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	Legislative, Judicial, and Executive / 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
09/01/2026 - 09/30/2026	Red

Independent Project Oversight Dashboard

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	• The overall project health for CERS NextGen is rated as Red (Escalated) per the IPOR legend, signifying that the project is escalated for immediate corrective action due to significant risks to project health. •The answers to the Key Questions in the IPOR confirm that while the project remains generally on track to satisfy customer business objectives, it is explicitly not on track to achieve these objectives within the approved baseline timeframe or budget. •The CalEPA PMO submitted the SPR package to the CDT on September 16, 2026, for approval for establishing a rebaselined budget and Phase 2 completion of December 2028. • An approval letter for Contract Amendment #5 was issued by the OSTP on September 4, 2026, and personnel change orders were completed during September 2026 to onboard five additional consultant staff for the SI by October 2026. • The Independent Project Oversight (IPO) Manager suggests that CalEPA leadership conduct a formal assessment of internal Subject Matter Expert (SME) bandwidth before fully deploying expanded SI resources to ensure state staff can effectively support accelerated development velocity without causing operational bottlenecks. •The IPO Manager recommends that the project team implement routine checks points and on automated regression testing suites to detect platform-driven changes and prevent recurring defects prior to production deployments.

Project Overall Health

Comments

Red

• The overall project health for CERS NextGen is rated as Red (Escalated) per the IPOR legend, signifying that the project is escalated for immediate corrective action due to significant risks to project health. •The answers to the Key Questions in the IPOR confirm that while the project remains generally on track to satisfy customer business objectives, it is explicitly not on track to achieve these objectives within the approved baseline timeframe or budget. •The CalEPA PMO submitted the SPR package to the CDT on September 16, 2026, for approval for establishing a rebaselined budget and Phase 2 completion of December 2028. • An approval letter for Contract Amendment #5 was issued by the OSTP on September 4, 2026, and personnel change orders were completed during September 2026 to onboard five additional consultant staff for the SI by October 2026. • The Independent Project Oversight (IPO) Manager suggests that CalEPA leadership conduct a formal assessment of internal Subject Matter Expert (SME) bandwidth before fully deploying expanded SI resources to ensure state staff can effectively support accelerated development velocity without causing operational bottlenecks. •The IPO Manager recommends that the project team implement routine checks points and on automated regression testing suites to detect platform-driven changes and prevent recurring defects prior to production deployments.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	• The overall status for Governance in CERS NextGen is assigned a Green rating for September 2026, indicating that the project maintains a satisfactory control structure with no corrective actions required. • The CalEPA PMO successfully executed key governance decisions during September 2026, including the submission of the BCP to the DOF and the formal transmittal of the SPR package to the CDT. • The project team maintains cross-discipline Scrum teams and active business representation during routine sprint reviews and backlog refinement sessions to ensure system functionality brings continuous business value. • The IPO Manager suggests that the PMO ensure that process improvement actions identified during recurring sprint retrospectives are formally documented, tracked, and monitored to completion throughout the implementation lifecycle.
Time Management Red	• The overall status for Time Management in CERS NextGen is assigned a Red rating for September 2026, as the project has experienced significant schedule variances that exceed approved baseline thresholds. • The original Stage 4 baseline completion date of May 3, 2027, is no longer achievable, prompting the PMO to submit the SPR package to the CDT on September 16, 2026, for approval to establish new Phase 2 completion date.
Cost & Contract Management Red	• The overall status for Cost & Contract Management in CERS NextGen is rated Red, as project expenditures exceed approved fiscal baselines and implementation continues without an approved financial plan for the extended timeline. • The OSTP issued final approval for Contract Amendment #5 on September 4, 2026, while personnel change orders were completed to onboard five additional SI consultant resources by October 2026. • The IPO Manager recommends that project leadership prioritize securing BCP funding approvals and establishing a resource-loaded schedule baseline to restore fiscal control and maintain contract compliance. • The project is on track to rebaseline its budget via the SPR process.
Scope Management Yellow	• The overall status for Scope Management in CERS NextGen is assigned a Yellow rating for September 2026, indicating that emerging technical complexities and backlog expansion require active monitoring under the IPOR framework. • The PMO is leading targeted backlog refinement sessions to decompose user stories, clarify requirements, and align UI components with the Data Dictionary. • The project team continues to execute a strategic transition toward a user-centered requirements approach, moving away from legacy system-driven design models to enhance usability and maintain referential fidelity to business objectives. • The Product Owner actively assesses feature business value relative to the level of effort and time during routine Agile ceremonies to refine MVP boundaries and prioritize sprint deliverables. • The IPO Manager recommends that project leadership adopt consistent and transparent scope tracking through established governance and change control processes to provide executive visibility into backlog priority shifts and technical trade-off decisions.
Resources Yellow	• The overall status for Resources in CERS NextGen is assigned a Yellow rating for September 2026, indicating that staffing imbalances, capacity limits, and resource dependencies require close monitoring. • The OSTP issued final approval for Contract Amendment #5 on September 4, 2026, enabling PMO and SI leadership to complete personnel change orders and onboard five additional specialized consultant staff by October 2026. • An immediate operational concern persists as internal CalEPA program and technical teams are currently constrained by existing capacity limits, restricting state staff bandwidth for ongoing implementation tasks. • The deployment of expanded SI consulting staff creates a risk that internal CalEPA resources may be unable to match or keep up with the increased velocity required for story elaboration, review, and collaboration. • The IPO Manager continues to recommend that CalEPA leadership conduct a formal assessment of internal SME bandwidth before fully deploying expanded SI resources to ensure state staff can effectively support accelerated development without causing operational bottlenecks.
Quality Red	• The overall status for Quality in CERS NextGen is assigned a Red rating for September 2026, as an accelerating defect backlog and compounding technical debt threaten overall project stability. • The project team completed Sprint 2.2 UAT retesting on September 4, 2026, and completed Sprint 2.3 development and Quality Assurance (QA) system testing on September 23, 2026, in preparation for UAT execution. • The active UAT defect backlog decreased to 279 active bugs during September 2026, but 172 defects remaining in a "Ready for Development" status continue to exert pressure on sprint schedule stability. • The persistent accumulation of 51 active regression defects and 48 active ADA defects reflects quality constraints driven by manual deployment processes and deferred Phase 1 testing items. • The PMO and the SI increased defect remediation capacity for Sprint 2.4 planning to accelerate backlog reduction alongside planned feature development. •The IPO Manager recommends that the project team establish weekly data-driven defect burn-down reports with measurable reduction targets and enforce strict "definition of done" criteria prior to UAT entry. • The IPO Manager suggests that CalEPA leadership and the SI closely monitor defect burn-down rates and sprint velocity during UAT execution to prevent accumulated technical debt from delaying downstream project milestones.
Risk And Issues Green	• The overall status for Risks and Issues in CERS NextGen is assigned a Green rating for September 2026, as the project maintains a satisfactory control structure and a disciplined process for proactively identifying, tracking, updating, and escalating project threats and obstacles. • The assessment of this focus area evaluates the effectiveness, rigor, and responsiveness of the risk and issue management framework itself rather than the volume or severity of open project uncertainties. • The PMO and project leadership actively maintained the Risk Register and Issue Log in ADO during September 2026, formally logging multiple risks including for growing defect backlogs, development capacity, reclassifying manual deployment processes. • The IPO Manager suggests that the PMO continue its disciplined practice of reviewing project risks and issues during routine governance forums to ensure leadership maintains full visibility over technical dependencies and schedule uncertainties.
Transition Readiness Green	• The overall status for Transition Readiness in CERS NextGen is assigned a Green rating for September 2026, indicating that the organizational change management framework and operational preparation are active. • The CalEPA internal OCM team actively advanced stakeholder communication planning during September 2026, scheduling town hall meeting to socialize upcoming changes to CERS across local regulatory agencies and regulated businesses. • The PMO conducted a virtual CERS NextGen Townhall on September 24, 2026, and clarified the 2027 CUPA conference scope on September 22, 2026, ensuring stakeholder outreach remains aligned with technical sprint delivery schedules. • The IPO Manager recommends that the project team incorporate formal usability criteria and end-user feedback loops into the Operational Readiness Assessment (ORA) framework prior to full system cutover.
Conditions For Approval Green	• There are no conditions for approval.
Corrective Action Green	• There are no corrective action items.

Project Approval Documents