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RFP Project Manager & Business Analyst. Questions & Answers

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RFP 55-21-01 – Project Manager & Business Analyst

Questions & Answers

1.) How many candidates does SURS need for this solicitation?

• There are no set requirements for number of respondents.

2.) Will this solicitation be awarded to a single vendor or multiple vendors?

• We would consider multiple awards but would prefer to work with 1 vendor for the project.

3.) Will SURS consider remote or offsite work initially due to the current COVID situation? • Yes

4.) Does the State have an incumbent for the positions? If yes, please provide the current budget and details.

• No

5.) Does SURS need one Project Manager and one Business Analyst? If so, please provide the responsibilities of the Business Analyst.

• The BA would primarily research and document user requirements for the project. Could also provide support for the PM as needed, i.e. progress dashboards. For the division of responsibilities, we would defer to selected vendor’s practices.

6.) What is the estimated budget for this solicitation? If unknown, please specify the previous spending.

• There is no budget specifically for this engagement, SURS has utilized external resources on various occasions with a wide range of spending. We have requested hourly rates instead of a flat rate, fixed cost bid for the engagement. The RUUPA project is estimated to run March through October, but it is not likely that contracted resources will need to be full time for the entire duration.

7.) Can consultants continue working remotely post COVID concerns? • Yes

8.) What are the project milestones mentioned in Section III?

• Those would be identified by the BA & PM after fulling vetting the requirements and agreeing on scope with the business unit.

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9.) How many consultants do you anticipate needing for the project? • 1 or 2

10.) Do you have a job description for the Systems Analyst?

• We are seeking a Business Analyst. The presumption is that vendors who specialize in IT staff augmentation and have experienced BA’s available to them would have an adequate understanding of the typical BA role.

11.) What information are you looking for regarding project references?

• Prior engagements to which the proposed resources were assigned, similar in nature to the duties outlined in the RFP. We typically prefer company name, contact, a summary of the engagement and email address.

12.) What are the deliverables you are requesting in alignment with the Scope of Services provided in this RFP?

• It is typical to create a more detailed Statement of Work with the selected vendor during the contract phase, that outlines these expectations in more detail.

13.) Is SURS requesting resources that they will provide direction for daily work activities in alignment with the Scope of Services (I.e., is this staff augmentation?)

• Yes, this is staff augmentation

14.) We are requesting further understanding about why this RFP is being bid out as opposed to being issued as a Task Order under SURS IT Staff Augmentation contract?

• SURS is not obligated to use vendors selected via other procurement activities. Contracts that are in place are not a guarantee of work.

SURS reserves the right to utilize existing contracts at our discretion.

15.) In the RFP document, the Responsibilities and Desired Skillsets of only the Project Manager is provided. Can you please provide the same for the Business Analyst position as well? So that we can provide appropriately qualified individuals.

• Please see question #10

16.) Is this a new requirement or are there are incumbents? • This is a new procurement

17.) Do we need to provide references for the respondent or for the candidates that we submit? If yes, how many references and what details are required?

• Both would be desirable, 2-3 references would be adequate.

18.) What will be the duration of this project?

• Expected to complete before the November 1, 2021 deadline

19.) On Page number 13 of RFP under "Terms and Conditions: Following a review of submitted materials, if requested, selected individuals or organizations must be prepared to make a

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presentation or otherwise participate in an in-person interview in Champaign, IL or in Chicago, IL with SURS staff members and/or members of the SURS Board of Trustees at a date and location to be determined by SURS." Due to COVID, can the interview be allowed via MS Teams or any other video interview mode?

• Absolutely. The leadership responsible for interviews for these resources would do so via Teams, ideally, not in person.

Candidates for this procurement would not go before the SURS Board of Trustees.

20.) • We understand the project, as stated in the State Universities Retirement System ("SURS") Project Manager and Business Analyst Resources Request for Proposal ("RFP"), is to create a formalized process and system for isolating, managing, sending, and tracking of data to the centralized state database tracking unclaimed

property. However, we would like to get clarification if you are looking for assistance for either of the below:

• Creating a system internally for SURS to identify owner accounts subject to escheatment and to perform the required NAUPA reporting to the state to be utilized in-house;

• Provider to perform the required NAUPA reporting to the state in a managed services capacity and leverage Providers reporting technologies.

• Similarly, the RFP references project management responsibilities with a project team: “Delegate tasks on the project to employees best positioned to complete them; Motivate project team to complete tasks on time; etc.” We would like to clarify if this references a project manager from the Provider working with the Provider’s own team; or if this references a project manager from the Provider working with SURS employees. • The Project Manager would be working to accomplish the project objectives using

SURS own staff, not a 3rd party provider (with exception of any BA user requirements

activities).

21.) We understand the services to include "Requirement gathering (technical, legal, user, functional)" and we would like to confirm if SURS is looking for guidance and interpretation of what property is deemed unclaimed and required to be reported to the State.

• No, SURS has internal resources responsible for interpreting the legislation and providing information to the project team.

22.) SB 1264 specifies due diligence requirements for retirement systems, pension funds, or investment boards created under specified Articles of the Illinois Pension Code. If SURS meets these requirements, does SURS want assistance in the creation, mailing and/or tracking of due diligence letters and responses?

• The scope of this project is to identify and feed data from the SURS system to another party. That party (not SURS) will be responsible for communicating the unclaimed property information via their own methods. This will all be confirmed and documented in the project scope as the PM and BA work to gather and document requirements.

23.) Does SURS have any unclaimed accounts payable checks, payroll checks, accounts receivable credits, or any additional property types they anticipate including in this reporting process aside from pension plan assets?

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• That will be vetted as part of the project scope, to be confirmed and documented as noted in #22.

24.) What is the budget for this approximate budget for this project? • Please see question #6

25.) Can you please clarify that the duration of this engagement is through November 1, 2021 and the ask is for project management resources to augment the RUUPA project which SURS has defined. Has a formal project team been established and how many consulting resources is SURS looking to add to the team?

• An informal team has been assembled, and SURS is seeking a PM (and likely a BA) to augment this team in order to see the project to completion.

26.) Please let us know if there is an incumbent on this contract. • Please see same question above

27.) Please provide the historical data, spending on this contract till now

• This is a new procurement, and no spending has occurred with outside resources for this project to date.

28.) Please let us know if we can get the proposal of the incumbent • N/A

29.) Are there any pain points or issues with the current vendor? • N/A

30.) How many resumes are required in our proposal for both the Project Manager & Business Analyst roles?

• Provide resumes for potential candidates, there is no set number but please try to keep the submission to a select few if possible

31.) Responsibilities & Desired Skillsets are only reflected in the RFP for Project Manager (Pages 5-6 of RFP). Will responsibilities and required skillsets be published for the Business Analyst role?

• Please see question #10

32.) On page 17. Listed under Appendix C. Fee Proposal: Provide information re: methodology

for requested resources in the space provided below. There are a series of items listed (1-7)

1. Project management 2. Prep and organization of project documents 3. Coordination of deliverables 4. Facilitation of project meetings with key stakeholders 5. Quality testing supervision 6. Business requirements gathering and certification 7. Project closeout activities (sign-offs, lessons learned sessions, etc.) This area is somewhat vague and to ensure we provided the correct information, I wanted to see if you could please elaborate and provide further clarification in terms of what information/content you expect the responses to include.

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• Which project management methodologies have been used by your candidate, i.e. Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid. What project management tools are they familiar with? Jira, DevOps, MS Project? Are they well versed with Teams? Zoom? WebEx? Anything that would provide insight into how the proposed individual would manage a project of this nature. Are there are any standard documents or templates they typically use for user requirements, project dashboards/reporting, etc.

33.) On Page 5 in Section #3 Services Required, Project Manager Responsibilities and Desired Skillsets Responsibilities for a Project Manager are listed and very well explained. We wanted to see if SURS was able to provide the same “Responsibilities and Desired Skillsets Responsibilities” for the Business Analyst role.

• Please see question #10 above

34.) Is the public pension sector experience a requirement? • No

35.) What additional skills/requirements are associated with the Business Analyst? • Please see question #10

36.) What is the name of the centralized state database tracking unclaimed property?

• That information will be part of the requirements documentation once the resources are engaged.

37.) Does SURS expect to use the Naupa standard file format that is in existence today with the State Treasurer's office or will the file format be confirmed after project start?

• Please see question #36

38.) What is the frequency of reporting required to the state's centralized database? • Please see question #36

39.) The RFP references addressing the SURS project backlog, can SURS provide additional detail about projects in the backlog. Will additional workload assigned be handled via the same pricing structure as is requested in this RFP?

• There are a variety of projects in our backlog at this time, that would involve SURS application developers, user requirements definition, project management. Most are centered around minor enhancements to our legacy Pension Administration System. SURS’ expectation would be that the rates contracted for this engagement would be applicable to other projects.

40.) Has SURS evaluated any commercial software solutions for reporting unclaimed property already or will the successful vendor be expected to evaluate those "commercial off-the-shelf" (COTS) software solutions to determine applicability for SURS use?

• No

41.) What technical system or systems does SURS maintain accountholders information in presently?

• Legacy Pension Administration System, residing on an iSeries, developed with Synon/CA2E in COBOL. We have a team of developers that maintain the system.

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42.) Is the public pension sector experience a requirement? • No

43.) What additional Skill(s)/requirement(s) are associated with the Business Analyst? • Please see question #10

44.) How will success of the project be measured?

• Completion of the project by November 1st and meeting all user/legislative

requirements. Deliver an easy to administer, repeatable process for providing the data as required.

45.) Two milestones have been noted in the RFP: 7/1/21 and 11/1/21. Please describe how the milestone dates were set and describe what the milestones consist of?

• The 7/1 date is based on a self-imposed deadline for our first submittal and November 1 is the ultimate deadline for everything to be complete, along with the ongoing processes and routines to ensure the data is submitted annually per the legislative deadlines.

46.) Who are the primary stakeholders in the project within SURS?

• Our Member Services pay benefits group, benefit support, our Legislative Liaison and Accounting.

47.) Who are the primary external stakeholders in the project? • State of IL

48.) Will there be any third-party vendors involved as part of the project? • No

49.) Is contracting already complete with any third-party vendors? • No

50.) How many other state agencies will be involved?

• Only 1 that we are aware, but final TBD based on user requirements and scope finalization

51.) Are there Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), or other agreements, already in place with other agencies?

• No

52.) What will be the SURS project data repository toolset? SharePoint, Confluence, Jira, other? • We have Teams, SharePoint, Team Dynamix service/project management tools all

available, and we have recently licensed Azure DevOps. We have not yet standardized because we have so many other large-scale projects in flight with multiple parties that use different tools.

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• Minimal, but there is some documentation based on research by an application developer

54.) Will SURS team resources be able to utilize MS Project?

• Most of the SURS resources likely to be on the project team are not familiar with MS Project, they have had exposure to Jira. Exposure to DevOps is in the very early stages.

55.) How are projects currently managed within SURS? Is there a central PMO? A prioritized project portfolio? A decentralized by department approach? Other?

• There is a PMO consisting of 3 PM’s, 3 BA’s – focusing on multiple large-scale projects. This PMO is not mature – 2.5 yrs is the longest tenured PM w/SURS. PMO projects are logged and tracked at a high-level in our Team Dynamix service/project management tool. An IT Steering Committee (CTO, CBO, CFO, and HCRO with a PMO

representative) evaluates new requests and provide prioritization and guidance. In addition, there is a centralized backlog of programming requests managed by the Application Development Managers.

56.) How much time will SURS resources assigned to the project be allocated? 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%?

• TBD

57.) How many SURS team resources are to be assigned to the project?

• TBD – we expect there to be a few key SME’s and application development resources.

58.) What are the SURS team resource roles assigned to the project? • SME, Developer, Sponsor

59.) Please describe any policies around the use of Microsoft Teams for project communication. Meetings with camera on, off, SUR project norms already established?

• Nothing formal. Cameras are not required, although at the onset of a project we do prefer to use them as we get to know new team members.

60.) Please provide any current medium or high-level risks documented for the project. • Please see question #8

61.) Please provide any current medium or high-level issues documented for the project. • Please see question #8

62.) Are any data conversion activities anticipated as part of the scope of the project? • Please see question #8

63.) Are any new interface build activities anticipated as part of the scope of the project? • Please see question #8

64.) Is the introduction of any new technologies anticipated as part of the scope of the project? • Please see question #8

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65.) Describe the SURS team experience in utilizing agile principles.

• Very limited but some have been exposed to agile-like environment on other projects

66.) Is this project about creating a new operational process and a technology application to meet the RUUPA requirements? or is it about supporting an existing operation process with a technology application to comply with the RUUPA requirements?

• Design/create new

67.) Are any project activities/vendors offshore? • No

68.) The RFP mentions the creation of a system; is this a system built from scratch, modification to an existing system, modification to a third-party vendor system or is this a file extract or report generation?

• We envision an automated routine supported by data from our legacy system, which was developed in-house. The process/mechanism by which the needs are

accomplished does not have to be native on the iSeries. We would expect a solution design to be generated and approved by stakeholders, the process facilitated by the PM and BA.

69.) What are the testing tools anticipated to be used? • Please see question #8

70.) What level of involvement in testing do the SURS resource plan to have?

• SURS resources would likely provide unit testing (developers) and UAT (SME’s)

71.) Who owns the technical resources, development and testing in creating the new solution? • SURS resources will develop, test, and deploy

72.) What is the anticipated number of resources to require training as a result of this project? • Provided proper documentation is generated we anticipated very little training and it

would be limited to a few key SME’s and/or Stakeholders (trained on how to execute/maintain the new solution) which should be as automated as possible.

73.) Are the anticipated resources requiring training experienced with the use of technology, using PC's, basic Microsoft tools?

• Yes

74.) From reading the Illinois State Treasurer's site, it appears the RUPPA report is generated and submitted on an annual basis. Will you confirm the frequency of reporting, if known?

• Yes, there is an annual requirement but special circumstances have provided an opportunity for us to provide a set of data earlier in the year, before adopting the annual cadence.

75.) Does the SURS agency have developers available who can develop file interfaces or generate reports?

• Yes

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76.) From reading the Illinois State Treasurer's site, it appears there are additional supporting RUPPA reports, specifically an annual report, supplemental report, audit report and reciprocal report. Are all 4 reports part of the scope and will the frequency be the same as the RUPPA report, if known?

• This needs to be determined as part of the requirements definition, once project team is fully assembled.

77.) The RFP doesn't list specifics on the BA JD, would you be able to provide it? • Please see question #10

78.) What is the total budget for this contract? • Please see earlier question

79.) Is there any incumbent for this contract? • Please see question #4

80.) Does SURS have any minimum set aside goals required? • Not clear on what this question is referencing

81.) Does the person need to be onsite or is SURS ok for remote resources? • Please see above

82.) Is this just 5-6 months contract? Is extension possible?

• There is a specific deadline for RUUPA compliance, but the RFP references other backlog which may be made available to selected vendor, but is not guaranteed.

83.) Is this fulltime role 40 hours per week or will there be weekend work involved?

• At times this will be full time but once requirements are finalized and development is underway the hours may decrease

84.) We assume this is purely Staff Aug RFP? • Yes

85.) Is it mandatory to have vendor's or consultants - experience and knowledge of pension system fundamentals?

• No

86.) Will SURS consider private sector experience or only looking for the public sector? • Yes, private sector experience is relevant

87.) "Timeline for a recommended solution to be implemented" please provide clarity on this item. • There is a November deadline for compliance but once the project is launched we

would expect there to be an estimated completion (if it can be accomplished prior to the final milestone date)

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• Standard language, every RFP results in a contract that may or may not require negotiation, depending on the nature of the engagement.

89.) How many references are SURS looking for and should we also provide consultants professional references as well?

• 2-3, yes please provide both

90.) We are a TX based firm and interested to bid. Do we need to have Business license or

Certificate of Authority during proposal submission stage or it can be provided during contract agreement?

• During contract stage is acceptable

91.) How many suppliers will be awarded? • TBD, but preferably 1

92.)

What system platform and programming language will be used for development?

• iSeries DB2 is where the data resides, please see earlier question for more information on current environment

93.)

What will be the size of the development staff?

• Small, 2-3 plus SME’s

94.)

What are the milestones that have been identified for July 1 and November 1, 2021?

• Please see earlier question

95.)

Will travel to the Champaign office be required?

• See above

96.)

Has the SURS team needed for requirements gathering been defined?

• Not finalized but there are SME’s and stakeholders already identified

97.)

Stated in Appendix A if a firm does not have experience in the public pension sector,

will the firm’s proposal be eliminated?

• No

98.) Stated in Appendix A if a firm has applicable experience, but lacks certifications (e.g. PMP, Scrum Master, CSQA, etc.), will the firm’s proposal be eliminated?

• No

99.) One of the requirements of the RFP is providing a project schedule. For us to provide a schedule, could SURS provide us with a project scope/summary and resource plan for us to create a high level schedule.

• What is the estimated timeline for the project?

• How many resources does SURS expect us to provide? (number of PM, BAs and QA resources)

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• Completion by November 2021, estimated start in March

• 1 PM and 1 BA. The project schedule is standard language in all procurements, the nature of this procurement however requires that we first select a vendor and the PM/BA resources assigned to the project will help determine overall schedule.

100.) Does SURS have a high-level timeline and milestones for the implementation of the RUPPA project ?

• Please see question above

101.) Is the vendor period of performance for this solicitation July 1st to Nov1st? If not, can SURS provide the period of performance?

• Yes

102.) Section III, Services Required, page 4: Can SURS provide a high-level description of the development technology/software that will be built for the RUPPA Project?

• Please see earlier questions that address technical environment

103.) Section III, Services Required, page 4: For this solicitation how many Business Analysts is SURs expecting the vendor to staff?

• Please see question above

104.) Section VII, Evaluation Process, page 8: Evaluation process states "Timeline for recommended solution to be implemented" must be submitted as part of this response. What solution is being referred to, the vendor's timeline to staff the project and get an agile processes started?

• Please see question above related to schedule

105.) Section VII, Evaluation Process, page 8: Evaluation process states "Proposed deliverables" however the solicitations does not identify any deliverables, Can SURS provide some detail to the types of deliverables they are expecting?

• Most of the evaluation criteria is standard for all procurements. The nature of this procurement will require a candidate to be selected and then a more detailed SOW generated that further defines deliverables.

106.) Description of SURS, page 3: Can SURS please provide more clarity around what stage the project is currently in?

• SME’s and stakeholders have had preliminary discussions re: requirements and

timelines, and some analysis has been done by application development resources. There are no formal project documents at this stage. (Charter/scope, schedule)

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107.) Section III, Services Rendered, page 5: Can SURS please provide more clarity around the milestones mentioned?

• Please see earlier questions on this same topic

108.) Section III, Services Rendered, page 5: Can SURS please provide clarity on the workstreams the PM would be responsible for?

• PM would have overall responsibility for all workstreams (kickoff, analysis/user requirements, project plan and schedule, ongoing progress reporting, testing and

implementation). All of this would occur with support from SURS’ SME’s and

development staff, and stakeholders on the team.

109.) Section III, Services Rendered, page 5: Can SURS please clarify what project management / development methodology is currently being used in this project (i.e. Scrum, Waterfall, SAFe, etc.)?

• No formal methodology exists today, we are mostly waterfall but have been using agile-like approaches with a few projects.

110.) Section III, Services Rendered, page 5: If the RUUPA project has resources working in Scrum teams, how many Scrum teams are there currently?

• All SURS resources are juggling multiple projects. Some would be considered to have more of a scrum-like element, others more traditional waterfall like methods.

111.) Section III, Services Rendered, page 5: Can SURS please provide more information on what other roles make up the project team, other than the requested PM and business analyst resources?

• Please see earlier questions that addressed this

112.) Section III, Services Rendered, page 5: How much access will the PM have to stakeholders? Will there be a POC assigned/dedicated to the team?

• PM will have adequate access to stakeholders

113.) Section III, Services Rendered, page 5: The RFP mentioned QA testing services, but does that include test automation and who will be responsible for these activities?

• No test automation, the project team can determine what methods to use for testing

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