Mobile SOW and Developer Qualifications

Structuring a Statement of Work (SOW) for the development or modification of mobile products should be similar to any SOW your government organization issues for IT products and services.

We are providing sample SOW language for the procurement of customer/external-facing mobile products, skills, testing and mobile code sharing. This language is also included in the RFP-EZ contracting tool. Here are some guidelines for its use.

  1. The sample SOW language is offered as a starting point for agency program managers to adapt to fit their mobile procurement needs.
  2. The language was created by leveraging existing mobile procurements developed by members of the Mobile Innovators Network (link) as well as industry practices for mobile development. Not every agency is the same, but agencies generally were looking for these skills.
  3. Agency managers should include the relevant skills needed to work with their current and/or future agency IT systems for mobile development.
  4. Mobile products and their development skills are evolving and we will make every attempt to keep this language updated, but visiting platforms’ developer sites (Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows, HTML5) will ensure your requirements are fresh.
  5. Finally, and perhaps most important government users need to collaborate with their contracting officers when writing mobile product procurements.

Ongoing Mobile Development Sample SOW

Some agencies have developed an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) mobile SOW for mobile product development long term. Many program offices have created SOW’s for mobile development. When creating a mobile SOW, it is important to cover all current and future development tasks. Be clear about what current systems the mobile products will be leveraged on and potential update information. The sample language below can help for current mobile development skills for contractors.

Sample Language for Specific Mobile Products

Some mobile innovators have sought a specific mobile product (app, mobile website, etc.). Below we have collected some language for specific mobile products (specific one off procurements.)

Mobile Web Site or Responsive Design Web Site

A mobile website refers to a site that is designed to be accessed by mobile Web browsers. Responsive design sites adjust content to fit the size of a person’s device screen.

Sample SOW Language

Sample #1

Web App

Applications accessed through the internet on mobile browsers are called mobile web apps. These applications are developed with web technologies like HTML, JQuery and JavaScript. Popular social media applications like Facebook and Gmail have their separate mobile based web apps which are very famous among mobile users.

Web apps generally have simpler functionality, will need network access to work properly, and will look more like a website than an app.

Sample SOW Language

Sample #1

Hybrid Apps

Hybrid apps combine elements of both web and native mobile apps. In such applications, web apps are embedded into native mobile apps. User interface is normally covered in the native part of the application while content is loaded through web part of the application. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter apps installed on a mobile are best examples where application interface is installed but contents is loaded from the web.

While hybrid apps are not as simple as web apps, they will need network access to function. Agencies also leverage cross development platforms for native apps.

Sample SOW Language

Sample #1

Native Apps

A native application or app is an application program that has been developed for use on a particular platform or device. When writing an SOW for a native app, it’s important to properly explain the functionalities of the app.

Sample SOW Language

Sample #1

Sample #2

Mobile Key Personnel Skill Templates

Building mobile websites/apps requires people with specific skill sets. Agency SOW’s have sought key personnel and even teams as contained in the language below. Agencies should keep in mind that these skills are evolving and agencies should include relevant skills need to work with current and/or future agency systems.

Please Note: There are redundancies in these lists as they are an amalgamation of SOWs. Agencies should pick the skills applicable for their project(s) and disregard the rest.

Software Architect including Mobile

Developers (this includes coders)

Skills should include:

Or need expertise in the following:

Or key skills needed:

Front End Developer

The ideal candidate shall possess the following skills and knowledge areas:

Software Developer/PHP

The ideal candidate shall possess the following skills and knowledge areas:

Mobile App Developer

Essential Skills:

For web, hybrid and native app development skills; a simplified list of skills needed

Common skills:

Desirable skills:

Quality Assurance Engineer

The ideal candidate also posses the following skills and knowledge areas:

Project Manager

Team Resources

The Contractor shall provide team resources that will be required to demonstrate relevant technical experience in mobile arena using different and varied technologies. Please note this is not an exhaustive list of skills but just an example.

Mobile Product Testing

Once an agency builds a mobile product, it needs to test it. Please view these mobile testing guidelines for more information on mobile product testing. Here is some Sample SOW Language for mobile product testing.

Sample #1

Review and Testing

The Contractor shall perform the following review and testing procedures in the Contractor and agencies development/test environments, at a minimum:

Sample #2

Test Plan (TP)

Prior to performing the review and testing procedures noted above, the Contractor shall develop a Test Plan (TP) that outlines the workflow of the review and test process. The TP must be reviewed and approved by the GTM. The TP should include the following elements, at a minimum:

Test Report (TR)

The Contractor shall develop a Test Report (TR) that outlines all reviews and tests performed and respective results. The TR must be presented to the USG prior to proceeding to the User Acceptance Testing phase. The Contractor shall ensure the software is production-ready, and operates on the intranet and Internet environments provided by the USG.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

The Contractor shall support and coordinate all UAT efforts with Information security and assurance team members.

Mobile Code Ownership or Open Sourcing

Agencies are adopting open government and open source methods by creating API’s and sharing other types of code to make mobile development easier. Agencies should include language in their mobile product SOW’s in order to leverage third party developers and other methods.

You should consult your contracting officer for specific language, but FAR code 52.227.17 generally addresses Authorization and Consent. Agencies need to identify a list of deliverables/types of code that they will own and what is patentable by the contracting organization. This is necessary if you wish to publish the code written by the contractor for your contract under a license where the government asserts copyright ownership. This is generally not necessary if you are just USING open source code or APIs.

Consult with legal and your procurement officer for your agency’s procedures.

Sample SOW Language

All products, designs, drawings and outputs developed as part of the activities conducted on this contract/order will be considered the property of the Government and may serve as input on subsequent orders, or other contractual vehicle as deemed appropriate. Offerors shall not submit as proprietary data in their proposal or quotation any restrictions that will limit the Government’s ownership and right to use the data generated, products, designs, drawings, and outputs developed under this award.

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