3900-073 Clean Air Reporting Log (CARL) Redesign

The California Air Resource Board, Mobile Source Control Division, proposes to upgrade the Clean Air Reporting Log (CARL) database in order to improve current functionality and sustainability of the system. Improvements will provide Program with ability to eliminate manual processing of projects not currently supported by CARL, more efficient processing of applications, location based emission reduction projects, less reliance on programming changes to make regular annual updates, add Greenhouse Gas functionality, and provide a technology refresh so that the new system is more secure, less prone to breakdown, and more supportable by programming staff.

Project Details

IPOR Reporting Period	Overall IPOR Rating
01/01/2025 - 01/31/2025	Red

Independent Project Oversight Dashboard

Key Questions

Is the project on track to satisfy the customer's business objectives?Yes

Is the project on track to achieve the objectives in the approved timeframe?No

Is the project on track to achieve the objectives within the approved budget?Uncertain

Project Overall Health

Comments

Red

The project has several focus areas moving to Red (escalated) in this reporting period. As a result, the overall project health has been changed to Red (escalated) and will be closely monitored for mitigation efforts for any further variance. • At the end of the last reporting period, a new Project Manager (PM) was assigned to the project. The new PM is conducting a full project assessment and has noted significant schedule slippage and potential technical debt. • The IPO manager is monitoring the project’s assessment of schedule extension and any related cost variances for further recommendations, and continued alignment with best practices. • Recommendations and guidance will be provided by the IPO manager for course correction in the identified focus areas, including any requirement for an SPR. • The vendor team continued work on development tasks for Release 3. • The Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) contractors are on board in January and will start to help with technical oversight of the project.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Yellow	The focus area turned yellow (cautionary) during this reporting period. • The project’s Executive Steering Committee (ESC) was last held on December 23, 2024, the next meeting is scheduled in February. • Several project update meetings have been postponed to help the new PM get on board, assess the project status, and evaluate all project areas to identify issues and apply remediation measures to get the project on track. • The IPO Manager recommends utilizing the governance process for escalation of project decisions to address the schedule impact of viable options for remediation. • The IPO manager recommends that the project review all roles and responsibilities in terms of authority/delegation to ensure expectations/outputs are adhered to help the project get back on track. • The IPO manager recommends keeping open and transparent communications with stakeholders to ensure project decisions are made timely and at appropriate authority levels.
Time Management Red	The focus area turned Red (escalated) during this reporting period as there is an anticipated schedule extension with an SPR. • The PM team has evaluated that the project schedule updated by the vendor team (to accommodate the three change requests (CR) approved last month) is compressed and does not meet the time requirements for technical re-work, testing, and validations. • The project's most complex coding and infrastructure design are coming up for development, and not enough time is allocated for technical assessment, testing, and validations. • The new 2024 grant guidelines are to be incorporated into the project. At preliminary assessment, this is anticipated to increase project timelines. • The IPO manager recommends that the Project team understand the underlying issues that have occurred, which will help them devise the appropriate remediation measures and prevent future issues.
Cost & Contract Management Red	The focus area remained in Red(escalate) during this reporting period. • A review of Release 2 User Acceptance Testing (UAT) highlighted the lack of bidirectional traceability of requirements, which prevented the approval of some of the Release 2 deliverables. • The assessment of schedule extension & cost variance could require an SPR and contract amendment. • Two new CRs are anticipated to address the schedule extension and to adopt the new 2024 grant guidelines. • The three Work Order Authorizations (WOAs) for the CRs approved in December and the WOA for database normalization CR are delayed due to staffing shortage in the CARB Contracts team. • The IPO Manager recommends that the Project team ensure the re-assessment of the schedule also takes into consideration the Program team's resource availability for the extension and associated staff costs for accurate projection. The IPO manager also recommends that the project adhere to the documented Change Management Plan to mitigate risks. • The IPO manager recommends updating the lessons learned database from this experience to reflect the challenges/impediments and what can be improved.
Scope Management Red	The focus area changed to Red(escalate) during this reporting period. • The PM noted a lack of bidirectional traceability of requirements, the inability to understand what has been done so far, and preliminary results are cause for concern that the project has accumulated technical debt. • The project will be adding the new 2024 grant guidelines to the project scope. A CR to address this scope change is being evaluated. • The IPO Manager recommends that the project team prioritize the spikes needed to understand the technical debt accumulated and any deviation from the current scope for course correction. Expedite understanding of functional/technical requirements for the 2024 grant guidelines to help the project get a more precise understanding of the scope/any re-work required to help the project stay on track to achieve the business objectives.
Resources Yellow	The focus area remained Yellow (cautionary) during this reporting period. • The SI vendor lost two key staff, the lead business analyst and a programmer, early in January. • The anticipated schedule extension will require current resources to stay on the project longer than planned. • The staffing constraints in the CARB Contracts team are continuing and causing delays in WOA approvals. • The IV&V contract team continued onboarding in January. • The IPO manager recommends prioritizing the identification and availability of the resources required on all teams to ensure that the re-assessment of the project schedule takes into account any risks and has the mitigation plans in place.
Quality Red	The focus area changed to Red(escalate) based on the following. • The assessment of scope built so far and UAT walk-through for Release 2 testing has revealed a lack of bidirectional traceability of the requirements and concern about the quality of work already done. • Lack of an IV&V team for technical oversight of the project continued. The IV&V team continued onboarding in January. • No IV&V report was published in January. • The IPO manager recommends making necessary adjustments to the approved testing plan to follow best practices and ensure that the tests can be traced back to requirements. The IV&V team should also be in place and able to provide technical oversight in a timely manner to recognize issues early. The IPO manager also recommends updating the Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) to help trace requirements.
Risk And Issues Yellow	The focus area changed to Yellow (cautionary) for this reporting period. • The PM has indicated inconsistency and gaps in the application of key project processes, leading to communication and reporting issues. The PM has opened two new issues and one new risk in this reporting period. • The project has re-iterated to follow its Risk and Issue processes as approved, fully documenting Risks and issues and conducting regular meetings to discuss risks and issues. • The IPO manager recommends early documentation of risk/issues and mitigation plans. Assess any risk related to the upcoming new CRs and document any mitigation plans as early as possible to avoid it becoming an issue.
Transition Readiness Green	The focus area remains Green for this reporting period.
Conditions For Approval Green	None
Corrective Action Green	None

2025-02-07 - Release-11