CWDS

Governance Plan

Introduction

The Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) organization oversees the activities of both the legacy Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS) and the Child Welfare Services - New System (CWS-NS). This document describes the Governance Plan for the CWDS blended governance structure, which includes both CWS-NS and Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS). The purpose of the blended governance structure is to describe the specific roles and responsibilities of the CWDS participants involved in executing the project, maintaining the current legacy system, and supporting its stakeholders, focusing primarily on authority level and decision-making structure.

This documents seeks to define the individual governance of each of the CWDS entities as well as define the foundation for the blended governance of the CWDS organization as a whole.

Purpose

To ensure effective governance of the CWDS organization, decision making and operational oversight need to be executed as close-as-possible to the point where the action is required. The agile approach supports decision making at the lowest levels of the organization. This requires empowerment of the individuals by the decision body and excellent communication horizontally across the service teams and vertically throughout the governance hierarchy.

The CWDS Governance Plan is intended to provide a governance structure for both entities within CWDS as part of blended governance approach. The CWDS Governance Plan:

Blended Governance

The blended CWDS governance structure provides consistent management, cohesive policies, timely guidance, defined and measured processes, and the combination of trust and empowerment for decisions to be made at the appropriate level in the structure. It defines authority and control, establishes operational policies, and continuously monitors the proper implementation of the structure by the members of the governing body empowered with the responsibility for project decision making and successful operations.

Assumptions and Constraints

The CWS-CMS Project Governance Structure document dated March 2011 was used as a foundation for this CWDS Governance Plan.

There are no major constraints associated with this Document.

The committees that previously functioned as part of the CWS/CMS Governance Structure will continue to operate in support of CWDS Governance. Their roles and responsibilities will also support the CWS-NS Project Governance Structure in the future. This includes the following groups:

    • CWS/CMS Oversight Committee (OSC)
    • Program Impact Advisory Committee (PIAC)
    • Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)

The committees that previously functioned as part of the CWS-NS Governance Structure will no longer operate in support of CWDS Governance and have been replaced with the Governance defined in this Plan. The Governance Groups that are no longer in operation are:

    • CWS-NS Core Team
    • CWS-NS Steering Committee

Document Maintenance

The CWDS Governance Plan will be updated as processes and procedures change. A minor version change does not change the intent of the document and consists of spelling, grammatical and minor corrections. A major version is when a document’s content is changed and represents a change in intent, change in process, or procedures. Please refer to the CWDS Configuration Management Plan for further detail on version control.

During development of this CWDS Governance Plan, the guidelines and standards provided through the Project Quality Management Plan will apply; specifically all peer review requirements must be met.

Transition to Agile

The general principles of the agile governance approach include:

CWS/CMS

CWS/CMS Management Structure

The Children and Family Services Division (CFSD) of the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) sponsors the Child Welfare Services Case Management System. While the program office has the responsibility to ensure that the automated Case Management System addresses the department’s business and programmatic requirements and meets federal and state regulatory and funding requirements, it has contracted with the Office of Systems Integration (OSI) through an inter-agency Agreement to deliver services in support of the CWS/CMS. The CWS/CMS Office assumes these responsibilities.

The CFSD Program management structure is comprised of a Program Sponsor supported by the Program Support Manager. The CWS/CMS Office management structure is comprised of the CWS Division Deputy Director supported by a Maintenance and Operations (M&O) Manager.

Program Sponsor

The Children and Family Services Division of the California Department of Social Services sponsor the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System. The Deputy Director of CFSD acts as the Program Sponsor and is responsible for defining the business needs and requirements, including legal and legislative requirements that must be included in a system throughout its life cycle. Approval and funding of the scope, schedule and budgeting of the CWS/CMS Office activities are established by the Program Sponsor.

While the CWS Division Deputy Director provides assistance to ensure the CWS/CMS meets state and federal requirements according to established scope, schedule and budget, the Program Sponsor retains ownership and responsibility. Material changes to the CWS/CMS scope, schedule and budget must be reviewed and approved by the Program Sponsor. The Program Sponsor must also approve the CWS/CMS application update and change plans in response to the Strategic Plan and evolving program needs.

CFSD CWS/CMS Program Support Manager

The Program Support Manager acts on behalf of the Program Sponsor to ensure program requirements are incorporated into and supported by the CWS/CMS. The Program Support Manager also assists in identification of program-related change requirements and coordination of CDSS Program content experts for the development, review and validation of business requirements.

Program Support Manager analyzes proposed and chaptered legislation for its impact on CWS/CMS; assessment and evaluation of potential changes in service requirements; communicate proposed technology changes and the impact on the program business practices. The Program Support Manager also assists the M&O Manager in providing technology briefings to the Program Sponsor.

CWS Division Deputy Director

The OSI appointed CWS Division Deputy Director is responsible for the day-to-day management and successful delivery of the CWS Division services in coordination with CDSS according to the requirements of an Interagency Agreement. Responsibilities include management of all resources assigned to the CWS Division; state staff, consultants, and vendors.

CWS/CMS Maintenance and Operations Manager

CWS/CMS Maintenance and Operations (M&O) Manager supports the CWS Division Deputy Director by assuming responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the CWS/CMS system. The M&O Manager also assumes responsibility for CWS/CMS administration and is the program office’s primary contact for all tactical fiscal, administrative and technical activities in regards to that system.

CWS/CMS Governance Structure

The CWS/CMS Governance Structure provides the CWS/CMS Office with direction and oversight in the areas of resources, budget and schedule. This diagram displays the essential elements of governance for the CWS/CMS, emphasizing the relationships amongst state, county and blended structures. Lines and arrows illustrate affinities and conduits for the exchange of information in support of the CWS/CMS.

The governance structures described below consist of committees that differ in important characteristics from each other. They differ in constituency, focus and authority. Where state committees focus on resources, budget and schedule, the blended structures focus on program and policy. Where state structures consist of state executive managers, blended structures consist primarily of county representatives and are provided leadership by the sponsor. This configuration places the blended structures astride the division between state and county governance.

The blended CWS/CMS structures promote communication amongst each other in a system of shared or overlapping membership, shared chairman responsibilities, and the coordinated participation of CDSS, Oversight Committee and county users in the broad range of oversight, technical and policy working groups.

CWS/CMS Executive Steering Committee

The CWS/CMS Executive Steering Committee consists of:

The CWS/CMS Executive Steering Committee is responsible for:

The CWS/CMS Executive Steering Committee meets when necessary.

CDSS Executive Committee

The CDSS Executive Committee consists of:

The CDSS Executive Committee manages CDSS political and fiscal issues, and provides executive leadership support to the CWS/CMS Office. The Committee monitors progress of CWS/CMS program objectives and expedites the resolution of issues and mitigation of risks to the CWS/CMS and to program objectives.

The CDSS Executive Committee meets monthly.

CWS/CMS-CDSS Management Committee

The CWS/CMS – CDSS Management Committee consists of:

The CWS/CMS – CDSS Management Committee authorizes and approves the following:

The CWS/CMS – CDSS Management Committee meets monthly.

CWS/CMS Oversight Committee (OSC)

The CWS/CMS Oversight Committee consists of the following voting members:

Non-voting members are:

The CWS/CMS Oversight Committee provides strategic direction for the CWS/CMS, based on the input of members of the Committee and the advice of both the Program Impact Advisory Committee and the Technical Advisory Committee. The Committee’s purpose and processes are fully described in its Charter. In general, the committee:

The CWS/CMS Oversight Committee meets monthly except for the months of July, October and December. Please refer to the CWS/CMS Oversight Committee Charter (Note: This link is temporarily for OSI internal use only) for more information.

CWS/CMS Program Impact Advisory Committee (PIAC)

The CWS/CMS Program Impact Advisory Committee is an advisory body to the OSC with a primary purpose to aid in the analysis and prioritization of proposed changes to the automated case management system by providing statewide perspective and guidance where program, policy and practice issues arise. The committee membership consists of the following members:

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are to be included as appropriate.

The committee’s purpose and processes are fully described in its Charter. In general, the committee will:

The CWS/CMS Program Impact Advisory Committee will meet bi-monthly and at the request of the CWS/CMS Oversight Committee. Meetings are co-chaired by the CFSD Assistant Deputy Director and a county representative selected by CWDA.

Please refer to the Program Impact Advisory Committee Charter (Note: This link is temporarily for OSI internal use only) for more information.

CWS/CMS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)

The primary purpose of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is to provide statewide user perspective on CWS/CMS technical issues identified at the state or county level. OSC further charters the TAC to be a communication channel between the Oversight Committee and the CWS/CMS Regional User Groups, and is expected to add necessary statewide perspective and context to issues and processes stemming from both. The committee consists of voting members as follows:

The committee’s purpose and processes are fully described in its Charter. In general, the committee:

The CWS/CMS Technical Advisory Committee meets monthly and at the request of the CWS/CMS Oversight Committee. The TAC is jointly chaired by:

CWS/CMS Regional User’s Group

There are five CWS Regional User Groups that encompass all 58 of California’s counties. These are:

The Regional User Group meetings are attended by all classifications of users from clerical to child welfare administrators. The meetings generally include the county Single Points of Contact (SPOC) who are often the communication link between the counties and the CWS/CMS Office. The groups regularly invite status and informational updates from the CWS/CMS Office and the primary vendor.

The purpose of the meetings is to gain information about CWS/CMS to make it as effective and useful a tool as possible in the individual counties. Updates about the status of the CWS/CMS Office projects as well as technical and system-related policy issues related to CWS/CMS operations and CDSS program are expected. The regional meetings communicate their technical and program impact recommendations to OSC for their consideration.

The Regional User Groups meet monthly.

CWS/CMS Communication

All members of the CWS/CMS Oversight Committee, Technical Advisory Committee, Program Impact Advisory Committee, and the Regional Users Groups have responsibility for effective communication consistent with the CWS/CMS Strategic Plan Strategy 9: “Improve communication with users, keeping them involved, informed, and prepared”. This communication is supplemental to formal communication from CDSS and the CWS/CMS Office staff.

CWS/CMS Oversight Committee

The CWS/CMS Oversight Committee will regularly seek input from the TAC, PIAC, and Regional Users Groups and communicate policy direction set by the committee.

CWS/CMS Program Impact Advisory Committee

Members of the CWS/CMS Program Impact Advisory Committee will seek input from the CWS/CMS Regional Users Groups and CWDA Regional Children’s Committees.

CWS/CMS Technical Advisory Committee

Members of the CWS/CMS Technical Advisory Committee will seek input from the CWS/CMS Regional Users Groups and from counties whose technical staff are not directly represented on the TAC.

CWS/CMS Regional User Groups

CWS/CMS Regional Users Groups chairs will establish a link with their corresponding CWDA Regional Children’s Committee. They will share system highlights, solicit input on needed system change, and seek endorsement of specific system change requests.

CWS/CMS Escalation

CWS/CMS escalation process will be used to ensure critical issues are raised soon enough to prevent undesirable impacts to the CWS/CMS, the sponsor, or to stakeholders; and to ensure the appropriate parties are informed and involved in critical decision-making. The CWS/CMS Office, sponsor and stakeholders shall always strive to make decisions and address issues at the lowest possible level, using established processes.

The escalation process is invoked when a manager in one of the governance structures determines that an issue requires escalation for resolution. The disputed issue must be reported to the CWS/CMS M&O Manager. The M&O Manager will meet in person or electronically with the CDSS CWS/CMS Support Branch Bureau Chief and the CWDA Executive Liaison, CWS/CMS, in order to resolve the issue.

In the event the CWS/CMS M&O Manager, CDSS CWS/CMS Support Branch Bureau Chief and the CWDA Executive Liaison are unable to resolve the issue, they will identify the appropriate escalation path and determine the urgency of the issue.

The following are appropriate to escalate to the Oversight Committee.

The following are appropriate to escalate to the CWS/CMS – CDSS Management Committee:

If resolution can be delayed until the next scheduled Oversight Committee meeting without negative impact to the CWS/CMS or to state and county programs, and the associated schedule or budget, the OSC will be asked to address the issue. If timing is critical, the OSC co-chairs will coordinate with committee members to resolve the issue on an emergency basis.

Issues with anticipated negative impacts to CWS/CMS resource management, budgets or schedules will be referred to the following meeting of the CWS/CMS – CDSS Management Committee. If resolution cannot be delayed, the CWS/CMS M&O Manager, CDSS CWS/CMS Support Branch Bureau Chief and the CWDA Executive Liaison will ask the committee to convene on an emergency basis.

Whether the issue is presented to the Oversight Committee or to the CWS/CMS-CDSS Management Committee that body will:

Examples of Types of Escalation include:

Examples of the types of issues that might be escalated include the following:

CWDS Organization

CWDS Management Structure

CWDS Board of Directors

The Board of Directors provides the highest level of leadership for the Project and is comprised of the following members:

The responsibilities of the Board of Directors includes:

Executive Leadership Team

The CWDS Executive Leadership Team is an executive level committee comprised of the following three decision making members:

The Executive Leadership Team's Primary Focus is on:

The Responsibilities of the Executive Leadership Team include:

The types of issues and risks that are escalated to the Executive Leadership Team are those related to changes in:

CWDS Service Delivery Organization

The CWDS Service Delivery Organization is comprised of Service Directors and Service Teams (Note: These links are temporarily for OSI internal use only). The Service Teams are grouped by function into categories. Each category is led by a Service Director.

Service Director

The Service Director provides overall guidance and direction to the Service Teams within their Service Category.

A Service Director's primary focus:

Matters escalated to a Service Director are those related to:

Issues that impact scope, schedule, or cost must be escalated to the Executive Leadership Team.

Service Delivery Team Structure

The service categories and their respective teams are:

Service Category

Description

Teams

Digital Services

Responsible for the development of new software modules.
  • Intake
  • User Research
  • Children’s Residential Licensing
  • Case Management
  • CWS Resource Management
  • Court Processing
  • Eligibility
  • Financial Management
  • Administration

Communications

Responsible for communications and customer relationship management functions,
  • Communications
  • Customer Relationship Management

Project Services

Responsible for project management, administrative, fiscal, reporting, implementation and program policy functions.
  • Project Management Office
  • Facilities/Environment
  • Implementation
  • Budget, Fiscal & Reporting
  • Business Services & Administration
  • Procurement/Contract Management
  • Checks and Balances Oversight

Operations

Responsible for the ongoing operations of CWS/CMS, the new system platform and integration and the new system dev/ops.
  • Platform (Integration)
  • Data Management
  • System Administration/Infrastructure
  • Change Configuration Release
  • Tech Delivery Services
  • Legacy Design, Development & Testing

Service Teams

Functioning as independent teams under the leadership of their Service Manager, each Service Team is self-organized to be compliant with the values and methodology of the Agile Manifesto and the CWDS Digital Service Playbook. The service team roles include:

Service team responsibilities include:

Service Manager:

The Service Manager provides overall guidance and direction to a specific Service Team. A Service Manager may also be referred to as a 'Product Owner'. The primary focus of a Service Manager is on:

Service Manager Roles include:

Service Manager Responsibilities include:

Service Managers, in conjunction with their Service Teams identify:

Service Team matters that do not impact schedule, scope and/or cost may be resolved at the team level or be brought through the Risk Management process, but do not require escalation to the Executive Leadership Team if they can be resolved at the Service Team or Service Director level.

Team risks and issues that impact scope, schedule and/or cost must be brought through the Risk Management process and require escalation to Service Directors and the Executive Leadership Team.

Scrum Master:

Scrum Master Roles include:

Scrum Master Responsibilities include:

Scrum Masters (on digital teams) are sometimes referred to as Project Managers (on non-digital teams). The roles are similar but sometimes differ based upon their team's purpose and responsibilities.

Service Teams may identify any of the following to their Scrum Master:

The Scrum Master facilitates cross team discussion, and present cross team dependencies at the weekly Scrum Forum where they are tracked with other teams. Items of discussion include:

Scrum Masters attend the weekly Scrum Master Forum. Both Scrum Masters and Service Managers attend the Risk and Issues Meeting each week.

Performance Analyst:

Performance Analyst Roles include:

Performance Analyst Responsibilities include:

Core Service Team Members:

Core Team Roles include:

Core Team Responsibilities include:

CWDS Agency Support

CA Health and Human Services Agency

The California Health & Human Services Agency oversees departments and offices that provide a wide range of services in the areas of health care, mental health, public health, alcohol and drug treatment, income assistance, social services and assistance to people with disabilities.

CA Department of Social Services

The mission of the California Department of Social Services is to serve, aid, and protect needy and vulnerable children and adults in ways that strengthen and preserve families, encourage personal responsibility, and foster independence. The California Department of Social Services is the Sponsor of the Child Welfare Services - New System Project.

CWDS Governance Structure

The diagram below displays the essential elements of governance for the CWS-NS Project, emphasizing the relationships amongst the CWDS Organization and its blended state, county and tribal stakeholder groups. Lines and arrows illustrate affinities and conduits for the exchange of information in support of the CWS-NS. The current CWS-NS Governance Structure leverages some of the existing legacy CWS/CMS Governance structure already in place.

The governance structure for the CWS-NS Project is established with the following blended entities:

Assignment to any one of the three levels brings the responsibility of preparation and communication to each decision making member.

CWDS Communication

Communication Channels

The communication of various groups within the CWDS Organization is both horizontal and vertical. Key groups meet on a regular basis as well as communicate informally on a regular daily basis.
CWDS Board of Directors

CWDS Executive Leadership Team

CWDS Service Delivery Organization

Service Directors

Service Teams

Service Managers and their service teams meet on a daily basis as well as at set times throughout the iterative process. The scheduled communications may include:

All Team Communications

Communication among various teams includes:

All Team Communications include:

CWDS Governance Forums

Governance Forum

            

Escalation

The escalation process will be used to ensure critical issues are raised soon enough to prevent undesirable impacts to the CWDS organizational and its stakeholders, and to ensure the appropriate parties are informed and involved in critical decision-making. The CWS-NS Project, ELT and stakeholders shall always strive to make decisions and address issues at the lowest possible level, using established processes.

The escalation process is invoked when a member in one of the Stakeholder governance structures determines that an issue requires escalation for resolution. In the event an individual is unable to resolve the issue, they will identify the appropriate escalation path and determine the urgency of the issue.

The following types of issues are appropriate to escalate from the service teams to the Service Director:

The following types of issues are appropriate to escalate form the Service Director to the ELT:

The following types of issues are appropriate to escalate from the ELT to the Board of Directors:

Issues with anticipated negative impacts to scope, schedule or cost will be elevated through the chain of communication:

Different types of escalation include:

Decision Making

One of the general agile principles with governance is to: “Make decisions when they are needed, at the right level”. To that objective, CWDS has adopted a method of decentralized decision making where authority is distributed throughout a larger group. It also connotes a higher authority given to lower level functionaries – in CWDS terms, this is the service teams and their service managers.

Service Directors and ELT have delegated daily operations of the service teams and decision-making responsibilities to the lower levels of the organization. Service Teams are empowered by having more autonomy for making decisions that impact their service delivery.

A decision log is located on the home page of the XCWDS SharePoint site and managed by the Project Management Office.

https://osicagov.sharepoint.com/sites/projects/CWS-NS/Lists/Decision%20Log/DecisionRegister.aspx (Note: This link is temporarily for OSI internal use only)

New decisions are reviewed weekly at the Service Manager Meeting.