Specifications include, but are not limited to: Contracting Review If the schedule permits, the State intends to engage the successful vendor to review the contract and statement of work for to-be-awarded software and system integration vendors and offer recommendations to the State based on past experience. This effort may include participation in an observatory fashion in meetings with project leadership regarding contract negotiations. Project Plan Completeness Evaluate project management plans and procedures to verify they are developed, communicated with proper audiences, implemented, monitored, and completed. Verify project status is accurately tracked through evaluation of reporting plan, meeting cadence, and project reports. Verify project issue tracking mechanism effectively documents issues as they arise and tracks the issues to closure. Evaluate project risk management plans to verify proper identification of risks and development of mitigation plans. Evaluate scope control plans and procedures associated with the system design process. Verify appropriate processes and tools are in place to manage system changes, including formal logging and consideration of change requests. Evaluate and recommend improvements to the project’s Quality Assurance procedures. Verify the quality of all project products are monitored by formal review and approval. Verify project milestones and major completion dates are planned, monitored, and met. Project Timeline and Staffing Evaluate project estimating and scheduling process to verify that budget and resources are adequate for the work to be performed within the planned timeframes. Review schedules to verify adequate time and resources are being assigned for project activities. Change Management, Communication, and Training Review project organizational change management strategy and make recommendations. Evaluate and provide feedback concerning level of success of change management efforts during each phase of the project. Review project communications strategy and make recommendations. Review project training strategy and make recommendations. Evaluate and verify that sufficient knowledge transfer to State end-users has taken place throughout project lifecycle for future maintenance and operation of the new solution. Requirements and Design Management Evaluate the project’s process and procedures for managing requirements and offer recommendations for improvement. Verify system requirements can be tracked through testing phases to ensure that the system performs as intended. Evaluate the system design deliverables for adherence to industry best standards. Evaluate completeness and accuracy of system configuration documentation. Evaluate how well the system design and subsequent configuration takes advantage of the inherent best practices within the solution. Security, Interface, and Data Conversion Analyze project’s security and risk analysis and offer feedback. Verify project restrictions on system and data access are sufficiently documented and followed. Verify system interfaces are properly documented and adequately described (function, format, frequency, etc.). Evaluate proposed plans and procedures for data conversion effort. Verify that procedures are documented and followed to review and validate converted data for completeness and accuracy. Offer recommendations on maintaining the integrity of data and making the conversion process more efficient. Testing and Acceptance Review and evaluate project testing plans, including test environment management, tools, and procedures used for validation testing of system modules and offer recommendations based on industry standards. Verify the test process achieves appropriate levels of test coverage and test results are verified and documented, including the formal logging of errors identified in testing. Evaluate the level of test automation and offer feedback on appropriateness of increasing or decreasing levels. Verify acceptance procedures and criteria are sufficiently defined, reviewed, and approved prior to testing. Verify acceptance procedures outline the process for correcting modules that do not pass acceptance testing. Verify system performance requirements satisfy State needs. Review and offer recommendation on Go/No-Go criteria prepared by System Integrator. In addition to the responsibilities and duties enumerated above, the successful firm will perform all other duties and responsibilities assigned by the State related to project risk minimization during the implementation of the new ERP system. Offerors are also encouraged to recommend additional IV&V responsibilities not itemized within the RFP for State consideration. The final listing of responsibilities will be mutually agreed upon in the final statement of work with the awarded firm.
