California Environmental Reporting System Next Generation (CERS NextGen) - 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.

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	Environmental Protection / 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
03/01/2026 - 03/31/2026	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?Uncertain

Project Overall Health	Comments
Yellow	The overall project health is rated as Yellow, indicating that caution is warranted due to existing risks and issues that may require corrective action in the near future. • The SI’s proposed high-level schedule indicates a go-live date that exceeds the approved baseline of May 3, 2027. • There is uncertainty in the project backlog, with an estimated growth of 10–25% in user stories requiring urgent refinement. • The SI has requested additional resources not supported by the current contract to handle work streams like Tableau reporting and MuleSoft-based data migration. • Total project costs are likely to incur a variance due to the anticipated schedule extension and additional resource needs • The transition to a deliverables-based contract remains pending until executive decisions are made regarding the project schedule. • The IPO Manager recommends that CalEPA leadership finalize funding decisions and socialize a new detailed schedule by the end of the April 2026 reporting period to address timeframe uncertainties.

Project Overall Health

Comments

Yellow

The overall project health is rated as Yellow, indicating that caution is warranted due to existing risks and issues that may require corrective action in the near future. • The SI’s proposed high-level schedule indicates a go-live date that exceeds the approved baseline of May 3, 2027. • There is uncertainty in the project backlog, with an estimated growth of 10–25% in user stories requiring urgent refinement. • The SI has requested additional resources not supported by the current contract to handle work streams like Tableau reporting and MuleSoft-based data migration. • Total project costs are likely to incur a variance due to the anticipated schedule extension and additional resource needs • The transition to a deliverables-based contract remains pending until executive decisions are made regarding the project schedule. • The IPO Manager recommends that CalEPA leadership finalize funding decisions and socialize a new detailed schedule by the end of the April 2026 reporting period to address timeframe uncertainties.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	This focus area is Green (satisfactory). • The project has established a formal Executive Steering Committee, chaired by the Project Sponsor and Vice-Chaired by the Agency Information Officer, which meets regularly to provide clear project information and timely decision-making. • Project roles and responsibilities for all team leads were recently updated and documented to ensure clear accountability during the implementation phase of the project lifecycle. • The Product Owner is fully empowered to manage the product backlog and determine the priority of functions and features, ensuring that development work aligns with business needs. • Established governance processes are effectively surfacing critical risks, such as schedule uncertainties and resource gaps, to the Steering Committee to facilitate informed funding and scoping decisions. • The IPO Manager recommends that the Executive Steering Committee finalize the decision regarding the Phase 2 end date by the end of April 2026 to stabilize the project's schedule and enable the transition to a deliverables-based contract.
Time Management Yellow	This focus area is Yellow (caution). • The SI’s proposed high-level schedule suggests a go-live date in late September 2027, which represents a significant variance from the established May 3, 2027, baseline. • Backlog uncertainty continues to impact time management, with a projected 10–25% growth in user stories requiring an intensive three-week refinement exercise to validate the remaining work. • The IPO Manager recommends that the project team prioritize the completion of the backlog refinement exercise by the end of April to ensure the new detailed schedule is based on a stable and validated scope. • The IPO Manager suggests that the Executive Steering Committee finalize the decision on the new project end date by early May 2026 to allow for the transition to a deliverables-based contract and stabilize schedule reporting.
Cost & Contract Management Yellow	This focus area is Yellow (caution). • The project’s status for achieving objectives within the approved budget is officially "Uncertain" due to the anticipated schedule extension and new resource requirements. • A likely cost variance is expected as the current Financial Analysis Worksheets do not reflect the SI's proposed September 2027 completion date. • The SI has requested additional staff members to support testing, reporting, and data migration, but these resources are not currently supported by the existing contract. • The IPO Manager suggests that the Executive Steering Committee prioritize the approval of the Phase 2 schedule to enable the immediate transition to a deliverables-based contract, which will improve vendor accountability and cost control.
Scope Management Green	This focus area is Green (satisfactory). • The project is currently on track to satisfy all established business objectives as defined in the most recent project approval documents. • The Product Owner maintains the authority to determine the "minimum viable product" and has successfully prioritized the backlog for the current and upcoming sprints. • The IPO Manager suggests that the project team prioritize the completion of the UI/UX standardization document in April to ensure all development in Sprint 0.2 adheres to consistent design standards.
Resources Green	This focus area is Yellow (caution). • The SI contractor has identified a critical need for additional(potentially seven or more) staff members to manage specialized workstreams like Tableau reporting and automated data migration, which were not achieved in the previous phase. • The project’s current resource status is "Uncertain" because the existing contract does not permit the addition of these consulting resources until a formal amendment is executed. • The project faces a bottleneck in testing, as current internal staffing may be insufficient to validate bug fixes at the pace required by the SI’s proposed accelerated schedule. • The IPO Manager suggests that CalEPA leadership conduct a formal assessment of internal SME bandwidth to determine if the department can effectively support the additional SI resources before approving the contract amendment. • The IPO Manager recommends that the project team prioritize the acquisition of additional internal testers or other Departments’ SMEs to ensure the state can maintain proper resources as development velocity increases.
Quality Green	This focus area is Yellow (caution). • Sprint 0 UAT was disrupted by an unscheduled Salesforce security update, highlighting a need for more proactive platform monitoring and validation controls. • A high-severity bug (24143) regarding the submittal header display remains open from Sprint 0, impacting the accuracy of the user interface across multiple environments. • The project has identified that Phase 1 UI elements were not built to required accessibility standards, necessitating unplanned rework to ensure the final solution is compliant. • The IPO Manager suggests that the project team implement routine environment health checks and strengthen monitoring processes to detect external platform-driven changes before they impact scheduled UAT activities. • The IPO Manager recommends that the project establish clear checkpoints for data validation and business sign-off to ensure Salesforce work is not marked complete until it has been successfully validated against migrated data.
Risk And Issues Green	This focus area is Green (satisfactory). • The project utilizes a formal Risk Register and Issue Log to ensure that all identified threats and obstacles are proactively tracked and updated throughout the project lifecycle. • Detailed resolution plans are developed and managed for every major issue identified, including technical defects from Sprint 0 and concerns regarding the Phase 2 end date. • Project team members are encouraged to identify risks and issues at all levels, ensuring that process-driven concerns are escalated to the appropriate owners for mitigation. • Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) actively monitors the risk register and captures technical clarifications during meetings to ensure project activities remain aligned with documented objectives.
Transition Readiness Green	This focus area is Green (satisfactory). • The project team is successfully executing knowledge transfer sessions, with IV&V and oversight partners actively participating to document technical clarifications and monitor readiness risks. • Organizational Change Management (OCM) efforts were recently highlighted by the delivery of successful product demonstrations at the 2026 CUPA Conference, reaching hundreds of key stakeholders in the Unified Program. • CalEPA has strategically decided to assume responsibility for all OCM activities internally using available Unified Program resources, following the issuance of a 30-day termination notice to the external OCM contractor. • The IPO Manager recommends that the project team coordinate closely with the California Department of General Services (DGS) to formalize the off-ramp process for the OCM contract termination and ensure all final vendor deliverables are secured.
Conditions For Approval Green	• There are no conditions for approval.
Corrective Action Green	•There are no corrective action items.

Project Approval Documents

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