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 February 2018 report online.

The CWDS Quarterly Stakeholder Forum that was originally scheduled for April 10 is being rescheduled to new date, to be determined.

Thank you for your patience as we address ongoing audio issues at CWDS Headquarters to provide online listeners access to the event.

We will announce the new date as soon as possible. Please stay tuned and visit the CWDS website for the latest updates.

The CALS team is designing and prototyping software that supports the county and state business process for certifying, approving and licensing Resource Family Homes and Children’s Residential Facilities. Early development efforts have focused on the Resource Family Home application process, including support to users from intake of a new application through to decision to approve or deny. The first delivery from CALS is slated to be a standalone facility and home search that integrates results from CWS/CMS and LIS and FAS, which will allow users to view placements, compliance history, and current license or approval status for all state-licensed and county-approved placement resources.

The CWDS DesignOps team has organized as a centralized unit that will provide human-centered research and design services for all digital services across the project developing software to replace the child welfare legacy system.

As project staff previously assigned to individual digital services, the group is now officially formed with team members reporting up through one organization to operate as a collective, working on a common backlog prioritized by product leadership across the digital services. This change will give CWDS an enterprise-wide view of important features that will help the project deliver world class software and expedite the deployment of CWS-CARES.

The team is led by Gregg Hill as Product Owner. Members include: Alyssa Burke, Robert Chilton, Christy Dunwoodie, Danny Eck, Geoff Heath, Antoinette Houston, Matt Johnson, Maria Kuznetsova, Liz Lin, Amy Lee, Jan Schafer, Julia Schaumburg and Lori Stevenson.

DesignOps occupies a studio space, now referred to as the CWDS Research + Design Studio, on the first floor of CWDS headquarters in Sacramento.

Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) has selected Cambria Solutions to provide Front End Development Services to assist the  project to replace the child welfare legacy system.  

Child Welfare Digital Services is pioneering the development and operation of cloud-based software in the public sector, utilizing Agile software development processes rather than a traditional “waterfall” model.  The project is taking an innovative new approach for California state government, using DevOps tools and processes, free/open source software (FOSS) and user-centered design.

In 2017, the project released its first code feature which allowed a selected group of county users to login and search the legacy system using a new interface.  While the feature is currently in limited use, the powerful search tool represents a significant technical achievement.  

On February 7, the Intake Digital Service launched Snapshot 1.0, the first release of CWS-CARES functionality which is now live and accessible by 22 county social workers.  

 

This week, the Intake Digital Service launched Snapshot 1.0, the first release of CWS-CARES functionality which is now live and accessible by 22 county social workers.  These users from across California represent Core Counties who are helping the state research, design and develop the new system to replace the legacy child welfare system.
 
While Snapshot 1.0 is a limited initial release, it is a significant technical achievement that demonstrates the viability of the CWDS cloud infrastructure, web application architecture, and user-centered design methodology.  CWDS priorities include expanding Snapshot and providing access to a larger set of users toward an eventual statewide deployment.   
 
Consistent with Agile methodologies to refine and improve the way software is developed, the project is adding Program Increment 5.7 to its regular development cycle to spend two weeks examining ways to optimize performance.  For example, CWDS underwent the initial stages of regrouping development teams, called Team Optimization, which will allow greater flexibility to move resources across digital teams to spike development according to shifting priorities.  
 
Another refinement includes centralizing the project’s research and design team members across the digital services to broaden their contributions and reduce duplicative work.  This will enable them to get ahead of the development teams and streamline the product pipeline.  The project has begun creation of a new collective referred to as the CWDS Research + Design Studio.
 
Core County representatives will continue to provide invaluable feedback as user-centered design remains the main tenant guiding development toward a modern set of tools aimed at protecting California’s children. 

The CWDS Implementation Team is preparing for Snapshot, the first major CWS-CARES release. This tool allows staff to search CWS/CMS data for people and their past child welfare history. The team hosted a series of web conferences in January to kick off implementation activities with the State, county, and tribe organizations. These important sessions covered an overview of the Snapshot tool, logistics of the rollout, implementation services provided to organizations, key contacts and resources, next steps, and a brief Q&A. Ten regional sessions were conducted. Invitees included staff from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), county directors, SPOCs, technical contacts, and trainers. Implementation Leads (IL) will prepare stakeholders for this change and serve as liaisons for the project. Stay tuned for more updates by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on social media.