Requirement: JChat Engineering Support
Location: Offsite
Cost Not to Exceed: €398,700
Period of Performance: From contract signature until 31 December 2026
Required Security Clearance: NATO SECRET (or higher)
Please do NOT apply for any NATO contract positions unless you meet ALL the following criteria:
- Current National or NATO SECRET clearance
- Nationality of one of the NATO member countries
- Current work visa for the specific location if applying for an in-country position
Introduction:
The NATO Information and Communication Agency (NCI Agency) located in The Hague, The Netherlands, is currently involved in the development of new capabilities for NATO as well as in the support of existing capabilities.
JChat has been developed by the NCI Agency to provide operators with a text-based asynchronous chat capability. Chat communication is used daily by the operators to pass information, coordinate operations, and support collaborative decision-making. JChat is providing one-to-one chat, group (multi-user) chat and multi-user conferencing (moderated chat) and is based on Instant Messaging (IM) technology.
In order to support these activities, the C2 Centre is looking for a team of maximum six developers to augment the NCIA team.
Purpose
The purpose of this Statement of Work is to define the scope, deliverables, pricing, and governance for the delivery of new versions of the JChat Client and server software.
Objectives:
The following objectives have been defined for this statement of work:
- Support the preparation of a new release of the JChat Java Client.
- Support the preparation of a new release of the JChat Web Client.
- Support the preparation of a new release of the JChat Openfire Server.
- Support the preparation of a new release of the M-Link server for JChat.
- Represent the JChat team in test events.
- Maintain the development pipeline.
The scope is defined in terms of business outcomes and capabilities rather than detailed functional specifications. The detailed implementation shall be refined iteratively through the Product Backlog.
Scope Flexibility
- The Client may substitute or reprioritize Product Backlog items at any time, provided that: the estimated effort over all work packages remains within a tolerance band of ±10% of the baseline backlog; and no change to the Firm Fixed Price is required.
- Such flexibility is required as there are dependencies on COTS products (M-Link) and open-source products (Openfire) with their own delivery timelines. Also, the effort on each of the work packages may be changed based on priorities from the operational community. However, it is expected that the overall effort over all work packages will remain the same.
- The introduction of new work packages or scope increases beyond the tolerance band of +10% shall constitute a Change Request.
Activities under the various work packages, except WP05, will be expressed in deliverables.
- WP01: Participate in Scrum meetings. Estimated per developer at 2.5 hours of standup per two-week development activity, four hours of refinement per two-week development activity, four hours of review per two-week development activity, a retrospective meeting and planning meeting per two-week development activity. Estimated Work Package weight: implicit (cost considered included in overall SoW).
- WP02: Support the preparation of a new release of the JChat Java Client. Under this work package the contractors of the supplier will support the development of a new version of the JChat Java client software following the Scrum methodology based on a backlog of tickets maintained in JIRA by the Purchaser. All activities for the preparation of the release, e.g. development, documenting, testing and reviewing, release building will be expressed as tickets with Story Points (SP) under this work package. Estimated Work Package weight: 32%.
- WP03: Support the preparation of a new release of the JChat Web Client. Under this work package the contractors of the supplier will support the development of a new version of the JChat web client software following the Scrum methodology based on a backlog of tickets maintained in JIRA by the Purchaser. All activities for the preparation of the release, e.g. development, documenting, testing and reviewing, release building will be expressed as tickets with Story Points (SP) under this work package. Estimated Work Package weight: 40%.
- WP04: Support the preparation of a new release of the JChat Openfire Server. Under this work package the contractors of the supplier will support the development of a new version of the JChat Openfire software following the Scrum methodology based on a backlog of tickets maintained in JIRA by the Purchaser. All activities for the preparation of the release, e.g. development, documenting, testing and reviewing, release building will be expressed as tickets with Story Points (SP) under this work package. Estimated Work Package weight: 14%.
- WP05: Support the preparation of a new release of the M-Link server for JChat. Under this work package the contractors of the supplier will test and integrate a new version of the JChat M-Link server software following the Scrum methodology based on a backlog of tickets maintained in JIRA by the Purchaser. All activities for the preparation of the release, e.g. development, documenting, testing and reviewing, release building will be expressed as tickets with Story Points (SP) under this work package. Estimated Work Package weight: 4%.
- WP06: Participate in events on behalf of the JChat team. Under this work package at least one of the contractors of the supplier will represent the JChat team during the CWIX IPC event and the INTEND event. For this work package travel will be required to the location of the CWIX IPC event (location unknown at the moment) and to The Hague for the INTEND exercise. Travel cost is included in the cost of the overall SoW. Estimated Work Package weight: 0% (cost considered implicit to the SoW).
- WP07: Maintain the development pipeline. Under this work package the contractors of the supplier will maintain and implement changes to the development pipeline (tool chain) for the JChat products following the Scrum methodology based on a backlog of tickets maintained in JIRA by the Purchaser. Estimated Work Package weight: 10%.
The purchaser's Project Manager has final authority over backlog prioritization and acceptance decisions.
Governance & Measurement Rules
Work Package Acceptance
- Work packages are counted only when tickets are accepted by Purchaser.
- Partially completed tickets = 0 WP credited.
- Reopened tickets deducted from future WP totals.
- Period review = formal acceptance checkpoint.
- Purchaser has 5 working days to accept/reject deliverables.
If velocity drops below 70% (28 SP) for 2 consecutive periods without valid reason (e.g. summer leave), the Supplier will be asked for a corrective action plan, additional reporting and eventually replacement of personnel.
Purchaser Responsibilities
- Provide timely feedback and decisions.
- Ensure access to the NATO Software Factory (maximum of six accounts).
- Provide computers for the members of the development team (maximum of six).
- Production of stated deliverables.
- Maintain a team of qualified people.
- Quality assurance.
Contractor Qualifications
For this consultancy, NCIA is looking for a supplier that is able to provide six experienced software developers who can be productive from the start with the maintenance of the existing JChat Java client software (based on Swing) and JChat web client software (based on Angular).
The proposed developers have proven knowledge and experience with XMPP Chat Client development in Java and Angular, development of Openfire plugins and M-Link server.
The proposed developers for this work each require the following qualifications (a lower level of experience in one of the criteria can be compensated by a high level of experience in another criteria; this applies for maximum of one developer and is for the Purchaser to judge):
- The proposed developer has a degree in informatics, computer science or a closely related engineering field.
- The proposed developer has a track record (at least five years) in software development using Java, including Java Swing and web development using Angular.
- The proposed developer is well able to produce efficient, clear, readable, maintainable and high-quality code.
- The proposed developer has a track record (at least five years) with development of chat related products based on XMPP, including but not limited to the implementation of XEPs, the M-LINK Server, the Openfire Server and the Openfire plugin framework, and troubleshooting XMPP communication.
- The proposed developer has solid experience with working with Scrum.
- The proposed developer has relevant and recent experience in continuous software integration and automated testing, including knowledge of test automation frameworks, using Maven, Jira, GitLab, Zephyr.
- The proposed developer has a flexible, cooperative and customer focussed attitude; sets high standards for quality and quantity; monitors and maintains quality and productivity; works in a systematic, methodical and orderly way.
- The proposed developer is able to speak and write fluent English since the work is conducted in English.
- The proposed developer has the nationality of one of the NATO nations.
- Must hold a valid NATO SECRET (or higher) Security Clearance as from the start date of the contract.
