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.

8570-089 Emerging Threats 2 (ET2)

The California Department of Food and Agriculture, Animal Health and Food Safety Services (AHFSS) Division, is proposing to replace their existing Emerging Threats system to correct and eliminate multiple deficiencies that have arisen over the maintenance and operations life cycle of the system and to provide an enterprise-wide solution for all programs within the AHFSS Division.

Project Details

Agency / State Entity	General Government / Food and Agriculture, Department of
Total Cost	$50,178,609
Last Approved Start Date	12/04/2025
Last Approved Finish Date	12/29/2028
Criticality Rating	High

IPOR Reporting Period	Overall IPOR Rating
08/01/2026 - 08/31/2026	Green

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?Yes

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

Project Overall Health	Comments
Green	During the August 2026 reporting period, the ET2 project status remained Green. The Project Team successfully completed Hypercare for Release 1 and continued to work on Release 2. • Release 2-Authorization Sprint 3 was completed on August 20, 2026. The Project Team is now working on Release 2-Authorization Sprint 4 of 7, which is expected to be completed on September 10, 2026. • The Project Team completed Hypercare successfully and addressed minor issues highlighted during the Hypercare. • Independent Project Oversight (IPO) noted that all the scheduled tasks are on track and IPO does not have any concerns at this time.

Project Overall Health

Comments

Green

During the August 2026 reporting period, the ET2 project status remained Green. The Project Team successfully completed Hypercare for Release 1 and continued to work on Release 2. • Release 2-Authorization Sprint 3 was completed on August 20, 2026. The Project Team is now working on Release 2-Authorization Sprint 4 of 7, which is expected to be completed on September 10, 2026. • The Project Team completed Hypercare successfully and addressed minor issues highlighted during the Hypercare. • Independent Project Oversight (IPO) noted that all the scheduled tasks are on track and IPO does not have any concerns at this time.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	During the reporting period of August 2026, the ET2 project status continues to be Green. • The Executive Steering Committee (ESC) meeting was held on August 13, 2026, with good participation by the ESC members. • The Project Team provided project status and updates to the ESC. There were no decision items presented at the meeting. • Independent Validation and Verification (IV&V) and IPO provided Project Health assessments on the quality of the project and adherence to the approved Project Management Plans. • The CDT Oversight team does not have any concerns at this time.
Time Management Green	During the reporting period of August 2026, the ET2 Time Management Focus Area status remained Green as the Project Team continues to perform according to the published Integrated Master Project Schedule. • The Integrated Master Schedule was baselined and is maintained on a regular cadence. • All the tasks to date were completed on time and the Project is tracking to the published schedule. • The Release 1 Hypercare was completed successfully on August 14, 2026 as planned. • The Project Team implemented enhancements/adjustments to the production during this period. • The Project Team completed Release 3-Authorization Sprint 3 on August 20, 2026. • IPO noted that the Project’s execution is on plan according to the Master Project Schedule and has no concerns at this point.
Cost & Contract Management Green	The ET2 Cost and Contract Management Focus Area remains Green during the reporting period of August 2026 as the project cost continues to remain within the approved budget. • The cumulative project execution cost by the end of August 2026 was $13.4 million out of the total project cost of $50.2 million. • The total project cost of $50.2 million includes $4.1 million in planning and $9.9 million in future costs. The project’s execution costs are tracking well with the estimated burn rate of 25% at this time. • The Project Team started to report the total cumulative project cost instead of reporting only execution cost as suggested by the IPO and documented in the July IPOR. • IPO will continue to closely monitor the Project’s execution and adherence to cost and contract management plans as the Project progresses.
Scope Management Green	During the reporting period of August 2026, the ET2 Project’s Scope Management Focus Area status remains Green as the Project Team continues to work on the approved scope. • There was one new Change Request (CR) issued during this period. There were a total of six CRs so far: • Two CRs (#1, #5) were approved. • CR #4 is awaiting a response from USDA. • CR #6 is pending impact analysis. • Two CRs (#2, #3) were closed. • The descoping of the eSign (CR#6) will not impact the cost of the project. • The monthly Change Control Board (CCB) meetings are being conducted on a regular basis. • IPO will monitor the Project’s execution and adherence to the Scope Management Plan as the Project progresses.
Resources Green	The ET2 Resources Focus Area status remains Green as the Project is fully staffed, and no positions remain vacant. • IPO has no concerns over Resources Management at this point.
Quality Green	During the reporting period of August 2026, the ET2 Project Quality Management Focus area remains Green as the Project Team continues with the implementation of the system. • The Release 1 implemented successful production pushes following the implementation of Release 1, Payment Gateway Interim Solution. • Release 1 Hypercare completed on August 14, 2026. The Hypercare support was very helpful for the users, which increased their confidence in the new Payment Gateway Interim Solution. • The Project Team also implemented a few enhancements to Release 1 requested by the CDFA to Release 1 through production pushes. • The Project Team provided a Release 2-Authorization Sprint 3 demo to the stakeholders. • Release 2-Authorization user stories continued to be groomed and grouped for the upcoming sprints. • IPO will continue to monitor the Project’s execution and adherence to the Quality Management Plan as the Project progresses.
Risk And Issues Green	The ET2 Risk and Issues Focus Area remains Green as the Project Team began using Risk and Issue Logs to track risks and issues identified. • The Project Team is monitoring 20 open risks and four open issues. • Out of 20 open risks, four are being reviewed by the Leadership Team on a regular basis. The Project Team closed one risk and no new risks were identified. • The Project Team is monitoring 4 open issues. • The Project Team closed one issue during this reporting period and identified one new issue. • The Project Team continues to have regular Risks and Issues Management meetings on an as-needed basis. • IPO does not have any concerns about Risk and Issues Management at this point.
Transition Readiness Green	This status area of the Project is Green as the OCM vendor continues to deliver training and develope educational material for the upcoming releases. • The OCM vendor drafted the Change Leadership Program. • Release 2-Core Data – The Pre-UAT training design content development is in progress. • The Learning Management System (LMS) content creation tool meeting was completed to test the recording of the R1 Payment Portal Process. • The CDT team is attending OCM meetings to get more awareness of the execution process. Review of the draft OCM materials and planned program by the CDT Oversight Team confirmed a very effective ADKAR based development process. IPO has no concerns at this time.
Conditions For Approval Green	• Within 90 calendar days after the November 21, 2025, Approval Letter, which was February 21, 2026, the CDFA shall develop and submit to the CDT an Integrated Master Project Schedule that incorporates both State and System Integrator (SI) deliverables, milestones, and activities. The schedule shall reflect a clearly defined and logical critical path and adhere to the Project Management Institute (PMI) Schedule Management best practices and California Project Management Framework (CA-PMF) standards. The schedule shall be developed and maintained using Microsoft Project. • No later than 60 calendar days prior to the initiation of testing activities by the System Integrator, the CDFA shall submit the approved ET2 Project Test Management Plan to the CDT. With concurrence by IPO, the Integrated Master Project Schedule was submitted to the CDT for review on 3/13/26 and the draft ET2 Test Management Plan was submitted to the CDT for review on 3/18/26. The CDT provided comments and feedback on both with no major concerns identified with either. The Project indicated that CDT comments on the draft Test Management Plan were incorporated into the final version. Both conditions in the ET2 Project Approval have been satisfactorily met.
Corrective Action Green	• There are no Corrective Action Plans in place.

Project Approval Documents