Notice ID: 36C10B25Q0062
1.0 BACKGROUND
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) depends on Information Management/Information Technology systems to meet mission goals. VA’s Office of Information & Technology (OIT), Product Delivery Service (PDS) strives to provide high quality, effective, and efficient Information Technology (IT) services to those responsible for providing care to the Veterans at the point-of-care as well as throughout all the points of the Veterans’ health care in an effective, timely and compassionate manner.
The VA OIT PDS, Corporate (CORP) Service Line (SL) delivers world-class, Veteran-centric capabilities that provide secure, seamless delivery of IT systems to VA corporate offices so these offices may efficiently and effectively provide benefits and services to Veterans and their families. Corporate SL IT systems enable the delivery of services to Veterans by enabling technology to provide relevant internal, foundational information to the VA workforce. CORP SL provides available, adaptable, secure, and cost-effective IT products and services to VA business offices, enabling VA staff to provide mission-critical support to the Nation’s Veterans.
CORP SL provides oversight, and overall leadership to software development projects, Commercial Off- The-Shelf (COTS), Software as a Service implementations, and system maintenance to support VA business functions and deliver value. CORP SL includes the following four Product Lines (PL):
- Acquisition and Property Management – IT products for conducting acquisition and performance management activities, including acquisition planning, sourcing, contracting, purchasing, equipment and inventory management, and facility operations, and construction.
- Financial Management – IT products for conducting financial management activities including budget formulation and execution, account management, payment processing and financial performance reporting.
- Human Capital Management – IT products for conducting human capital management, including talent acquisition and development, employee performance and compensation management and employee separation and retirement management.
- Office of the Secretary of VA (Sec VA)/Congressional/Legal Affairs – IT products for supporting the activities of Sec VA, Office of General Counsel, Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and Congressional Liaison operations. It also includes products for enabling regulatory activities such as matter intake and tracking under the VA accountability and whistleblower’s protection program.
CORP SL is currently responsible for approximately 170 products assigned within the four PLs and is subject to change. It is anticipated that newly created product line efforts will be added to the CORP SL throughout the life of this contract. Additionally, products may be re-assigned to other portfolios as the VA matures this model.
All CORP SL activities follow the Veteran-focused Integration Process (VIP) framework. VIP is a Lean-Agile framework that services the interest of Veterans through the efficient streamlining of activities that occur within the enterprise for the development and management of IT projects and products and will propel the Department with even more rigor toward Veteran-focused delivery of IT capabilities. The VIP framework unifies and streamlines IT delivery oversight and will deliver IT products more efficiently, securely, and predictably.
VA OIT instituted an initiative to improve IT solutions delivery and sustainment and strengthen security of our IT systems. This ensures all efforts have requisite VA resources across Development, Security and (DevSecOps), hence DevSecOps. VA OIT also implemented a Product Line Manager (PLM) model which complements the DevSecOps approach to product management, software delivery, and overall information technology support. DevSecOps improves the experience of OIT customers, enables OIT to implement new technologies and systems and update existing systems more quickly and frequently, and lowers costs by leveraging industry best practices and innovation.
The wider DevSecOps community must prepare to address global trends in Artificial Intelligence (AI): increased use of AI in code testing, ongoing threats to IP ownership and privacy, a rise in AI bias, and an increased reliance on AI technologies. This will require a cultural and strategic shift, which demands rethinking business and security processes, product development, and customer engagement strategies. This shift promises a radical increase in productivity and accuracy, but it also demands significant adjustments to traditional testing roles and practices…
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