California expects to complete by the end of February 2017 a refresh of the state's list of vendors that are pre-qualified to provide state agencies and departments with "user-centric" design and agile software development services, officials said Monday.
The state is expanding the pool — which will be eligible to bid on future Request for Offers (RFOs) — from 11 existing vendors to as many as 30. As part of the process, ownership of the pool is moving from the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) to the California Department of Technology, in order to allow a broader range of state agencies and departments to use the qualified developers' services.
Competition for those spots could be tight. California Department of Technology senior adviser Adrian Farley, the pool's executive sponsor, said approximately 50 vendors took part in a webinar the state hosted on Monday to give more information about the Agile Development Prequalified Pool (ADPQ).
Farley said the Request for Interest will be released in mid-January 2017. Vendors will then have about a month to develop a solution prototype that the state of California will use as part of a judging process that will select vendors for inclusion into the pool.
The state will be looking for vendors to demonstrate usage of open source technologies, Farley said, and isn't prescribing a specific technology stack.
The RFI and requirements for the technical prototype will be similar to documentation (download here) that the California Health and Human Services Agency used when it formed its own agile pool of 11 vendors earlier this year.
Vendors chosen for the refreshed and expanded pool will have to complete the California Multiple Award Schedule (CMAS) qualification process within 90 days, if they don't have CMAS already. Interested parties should also piggyback off the General Services Administration's Schedule 70 documentation, Farley said.
Additional information about those contracting details can be found in the webinar. The Department of Technology will post the session and accompanying documents online soon.
With 50 or more vendors potentially competing for a maximum of 30 spots in the pool, it seems likely the state will receive many high-quality submissions. Everyone will see their competitors' work — submissions will be posted on Github and the state already has shared lessons learned about what worked and what didn't for vendors that tried to qualify when the pool was created last summer. Also, with as many as 11 vendors carried over from the previous qualification process, there could be as few as 19 open spots up for grabs.
There are no current plans to further expand the pool beyond 30 vendors at this time, Farley said.
Correction: This story was edited to reflect that Adrian Farley currently is a senior adviser to the state CIO at the California Department of Technology.
