Independent Project Oversight Report (IPOR) Rating

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 health of the project continued to be Green (satisfactory) based on observations in all focus areas. • The project remained on schedule and was within the approved scope and cost in the September 2026 reporting period. • The project has continued to maintain sustained delivery momentum with effective coordination across teams and is progressing towards Phase 2 Release 4 completion in December 2026. • During this reporting period, the project continued work on Phase 2 Release 4’s Sprints 3 and 4 activities.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	This focus area remained Green (satisfactory) during this reporting period. • The Executive Steering Committee (ESC) meeting held on September 9, 2026, confirmed that the project is on track to achieve its objectives within the baselined scope and schedule. The project’s budget overrun related to Amazon Web Services (AWS) expenditures is to be absorbed by sufficient redirected funding, maintaining overall budget stability. • The project’s governance structure continues to operate effectively, enabling consistent project delivery and maintaining confidence in the strength of management controls. • The Independent Project Oversight (IPO) Manager continued to emphasize the importance of maintaining timely communication and keeping stakeholders informed of key project decisions. In alignment with oversight best practices, the ongoing engagement of program, business, technical, and control agency stakeholders continues to support informed decision-making and the successful delivery of development efforts.
Time Management Green	This focus area remained Green (satisfactory) during this reporting period. • As the project prepares for the final release in December, the project activities remained on track and are aligned with the approved schedule, reflecting consistent and disciplined execution across project teams. • The IPO Manager recommends continued focus on proactively identifying, monitoring, and mitigating schedule risks arising from competing priorities. Doing so will help sustain near-term sprint delivery commitments, maintain overall project momentum. • The IPO Manager recommends continuing to assign named resources to all project schedule activities to reinforce accountability and ownership, while ensuring the master schedule remains accurate, current, and updated as necessary to support effective project oversight.
Cost & Contract Management Green	This focus area remained Green (satisfactory) during this reporting period. • The project continued its evaluation of the factors contributing to increased AWS costs. The IPO Manager recommends ongoing monitoring, analysis, and reporting of cost-related risks and variances between actual expenditures and approved budgets and forecasts to support effective financial oversight and timely implementation of corrective actions when necessary. • The IPO Manager has continued to express concern that the CARB Information Technology Procurement, Contract, and Reporting (ITPCR) section staffing issues could impact contract management-related activities.
Scope Management Green	This focus area remained Green (satisfactory) in this reporting period. • During this reporting period, the overall Phase 2 14-month extended Design Development & Implementation (DDI) Scope is at 62% completion. • During this reporting period, the project continued working on the tasks associated with Phase 2 Release 4 Sprints 3 and 4. • The project continues to demonstrate alignment with Agile governance and requirements management best practices through active stakeholder engagement, effective requirements traceability, and the incremental delivery of prioritized business capabilities. • The IPO Manager recommends continued evaluation and prioritization of upcoming requirements based on their business value, with particular emphasis on differentiating mission-critical capabilities from lower-priority or discretionary features. This approach will help optimize resource allocation, maximize project value, and support successful delivery outcomes.
Resources Green	This focus area remained Green (satisfactory) during this reporting period. • The project continued to successfully complete scheduled tasks with no concerns about resource availability in any of the project-specific areas except for the CARB ITPCR section. The impact of staffing-related issues in the ITPCR section continued to remain low during this reporting period. • The IPO Manager recommends maintaining regular reviews of actual resource capacity versus planned allocations as part of Project Resource Management best practices. Ongoing monitoring and analysis of resource utilization can support informed decision-making, enhance workforce planning, and help maintain project delivery objectives.
Quality Green	This focus area remained in Green (satisfactory) during this reporting period. • The Sprint 3 UAT was successfully completed with minimal defects. The project has adhered to robust testing and defect management processes, continuing to achieve high test success rates while keeping defects to a minimum. • The IPO manager recommends that the project apply a disciplined cost‑benefit evaluation to support informed decision‑making, to help prevent low‑value or discretionary changes from diverting focus from critical priorities. By maintaining a structured and transparent evaluation process, the project can maximize the achievement of intended business outcomes.
Risk And Issues Green	This focus area remained in Green (satisfactory)during this reporting period. • The risks and issues are being actively monitored, managed, and tracked. No new issues or risks were logged during this reporting period. • The IPO Manager continues to emphasize the value of conducting regular retrospective sessions across both development and project management teams. These sessions provide a structured forum for evaluating project performance, identifying risks and challenges, assessing the effectiveness of project processes and governance controls, and capturing lessons learned to support continuous improvement throughout the project lifecycle.
Transition Readiness Green	This focus area remained in Green (satisfactory) during this reporting period, as the program outreach and support activities continued to be effective in raising awareness of the SB210 regulation to bring fleets into the reporting system. • Over 799,000 vehicles are registered in the CTC-VIS database and have generated revenue of over $81 million from fee collection. • The project team is actively reviewing and updating the timelines associated with all Knowledge Transfer (KT) activities to ensure they remain realistic, achievable, and aligned with the overall project schedule. • The IPO Manager continues to recommend that the project systematically capture and document the outreach team’s best practices, performance results, lessons learned, and improvement opportunities. Comprehensive documentation of both accomplishments and challenges will not only support knowledge transfer and future program initiatives but also serve as a critical source of information for the development and refinement of the Post-Implementation Evaluation Report (PIER) at project closeout.
Conditions For Approval Green	None
Corrective Action Green	None.

• Special Project Report (pdf)
• Stage 4 Project Readiness and Approval (pdf)
• Stage 3 Solution Analysis (pdf)
• Stage 2 Alternatives Analysis (pdf)
• Stage 1 Business Analysis (pdf)