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?Yes

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

Project Overall Health

Comments

Green

The overall project health rating is green for the November 2025 reporting period. • The inaugural SCO Town Hall for State Government Executives was held on November 7, 2025, during which the team provided updates on project progress and phases & waves assignments. • The project team continues to make progress on P1 DDCI Develop/Full Test Prep Subphase activities and is preparing for the P1 development scheduled to start in January 2026.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	• Project leadership, executives, workstream teams, and stakeholders remain engaged in the project activities and decisions. • The project follows a regular cadence for Executive Steering Committee (ESC) meetings. The most recent ESC meeting was held on November 20, 2025. During the meeting, the team provided an overview of the Department Agency Readiness Team (DART) allocation criteria and funding status. No escalations or issues were discussed during this meeting. • The project held the bimonthly status meeting with the Department of Finance (DOF) on November 20, 2025, and the Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) on November 25, 2025. • The project continues to track and resolve decisions in a timely manner.
Time Management Green	• The P1 DDCI Scope Validation Subphase is 98% complete and is on track to be completed in December 2025. • The P1 Design and Development task is scheduled to start on January 2, 2026. Development for P1 functionality will be completed over three Planning Intervals (PI), planned for completion in October 2026. • The team has started sprint planning activities for the user stories to be developed during PI-1, scheduled to start on January 20, 2026. • The IPO Managers are monitoring user story development activities against the scheduled milestones. • The Solution Integrator (SI) and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) team completed several key deliverables during this period.
Cost & Contract Management Green	• In agreement with the cost reporting timeline, all reported costs are for the October 2025 reporting period. • The cost details for this assessment period are as follows: The project incurred total actual costs (project + planning) of $139 M, representing 98% of the allocated budget of $142 M, and $51.7 M, or 5.5% of the total approved project costs of $ 938 M. • The proposed DART funding allocation plan was delivered to DOF in October 2025; it is pending their review and approval. The team has identified a risk related to the delay in DOF approval, which may affect the participation of DART liaisons and delay the implementation timeline. • The project has eight (8) active contracts. The contract costs are within budget.
Scope Management Green	• No change in scope was observed for this reporting period. • The team is finalizing the change request intake form and the process for departments that will be requesting a change in their wave assignments. CalHR/Policy Updates: -- The team finalized the Additional Appointments Policy for statewide implementation.
Resources Green	• The project onboarded the CSPS Project Manager on November 17, 2025. • Recruitment effort for the remaining key project resource, CSPS Technical Chief, with applications due at the end of November. The IPO Managers will continue to monitor the Technical Chief and other technical team vacancies as the project progresses into development. • The overall resource variance decreased to 14%. The project reported that eighteen (18.0) of the one hundred (100.0) SCO-authorized positions, and three (3.0) of the twenty-five (25.0) CalHR-authorized positions remain vacant.
Quality Green	• The project continued to update ELM with Agile Work Items, which are estimated to be completed in December 2025. As of this assessment period, the project has created 138 Epics, 681 Features, and is working through 1833 draft User Stories. • The technical team developed and published Power BI reports providing data to be used for data conversion analysis • IPO is following up with the team on its recommendation to assign a state counterpart technical architect to oversee the overall solution development. • The SI submitted the November 2025 status report on December 8, 2025. The report noted two risks related to user story refinement and development, as well as the P1 Develop/Full Test Subphase environment build. A mitigation plan has been provided, and both tasks are on track to be completed as scheduled. • The IV&V team submitted the Monthly Activity Report (MAR) on November 5, 2025. The team has identified one (1.0) new finding related to the quality of the submitted SI deliverable requiring substantial rewrites, which may impact project timelines and quality. In addition, the IV&V team identified one new risk associated with the vacancies in the technical section. The observations shared in the MAR are consistent with the IPO's overall assessment of the project's health.
Risk And Issues Green	• The project is actively managing, monitoring, and tracking the risks and issues. • As the project moves from planning into development, the IPO Managers recommended that current risk and issue meetings be held at a regular monthly cadence with the entire team to ensure proactive risk identification. • The project identified three (3.0) new risks and no new issues this assessment period. Mitigation strategies are in progress. • The project closed two (2.0) risks in November. - Risk# 18867- Insufficient Resource Allocation for 3rd Party Vendor Interface Communication. - Risk# 41- Payroll Payment Process Change Opportunities • The project is tracking top risks in each category (Refer to Risks & Issues focus area for further details). Short-term/Near-Term risks (less than three (3) months): - Risk# 5 - Project Resource Availability - Risk# 18847- Lack of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) Availability During DDCI. - Risk# 6- Retention of Project State Staff. Long-term risks (greater than three (3) months): - Risk# 3- Implementation of other new Human Capital Management (HCM) systems in Agencies/Departments. - Risk# 48 – SCO Operations Backlog Impact to the CSPS Project. - Risk# 18814 – Payroll File Creation Timing.
Transition Readiness Green	• The Organizational Change Management (OCM) team was engaged in the following activities during this reporting period: -- The CSPS Awareness Campaign was launched in September 2025 and is estimated to be completed in December 2025. The team is gathering post-deployment surveys to assess the campaign’s effectiveness. -- Agency Change Experts (ACEs) continue to meet with DART liaisons in their respective departments to discuss implementation methodologies and timelines. -- The annual SCO Town Hall for State Executives was held on November 7, 2025. The team provided project updates and details on phase and wave assignments. The attendees appeared engaged, and they were given adequate time to address all questions.
Conditions For Approval Green	The project has the following conditions of approval as per the superseded Stage 4 Approval Letter issued on May 15, 2025. The project is working on meeting these conditions by the specified due date. 1) Within 90 days of this letter, the SCO shall submit to the CDT a detailed, fully resource-loaded CSPS Integrated Master Schedule (IMS), which includes both State and System Integrator (SI) activities, deliverables, milestones, and tasks -- The project submitted the approved IMS/MPS to CDT on August 12, 2025. 2) Within 90 days of this letter, the CSPS Project Management Team shall review, and the SCO shall approve and submit updated Project Management Plans to the CDT. -- The project submitted approved plans to the CDT on September 2, 2025, and has met this condition of approval. 3) Following the start of project implementation, the SCO shall submit to the CDT the Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Monthly Status Report. -- The project is meeting this condition of approval with the monthly submission of the IV&V report. 4) No later than 60 days prior to the initiation of testing activities by the SI, the SCO shall submit the approved CSPS Project Test Management Plan to the CDT. -- The project completed and approved the Test Plan in November 2025 and submitted it to CDT on December 1, 2025. The project has met this condition of approval. 5) In accordance with the State Administrative Manual (SAM) Section 4946 and the State Information Management Manual Section 160, the project shall submit a Transition to Maintenance and Operations Plan, including the plan for any transition of services from the SI vendor to the State, to the CDT for review and approval six months before the approved project end date.
Corrective Action Green	N/A

• Stage 4 Project Readiness and Approval (pdf)
• Stage 3 Solutions Development Part B (pdf)
• Stage 3 Solutions Development Part A (pdf)
• Stage 2 Alternative Analysis (pdf)
• Stage 1 Business Analysis (pdf)