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 January 2026 reporting period. • The project started the Phase 1 (P1) Planning Interval (PI) 1 Sprint 1 development on January 20, 2026. • The leadership team held Human Capital Systems (HCM) sessions with external departments on January 8th and 13th to discuss timekeeping interface requirements and timelines. More than 300 staff members participated in these sessions over the two days. Approximately 180 questions were collected, and responses to these are in progress.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	• The IPO observed that 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 January 22, 2026, during which the team provided an update on project activities. No decisions were requested, or escalations discussed during the meeting. • The project maintains its bi-monthly cadence for financial oversight reporting to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) and the Department of Finance (DOF). -- The most recent meeting with LAO was held on January 27, 2026, and with DOF on January 22, 2026. • The project maintains bi-monthly collaboration with the California State University (CSU) project team for their transition to biweekly pay, most recent meeting occurred on January 21, 2026. • In addition, the team initiated collaboration meetings with the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) on January 30, 2026, to exchange best practices and lessons learned from their implementation of the CGI solution. • The IPO Managers observe that the project consistently demonstrates strong adherence to IT governance processes and best practices as outlined in the project management plans.
Time Management Green	• Development for PI 1 commenced this month, with the team simultaneously progressing on user story development for PI 2 and PI 3. • The PMO team continues to develop the readiness checklist for PI 2; scheduled to start in April 2026. • The team approved six (6.0) Solution Integrator (SI) Deliverable Expectation Documents (DEDs) this assessment period. In addition, the Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) team completed four (4) deliverables that were due this month. • The IPO observed that the project continues to actively track the progress of key tasks, deliverables, and sprint activities against the project schedule. The IPO will continue to monitor task completion relative to the schedule as the project progresses.
Cost & Contract Management Green	• In agreement with the cost reporting timeline, all reported costs are for the December 2025 reporting period. • Here are the actual costs reported for this assessment period: -- Total actual costs (project + planning)- $155M or 62% of the allocated budget of $247M through 2025-26, -- Total project costs- $67.1M, or 7.2% of the total approved project costs of $938 M. • The alternate DART allocation plan and revised Interagency Agreements (IAA) were delivered to DOF in January 2026 and are pending their approval. • 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 finalized the department phase and wave modification process and provided an update to ESC members in January 2026. CalHR/Policy Updates: -- The team is analyzing user stories to determine the need for policy revisions or new policy development. -- 2026 Union outreach efforts have begun with several sessions planned in February 2026.
Resources Green	• The Technical Chief position became vacant on August 22, 2025. The final filing date for new potential applicants is 2/4/26. The IPO Managers will monitor project impacts as the project begins sprint development, while the position continues to remain vacant. • The project filled several critical roles this assessment period. The Project Advisor position was filled on January 29, 2026. The Client Services and Data Manager Team Manager onboarded in January 2026, and the Integration Team Manager is scheduled to join in February 2026. The Training Manager position remains vacant. • The overall resource variance decreased to 10%. The project reported that eleven (11.0) of the one hundred (100.0) SCO-authorized positions, and two (2.0) of the twenty-five (25.0) CalHR-authorized positions remain vacant.
Quality Green	• The project held a 2-day in-person PI 1 Planning event on January 14 and 15, 2026. The IPO Managers observed positive engagement among team members and eagerness to explore and learn through hands-on experience with the ELM system. • The project continues the User Story (US) refinement and estimation sessions in January 2026 in support of PI 1 development. • The team has planned multiple agile ceremonies such as Sprint planning, daily team sync, backlog refinement, demos, and retrospective across the Main Business Capabilities (MBC) teams. • The development activities started on January 20, 2026, and Sprint 1 is estimated to be completed on February 2, 2026. Sprints have been planned in a two-week cycle. • The IPO is collaborating with the team regarding the recommendation to develop a Sprint roadmap for reporting progress to ESC and key stakeholders. In addition, reports to provide governance-level visibility into development progress are in progress. • The SI submitted the January 2026 status report in February 2026. The report noted no new risks during this assessment period. • The IV&V team submitted the Monthly Activity Report (MAR) on February 9, 2026. The team identified three (3.0) new findings: establish recurring operational status meetings, enhance Sprint reporting, and implement structured tracking of sprint development activities. 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 continue to recommend 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 one (1) new medium-level risk #18878 Business Resource Availability May Delay Data Conversion, and zero issues this assessment period. Mitigation strategies are in progress. • The project is tracking top risks in each category (Refer to Risks & Issues focus area for further details). Near-Term risks (less than three (3) months): - Risk# 5 - Project Resource Availability - Risk# 8- Continued Budget Support - Risk# 18828 – Lack of Production Support Resources for Production Operations. Long-term risks (greater than three (3) months): - Risk# 3- Implementation of other new Human Capital Management (HCM) systems in Agencies/Departments. - Risk# 18856 – Duplicate Data Entry Due to Uncoordinated HCM Systems - Risk# 18844 – Implementation of Centralized Customer Service (Help Desk)
Transition Readiness Green	• The Organizational Change Management (OCM) team was engaged in the following activities during this reporting period: - The CSPS Awareness Campaign was completed in December 2025. - The team gathered 8,000+ post-deployment surveys to assess the campaign’s effectiveness. The initial analysis of the survey results noted a 34% increase in awareness following the campaign. - The Software Development Lifecyle (SDLC) Methodology video was published to the CSPS training site.
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 submitted the approved plan to CDT on December 1, 2025 and 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)