The Internet Society

on behalf of

The IETF Administrative Oversight Committee

Request for Proposals

for

Requirements Development for Working Group Charter Tools

Date of Issuance:  September 20, 2010
Proposal Submission Deadline: October 11, 2010 no later than 5:00 P.M. EDT

IETF Request for Proposals

Requirements Development for Community Draft Tracking Tool

The Internet Society (“ISOC”) on behalf of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) is soliciting this Request for Proposals ("RFP") to develop the requirements for Working Group Charter Tools. Those submitting a Proposal (“Vendor”) shall do so in accordance with this RFP.

I. 	Introduction

	The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) desires to provide tools to the IETF leadership and Area Directors for the creation, re-chartering and closing of working groups; the Secretariat to perform the Secretariat's tasks related to these actions; and the community to view the status of working groups that are being created, re-chartered, and closed.
 
II.	Instructions and Procedures

A.	Submissions

	Proposals must be received via email at rpelletier@isoc.org no later than October 11, 2010 no later than 5:00 P.M. EDT.

	Vendor assumes all risk and responsibility for submission of its Proposal by the above deadline.  ISOC shall have no responsibility for non-receipt of Proposals due to network or system failures, outages, delays or other events beyond its reasonable control.

	All Proposals shall become the property of the Internet Society.

B.	Questions and Inquiries

	Any inquiries regarding this RFP must be submitted in writing to the email address listed in II.A above.  Other than such inquiries, Vendors are prohibited from contacting any person or institution involved in the selection process concerning this RFP.

	All questions/inquiries must be submitted in writing and must be received no later than midnight EDT on September 27, 2010.

	Responses to questions and inquiries shall be posted on the IAOC website, iaoc.ietf.org/rfpsrfis.html by midnight EDT on October 4, 2010.

C.	Addenda and Updates

	Any addenda and updates to this RFP shall be posted on the IAOC website, iaoc.ietf.org/rfpsrfis.html.  Each Vendor is responsible for checking the IAOC website prior to submission of any Proposal to ensure that it has complied with all addenda and updates to this RFP.

D.	Selection Criteria

	Each Proposal must specifically address each of the selection criteria listed in Section III below in a format corresponding to this RFP.  Each Proposal should also be accompanied by any technical or product literature that the Vendor wishes the IAOC and the Internet Society to consider.

	The IAOC, on behalf of Internet Society, shall select from among those submitting proposals those Vendors which in its discretion are the most qualified to perform the work. 

E.	Cancellation; Rejection

	The Internet Society reserves the right to cancel this RFP, in whole or in part, at any time.  The IAOC may reject any or all Proposals received in response to this RFP in its sole discretion. The Internet Society makes no guarantee or commitment to purchase, license or procure any goods or services resulting from this RFP. 

F.	Costs and Expenses

	Each Vendor is responsible for its own costs and expenses involved in preparing and submitting its Proposal and any supplemental information requested by the IAOC.  The Internet Society shall not reimburse any such costs or expenses.

G.	Public Information

	The IETF is a community committed to transparency in the manner in which it conducts its operations.  Accordingly, the following principles will apply to the Proposal and negotiations:

	The names of all Vendors submitting Proposals may be announced publicly, but the Proposals and individual negotiations with Vendors will not be publicly announced.

	Any Agreement negotiated with a Vendor, excluding cost, will be made public after execution.

H.	Intellectual Property Rights

	All work performed, all software and other materials developed by the Vendor under the Agreement, shall be “works for hire” and shall be owned exclusively by the IETF Trust, and the Vendor shall not obtain or retain any rights or licenses from any work.

I.	Relationships

	Describe any relationship between your company, or any parent, subsidiary or related company, or any director or officer of any of them, with the Internet Society, IAOC, IETF or the IETF Trust, or any employee, director, officer or consultant of any of them.
III.	Selection

A  	Selection Procedure

  1. The IAOC will or will cause the review and evaluation of each proposal to determine if the Vendor is qualified.
  2. The IAOC will contact references.
  3. The IAOC will conduct interviews and may require oral presentations.
  4. Requests for clarity may be made of the Vendor.
  5. Qualified Vendor will be notified of their selection for advancement to the negotiation phase by October 15, 2010.

B. 	Selection Criteria as Judged by the IAOC

The IAOC must have confidence in the Vendor - its qualifications, experience, capabilities, personnel, timely performance, and professionalism.  To that end the IAOC will evaluate the following to inform its decision:

  1. Vendor Qualifications and Experience performing similar services
  2. Key Personnel qualifications
  3. Vendor Ability to Meet Requirements
  4. Proposal as a reflection of the Vendor’s understanding of the Supported Organizations, their processes, culture, and the scope of work and methodologies 
  5. Oral presentation, if conducted.
  6. Cost to furnish the services in USD. (Note: The lowest cost offer will not necessarily be awarded a contract.)

IV.	Proposal Format
A.	Proposal Submissions

Proposals shall be submitted using the following format:

  1. Transmittal letter with signature of authorized representative
  2. Executive Summary
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Experience, Qualifications and Accomplishments
  5. Key Personnel
  6. Cost
  7. References (Two references attesting to performance)
  8. Resumes of Key Personnel
  9. Subcontractor Information (if any)
  10. Assumptions
  11. IPR (if any)
  12. Relationships
  13. Miscellaneous Information

Statement of work

Background 

The primary goal of this project is to develop consensus on a set of requirements for developing tools to serve the needs of the leadership, Secretariat, and community regarding working group charter creation, rechartering, and the closing of working groups.

A key responsibility of the IESG is the creation, re-chartering, and closing of IETF working groups (WGs). Creation and Rechartering of WGs is a multi-step process. Currently, virtually all of the tasks are performed manually. The web-based tools will support three separate user groups and use cases:

   (a) for use by the ADs and other members of the IETF leadership,
   (b) for public use, where the community can view the status of
       working groups that are being created, being rechartered, and
       have been closed, and
   (c) for use by the Secretariat in performing the Secretariat's
       tasks related to these actions.
Because there many different types of community members, there needs to be a significant amount of outreach when creating these requirements with specific communities such as the I* groups, Area Directors, the Secretariat, and the community. 

One or more of this project's deliverables may be used to issue a subsequent RFP for the design and development of these tools. The community engagement process to be used for this project shall be in accordance with normal IETF working methods and expectations. These include participation in IETF meetings and e-mail discussions, off-line chats, and the creation of one or more I-Ds for review and comment by stakeholders and the community.

Deliverables / Tasks
1. The Vendor shall create an Internet Draft or Drafts.  The vendor may use some or all of a previous initiative at developing requirements at Attachment 1.

2. The Vendor will participate in IETF 79 in Beijing, China to meet with
respective stakeholders

3. The vendor will revise the draft(s)  based on community input. 

4. The last deliverable will be the submission of community consensus draft or 
drafts by March 1, 2011.

The vendor may propose a different schedule with different deliverables for consideration.

Attachment 1

SOW Working Group Charter Tool

1. Introduction

The primary goal of this project is to develop consensus on a set of requirements for developing tools to serve the needs of the leadership, Secretariat, and community regarding working group charter creation, rechartering, and the closing of working groups.

A key responsibility of the IESG is the creation, re-chartering, and closing of IETF working groups (WGs).  Creation and Rechartering of WGs is a multi-step process, which involves: 

-- Internal Review of the draft charter by the IESG and IAB
-- External Review of the draft charter by the IETF Community
-- Approval of the final charter by the IESG

The Internal and External Review processes often result in revisions to the draft charter. Suggested revisions are discussed "informally" by e-mail as well as "formally" at the biweekly IESG Teleconference, where the decisions to proceed to the next stage of the process are made.

Closing of a WG does not require Internal or External Review or approval by the IESG.  Rather, a WG may be closed at the request of an AD, normally the Area Advisor for the group.

Currently, virtually all of the tasks associated with creating, rechartering, and closing a WG are performed manually.  An AD requests one of these actions by manually sending a message to the Secretariat's RT ticket system. A member of the Secretariat staff manually updates the internal Secretariat database and the I-D Tracker, manually places the WG on the IESG Teleconference agenda (when appropriate), and manually sends out all of the required messages and announcements.

This document presents an old proposal for development of a Web-based tool for creating, rechartering, and closing a WG.  The tool will be used by the IESG as well as by the Secretariat, and a read-only version will be available to the community at large.  The proposal consists of an overview of the software and brief descriptions of the features and capabilities of the tool. 
    
2. Software Overview

An IETF WG Tracker toolset is a set of Web-based applications that will support both the IESG and the IETF Secretariat in the creation, rechartering, and closing of an IETF working group. It will also provide the IETF community with information about a working group that is in the process of being created, re-chartered, or closed.

The toolset will allow a shepherding AD to manage the entire life cycle of these three working group actions via a series of user-friendly interfaces (such as editable, pre-populated announcement messages). In addition, the toolset will reduce any unwanted idle time by automating some of the steps that are currently performed manually, and by sending notifications to the Secretariat immediately after a working group moves to a state that requires Secretariat action.

The toolset will consist of three stand-alone Web tools: (a) an IESG WG Tracker for use by the ADs and other members of the IETF leadership, (b) a Public WG Tracker where the community can view the status of working groups that are being created, rechartered, and closed, and (c) a Secretariat WG Tracker for use by the Secretariat in performing the Secretariat's tasks related to these actions.

There will be a different set of states and work flow for each type of working group action.  

3. Software Features

This section presents previously suggested features to be implemented in the IETF WG Tracker toolset.

3.1 Software Features Available to the IESG

This section presents previously suggested features that might be implemented in the IESG version of the tool for use by the ADs and other members of the IETF leadership.

3.1.1 Creating a New Working Group Record

A shepherding AD will be able to create a new working group record/charter in the IETF database directly, without intervention by the Secretariat. The toolset will guide him or her through this process with step-by-step instructions, and will validate each new data entry.

3.1.2 Modifying an Existing Working Group Record

A shepherding AD will be able to modify an existing working group record/charter without intervention by the Secretariat.

3.1.3 Requesting Internal Review of a Working Group for Creation or Rechartering

A shepherding AD will be able to view/edit a standard internal review message for working group creation or rechartering, and request the Secretariat to send out the messag
3.1.4 Adding a Working Group to a Scheduled IESG Teleconference Agenda

A shepherding AD will be able to add a working group that is in the process of being created or rechartered to any future IESG Teleconference agenda.

3.1.5 Adding Comments to the WG Tracker

A user of the IESG version of the tool will be able to add a comment to the record of a working group that is in the process of being created, rechartered, or closed.  All comments will be available to the public to view unless flagged as "private."

3.1.6 Reviewing and Editing Message Templates

A shepherding AD will be able to view and edit all of the standard "WG Review" and "WG Action" announcements that are sent out during the working group creation, rechartering, and closing processes.

3.1.7 Searching the Working Group Database

A user of the IESG version of the tool will be able to search for a working group record based on one or more of the following criteria:

"	WG Tracker Status (e.g., "WG Exists," "WG Creation in Progress")
"	WG State (e.g., "Proposed WG," "Active WG")
"	WG Tracker State (e.g., "Internal Review Message Requested," "In Internal Review")  
"	Shepherding AD
"	Area
"	WG Name (full or partial)
"	WG Acronym (full or partial)

3.1.8 Requesting the Closing of a Working Group

A shepherding AD will be able to request the Secretariat to close an existing working group, and provide instructions regarding (a) the disposition of any active Internet-Drafts (i.e., withdraw them or convert them to individual submissions), and (b) the status of the WG mailing list (i.e., will it remain open or should it be closed).

3.1.9 Viewing Old Versions of Working Group Charters

A user of the IESG version of the tool will be able to view snapshots of a working group charter at the time that working group was created, rechartered, or closed (as applicable).  A link to the working group charter archives will also be provided so that the user can view the day-to-day updates to the working group charters as well.

3.2 Software Features Available to the Public

This section presents previously suggested features to be implemented in the "Public" version of the tool that the community will use to view the status of a working group.

3.2.1 Reading Comments in the Working Group Tracker

The community will be able to read all of the comments that were entered via the IESG version of the tool except those that are flagged as "private."

3.2.2 Searching the Working Group Database

A user of the "Public" version of the tool will be able to search for a working group record based on one or more of the following criteria:

"	WG Tracker Status (e.g., "WG Exists," "WG Creation in Progress")
"	WG State (e.g., "Proposed WG," "Active WG")
"	WG Tracker State (e.g., "Internal Review Message Requested," "In Internal Review") 
"	Shepherding AD
"	Area
"	WG Name (full or partial)
"	WG Acronym (full or partial)

Certain information, such as the names of the proposed WG chairs, will not be viewable in this version of the tool.

3.2.3 Viewing Old Versions of Working Group Charters

A user of the Public version of the tool will be able to view snapshots of a working group charter at the time that working group was created, rechartered, or closed (as applicable).  A link to the working group charter archives will also be provided so that the user can view the day-to-day updates to the working group charters as well.

3.3 Software Features Available to the Secretariat

All of the features that are implemented in the IESG version of the tool (i.e., that are described in Section 3.1) will be implemented in the Secretariat version.  In addition, the Secretariat will be able to send out announcements and notification messages that have been reviewed (and possibly edited) by a shepherding AD directly from the tool.