Child Welfare Digital Services produces a monthly report for the Legislature and stakeholders to follow as the project works to replace the CMS/CWS legacy system.

Click here to read the March 2018 report online.

Implementation Manager Kalani Mertyris stopped by the CWDS media studio to answer a few questions about his top priorities.   Listen to the conversation below. 

On April 5, CWDS conducted a same-day, multi-team sprint review to provide key project updates to stakeholders. Review the presentation slides and audio recordings for each team on our CWDS archive (The Feed). Visit our website to view upcoming CWDS events. 

At CWDS, the project team works to ensure that the CWS-CARES products they are developing meet the needs of its customers. This is done through a variety of research and testing techniques, but most importantly through collaboration with the CWS/CMS team. This team is comprised of three groups and a vendor that specialize in current system functionality, and provide invaluable support to CWS-CARES development.

First, the Infrastructure group handles operational and technical support for the 58 CWS/CMS counties. They do this by testing readiness and connectivity in the counties and resolving technical issues when possible. They work closely with the second CWS/CMS group, the Application Development Team, which handles the development activities in support of CWS/CMS. The third group, Customer Relations, focuses on outreach support for both infrastructure and development, as well as partnering with the Implementation Team to learn how software is being introduced to the counties. After all county Implementation activities are completed, Customer Relations will continue ongoing county support needs relative to CWS CARES for each digital service. Lastly, the CWS/CMS team has specialized members dedicated to the data maintenance, integrity and integration of CWS/CMS with CWS-CARES.

The daily interaction of the CWS/CMS team with the digital and non-digital teams developing CWS-CARES is critical. Through subject matter expertise on the CWS/CMS system, they provide unique knowledge and experience on current system functionality, as well as regularly communicate CWS/CMS maintenance activities, releases, and technical upgrades to the CWS-CARES team. This helps to ensure that new CWS-CARES software is being developed to deliver maximum value to users.

This week, the CWS-CARES Service Desk welcomed Heather Geyer to the team. Heather brings over 17 years of experience in operations and technology to the team of 24/7 service desk specialists. As a part of the Service Desk she will respond to and track incidents to ensure our user community has the support it needs.

Before joining the Service Desk, Heather worked for the University of California, Davis as a Software License Coordinator making decisions to identify and interpret business, campus, and organization-wide needs for computer software. Previously, she worked in IT as a network administrator, systems integrator and help desk support specialist.

Heather earned an A+ Certified Computer Technician certificate from the Business Technology Technical Institute, as well as an Associate of Science in Computer Network Systems from ITT Technical Institute.

Please join us in welcoming Heather to the team.

Leon Elzie, Product Owner for the Certification, Approval and Licensing Digital Service, also known as CALS, stopped by the CWDS media studio to discuss his role and major initiatives on the project.  

 

As the project gets ready for Snapshot to roll out to core counties in upcoming months, CWS-CARES has assigned Implementation Leads to each region. Implementation Leads will provide hands-on support to help counties and other stakeholders prepare to use the new system. For this Snapshot release, each Implementation Lead will work with a region to help guide stakeholders through the key activities, prepare for training and act as a liaison between counties and the project. All of our Implementation Leads will be working together and sharing information across regions for a holistic statewide view on implementation activities.  For more information, please visit the Digital Services Implementation Portal. 

Child Welfare Digital Services will host Sprint Review 6.2 on Thursday, April 5 for stakeholders follow the progress of digital service teams.   The new all-day format goes from 10:00 am to 4:15 pm. See the detailed agenda below.

Event Link: https://cwdsforums.webex.com/cwdsforums/onstage/g.php?MTID=e69ad5703b2e218eac28de604a5245982

+1-240-454-0879
Access code: 664 218 209

Event Number: 664 218 209
Event Password: SprintReview6.2

Agenda:

Design Ops Research Team Design Team Component Library	10:00 – 10:55 AM
Intake Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Team 4	1:15 – 2:30 PM
Case Management Team 1 Team 2 Team 3	2:35 – 3:15 PM
CALS Team 1 Team 2 Team DSS	3:20 – 4:15 PM

Child Welfare Digital Services is hiring a Senior Project Management Analyst (Information Technology Specialist I) to provide leadership and support to the agile project management team.  Learn more using the link below:

• Project Management Analyst 

Research Lead Antoinette Houston stopped by the CWDS media studio to answer a few questions about her work in DesignOps, a new centralized unit that will provide user-centered research and design services for all digital services across the project developing software to replace the child welfare legacy system.