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
07/01/2026 - 07/31/2026	Red

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?No

Is the project on track to achieve the objectives within the approved budget?No

Project Overall Health	Comments
Red	• The project is rated as Red because it is no longer on track to achieve its primary business objectives within the currently approved baseline budget or the May 3, 2027, timeframe. • Leadership is currently executing an aggressive roadmap to formally rebaseline the project through a Special Project Report (SPR) and a Budget Change Proposal (BCP) targeting a new May 2028 go-live date. • The IPO Manager recommends that the Project Management Office (PMO) establish firm decision timelines aligned with project needs to mitigate further risks to the project's schedule and cost. • Significant operational risks persist, including a high defect accumulation rate and ongoing regression issues caused by highly manual deployment processes. • There is a critical, immediate dependency on finalizing the detailed schedule and cost estimates to support the submission of the FY 27/28 BCP by September 2, 2026. • The IPO Manager suggests that CalEPA leadership conduct a formal assessment of internal Subject Matter Experts’ (SME) bandwidth before approving the SI contract amendment to ensure the department can effectively support the increased development velocity.

Project Overall Health

Comments

Red

• The project is rated as Red because it is no longer on track to achieve its primary business objectives within the currently approved baseline budget or the May 3, 2027, timeframe. • Leadership is currently executing an aggressive roadmap to formally rebaseline the project through a Special Project Report (SPR) and a Budget Change Proposal (BCP) targeting a new May 2028 go-live date. • The IPO Manager recommends that the Project Management Office (PMO) establish firm decision timelines aligned with project needs to mitigate further risks to the project's schedule and cost. • Significant operational risks persist, including a high defect accumulation rate and ongoing regression issues caused by highly manual deployment processes. • There is a critical, immediate dependency on finalizing the detailed schedule and cost estimates to support the submission of the FY 27/28 BCP by September 2, 2026. • The IPO Manager suggests that CalEPA leadership conduct a formal assessment of internal Subject Matter Experts’ (SME) bandwidth before approving the SI contract amendment to ensure the department can effectively support the increased development velocity.

Focus Area/Rating	Comments
Governance Green	• The project maintains a formal Executive Steering Committee (ESC) that meets on a regular basis to facilitate high-level awareness and provide timely, disciplined decision-making for project leadership. • Governance processes have proven effective in managing critical project shifts, such as the recent executive confirmation to proceed with the SPR and baseline process for a new May 2028 Phase 2 Go-live date. • The project team utilizes consistent Agile retrospectives and backlog refinement sessions to promote transparency, accountability, and a culture of continuous improvement across all implementation workstreams. • The IPO Manager suggests that CalEPA leadership continue to prioritize the finalization of the detailed project schedule and associated funding decisions as early as possible to restore stability to project delivery commitments.
Time Management Red	• This focus area remained Red (escalated) in this reporting period. • The project is no longer on track to achieve its primary business objectives within the approved baseline timeframe of May 3, 2027, as the latest proposed high-level schedule extends the project end date significantly. • Project sponsors have directed the PMO to initiate an aggressive roadmap for baselining a new project schedule, with a current target of a May 2028 Phase 2 Go-live. • The IPO Manager recommends prioritizing the decisions and actions necessary to establish and approve the new project schedule baseline to maintain clear accountability for delivery commitments. • Proceeding with development activities in the absence of a finalized schedule baseline represents a critical control gap that increases the risk of unplanned delays and reduces the project's ability to evaluate the impact of changes. • A critical, immediate dependency remains on the finalization of the detailed schedule feedback due from the System Integrator (SI) by August 4, 2026, which is required as an input for the BCP due in early September.
Cost & Contract Management Red	• The project is currently rated Red because it is not on track to achieve its primary business objectives within the approved baseline budget or contractual terms due to significant schedule variances. • Leadership is executing an aggressive roadmap for an SPR and BCP to formally rebaseline project costs for a revised May 2028 go-live target. • The IPO Manager recommends that the project prioritize finalizing comprehensive cost estimates and securing funding approvals through the BCP process to restore fiscal control. • A critical contract amendment to onboard five additional specialized SI resources is nearing completion and is expected for signature by mid-August to mitigate a major staffing risk for the October sprint cycle. • The June Deliverable Acceptance Document (DAD) was reviewed and issued a deficiency notice to the SI, triggering a requirement for more granular tracking of hours and deliverables to improve fiscal accountability. • The IPO Manager suggests that establishing a robust schedule baseline with resource loading is essential to serve as the foundation for effective cost monitoring and early deviation detection.
Scope Management Green	• This focus area is rated Green (satisfactory), trending toward Yellow. • The project’s scope management is under caution due to potential changes associated with replacing legacy middleware, for which a formal impact analysis is still pending. • There is a risk that the SI may not be able to deliver the full Phase 2 scope and Phase 1 carryover work within the proposed 12-sprint schedule, as there is no observed increase in delivery capacity. •The IPO Manager recommends that the project adopt consistent and transparent reporting practices through established governance forums to provide clear visibility into backlog changes, priority shifts, and decision rationale. • The project leadership has identified a misalignment between the volume and complexity of backlogged user stories and the number of stories the team assumes can be delivered within the current implementation timeline. • The IPO Manager suggests that the project team ensure ongoing refinement efforts focus on clarity and prioritization rather than prematurely locking requirements at the story level, which could limit essential Agile flexibility during execution.
Resources Yellow	• This focus area is rated Yellow (caution) due to ongoing staffing risks and contractual limitations identified in previous reporting periods. • The SI contractor has identified a critical need for five additional specialized resources to manage workstreams like Tableau reporting and automated data migration that were not achieved in the previous phase. • While project sponsors approved the request for these additional consultant resources in June, their formal onboarding remains dependent on a contract amendment currently in the final stages of review with the Statewide Technology Procurement team. • The IPO Manager suggests that CalEPA leadership conduct a formal assessment of internal SME bandwidth before approving the SI contract amendment to ensure the department can effectively support the increased development velocity resulting from the additional SI staff. • Internal CalEPA resources are currently constrained, presenting a significant risk that the state will be unable to match the support, collaboration, and validation requirements if the SI brings on the additional resources to accelerate delivery.
Quality Yellow	• This focus area is Yellow (caution) as the project continues to execute with quality and maintainability concerns, primarily driven by a lack of clearly defined criteria for "test-ready" functionality. • Sprint 2.1 UAT concluded with approximately 90% of scripted test cases run, but persistent confusion regarding the necessary level of detail in test cases has necessitated additional breakout sessions to optimize testing efficacy. • The IPO Manager recommends that the project team implement routine environmental health checks and strengthen monitoring processes to detect external platform-driven changes before they impact scheduled UAT activities. • The Independent Project Oversight (IPO) and Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) have reported an accelerating bug accumulation rate, with June 2026 seeing a record high of 195 new defects, leading to a requirement for the SI to provide weekly data-driven resolution reports. • There is a critical workflow bottleneck with 120 defects (as of the July reporting period) currently in a "Ready for Development" status, which threatens to displace capacity reserved for planned user-story work in upcoming sprints.
Risk And Issues Green	• This focus area is Green (satisfactory). • The project utilizes a formal Risk Register and Issue Log to ensure that all identified threats and obstacles are proactively tracked and updated throughout the project lifecycle. • The IPO Manager recommends that the PMO continue its disciplined approach to regular risk and issue review meetings to ensure leadership remains fully aware of project health and potential uncertainties. • The IPO Manager suggests that the project team continue to utilize the practice of logging new risks and issues "live" during core team meetings to ensure the immediate and accurate documentation of critical technical clarifications.
Transition Readiness Green	• This focus area is Green (satisfactory). • The project transitioned OCM responsibilities to an internal 15-member team of Unified Program resources to ensure long-term sustainability and fiscal accountability. • The IPO Manager suggests that the project team’s proactive focus on the iterative development of training materials and job aids for the UST sub-program will ensure the department is well-prepared for eventual system cutover. • A major stakeholder engagement milestone was achieved with the delivery of product demonstrations at the 2026 CUPA Conference, socializing the NextGen system's functionality with over 160,000 potential users. • The IPO Manager recommends that project leadership closely monitor the critical usability concerns surfaced during recent HMBP demos to ensure UI/UX adjustments are made that align with the computer literacy levels of the end-user base.
Conditions For Approval Green	• There are no conditions for approval.
Corrective Action Green	•There are no corrective action items.

Project Approval Documents