REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
Project Management, Development, and QA tools solution
12-31-2007
Overview
Organization
One Shore Inc is a software QA consulting firm with offices in Seattle, Washington and Cuenca, Ecuador. We provide support for open source tools and QA staffing.
Project
QA Site is our flagship product under development. It is a hosted solution that provides a collection of tools to facilitate collaboration for software development and testing organizations.
An organization purchases a QA Site, which is then configured with applications that fit its needs, and a project page that contains a project status dashboard and links to their applications.
Typical applications include version control, bug tracking, test cases, automated builds and test execution, requirements coverage, project management, and documentation. A single sign-on solution will be offered in a future release, as well as application information and project status available via web services on the dashboard or RSS feeds.
Problem
We need a solution to manage the development of the QA site product. Not surprisingly, we want something that looks a lot like a QA Site.
Target Audience
We are looking for an organization with the experience to deliver our solution. The qualified candidate will be able to set up and manage a Linux based operating system with web and email infrastructure, and has experience deploying, configuring, and managing open source QA tools.
Experience with lightweight methodologies such as Agile is a plus — as is experience with bureaucratic organizations and their needs, to better understand when lightweight methods are appropriate and when they are not practical.
Understanding of the roles and responsibility of the various roles in software development, as well as the software development life cycle is critical.
Solution
What is needed
The solution would enable project management, design, development, testing, and deployment operations to communicate and collaborate effectively in developing the QA site product. The following is a potential list of tools needed:
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A document management solution that enables team members to share documents over a distributed environment. It needs role based access restrictions and be safe to use from within or outside the VPN. All versions of documents need to be retained and marked. Editing should be easy and multiple users should be able to work on the same document simultaneously. A wiki might be good, but printing documents is also needed. Converting from wiki text to DOC or PDF format would be acceptable.
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A project management solution that keeps track of project schedule, tasks, budget, and resources. This should not be a heavyweight solution or too process heavy. We are open to a document-based project management solution, but would like the interactivity a dynamic application provides. Each person –designers, developers, testers, sysadmins, etc.– should be able to update their own tasks, and create sub-tasks.
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A requirements management solution that enables requirements to be cross referenced from design documents to implementation to tests. Requirements documents should be parseable and easy to update.
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A version control system for documents, code, and tests. We would like our document management system to use the same repository as our code and tests. Test results and bugs should also be able to be tied to a version.
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A continuous build solution that enables developers to immediately build, deploy, and execute tests. Automatic test results and bug reports from the build should be created.
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A system for writing test cases, associating tests with automated scripts, reporting test results, and requirements coverage.
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A searchable knowledge base that contains references to documents and online documentation.
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An access restricted web site that contains links to all these tools and reports status such as open bugs, recent document revisions, build status, etc. The full scope of what is available on this page has not yet been defined. This can be completed in a later stage.
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Optionally – web service status and RSS feeds for bugs, tests, build status, checkins, tasks, and documents.
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The ability to use different tools interchangeably (such as an alternate bug tracker) will be a future requirement.
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Single sign-on capability to the various tools will be a requirement in the future as well.
Training on the various tools and support/maintenance of them will be needed as well. An ongoing support and maintenance contract, as well as customization of tools is desirable.
Since we do not currently have the operations facility for maintaining these systems, they will need to be hosted offsite and be securely accessible by all team members.
[Deliverables]
[Plan]
Once a proposal is accepted, a timeline and budget will be negotiated. Final acceptance of the proposal will be contingent on acceptance of the plan. Failure to meet timeline and budget restraints will be specified in the contract.
[Product]
The QA site will be delivered in stages. Final scoping of the QA site project is yet to be determined.
Stage 1: Hosted OS available with Web and Email service
Stage 2: Solutions identified.
Stage 3: Documentation and Project solutions complete.
Stage 4: Design, Development, and Testing
Stage 5: Continuous build and automated tests
Stage 6: Dashboard
Stage 7: Single Sign-on
Stage 8: Web Services and RSS feeds
Stage 9: Virtual Appliance
Stage 10: Customer QA sites
Stage 11: Online purchasing
Stage 12: Online provisioning & customization
Artifacts
Design documents, administration and usage documentation, test results, requirements coverage, etc. will be delivered on project completion.
Site
A hosted site solution will be delivered, including root access and 1 full year’s hosting on completion. The site will be properly secured and stable.
Support
An ongoing support contract will be negotiated at project completion. It is expected to be a part time (approximately 5 hours/week) contract for support with additional development also expected. Additional support tickets can also be purchased as needed.
[Proposal]
[Format and Content]
Submit proposals in DOC or PDF format.
Your proposal should include a tentative timeline, and itemized budget. A list of applications proposed should be included, but will be not be set in stone yet. Please include your experience and alternate or additional solutions recommended.
Deadline
Proposals are being accepted until January 2, 2008.
Budget
The maximum budget for a QA solution is $1000.
Time line
Implementation through stage 6 should be completed no later than March 31, 2008.
Selection Criteria
A proposed solution will be selected by January 10, 2008.
The solution that is considered the best match for our needs, within the allocated budget and time line will be selected. Consideration will be made for our confidence in your ability to deliver the proposed solution. Experience counts.
[Contact]
Submit proposals to aaron _@_ oneshore.com.
Questions or clarifications about the proposal can also be directed to aaron _@_ oneshore.com
For additional information about One Shore, visit our website at http://one-shore.com.
