Key Questions

Is the project on track to satisfy the customer's business objectives?Uncertain

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?No

Project Overall Health

Comments

Red

During the November 2025 assessment period, the project’s overall health remains red based on observations and analysis of the project’s governance, time management, cost/contract, scope, resources, quality, and risk focus areas. Phase 1 OL: The team continued to incorporate OL changes required by new CC/IM and DL functionality. Phase 2 VR: the DMV terminated the System Integration (SI) contract on October 1, 2025, and the project team continued replanning through November. Progress led to three focus areas turning yellow: Scope, Risks/Issues, and Transition Readiness. However, Governance, Time Management, Cost/Contract Management, Quality, and Resource Management remain a concern, and those ratings remained red. Phase 3 DL: Special Project Report (SPR) #2 was revised in November to reflect DMV’s transition from its current DXP-VR Project System Integrator. The revised SPR #2 draft was sent to the California State Transportation Agency for approval, and a draft was sent to CDT.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Red	During the November 2025 assessment period, the project’s Governance Management health remains red, based on observations and analysis of the project’s governance processes. • The CDT observed the project team making progress with replanning. The Independent Project Oversight (IPO) will monitor the effectiveness of the project management process improvements during the December 2025 assessment period and update health ratings as appropriate. • Challenges remain with driving workstreams to completion. Eleven workstreams have incomplete development, and four do not have an agreed-upon scope.
Time Management Red	During the November 2025 assessment period, the project’s Time Management health remains red based on observations and analysis of the Project Schedule Milestones, and Deliverables. • The project is revising the master project schedule. The draft go-live date is in September 2026, but the Executive Steering Committee (ESC) has not formally approved this. • The Project team worked throughout the month to evaluate timelines for the remaining work. • The team continued to add dependencies back into the schedule and to flesh out the work breakdown structure. • The team included quarterly releases post-go-live in the draft schedule. • The DL Pilot went live on November 17, 2025.
Cost & Contract Management Red	During the November 2025 assessment period, the project’s Cost & Contract Management health remains red, based on observations and analysis of the project’s costs and contracts. • The SPR #2 with the go-forward plan for Vehicle Registration (VR) needs to be approved by the CDT before new contracts can be awarded. • The project has not resolved the final costs for the former SI services, and it is unknown when the contract closeout activities will be complete. • The project presented a briefing to the CDT and Finance projecting an increase in total project costs for Fiscal Year 2025-2026. • The DMV project team created Request for Offers (RFOs) for additional resources.
Scope Management Yellow	During the November 2025 assessment period, the project’s Scope Management health is yellow, based on observations and analysis of the project’s scope and related processes. • The Project’s executive leadership team held numerous meetings in November to triage defects, focusing on high-priority defects, modular design, and fixing root cause. • The critical scope items for Go-live were identified, and the estimations are complete. • Defect scope was locked in November. The change control process will be utilized going forward. • The Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) reports are outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate.
Resources Red	During the November 2025 assessment period, the project’s Resources health remains red. • Once SPR #2 is approved by the CDT, the project is planning to onboard approximately 120 consultants. • One of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) mod phases slipped their schedule about a year, to August of 2026, due to a resource constraint. • State resources continue to be constrained for many workstreams. • The CDT recommended that the project update the Roles & Responsibilities Matrix for workstreams.
Quality Red	During the November 2025 assessment period, the project’s Quality Management health is red based on observations and analysis of Quality metrics and performance. The CDT observes that quality is being monitored and metrics reported. • Quality is Red, but progress is being made on defects, Pre-User Acceptance testing (UAT), and automating CC/IM regression tests. • DMV retesting of Iteration 2-4 continued in November with the number of new defects trending down. It is now called Pre-UAT testing and is approximately 73% complete with 236 defects discovered and a 42% pass rate. • Correspondence and printing are pain points and analysis of defects has not occurred.
Risk And Issues Yellow	During the November 2025 assessment period, the project’s Risk and Issue health is yellow based on observations and analysis of the project’s risks, issues, and associated processes. • The project team closed several risks and issues and logged relevant new ones in November 2025. • The RAID meeting series restarted. • CDT’s independent observation of the highest risks impacting the project are: o Workstream scope development delays and scope creep o Resource funding and ramp up o Code quality issues o External dependencies such as business partners o Technical cutover data challenges o Phase 3 DL funding, schedule, and cost.
Transition Readiness Yellow	During the November 2025 assessment period, the project’s Transition Readiness health is yellow based on observations and analysis of the Transition activities performed and plans for VR cutover. • The DMV requested a detailed Knowledge Transfer (KT) plan from the former SI on October 28. The CDT is monitoring the response to the request. • Cutover remains a concern. The team should have timeline estimations after conversion Mock 3 in mid-December and will finalize the cutover plan at that time.
Conditions For Approval Green	The CDT Project Approvals and Oversight (PAO) team observed that the DXP Team previously completed all three approval conditions for DXP Phase 1 – OL. With the SPR #1 approval, two new Conditions for Approval of DXP Phase 2 - VR, CC/IM were required by CDT. Both conditions have been met.
Corrective Action Green	The CDT has not issued corrective actions for the project.

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