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?Uncertain

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

Project Overall Health

Comments

Yellow

The Project Overall Health rating continued Yellow in October 2025 due to the current assessment of focus areas. -- Transition Readiness changed to Red: Escalated for immediate corrective action. Due to APDU condition, V1 Production Pilot, Sandbox Expansion, and Process Simulation (EUST4) are under reevaluation. With less than one year until Go-Live, the impact of alternative approaches is not yet known. -- Time, Cost, Quality, continued Yellow: Caution, risks/issues exist. Build Drop 5 is the last major build cycle to complete prior to EUST 3. Federal funding was requested in APDU. QA workload is over current capacity. -- Governance, Scope, Resources, Risks/Issues, continued Green: Satisfactory, no corrective action necessary. • The FFY 2026 APDU was resubmitted to ACF on October 17 requesting baseline funding approval. ACF responded on October 20, indicating a 60-day review period is targeted. -- The original was submitted on July 31, and withdrawn on September 11 to provide clarifications requested by the ACF. -- Due to Federal government shutdown and pending re-submission of APDU, work was paused on Pilot, Training, Process Simulation and expanding Sandbox. • Product delivery continues with 16 milestones complete (blue), 10 on track (green), 5 at risk (Yellow), 5 behind (Red), and 1 TBD. • The system scope includes core product development, infrastructure, interfaces, shared services, data conversion, scenario testing, rework based on user feedback, and design blueprints. • In October, 2 high-priority issues and 1 high-priority risk were opened, increasing the total to 18 high-priority issues (15) and risks (3). • In the project’s September 2025 Project Status Report (PSR) submission to the CDT, OTSI updated responses from “Yes” to “Uncertain” for the Key Questions: -- “Is the project on track to achieve the objectives in the approved timeframe?” -- “Is the project on track to achieve the objectives within the approved budget?”

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	The Governance rating continued Green in October 2025. The scope and character of authority for decision-making are documented, with governance bodies meeting regularly. • The last approval document, SPR 6, approved in May 2023, updated the project’s delivery approach and resources. Since approved, the following updates have been made: -- New Build Drop (BD) plan approved on September 18, adding two additional BDs and time extension to finish Legal Action and Service Delivery Tracking functionality. -- A feature-set Build Drop (BD) plan was approved on May 28, 2025. -- A Holistic Design approach was approved on June 10, 2024. -- The project schedule was re-baselined on July 3, 2024. -- The Financial Analysis Worksheets (FAW) were updated in April 2025 to support a FY 2025-26 BCP. One-time costs increased by 1%. • The FFY 2026 Annual APDU was resubmitted to the ACF on October 17 requesting baseline funding approval. -- It was originally submitted to the ACF CB for review on July 31, 2025, and withdrawn on September 11 to provide additional contract-related information per ACF request. -- The original submission included costs for V1 Pilot, Sandbox, and Process Automation which are not delineated in the last approved FAW. • Two decisions were made via the Decision-Making Framework in October: -- 564: Move end dates for M23.1 and M28 due to Build Drop 5.1 and 5.2. -- 563: County Court Forms Variations. • Two new project-internal change requests were submitted in October, bringing the total number of Open requests to nine. • Constituent engagement includes regular communications to constituents including Pilot Announcement, Progress & Engagement Summary, Explorer Newsletter, Staff Survey, and Data Dictionary update. • ACF Monthly Report on User Engagement & Adoption – October report for September with key accomplishments and stakeholder topics was prepared and submitted. -- Supported expansion of the CWS-CARES Sandbox Environment. -- Hosted 2 Process Information Sessions to explain CWS-CARES V1 processes. • Per an SPR 6 approval condition, the project utilizes Earned Value Metrics (EVM) to monitor project health. The Total V1 Scope is measured in Function Point Equivalents (FPE). The FPE value of 86,859 is consistent since August 2025.
Time Management Yellow	The Time Management Focus Area rating continued Yellow in October 2025. • The monthly PSR is reporting “uncertain” that project objectives will be achieved within the approved timeframe. • The project is managing 5 high-priority issues and 1 high-priority risk related to Time Management. -- RI-361 (High Issue): Potential impact to SIT completion due to delay in receiving data files from Counties/Binti. -- RI-350 (High Issue): PaaS SI misalignment creating bottlenecks. -- RI-341 (High Issue): Impact from scope delays in Build Drops 1,2, and 3. -- RI-340 (High Issue): Delay of Build Drop 3. -- RI-260 (High Issue): Sprint velocity is inadequate to achieve approved SPR 6 milestone schedule. -- RI-349 (High Risk): Downward trend for Product-Only SPI. • The project maintains adequate control of the (Microsoft Project) V1 Schedule. State and Contractors’ staff collaborate and meet weekly with a standing agenda. Changes to Finish Dates require approval by the Project Director. • The project's performance in achieving the remediated and re-baselined project schedule is reported by PaaS SI to be on track. -- As of October end, PaaS SI schedule variance metrics show the overall project is on track at 66% (+3% from last month) and complete, with 149 (63 more than last month) activities Overdue and 131 (728 less than last month) activities behind schedule. -- Additional standalone schedules for work categories such as Pilot, Sandbox, Process Simulation, External Systems, and Training were incorporated into the master project schedule in September, affecting the schedule metrics reported by PaaS SI. -- IPO notes a variance of -17% between percentage of work completed (66%) and the elapsed state business days planned for V1 work (83%). However, the schedule is duration-based and not effort-driven. I.e., the amount of work remaining may take more or less effort than the work completed to date. • 16 (no change from last month) of 37 product and interface milestones have completed the Service Delivery Life Cycle (SDLC) stage and will be tested and validated in EUST 3. All product milestones and interfaces have been mapped to EUST testing/validation cycles. -- EUST 1 finished May 2024. All 3 milestones are SDLC complete (blue). -- EUST 2 finished April 2025. All 9 milestones are SDLC complete (blue). -- Of the 21 EUST 3 milestones, 4 are SDLC complete (blue), 3 are on track (green), 9 are at risk (yellow), 5 are behind (Red). -- Of the 4 EUST 3 Reporting milestones that will be tested, 2 are on track (green), 1 is at risk (yellow), and 1 has not been determined. • The EUST 3 Build Drop (BD) plan is sequenced using service area feature-sets and milestones with goal of achieving SIT Done. IPO recommends an end-of-build report be published to record actual completion of goals at BD finish. As of October end: -- BD5 (October 6 – November 28): In progress. Total 893 user stories. 124 (14%) in SIT Done or further. Sprint is half-way through, and progress appears to be lagging. -- BD4 (August 11 – October 3): Finished. Total 554 user stories. 544 (98%) in SIT Done or further. -- BD3 (June 30 – August 8): Finished. Total 497 user stories. 447 (90%) in SIT Done or further. -- BD2 (May 19 – June 27): Finished. Total 318 user stories. 290 (91%) in SIT Done or further. -- BD1 (March 24 – May 16): Finished. Total 153 user stories. 150 (98%) in SIT Done or further. • Sprint metrics are varied between the State PMO and PaaS SI. IPO recommends increasing use of Jira canned dashboards and reports to show real-time data. As of October end: -- State PMO monitors overall Sprint metrics for inclusion in the monthly PSR. Overall Sprint Velocity (percentage of user stories completed versus committed) is 25.05 = 24%, 25.06 = 33%, 25.07 = 40%, 25.08 = 36%. -- PaaS SI Sprint Commitment and Closure reports focused on Build and SIT metrics. Application Functionality and Component (e.g., Salesforce, Interfaces, DocGen, DocuEdge, and Security) Velocity is 25.05 = 57%, 25.06 = 88%, 25.07 = 58%, 25.08 = 79%. • As per an SPR approval condition, the Project is using EVM to gauge performance. The Schedule Performance Index (SPI) increased to 0.958 as of October 15, indicating the project is on schedule with a variance of less than 5% from the target of 1.0.
Cost & Contract Management Yellow	The Cost & Contract Management rating continued Yellow in October 2025. • The monthly PSR is reporting “uncertain” that project objectives will be achieved within the approved budget. • The resubmitted FFY 2026 APDU requests funding approval only for baseline costs. -- The original submission included costs for V1 Production Pilot, Sandbox, and Process Automation which are not delineated in the last approved FAW, and could trigger a condition for a new SPR. -- In October, war room discussions began with the purpose of identifying alternative approaches and less costs for Pilot, Sandbox, and Process Automation (EUST4) tools and services. • ACF confirmed via email on July 14, that CCWIS claiming status is restored with a Federal Financial Participation (FFP) ratio of 73.5% Federal; 26.5% State; and retroactive to FFY 2024. • The Total Project Costs approved with SPR 6 are $1,711,011,443 with One-Time Costs of $1,228,909,579, Continuing Costs of $301,567,793, and Future Operations Costs of $180,534,071. -- Total One-Time Cumulative Expenditures are reported as $582,495,682 – 21% less than the planned $740,368,840 Total Cumulative One-Time Budget planned for at this time. -- Current Year Cumulative Expenditures increased in October from $48,133,859 to $92,429,193 resulting from payment of contractors’ invoices. This reduces the variance of planned versus actual spending to -3.5%, less than 5%. • State funding requested in a Spring Finance Letter (SFY) 2025-26 BCP was approved in the budget signed by the Governor on June 27, 2025. -- The Executive Budget Display presented monthly to the Board of Directors does not yet report Current Year Actual Expenditures and Total Actual Expenditures For FY 2025-26. -- Senate Budget Subcommittee 3 requested on June 10, 2025, "Budget Bill Language to (1) withhold 10 percent of the funding based on the project's historical underspending, (2) require reporting on the federal government's decision on project status, and (3) require written notification of any implementation of human services program changes delays." • As per an approval condition, the Project is using EVM to gauge performance. -- The 1.146 CPI reported as of October 15 is consistent with expenditures less than budgeted. The variance from the target 1.0 continues greater than 10% but is less than the peak CPI of 1.378 in August. • There are currently 15 services contracts for delivery of the CWS-CARES solution. -- 6 procurements are planned or in progress. -- 5 contract amendments are in progress. • Contract amendment negotiations for key contracts specified in SPR 6 have completed as of July, and pending ACF approval. -- Deloitte (PaaS SI): The amendment increases the total value from $273,514,765 to $326,519,306. -- Deloitte (Implementation services): The amendment increases the total value from $35,819,365 to $158,318,055. -- KPMG (PVS): The amendment increases the total value from $80,239,017 to $90,413,910. -- OnCore (CDI): The amendment increases the total value from $132,338,965 to $167,048,731.81.
Scope Management Green	The Scope Management rating continued Green in October 2025, although there is 1 high-priority issue and 1 high-priority risk currently being managed. -- RI-323 (High Issue): Resource Management rework not in current roadmap. Escalated to High August 6. Due date changed from September 30 to November 28. -- RI-355 (High Risk): Mandatory API Fields Requirement for AAP Functionality. Due date changed from September 19 to November 19. • SPR 6 approval condition #1 is satisfied. The PMO continues to provide monthly extracts of the CARES Version 1 (V1) product scope -- The October V1 Scope Extract prepared by the project shows V1 is organized by the Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST) cycles and consists of 4,091 (-53 from last month) User Stories categorized into 37 Milestones (plus Rework, Forms, and Shared Services), 127 (n/c) Building Blocks, and 500 (-14) Epics. -- 2,558 (63% of total) user stories are done. -- 696 out of 1,805 (39%) user stories for EUST 3 are done. -- The CDT expects the total number of epics and user stories to continue fluctuating as V1 SDLC and user feedback activities progress. • There are five major IT systems used by one or more counties that data conversion activities are in progress for. -- Data conversion cycles continue, with 5 out of 6 total cycles complete. Cycle 6 began in September. • Development of 450 Statewide forms continues in progress. As of October end, 175 are Done, 273 are In Progress, and others will be reevaluated. • Development of 2,700 County-specific forms continues in progress. A dedicated county development environment is available and utilized.
Resources Green	The Resources rating continued Green in October 2025, and will be reassessed pending FFY 2026 APDU disposition. • The approved FY 2025-26 project budget allocates 126 positions, an increase of three positions above FY 2024-25. • The project’s overall position vacancy percentage decreased to 4% with 4 hires made in October, within the Project’s goal of 10%. • Total primary vendor resources increased to 699 (+5) staff overall to improve delivery of product functionality by December 2025, including: -- PaaS SI – 386 (+8) -- CDI – 153 (+2) -- PVS – 49 (-6) -- Implementation – 102 (+2) -- QA/Testing – 9 (-1) • State and Vendor Resources have the tools and time necessary to complete tasks as assigned and demonstrate a detailed level of understanding to fulfill their assigned roles.
Quality Yellow	The Quality rating continued Yellow in October 2025. • The project is responding to 6 high-priority issues and 1 high-priority risk related to Quality. -- RI-360 (High Issue): No plan for addressing quality issues in Binti data. -- RI-357 (High Issue): Lack of Non-Production Test Data for LIS/FAS Integration. -- RI-354 (High Issue): Non-Adherence to Best Practices in APEX Custom Code Management. -- RI-345 (High Issue): Insufficient QA capacity to support Build Drop volumes. -- RI-342 (High Issue): Issues identified by Salesforce Code Quality Review. -- RI-339 (High Issue): Automation Regression Test (ART) execution failures are poor and not showing an improvement or improving trend. -- RI-351 (High Risk): High volume of feedback from EUST 2. • The PaaS SI maintains an internal Jira dashboard to monitor Test Execution in SIT for EUST 3 Build Drops. Overall, Pass rate for BD1-3, and BD5 is 98%. There is no data available for BD4. • Usability Testing for Build Drops 1-3 began in October. Scenario Writing for EUST 3 functionality continues in progress. • The quantity of bugs/defects identified during System Integration Testing (SIT) and Quality Assurance (QA) phases reduced in October, but the backlog continues large. -- 6,253 (-597 from last month) defects in System Integration Test (SIT) and 2,647 (-567) defects in QA. -- 686 (-206 from last month) Open defects with 103 prioritized as Critical, 104 High, 411 Medium, and 68 Low. 49 defects are Fixed, in Joint Review. -- 1,586 (-52) SIT and 26 (+3) QA Defects are for Holistic Design. -- 631 (92% of total) Open defects are Development Fixes. • Rework identified from user feedback indicate that some functionality may not fully meet user expectations, requirements, or usability standards. -- Of the total 756 (-9 from last month) Rework user stories, 618 (82%) are Done.
Risk And Issues Green	The Risks and Issues rating continued Green in October 2025. The administration and management of risks and issues is mature, with all items recorded and updated in the Risks and Issues Jira Backlog. • The CWS-CARES team is managing 53 open project-level risks and issues, including 18 high priority issues risks. Thirty-one (31) of the currently open risks and issues are less than 90-days old, including ten (10) high-priority issues and three (3) high-priority risks. -- RI-361 (High Issue): Potential impact to SIT completion due to delay in receiving data files from Counties/Binti. -- RI-360 (High Issue): No plan for addressing quality issues in Binti data. -- RI-357 (High Issue): Lack of Non-Production Test Data for LIS/FAS Integration. -- RI-354 (High Issue): Non-Adherence to Best Practices in APEX Custom Code Management. -- RI-350 (High Issue): PaaS SI misalignment creating bottlenecks. -- RI-345 (High Issue): Insufficient QA capacity to support Build Drop volumes. -- RI-342 (High Issue): Issues identified by Salesforce Code Quality Review. -- RI-341 (High Issue): Impact from scope delays in Build Drops 1,2, and 3. -- RI-340 (High Issue): Delay of Build Drop 3. -- RI-339 (High Issue): Automation Regression Test (ART) execution failures are poor and not showing an improvement. -- RI-330 (High Issue): County feedback on data templates for External Systems. -- RI-327 (High Issue): Long processing time for Micro-conversion may impact Cutover and Pilot planning and implementation. -- RI-323 (High Issue): Resource Management rework not in current roadmap. -- RI-321 (High Issue): Insufficient time and resources to complete the development of County forms needed for CARES V1 Go-Live. -- RI-260 (High Issue): Sprint velocity is inadequate to achieve approved SPR 6 milestone schedule. -- RI-355 (High Risk): Mandatory API Fields Requirement for AAP Functionality. -- RI-351 (High Risk): High volume of feedback from EUST 2. -- RI-349 (High Risk): Downward trend for Product-Only SPI. • Breakdown of active Risks and Issues: -- 29 Issues: 15 High, 9 Medium, 5 Low -- 24 Risks: 3 High, 10 Medium, 11 Low
Transition Readiness Red	The Transition Readiness rating escalated to Red in October 2025. • Due to Federal government shut down and re-submission of APDU, work was paused on Pilot, Training, Process Simulation and expanding Sandbox. Additionally, other efforts such as V1 Training and Organizational Change Management approaches are being reevaluated as part of the War Room discussions. -- CWS-CARES Board of Directors approval will be needed for adopted alternative approaches. -- Contract amendments may be needed to align SOW with alternative approaches. -- ACF approval will be needed for As-Needed APDU. • The project is responding to 3 high-priority issues related to Transition Readiness. -- RI-330 (High Issue) Delayed County feedback on data templates for External Systems. -- RI-327 (High Issue) Long processing time for Micro-conversion may impact Cutover and Pilot planning and implementation. -- RI-321 (High Issue) Insufficient time and resources to complete the development of County forms needed for CARES V1 Go-Live. • County organizations are responsible for completing tasks related to Implementation Management, Organizational Change Management, Training, Data Quality, and Technical work categories. -- As of July 2025, all 51 counties have submitted the External Systems Scope Assessments. -- Counties in all regions (Bay Area, Central Valley, Mountain Valley, Northern, and Southern) have tasks overdue for multiple sub-categories including External Systems, Process Tailoring, Forms, and Reports. -- External Systems Monthly Meeting series continue to provide foundational education and realignment on county activities. -- 35 Overdue Go-Live Readiness Checklist tasks for County Child Welfare and 5 for CDSS. -- 5 of 2,313 County-specific forms are completed. -- 0 of 1,747 County-specific Tableau reports are completed.
Conditions For Approval Green	The SPR 6 Approval Letter stipulates that the project must adhere to the following conditions (abridged language below): 1. Complete an elaboration of the Product Backlog to clarify program needs further and establish the inventory of functions and features required to complete the project. -- a) Satisfied – V1 product scope (Epics) must be elaborated into requirements (Stories) not later than October 31, 2024. IPO reviewed the materials in November 2024 and determined it satisfies the condition. As per CDT request, the project is also providing: 1) Tabular data that demonstrates completion progress and adjustments in total stories by milestone in future Project Status Report (PSR) and Quarterly Project Report (QPR) submissions to the CDT, commencing with the PSR due in December 2024. 2) The PSR and QPR reports include tabular data specifically on the details and progress of the "Rework" milestone stories, including identification of the original source milestone (e.g., 157 Rework milestone stories are sourced from "Milestone 03: Screening"). -- b) Satisfied – “V1 reporting and V2 Epics must be elaborated into Stories not later than February 28, 2025”. On February 28, 2025, the project submitted to the CDT materials intended to satisfy condition #1b. IPO reviewed the materials in March and determined that it satisfies the condition. CDT acknowledges that the V2 Baseline scope information must be kept "procurement confidential" now. The project is requested to provide the CDT: 1) An updated version of the V2 scope at the Epic/Scenario level immediately after the V2 PaaS SI contractor procurement is completed. (Date TBD) 2) An updated version of the V2 scope elaborated to the Story level immediately upon completion of V2 Business Requirements activities. (Date TBD) 2. Conduct annual Development Progress Demonstration for stakeholders and CDT during the first quarter of each Calendar year. -- Satisfied. The most recent annual demonstrations were held on April 4, 2024, and May 7, 2025. 3. Commence Earned Value Management (EVM) reporting in the monthly Project Status Reports (PSR) and Quarterly Project Reports (QPR) submissions beginning in October 2023. -- Satisfied. The Project began reporting EVM in October 2023. The Project continues to refine the approach and calculations using Function Point Equivalents. 4. Provide a Board of Directors-approved V1 Pilot Plan to the CDT upon completion of the SPR 6 Major Milestone in September 2023. -- Satisfied. The Project Director obtained Board of Directors approval on September 28, 2023, for the initial Pilot Plan version to satisfy the CDT SPR 6 approval condition. -- Board approval is conditional, stipulating that all future iterations be returned for approval. 5. The Independent Advisor (IA) consultant must assess the efficacy of the project’s constituent engagement, communications, and adoption model and provide a report that includes improvement recommendations to project leadership, the CalHHS, and the CDT by March 31, 2024. -- Satisfied. Per IPO request, the findings and recommendations were presented to executive stakeholders on June 3, 2024. 6. Provide an updated Vendor Management Plan that includes a revised Work Order Authorization (WOA) process that aligns with the PaaS SI and PVS vendor contract amendments described in SPR 6 before the amendments are executed. -- Satisfied. In August 2023, the CDT IPO team reviewed the new WOA Management Plan with updated WOA templates. -- Per IPO request, the WOA Management Plan was updated in October 2023 to include recurring activities, deliverables, and org readiness details for Implementation WOAs. 7. The CWS-CARES project must submit a new SPR if one or more of the following occurs: a) Estimated One-Time Cost increases by $15 million. b) Estimated Project End Date extends by three months. c) Product scope or requirements vary by 10 percent. d) Service Delivery Lifecycle (SDLC) undergoes major changes, as determined by the CDT. -- Condition has not been triggered
Corrective Action Green	Not currently applicable

• Special Project Report 6 (pdf)
• Special Project Report 5 (pdf)
• Special Project Report 4 (pdf)
• Special Project Report 3 (pdf)
• Special Project Report 2 (pdf)
• Special Project Report 1 (pdf)