work within this document will require additional time and funding.
  6. The Emerging Technologies Subcommittee will provide Booz Allen with the necessary content for the ET.Gov website.
  7. Booz Allen will have timely access to the subject matter experts to support the verification and validation of ET.Gov and newly created content.

 

 

Note - This Technical Approach and Cost estimate is NOT a legally binding document or contract.  If the government accepts Booz Allen’s approach and cost estimate, the government will work to modify Booz Allen’s existing AIC support contract, or create a new contract to support the effort.