2025-0103 Support to Develop Web Application (NS) - WED 2 Apr

Bidding Instructions - Technical Proposal: CV and attestation of the assigned resource for the project. Each CV shall contain accurate contact details for reference person for each of the listed professional experiences relevant to this Statement of Work

Deadline Date: Wednesday 2 April 2025

Requirement: Support to Develop Web Application (C#, .NET, ASP.NET, Angular)

Location: Off-Site

Note: Please refer to your Subcontract Agreement, article 6.4.1.a, which states “Off-Site Discount: 5% (this discount is applicable to all requirements, and applies when the assigned personnel are permitted to work Off-Site, such as at- home)". Please be sure to price this discount in your overall price proposal when submitting bids against off-site RFQs

Period of Performance: 2025 BASE: As soon as possible and not later than 12 May until 31 December 2025 with possibility to exercise sprints from the following options:

2026 Options: 1st January 2026 until 31st December 2026

2027 Options: 1st January 2027 until 31st December 2027

2028 Options: 1st January 2028 until 31st December 2028

Required Security Clearance: NATO SECRET

1. INTRODUCTION

The NATO Information and Communication Agency (NCI Agency) located in The Hague, The Netherlands, is currently involved in the development of new capabilities for NATO as well as in the support of existing capabilities. In the light of these activities, the C2 Centre is looking for one full stack .NET Web developer with experience in developing ASP.NET and .NET Applications, and with strong user interface proficiency.

The Full Stack .NET Web Developer will provide the technical subject matter expertise to enable and guide the design and development of integrated solutions that meet current and future business needs.

More specifically, the service will support the full software development cycle of TOPFAS NRS Tracking Application.

2. OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this statement of work is the development of new capabilities and the enhancement of existing features in the existing NATO TOPFAS Service.

Delivery of the services under this SoW requires skills of ONE Full Stack .NET Web Software Developer to update TOPFAS functionality and data structures to meet the mid-term requirements for enabling inter-operability between TOPFAS and other systems.

3. SCOPE OF WORK

The contractor will be part of a team (project manager, technical lead, software developers, etc.) and will provide the service using an Agile and iterative approach using multiple sprints. Each sprint is planned for an approximate duration of 2 weeks with an average 38 hours per week.

Services are required to be delivered within NCI Agency Business hours as per paragraph 9 of this SoW. The content and scope of each sprint and their related acceptance criteria will be agreed with the project manager and the technical lead during the sprint-planning meeting in writing.

The scope of the assignment will be limited to providing functional and technical solution analysis and software development, traceable through the Azure DevOps NATO Software Factory system.

The service will be executed mainly offsite, and some sprints might require the visit to other NATO locations. The development service will be carried out accessing remotely the Azure DevOps NATO Software Factory system.

The Developer will participate in the daily reporting and planning activities (daily stand-ups) as well as the required participation in workshops, events and conferences related to the supported services, as requested by the NCI Agency project team.

Under the direction of the NCI Agency project team, the developer will develop and update TOPFAS Application software. This includes the following activities:

• Implement and review software changes as required using Azure DevOps.
• Support the development of the front-end application and communication with back end services.
• Implement new interfaces and improve existing interfaces online real time interfaces.
• Migration from ASP.NET to .NET.
• Support bug fixing and stability improvements.
• Create user stories, including acceptance criteria and test cases to evaluate the functionality.
• Create and update documentation.
• Conduct impact analysis, to investigate which are the best ways to solve a certain problem, their effort estimation, document and present their pros and cons to the team.

4. COORDINATION AND REPORTING

The Contractor shall report to the NCIA TOPFAS Technical Lead.

The Contractor shall participate in daily status update meetings, sprint planning, sprint retrospectives and other meetings, in person via electronic means using Conference Call capabilities, according to project manager’s instructions. The camera feature should be used at all times.

For each sprint to be considered as complete and payable, the contractor:

• Must report the progress of his/her service and any impediments during the sprint daily meetings;
• Should report verbally the service completed during the sprint review;
• Should prepare a demo of the service completed and present it to the team during the sprint demo meeting.

Due to the AGILE approach of this project, there is a need to define a set of specific arrangements between the NCIA and the contractor that specifically defines the deliverables to be provided for each sprint as well as their associated acceptance criteria. This includes sprint planning, execution and review processes, which are detailed below:

Sprint Planning:

Objective: Plan the objectives for the upcoming sprint.

Kick-off meeting: Conduct a bi-weekly (every two weeks) meeting with the contractor to plan the objectives of upcoming sprint and review contractor`s manpower to meet the agreed deliverables.

Set sprint goals: Define clear, achievable goals for the sprint and associated acceptance criteria, including specific delivery targets, Quality standards as well as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each task to be recorded in the sprint meeting minutes.

Agree on the required level of effort for the various sprint tasks.

Backlog Review: Review and prioritise the backlog of tasks, issues, and improvements from previous sprints.

Assess each payment milestone cycle duration of two sprints. State of completion and validation of each sprint status and sign off sprints to be submitted for payment as covered in Section 5.

Sprint Execution

Objective: Contractor to execute the agreed “sprint plans” with continuous monitoring and adjustments.

Regular meetings between NCIA and the contractor to review sprint progress, address issues, and make necessary adjustments to the processes or production methodology. The Meetings will be physically in the office.

Continuous improvement: Contractor to establish a continuous feedback loop to gather input from all stakeholders for ongoing improvements and their subsequent implementation depending on NCIA approval.

Progress Tracking: Contractor to use a shared dashboard or tool to track the status of the sprint deliveries and any issues.

Quality Assurance/Quality Check: Contractor shall ensure that the quality standards agreed for the sprint deliverables are maintained throughout the sprint.

Quality Control: NCIA to perform the Final Quality Control of the agreed deliverables and provide feedback on any issues.

Sprint Review

Objective: Review the sprint performance and identify areas for improvement.

At the end of each sprint, there will be a meeting between the NCIA and the Contractor to review the outcomes against the acceptance criteria comprising sprint goals, agreed quality criteria and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Define specific actions to address issues and enhance the next sprint.

Sprint Payment

For each sprint to be considered as complete and payable, the contractor must report the outcome of their service during the sprint, first verbally during the sprint review meeting and then in writing within five days after the sprint’s end date. A report must be sent by email to the NCIA service manager, listing all the achievements against the agreed tasking list set for the sprint.

The contractor's payment for each sprint will be depending upon the achievement of agreed Acceptance Criteria for each task, defined at the sprint planning stage. This will include specific delivery targets, quality standards as well as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each task.

The payment shall be dependent upon successful acceptance as set in the above planning/review meetings. This will follow the payment milestones that shall include a completed Delivery Acceptance Sheet (DAS) – (Annex A)

Invoices shall be accompanied with a Delivery Acceptance Sheet (DAS) – (Annex A) signed by the Contractor and project authority.

If the contractor fails to meet the agreed Acceptance criteria for any task, the NCIA reserves the right to withhold payment for that task/sprint.

Further, the supplier must conduct the following reviews:

• A daily ‘touch point’ between NCIA POC and the supplier’s POC to ensure service is on track
• Draft versions of the reports where the supplier’s POC presents the draft report to the customer, with the opportunity for the customer to provide feedback and implement uplifts.
• Final versions of the reports where the incumbent presents and delivers the final report to the customer.

For each sprint to be considered as complete and payable, the contractor must report the outcome of his/her service provided during the sprint, first verbally during the sprint review meeting and then in written within three (3) days after the sprint’s end date. The format of this report shall be a short email to the NCIA Project Manager mentioning briefly the service held and the development achievements during the sprint.

At the end of the project, the Contractor shall provide a Project Closure Report that is summarizing the activities during the period of performance at high level.

5. DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT MILESTONES

The following deliverables are expected from this statement of work:

1) Complete the activities/tasks agreed in each sprint meeting as per sections 2 and 3 above.

2) Produce sprint completion reports (format: e-mail update), which include details of activities performed. Specifically, the resolved Product Backlog Items will be broken down into number of Tasks, traceable through Azure DevOps NATO Software Factory ticketing systems.

Payment Schedule will be at the end of each two sprints, following the acceptance of the sprint report.

The NCIA team reserves the possibility to exercise a number of options, based on the same scrum deliverable timeframe, at a later time, depending on the project priorities and requirements.

The payment shall be dependent upon successful acceptance of the sprint report and the Delivery Acceptance Sheet (DAS) – (Annex A)

Invoices shall be accompanied with a Delivery Acceptance Sheet (Annex A) signed by the Contractor and the NCIA POC.

The NCIA team reserves the possibility to exercise a number of sprints at a later time, based on the same sprint deliverable timeframe and cost, depending on project priorities and requirements.

The following deliverables are expected within the performance period.

2025 BASE: 12th May 2025 – 31st December 2025

Deliverable: 15 Sprints (Number of sprints is calculated considering a starting date 12 th May 2025. This will be adjusted based on actual starting date.)

Payment Milestones: Upon completion of each two sprints following acceptance

2026 OPTION: 01 January 2026 to 31 December 2026

Deliverable: Up to 23 Sprints

Cost Ceiling: Price will be determined by applying the price adjustment formula as outlined in CO‐115786‐ AAS+ Special Provisions article 6.5.

Payment Milestones: Upon completion of each two sprints following acceptance

2027 OPTION: 01 January 2027 to 31 December 2027

Deliverable: Up to 23 Sprints

Cost Ceiling: Price will be determined by applying the price adjustment formula as outlined in CO‐115786‐ AAS+ Special Provisions article 6.5.

Payment Milestones: Upon completion of each two sprints following acceptance

2028 OPTION: 01 January 2028 to 31 December 2028

Deliverable: Up to 23 Sprints

Cost Ceiling: Price will be determined by applying the price adjustment formula as outlined in CO‐115786‐ AAS+ Special Provisions article 6.5.

Payment Milestones: Upon completion of each two sprints following acceptance

6. SCHEDULE

This task order will be active immediately after signing of the contract by both parties.

The BASE period of performance is as soon as possible but not later 12th May 2025 and will end no later than 31 st December 2025.

If the 2026 option is exercised, the period of performance is 01st January 2026 to 31st December 2026.

If the 2027 option is exercised, the period of performance is 01st January 2027 to 31st December 2027.

If the 2028 option is exercised, the period of performance is 01st January 2028 to 31st December 2028.

7. SECURITY

Performance of the services described in this SOW require a valid NATO SECRET security clearance prior to the start of the engagement. It is acceptable to be in the process of acquiring the clearance at the start of the service.

Contractor/ shall be aware of all security rules pertaining to the handling of NATO classified information.

Personnel Security Clearance (PSC). Individuals who require access or may have access to information classified NC or above during the course of their duties shall have a PSC at the appropriate level, which is valid for the duration of the authorized access. In addition, such individuals are required to: Have a need-to-know; Have been briefed on their security obligations in respect to the protection of NATO Classified Information; and Have acknowledged their responsibilities either in writing or an equivalent method which ensures non-repudiation.

8. CONSTRAINTS

All the documentation provided under this statement of work will be based on NCI Agency templates or agreed with project point of contact.

All scripts, documentation and required code will be stored under configuration management and/or in the provided NCI Agency tools.

All developed solutions, tools and code under this project will be property of the NCI Agency.

9. PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS

This is a deliverables-based contract.

The contractor will be required to provide the service 100% off site.

NCIA Recognised Business hours: NCIA The Hague Hours of Operations: Monday to Thursday 0830 – 1700 and Friday 0830 – 1500 (CET)

Contractor Furnished Services: Contractor shall furnish everything required to perform the contract.

Access to relevant environments and licenses to commercial third party libraries required to perform the contract will be provided by NCIA.

The service depicted in this SOW is expected to be carried by a SINGLE RESOURCE.

10. TRAVEL

There may be requirements to travel to other sites within NATO for completing these tasks.

Travel expenses are out of scope and will be borne by the NCI Agency separately in accordance with Article 5.5 of AAS Framework Contract and within the limits of the NCIA Travel Directive.

11. QUALIFICATIONS

[See Requirements]

7. SECURITY

• Performance of the services described in this SOW require a valid NATO SECRET security clearance prior to the start of the engagement. It is acceptable to be in the process of acquiring the clearance at the start of the service.

11. QUALIFICATIONS

The consultancy support for this service requires a software developer with the following qualifications:

Required minimum qualifications are;

• Master’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering or equivalent.
• More than 10 years of experience as Software Developer, in which at least 5 are in C#.
• Strong experience in ASP.NET Web application development – Minimum 3 years of relevant experience.
• Minimum three years of experience with Angular frontend development.
• Good knowledge of .NET Framework 4.8 and experience migrating to .NET.
• In depth knowledge of C#.
• Relevant experience with HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
• Strong knowledge of SQL Server, PL/SQL and database querying
• Solid understanding of async programming / multi-thread applications
• Good understanding of message exchange formats such as JSON and XML, including XML schemas.
• Experience with Git version source control

Preferable qualifications are:

• Experience with Azure DevOps
• Experience with ASP.NET MVC
• Experience with Angular Formly library.
• Experience with Knockout
• Experience with Playwright or other test automation tools.
• Experience with DevExpress.

Relevant soft skills are:

• Very good communication skills, both spoken and written, in English.
• Very good presentation skills, taking in consideration the target audience.
• Team player, friendly and always willing to help others and to share knowledge.
• Good collaboration skills, with the ability to work in a multinational and diverse team.
• Growth mind set, always wanting to improve and to learn.
• Proactivity and taking ownership at all times.