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.

0555-018 California Environmental Reporting System Next Generation (CERS NextGen)

The California Environmental Protection Agency, California Environmental Reporting System (CERS) NextGen, will implement a new solution or move the current version of CERS to a supported platform and introduce enhancements to re‐align CERS with current business processes and to meet current and future Unified Program needs.

Project Details

Agency / State Entity	Legislative, Judicial, and Executive / Secretary for Environmental Protection
Total Cost	$39,568,985
Last Approved Start Date	02/17/2026
Last Approved Finish Date	05/03/2027
Criticality Rating	Medium

IPOR Reporting Period	Overall IPOR Rating
10/01/2026 - 10/31/2026	Red

Independent Project Oversight Dashboard

Key Questions

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

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
Red	• The overall project health for CERS NextGen is rated Red due to schedule, cost, and quality variances. • The answers to the Key Questions in the IPOR confirm that while the project remains generally on track to satisfy customer business objectives, it is explicitly not on track to achieve these objectives within the approved baseline timeframe or budget. • Due to the on-going quality challenges, the IPO Manager recommends that project leadership enforce strict defect burn-down weekly and monthly targets prior to full system cutover. •The CalEPA PMO submitted the SPR package to the CDT on September 16, 2026, for approval for establishing a rebaselined budget and Phase 2 completion of December 2028.

Project Overall Health

Comments

Red

• The overall project health for CERS NextGen is rated Red due to schedule, cost, and quality variances. • The answers to the Key Questions in the IPOR confirm that while the project remains generally on track to satisfy customer business objectives, it is explicitly not on track to achieve these objectives within the approved baseline timeframe or budget. • Due to the on-going quality challenges, the IPO Manager recommends that project leadership enforce strict defect burn-down weekly and monthly targets prior to full system cutover. •The CalEPA PMO submitted the SPR package to the CDT on September 16, 2026, for approval for establishing a rebaselined budget and Phase 2 completion of December 2028.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	• The Governance focus area maintains a Green rating with effective executive control and decision making. • The project team maintains cross-discipline Scrum teams and active business representation during routine sprint reviews and backlog refinement sessions to ensure system functionality brings continuous business value. • There is a healthy process during these meetings where team members challenge the deliverables, quality, and assumptions of the deliverables. • The IPO Manager suggests that the PMO establish formal tracking for all retrospective action items. • The PMO answered all oversight review comments regarding the pending BCP and SPR transmittals.
Time Management Red	• The Time Management focus area is rated Red as completion dates exceed approved baseline limits. • The IPO Manager recommends that the PMO maintain a resource-loaded schedule reflecting the December 2028 Go-Live target. • The SI rescheduled iterative core-table data migration to mid-November 2026, creating potential downstream schedule risks. • The IPO Manager suggests evaluating data migration delays to protect key 2027 CUPA conference milestones.
Cost & Contract Management Red	• The Cost & Contract Management area is rated Red because expenditures exceed approved baseline funding. • The IPO Manager recommends enforcing strict fiscal oversight by tying vendor invoices directly to verified deliverables. • The CalEPA PMO reported about $22.7M in cumulative actual one-time expenditures through October 31, 2026. • The IPO Manager suggests tracking consultant burn rates closely as contract amendment negotiations proceed for Phase 2.
Scope Management Yellow	• The Scope Management area is assigned a Yellow rating due to emerging technical scope complexities. • The Product Owner actively assesses feature business value relative to the level of effort and time during routine Agile ceremonies to refine MVP boundaries and prioritize sprint deliverables. • The IPO Manager recommends that product owners validate data cloud prerequisites before introducing complex reporting user stories.
Resources Yellow	• The Resources area is rated Yellow because internal state staff capacity constraints pose operational risks and because of the SI specialist’s departure. • The SI data migration lead unexpectedly departed, requiring immediate replacement planning which created project issue. • The IPO Manager recommends cross-training state personnel to sustain adequate technical oversight as vendor delivery velocity increases.
Quality Red	• The Quality area for October 2026 is assigned a Red rating due to escalating defects and compounding technical debt. • The IPO Manager recommends that project leadership enforce strict definition of done rules and weekly and monthly data-driven burn-down targets before approving production software application releases. • It is normal and expected that IT projects experience defects during development process. For example, the active open user acceptance testing defect backlog surged about forty-five percent during October, reaching over 400 total bugs during the this reporting period. • The IPO Manager suggests that state leadership closely monitor vendor defect remediation capacity to prevent technical debt from delaying critical project milestones. • The System Integrator proposed doubling bug remediation capacity and scheduling a dedicated bug-fixing sprint during upcoming Sprint 2.12. • The IV&V team requested root cause analysis documentation to evaluate whether vendor remediation strategies effectively resolve persistent software system quality issues. The response is still pending.
Risk And Issues Green	• The overall status for Risks and Issues in CERS NextGen is assigned a Green rating for October 2026, as the project maintains a satisfactory control structure and a disciplined process for proactively identifying, tracking, updating, and escalating project threats and obstacles. • The IPO Manager suggests that the PMO continue reviewing project risks during weekly governance forums consistently. • The PMO actively tracks multiple risks, prioritizing defect growth threats.
Transition Readiness Green	• The Transition Readiness area is rated Green as OCM activities continue engaging external stakeholders effectively. • The OCM team hosted virtual town hall meetings to socialize the rebaselined Go-Live date. • The IPO Manager suggests tailoring training materials to varying digital literacy levels across local regulatory agencies.
Conditions For Approval Green	• There are no conditions for approval.
Corrective Action Green	• There are no corrective action items.

Project Approval Documents