Introduction

Purpose

This document describes the Human Resources (HR) Management Plan (hereinafter referred to as the “plan”) for the Child Welfare Services – New System (CWS-NS) Project (hereinafter referred to as the “Project”). The purpose of this plan is to establish guidelines on how the Project will acquire, develop, and manage staff resources throughout the Project life cycle. This plan defines the staff management activities necessary to ensure that the Project has sufficient staff possessing the correct skill sets and experience to perform Project activities and tasks.

Scope

This plan identifies and describes the processes that will be used to plan and acquire state and consultant staff, staff training, staff tracking, staff transition, and the responsibilities of staff using the staff management process.

Assumptions and Constraints

This plan considers the following assumptions and constraints.

Integration with other Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) Plans

This plan will interact with the following other CWDS plans (located on SharePoint at https://osicagov.sharepoint.com/sites/projects/CWS-NS/PMO/Agile%20Procedures%20Policies%20and%20Plans/Forms/AllItems.aspx (Note: This link is temporarily for OSI internal use only).

Stakeholder Management Plan: Project staff are also part of stakeholders.

Communication Management Plan: Project staff’s interaction with internal and external stakeholders will determine the number and nature of the communication channels.

Change Management Plan: This plan will interact with the change management plan to handle staffing changes.

Procurement/Contract Management Plan: This plan contains and policies and procedures for procurement of the contracts.

Risk Management Plan: Risks pertaining to staffing, such as risk due to inadequate staffing will be tracked via risk management plan.

Quality Management Plan: The quality management plan will provide guidelines on how to ensure the quality of the HR processes and procedures.

Document Maintenance

This plan will be reviewed quarterly and updated as needed to reflect any staffing related changes. Also, this plan will be stored on SharePoint at https://osicagov.sharepoint.com/sites/projects/CWS-NS/PMO/_layouts/15/DocIdRedir.aspx?ID=PROJ-460212628-41 (Note: This link is temporarily for OSI internal use only).

Transition to Agile

As a result of the transition from a pure SDLC waterfall approach to an agile approach, the CWDS project has incorporated the following agile-like principles into the new changes in this document:

• Staffing estimation will no longer be based on the work breakdown structure (WBS); the managers including service manager, project manager, product owner, and contract manager will estimate staffing needs based on various scrum roles on the project.

• The project teams will be self-forming and empowered to make day-to-day work execution decisions within the agile framework.

This section outlines the roles and responsibilities of the Project entities (organizations, staff and consultants) involved in the staff management process.

Table 2.1 Roles and Responsibilities

Staff Management Approach

The Project consists of an integrated project team with staff from Office of Systems Integration (OSI), California Department of Social Services (CDSS), the counties, and contracted vendors. This team is committed to delivering a high-quality CWS-NS solution to the 58 California counties, as well as to the Child and Family Services Division (CFSD) and Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) of CDSS.

OSI has management responsibility for the planning and execution of this Project and utilizes qualified staff and vendors to perform the activities of the Project with support and guidance from CDSS and the counties.

The staff management process depicted in Figure 3.1 identifies the five repeatable elements used on the Project and discussed in this plan: Staff Planning, Staff Acquisition, Staff Training, Staff Tracking, and Staff Transition.

Figure 3.1 - Staff Management Process

Staff Planning

Staffing Estimates

Staffing estimates are developed based on the historical information and experience from prior OSI and other state projects of comparable size and complexity. These staffing estimates will be derived from a detailed analysis of project activities to be performed and the necessary skill sets for performing those activities. The service manager and project manager associated with a particular group will identify project roles in his/her area along with the type and number of staff needed for those roles.

The staffing estimates will be reviewed during the execution of project activities and at major project milestones to determine if staffing levels are adequate for subsequent activities. Activity time studies will be conducted to understand approximately how long it will take to complete a particular type of activities. The information obtained from these time studies will help in estimating staffing needs on on-going basis throughout the project life cycle. If additional staff are needed, they will be requested through the Federal and State budgetary processes.

Grouping of similar skill sets, duties and workload will be used to quantify the number of needed staff. Consideration will also be given to the staffing requirements that are needed for the subsequent project phases. Following this analysis, management will review the staffing estimates for any needed revisions. As the Project progresses, management will review the staffing needs and plan for the acquisition of additional staff as necessary.

Below are the three categories of project staffing:

• OSI state staff

• CDSS state staff

• Contractor services

This category will include the state staff directly hired by the OSI through the CalHR recruitment process.

The major responsibilities of the OSI state staff will include participation in Project activities, oversee and participate in the design, development, and implementation of the CWS-NS Solution, and work with other contractors who will be acquired to provide support and other services for the Project.

CDSS State Staff

CDSS is the sponsor of the Project with the overall responsibility for success and will be a major user of the system for purposes of child welfare services program management.

CDSS staff are part of the Project Team and will participate in the development and review of procurement documents, business requirements and other project deliverables and documents. CDSS staff will be responsible for ensuring that the CWS-NS Solution meets Child Welfare Services (CWS) and Children’s Residential Licensing program (CRL) and business process needs, increases the efficiency and effectiveness of workers and supports successful program outcomes. CDSS staff will also actively participate in the development and validation of the CWS-NS Solution on behalf of CDSS and the counties.

CDSS will also provide Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), Independent Project Oversight Consultant (IPOC), Organizational Change Management (OCM), and county consultant contractors for the Project.

Contractor Services Staff

Contractor services will be used by the Project to augment state staff and to fill resource and skill gaps. These areas include project management of large systems, modern system architectures, Request for Proposal (RFP)/ Request for Offer (RFO) system development, county subject matter experts (SME’s), Federal Advanced Planning Document (APD) development, Quality Assurance, Integration, Agile coaching and legal support. In addition, outside consulting services will be required to perform IPOC and IV&V services. Contractor services will be acquired by the Project during various phases based on current project needs.

The Project has included or plans to include the following contractor services:

• Enterprise QA services
• Scheduler services
• IPOC services
• IV&V services
• Technical Editing services
• CWDA consultant services
• Legal support services
• Technical consulting support services
• OCM consulting services
• Cost estimation services
• Implementation/training services

Skills Requirements Analysis

Management will analyze the staff skill sets required for the Project and will use the analysis in developing the staffing estimates for the Project. The knowledge areas for which required skill sets will be analyzed include the following:

• Project management approaches, methodologies, and the development of project management processes, including control agency documents and processes.
• Contract management, oversight and administration processes.
• Procurement processes and the development of procurement documents.
• Knowledge of child welfare services including, but not limited to, the following:
  • Emergency Response services

  • Family Maintenance services

  • Family Reunification services

  • Permanency Placement services

  • Adoptions

• Knowledge of children’s residential licensing including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Application process

  • Complaint process

• Knowledge of information technology including:

  • Large server applications

  • Databases and business intelligence

  • Web services

  • Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

  • Security

  • Desktops

  • Integration

  • Engineering

• Knowledge of system development and implementation approaches and methodologies including:
  • System requirements definition
  • System design and specifications
  • Software development
  • System and acceptance testing
  • Data conversion
  • Hardware and software installation
  • Training documentation and processes
• Knowledge of system service and support functions including:
  • Service Oversight:

    • Asset Management Function

    • Communications Function

    • Customer Relationship Management Function

    • Governance Function

    • Work Request Receipt Function

    • Oversight-Internal Operations Function

    • Performance Measures Function

    • Policy Function

    • Proposal Development Function

    • Information Technology (IT) Resource Management Function

    • Service Level Management Function

    • Solution Architecture Function

  • Service Maintenance:

    • Application Maintenance & Support Function

    • Directory Repository Management Function

    • Control Agency Compliance Function

    • Customer Report Creation Support Function

    • Forms Management Function

    • Information Management Function

    • Interface Management Function

    • Project Management Function

    • Quality Assurance Function

    • Requirements Management Function

    • Technical Writing Function

    • Testing Function

    • Workflow & Business Rules Management Function

  • Service Delivery:

    • Availability Management Function

    • Capacity Management Function

    • Change Management Function

    • Configuration Management Function

    • Customer Training Function

    • Facilities Management Function

    • Incident Management Function

    • Network (Connectivity) Function

    • Operations Function

    • Personal Device Support Function

    • Problem Management Function

    • Release Management Function

    • Security Function

    • Servers (Hosting) & Storage Function

    • Service Continuity Management Function

    • Service Desk Function

    • Training (Internal) Function
       

Project Organization

The Project organization will be an integrated project team with staff from OSI, CDSS, the counties, and contracted vendors and consultants. The Deputy Director of the CFSD is the Project Sponsor and is responsible for defining the business needs and requirements, including legal and legislative (program) requirements that must be included in the CWS-NS Solution. The Project Sponsor establishes the approval and funding of the scope, schedule, and budget for the Project. The Project Sponsor will maintain a leading and active role in all aspects of system planning, development, and implementation including promoting and marketing the system. OSI will have the management responsibility for the planning and execution of the Project on behalf of the Project Sponsor.

The Project is under the direction of the CWS-NS Project Director who is responsible for managing the project, procuring multiple Digital Services contractors and implementing the CWS-NS Solution that will replace the existing Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS) and Licensing Information System (LIS) and Field Automation System (FAS) for Community Care Licensing - Children’s Residential program (CCL-CR). The CWS-NS Project Director will work in close collaboration with the CDSS Program Manager to ensure that the business needs of the CWS Program are understood and achieved by the Project.

Staffing Acquisition

The CWS-NS Advance Planning Documents (APDs) and Special Project Reports (SPR) will detail the staffing requirements for the Project.

State Staff Acquisition

State staff will be acquired using the state hiring process which includes developing duty statements and minimum qualifications. The Project will work with their respective Human Resource (HR) Offices to advertise the position, schedule the interviews and select the staff.

Interviews and selection are handled by the HR manager in association with the respective service manager to whom the position will report. The CWS-NS Project Director has final selection authority for all OSI Project positions. The CDSS Project Program Manager has final selection authority for CDSS Project positions.

The Project will recruit staff in accordance with the Project approval documents.

Contractor Acquisition

All contracted staff will be acquired through the use of appropriate state procurement vehicles such as a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a Request for Offer (RFO). The process for acquiring contractors is directed by the Department of General Services (DGS) or California Department of Technology (CDT) as well as the Acquisition Offices of OSI and CDSS. The contract manager of the respective organizations and the appropriate HR managers will be responsible for developing the Statement of Work (SOW) and determining the minimum qualifications. 

County Consultant Acquisition

County consultants are county staff who will be contracted to provide subject matter expertise to the Project. Recruitment and selection of county consultants will be a joint effort between CWDA and OSI or CDSS. Based on analysis of current coverage of design areas and subject matter expertise, a gap analysis will be performed to determine program areas in which the Project requires additional county expertise. The Project will document these needs in a SOW for consultant recruitment. Based on county management recommendations, the joint CDSS, CWDA and OSI team will review the nomination forms and interviews the nominees. Once the selection is completed, the joint team will work with the county to develop a contract for the services of each consultant. Once the state has approved the contract, it will be submitted to the County’s Board of Supervisors for approval. Once approved by the county the contract will be approved by the State and the consultant will become a full time member of the Project team.

The goals for recruitment and selection of county consultants will include, but are not limited to:

• Program subject matter expertise and experience
• Representation from all geographic regions of the State
• Representation from the range of county child welfare caseload size and organizational structure
• Representation from multiple county operational and management levels