Updating Water Rights Data for California (UPWARD) - IT Project Tracking - California Department of Technology - California Department of Technology

Independent Project Oversight Report (IPOR) Rating

Green
- Satisfactory, no corrective action necessary.
Yellow
- Caution, risks/issues exist. There may be a need for corrective action in the near future.
Red
- Escalated for immediate corrective action. There is a significant risk to the health of the project.
Blue
- Not enough data is available to make a determination about the project health.
No Report Available - Indicates that a Report is not available for publishing for the reporting period.

3940-104 Updating Water Rights Data for California (UPWARD)

The proposed UPWARD project will collect water rights reporting information, calculate fees associated with various water right types and processes, exchange data with internal and external data systems, maintain digital records of data currently contained on paper, and include functionality to support staff review of reported information. The proposed project will include two major workstreams: • Updating the core water rights data management system; • Building in digitized paper records to the geospatial product so that the electronic water rights files are accessible to anyone, anywhere.

Project Details

Agency / State Entity	Environmental Protection / Water Resources Control Board, State
Total Cost	$62,399,917
Last Approved Start Date	01/31/2023
Last Approved Finish Date	09/30/2024
Criticality Rating	High

IPOR Reporting Period	Overall IPOR Rating
12/01/2024 - 12/31/2024	Yellow

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?No

Project Overall Health	Comments
Yellow	• As we finalized the year, it is important to mention that in 2024 this project continued to work very hard and smart and extremely focused on delivering results. • From the IPO Manager’s professional perspective, I can say that this is a highly focused and highly talented project team of experts, managers, and executives (collectively: Waterboards, Deloitte, Gartner, PCG, and other partners) focused on meeting the project’s objectives. • The project’s overall health is Yellow (cautionary) due to risks associated with potential additional project costs, extension of schedule, and quality challenges. • The project submitted its Special Project Report (SPR) to rebaseline the additional work effort in Phase 3 for enhancement, to use all remaining funding within the project execution authority, and to extend the project timeline. o It is expected to be reviewed and approved by the end of January 2025. • Phase 3 discovery sessions were conducted in early December 2024. • The project costs are expected to increase by about $1M. o It is a relatively small percentage (about 2%) increase as compared to the overall project cost. • The project timeline will be extended to June / July 2025.

Project Overall Health

Comments

Yellow

• As we finalized the year, it is important to mention that in 2024 this project continued to work very hard and smart and extremely focused on delivering results. • From the IPO Manager’s professional perspective, I can say that this is a highly focused and highly talented project team of experts, managers, and executives (collectively: Waterboards, Deloitte, Gartner, PCG, and other partners) focused on meeting the project’s objectives. • The project’s overall health is Yellow (cautionary) due to risks associated with potential additional project costs, extension of schedule, and quality challenges. • The project submitted its Special Project Report (SPR) to rebaseline the additional work effort in Phase 3 for enhancement, to use all remaining funding within the project execution authority, and to extend the project timeline. o It is expected to be reviewed and approved by the end of January 2025. • Phase 3 discovery sessions were conducted in early December 2024. • The project costs are expected to increase by about $1M. o It is a relatively small percentage (about 2%) increase as compared to the overall project cost. • The project timeline will be extended to June / July 2025.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	• This focus area is Green (satisfactory). • The IPO Manager acknowledges the effort and focus of both the state and vendors in conducting discovery sessions related to Phase 3 needs. • The CDT, Finance, CalEPA leadership and the project worked collaboratively to align to the project’s goals. The SPR development was properly vetted by decision-makers. • Decisions continue to be made at all levels of the project.
Time Management Red	• This focus area is Red (escalated) since a new project completion date is to be determined via the SPR approval. The schedule baseline had a project completion of September 2024. • The project has decided to incorporate Phase 3 (system enhancements) as a continuation of the project since go-live will occur at the completion of Phase 3 (estimated June / July 2025). o Previously, system enhancements were planned to continue during Phase 3 as Maintenance and Operations (M&O) activities. • Once the SPR is approved, this focus area will be Green with a new baseline.
Cost & Contract Management Yellow	• This focus area is Yellow (cautionary). • Once the SPR is approved, the project decision-makers will begin the detailed work with CDT’s Statewide Technology Procurement (STP) on the contract amendments. o The contract amendment process can be complicated, and negotiations might need to take place. • Preliminary analysis shows that the project is expected to increase by about $1M to the overall project costs. • The IPO Manager recognizes that the project has been focused on managing costs to ensure that the project stays on budget. • The CDT acknowledges that projects of this size and complexity are difficult to manage and track the costs. The project teams have shown discipline and focus on tracking such costs. • The project has been working with the CDT and the DOF in reviewing and fine-tuning the financials to ensure that all costs are accounted for as the project moves to Phase 3.
Scope Management Green	• This focus area remains Green (satisfactory). • The project defined the Phase 3 scope. o The System Integrator, Deloitte, was on-site (Sacramento, CA) in early December 2024 as it conducted discovery sessions for Phase 3. o Phase 3 objectives were reviewed, and work was planned. • The IPO Manager acknowledges the project’s effort in defining the scope to achieve the project’s objectives.
Resources Green	• This focus area remains Green (satisfactory). • The System Integrator (SI), Deloitte, continued offboarding some of their staff now that Phases 1 and 2 are in maintenance mode. • The IPO Manager concurs that optimizing the project’s resources is reasonable and expected as the project goes through its lifecycle. • The SI has committed to having enough resources to focus on the M&O activities and Phase 3 enhancements.
Quality Yellow	• This focus area is Yellow (cautionary). • Phase 2 was moved to production in October 2024, and it contained multiple medium and low criticality defects that are still pending. This continues to be a risk for the project. • At the end of this reporting period, there were approximately 400 pending defects. • For the December 2024 release, the project fixed and deployed 57 defects (vs 104 planned). • The Non-Functional Requirements (NFR) focus will continue during Phase 3. o NFR backlog: 351 (76%) out of 464 have passed UAT.
Risk And Issues Green	• This focus area remains Green (satisfactory). • The project is actively managing risks. • The project team removed the Schedule Timeline risk from their risk log. However, CDT still considers it an issue since the timeline is expected to move to approximately June / July 2025. • Once the SPR is approved, it will rebaseline the schedule and no longer be an issue.
Transition Readiness Green	• The IPO Manager will closely monitor this focus area.
Conditions For Approval Green	• There are no conditions for approval.
Corrective Action Green	• There are no corrective action items.

Project Approval Documents

Currently unavailable

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2025-01-23 - Release-8