2025-0104 Provision of JTS/FAST Software Testing Services (NS) - TUE 22 Apr

Deadline Date: Tuesday 22 April 2025

Requirement: Provision of JTS/FAST Software Testing Services

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: starting date 21th of May 2025 (tentative) – 31st December 2025 with possibility to exercise the following options:

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

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

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 Command and Control Centre is looking for ONE experienced software tester.

More specifically, the work will support the full software development cycle of the NATO Joint Targeting System (JTS) and Functional Area Services for dynamic and time sensitive Targeting (FAST).

2 OBJECTIVE

The main objectives of this statement of work can be summarized as follows:

• Test the JTS/FAST applications/modules.

• Develop/maintain JTS/FAST testing automation frameworks.

• Develop/maintain test cases and test material.

3 SCOPE OF WORK

Under the direction/guidance of the Test Director, in coordination with the Solution Architect, the software tester will develop, execute and report on test procedures and results. This includes the following activities:

• Develop/conduct manual test procedures,

• Develop/conduct unit and automated testing of software components,

• Report automated and manual test results,

• Support the development of testing pipelines,

• Attend virtual and in-person meetings.

4 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The development/testing work will be carried out accessing remotely the engineering/test facilities in the NCI Agency laboratories. These facilities consists of all necessary development platforms, servers, web servers, etc. to support the testing.

The contractor shall update the status of the JTS/FAST development tasks in Jira and test procedures and test results in Zephyr. Some of the work could also be requested to be conducted locally in NCI Agency in The Hague, The Netherlands.

The contractor will be part of a team (Project Manager, Solution Architect, Technical Lead, Software Developers, etc.) geographically distributed and will work using an Agile and iterative approach using multiple sprints. Each sprint is planned for a duration of two (2) weeks.

5 DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT MILETONES

Detailed resource assessments will be agreed during each sprint meeting as set out in Section 6.

Payments shall be dependent upon the successful acceptance of each sprint and the validation as set out under Section 6. All Invoices shall be accompanied with a Certificate of Acceptance (COA, Annex B) signed by the Contractor and project authority (Project Manager).

Each sprint has a duration of two (2) weeks. The content and scope of each sprint will be agreed during the sprint‐planning meetings as covered in Section 6. Each payment milestone cycle is planned for a duration of one calendar month. Upon completion and validation of each sprint and at the end of the monthly milestone, all completed sprints can be submitted for payment.

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

In 2025, the following deliverables are expected from the service as set in this statement of work:

Deliverable 01: Sprint on JTS/FAST software testing services

Quantity: Up to 14

Payment Milestones: Payment Milestones will be end of the month for all the Sprints completed and accepted within the respective month

2026 Option: 01 January to 31 December 2026

Deliverable: Up to 24 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: Payment Milestones will be end of the month for all the Sprints completed and accepted within the respective month

2027 Option: 01 January to 31 December 2027

Deliverable: Up to 24 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: Payment Milestones will be end of the month for all the Sprints completed and accepted within the respective month

The payment shall be dependent upon successful acceptance of the Certificate of Acceptance (COA) – (Annex B).

Invoices shall be accompanied with a Certificate of Acceptance (COA) – (Annex B signed by the Contractor and project authority.

6 COORDINATION AND REPORTING

Due to the AGILE approach of this project, there is a need to define a set of specific arrangements between the NCI Agency and the resource 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 an initial meeting with the contractor to plan the objectives of upcoming sprints.

Set sprint goals: Define clear, achievable goals for the sprint.

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

Sprint Execution

Objective: The resource to execute the “sprint plans” with continuous monitoring and adjustments.

Regular meetings between NCI Agency 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, or in person via electronic means using Conference Call capabilities, according to the NCI Agency project manager’s instructions.

Continuous improvement: The resource 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: The resource to use a shared dashboard or tool to track the status of the sprint deliveries and 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 NCI Agency and the resource to review the outcomes.

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

Sprint Payment

For each sprint to be considered as complete and payable, the resource must report the outcome of their work during the sprint within three days after the sprint’s end date. A report must be sent by email to the NCI Agency project manager, listing all the work achieved against the agreed tasking list set for the sprint.

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 Certificate of Acceptance (COA) – See Annex B.

Invoices shall be accompanied with a Certificate of Acceptance sheet (COA) – (Annex B) signed by the Contractor and project authority.

7 SCHEDULE

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

It is expected the initial services start being provided in May 2025 (21th of May 2025 – tentative start date) and ending not later than December 2025.

If the sprints of the annual options are exercised, the period of performance is within 01 January to 31 December of the relevant year.

8 SECURITY

Performance of the services described in this SOW require a valid NATO SECRET security clearance provided by the national security organization and valid at the time of submission of the bid covering the period of the requirement.

9 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.

10 PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS

The contractor is expected to work off site. Work on-site can also be arranged with the Project Manager.

There may be required to travel to NCI Agency The Hague and other sites within NATO for completing these tasks.

Travel costs are out of scope and will be borne by the NCI Agency separately in accordance to the provisions of the AAS+ Framework Contract.

Travel arrangements will be the responsibility of the contractor and the expenses will be reimbursed in accordance with Article 5.5 of AAS Framework Contract and within the limits of the NCIA Travel Directive.

Services under this SOW must be accomplished by ONE resource. He/she will work remotely accessing the laboratories at the NCI Agency - Command and Control Centre under the supervision of the NCIA JTS project/service management or delegated staff.

11 REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

[See Requirements]

12 DESIRABLE PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE

[See Requirements]

Requirements

8 SECURITY

• Performance of the services described in this SOW require a valid NATO SECRET security clearance provided by the national security organization and valid at the time of submission of the bid covering the period of the requirement.

11 REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Providing services under this SOW requires the skills and expertise of a JTS software tester engineer and other following qualifications:

• The candidate has relevant and recent experience in system and software testing (e.g. certification)
• The candidate has relevant and recent experience in testing automation using web tools (Ready-Api, Selenium, (and non-web frameworks (QF-Test)
• The candidate has relevant and recent experience in using testing tools (e.g. Zephyr) and methodologies (e.g. Agile).
• The candidate is able to speak and write fluent English since the work is conducted in English
• The candidate must have the nationality of one of the NATO nations.

12 DESIRABLE PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE

• The candidate has relevant and recent experience in supporting the NATO Joint Targeting Cycle (e.g. Targeteer)
• The candidate has relevant and recent experience in verifying functional and non-functional requirements. (e.g. development and execution of test cases, test data, etc.).
• The candidate has relevant and recent experience in continuous software integration and automated testing.