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Market Research Guidelines - Software applications and operating systemsCase Study #1
ScenarioYour boss has come to you asking for a Market Research analysis to find the best vendor to develop a software application for a new procurement system. Your boss has informed you that funding is not an issue. Bureau X has a disabled population of 25%, also the Finance Manager is blind and the Personnel Manager is paraplegic. Market ResearchA meeting was called for all involved parties (program staff, IT staff, and procurement representative) to discuss the technical and functional needs of the organization regarding the development of a procurement system. We all wanted to ensure that the software application met the Bureau's business needs and would deliver certain capabilities, including Section 508 tenets. Although Bureau X has a disabled population of approximately 25%, the requiring official wanted to work from the standpoint of 508 adherence in line with the business needs. We agreed that this application would be as 508 conforming as possible based on market availability. All parties voiced the projected capabilities for the new procurement software application. The consensus was that Bureau X needed an application to: Support Contract Management
Support Requisition Processing
Users: Approximately 2,000 acquisition specialists (i.e., contracting officers) throughout the Bureau will use Bureau X procurement software (BXPS) to issue Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and Requests for Quotations (RFQs), manage vendor contracts, and commit funds for purchases greater than $2,500. Also, authorized non-procurement personnel, including purchase card holders would use the system. EnvironmentThe solution shall run on one ore more of the following operating systems - Windows XP, Sun Solaris 2.6, Hewlett Packard Unix (HP-UX). The solution shall operate in one or more of the following platforms - IBM RS/6000, HP 9000, Intel Pentium, Sun Sparc. The solution shall support one or more of the following databases - Oracle 8 or greater, Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Technical RequirementsBureau X Procurement SystemThis document defines the technical requirements for the software that will constitute the overall Bureau X Procurement System (BXPS). In addition to supporting the functional requirements, the acquired software must also adhere to a set of technology-based parameters drawn from two other sources:
Although not always explicitly stated, this document assumes that state-of-the-art solutions will be proposed and assessments will be made in that context. Therefore, not all obvious industry best practices in areas as software usability, user interface, context sensitive help, printing, data entry validation, error traps and messages, system back up capability, n-tiered server-side architecture will be culled out. However, there are some value-added requirements that enable the documented, desired BXPS functionality, maximize cross-module and external integration, and support the seamless deployment of the BXPS module into the Bureau X IT environment. Bureau X Procurement System
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Req. ID | Title | Description | Meets Requirements Y/N | The Vendor Shall Provide A Description of Their Ability to Meet |
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TEC-1 | Access | Solution shall support end users, including those with disabilities according to the Final Rule on Section 508 1194.21 | ||
TEC-2 | Centralized/Distributed | Solution shall support an n-tiered architecture for the application, file management, and web system environments | ||
TEC-3 | Platform | Solution shall support its n-tiered architecture across multiple platforms | ||
TEC-4 | Platform | Solution shall operate in one or more of the following platforms - IBM RS/6000, HP 9000, Intel Pentium, Sun Sparc | ||
TEC-5 | Operating System | Solution shall run on one ore more of the following operating systems - Windows XP, Sun Solaris 2.6, Hewlett Packard Unix (HP-UX) | ||
TEC-6 | Database Management System | Solution shall support one or more of the following databases - Oracle 8 or greater, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 | ||
TEC-7 | Internet Server | Solution shall support one or more of the following Internet browsers - Netscape 4.0 or Internet Explorer 6 or greater for electronic forms | ||
TEC-8 | Network Availability | Solution shall operate in a network environment with variable bandwidth availability |
Req. ID | Title | Description | Meets Requirements Y/N | The Vendor Shall Provide A Description of Their Ability to Meet |
---|---|---|---|---|
FNC-1 | Whole Acquisition Lifecycle | Solution shall support the acquisition process form requisitioning through close-out and archiving for order and contracts, and provide catalog management functionality | ||
FNC-2 | Acquisition Automation | Solution shall support automation of the acquisition process at every level in the organization (requisition, purchase orders, purchase card actions, funds obligations). | ||
FNC-3 | FAR Compliance | Solution shall provide documents and business process which are compliant with the FAR | ||
FNC-4 | Document Formats | Solution shall provide the capability to generate standard purchasing forms and templates as specified in the FAR | ||
FNC-5 | Commitment Accounting | Solution shall support commitment accounting for the federal acquisitions management process | ||
FNC-6 | Rejection in Appropriate System | Solution shall retain a rejected action in the system from which it originated (e.g. funds deficient requisitions remain in the BXPS) | ||
FNC-7 | Financial System Interface | Solution shall support a real-time interface to bureau financial systems |
Experience with BuyAccessible - VPATS are not equal, some provide more information than others and some provide just enough information to warrant a meeting with a potential vendor.
1194.21 | ABLE Ltd. | IT LMN Corp. | e-TRP Inc. |
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a. Executable with a keyboard | Compliant | Compliant | Compliant |
b. Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated features of other products | Compliant | Compliant | Compliant |
c. Well-defined on-screen indication of the current focus | Compliant | Compliant | Compliant |
d. Sufficient info about a user interface element for AT | Compliant | Compliant | Compliant |
e. Meaning assigned to images are consistent throughout an application 's performance | Compliant | Compliant | Compliant |
f. Textual information provided thru operating system functions for text display | Compliant | Compliant | |
g. Applications shall not override individual display attributes | Compliant | Compliant | Compliant |
h. Any animation displayed, shall be displayable in at least one non-animated presentation mode | Compliant | Compliant | Compliant |
i. Color coding not used as the only means of conveying information | Compliant | ||
j. Variety of color selections are provided | Compliant | Compliant | |
Flashing or blinking frequency of 2 Hz - 55 Hz. | Compliant | Compliant | Compliant |
Electronic forms allow people using assistive technology to access all information | Compliant | Compliant | |
Total Standards Met | 10 | 12 | 9 |
Our task was to perform market research for the procurement of operating systems software.
For our criteria, we focused on Section 508 Subpart B - Technical Standards, section 1194.21: Software applications and operating systems. In real-life procurement, market research would also include other criteria based on business needs and other market factors. Because operating systems software is generally accessible, some of these other criteria may receive more weighting in the selection process than the Section 508 criteria.
We determined from the FAQ's, section G.5.ii, paragraph 3, that operating systems software installed on servers is not subject to the so-called "back office" exemption. The reason is that operating systems software can be operated from a remote workstation. For this reason, we did not want to exclude "server-only" operating systems products from our market research. The 508 standards make no distinction whether the user is a general user or on the IT staff, or whether the tasks they are trying to accomplish are general tasks or system administration tasks.
We assumed no standard hardware platform or environmental requirement was in place. We decided our scope would be to do market research on Section 508 requirements against desktop and server operating systems products.
We researched several operating systems products:
Microsoft Windows 2000 is available as both a desktop operating systems and a server operating systems. We researched the following Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs):
http://www.microsoft.com/usa/government/Windows2000_VPAT.doc
http://www.microsoft.com/usa/government/Windows_2000_Server_VPAT.doc
Novell Netware 6 is available as a server operating systems. We researched the VPAT:
http://www.novell.com/accessibility/nw6_accessibility.html
The VPAT contained columns for both product interfaces running on the client workstation, as well as product interfaces running on the server only.
Apple Mac OS X 10.2 is available as both a desktop operating systems and a server operating systems, and did not have a VPAT available. Instead, we researched the following:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/universalaccess.html
Apple makes the statement that "The system goes beyond the requirements of the U.S. federal government's Section 508 Accessibility statute." One could assume this means all standards are fully supported, but this would need to be verified. It is also unclear if this statement applies only to the desktop version, or if it also applies to the server version.
Red Hat Linux 8.0 had this accessibility statement available:
http://tux.cprm.net/pub/ftp.redhat.com/8.0/en/os/i386/README- Accessibility
It referred VPAT inquiries to Red Hat's legal department. We contacted the legal department, and were told that they were in the process of finalizing the VPAT. In the meantime, we found a VPAT for Red Hat Linux 7.2 in Google's cache. It listed support for the standards using Linux in console mode, using the KDE Desktop, and using the GNOME Desktop.
It should be noted that when using VPATs, we are basically taking the vendor's word on how well their products meet the standards.
We developed a comparison grid with the results of how well each product conforms to the standards in Section 508 Subpart B Section 1194.21, the software and operating systems technical standard.
LEGEND:
E='SUPPORTED WITH EXCEPTIONS'
ME='SUPPORTED WITH MINOR EXCEPTIONS'
NA='NOT APPLICABLE'
S='FULLY SUPPORTED'
Criteria: Section 508 - Subpart B - 1194.21 | Microsoft Windows 2000 | Microsoft Windows 2000 Server | Novell Netware 6 (Client) | Novell Netware 6 (Server) | Apple Mac OS X 10.2 | Red Hat Linux 7.2 (console) | Red Hat Linux 7.2 (KDE) | Red Hat Linux 7.2 (GNOME) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(A) | ME | E | S | S | S? | S | S | S |
(B) | E | S | S | S | S? | S | S | S |
(C) | E | ME | S | S | S? | S | S | S |
(D) | E | E | S | S | S? | S | ME | ME |
(E) | S | S | S | S | S? | S | S | S |
(F) | S | S | S | S | S? | ME | ME | ME |
(G) | ME | S | S | S | S? | S | S | S |
(H) | S | S | S | S | S? | S | S | S |
(I) | ME | E | S | S | S? | S | S | S |
(J) | S | ME | NA | NA | S? | S | S | E |
(K) | S | S | S | S | S? | S | S | S |
Novell
(Client) = Product interfaces running on the client workstation.
(Server) = Product interfaces running on the server only.
Apple
S? = "The system goes beyond the requirements of the U.S. federal government's Section 508 Accessibility statute."
Red Hat
(console) = in console mode
(KDE) = using KDE Desktop
(GNOME) = using the GNOME Desktop
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