Technology and Publishing Requirements for BJS Contractors and Grantees

Proposals will be evaluated, based on the degree to which they address the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS), including the following key factors and other applicable policies, practices, and standards.

Other Applicable Policies, Practices, and Standards

1. DOJ Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
2. Federal Websites and Digital Services
3. Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA 2014)
4. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publications on Information Technology, cybersecurity, and computer security
5. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d) as stipulated by DOJ Section 508 Compatibility Requirements and policy
6. The Privacy Act of 1994 (5 U.S.C. 552a) mandate and DOJ policies governing data about individuals, including Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
7. The Federal Source Code Policy for source code while ensuring all open-source code complies with DOJ/OJP security, privacy, and accessibility requirements
8. The Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, which requires agency data be accessible and requires agencies to plan to develop statistical evidence to support policymaking.

Approved OJP Technologies

1. Application hosting environments:
   1. OJP Digital Experience (DEx) platform built on Drupal
   2. OJP .Net Hosting Environment
       
2. Data hosting, processing, and visualization platforms:
   1. Data Management, Reporting and Analytics (DMRA) platform (Socrata and Tableau)
   2. Database Management Systems (DBMS, mySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Postgres DB)
   3. Data analysis tools (SPSS, R Studio, Stata, SAS VIYA, SUDAAN, MS PowerBI)
   4. ESRI ArcGIS for geospatial data
   5. Amazon GovCloud hosted Web Services

Applications built for BJS should:

1. Use professionally accepted coding standards that:
   1. Avoid the storing of sensitive data in client memory
   2. Suppress exception errors
   3. Include clear comments in code
   4. Separate presentation logic, business logic, and persistence logic by clear architectural boundaries
2. Apply a “look and feel” similar to the BJS website and feature DEx-compatible headers and footers that optimize integration with the BJS.gov website when being hosted in the OJP .Net environment or elsewhere
3. Adhere to industry best practices for system development lifecycle
4. Minimize the use of custom frameworks/libraries
5. Be responsive and resize correctly and functional on mobile devices
6. Be compatible with the latest releases of Edge (Chromium), Chrome, Firefox, and other major browsers

Deliverables should include the following:

1. For software packages, a description of the contents and tools used to develop the software
2. For data files and databases:
   1. A description and purpose of each file/table/object
   2. Documented data validation rules executed throughout the data flow/lifecycle
   3. Copies of datasets/tables not developed on BJS/OJP systems, including interim outputs needed to recreate or interrogate the process flow and its outputs
3. Test plan
4. Test plan templates for user testing, including test cases and test scripts for each test case during testing
5. Deployment plan and documentation. Contractor may be required to assist BJS and OCIO with deployment
6. User Experience (UX) test results, where applicable
7. Usability test results where applicable
8. User manuals