In a collaborative effort with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), our team at Capitol Tech Solutions (CTS) worked to upgrade and enhance the California Neurodegenerative Registry Data Management System (CNDR DMS). The project’s primary goal was to significantly improve the collection, management, and analysis of data related to neurodegenerative diseases, thereby facilitating better decision-making and public health strategies. This blog post delves into the project’s objectives, achievements, challenges, processes, and the lessons learned along the way.

Project Goals

The fundamental aim of the project was to create a system that allowed the CDPH team to process imported patient records, generating datasets accessible to researchers for their studies. This system needed to import, link, consolidate, and rectify records efficiently. The initial phase focused on providing the necessary tools for these tasks. The second phase aimed to enhance the automated logic to handle more apparent linkages and consolidations, thereby reducing the processing team’s workload and making data available more swiftly for research purposes.

Major Wins

One of the significant achievements of the project was the remarkable improvement in the system’s functionality, brought in on time and well under budget. The CTS processing team has nearly eliminated the client’s backlog, allowing data to process in almost real-time—a massive win for CDPH as it reduces data turnaround time from years to mere months. The robustness of the product, combined with solid engineering, design, and a stringent test strategy, has minimized user-reported defects. Most issues reported by users are related to usability and training, rather than actual bugs.

Another notable win was the successful technological upgrade. The original application, built with older technology, was converted to the latest Blazor toolset along with Entity Framework Core on .NET 8.0 (the latest LTS version of .NET). Not only were the desired features implemented, but the technology conversion was also completed well under budget.

This accomplishment allowed CDPH to request additional features and improvements, with outcomes that surpassed the initial expectations for this project. The resulting application far exceeded the client’s preliminary goals, producing greater control and functionality within their system. This success exemplifies Capitol Tech’s commitment to delivering results in the most efficient ways possible, and our constant drive to maximize our clients’ investment.

A Focus on Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) was a major aspect of the services provided to CDPH. QA ensured the product met all specified requirements and functioned seamlessly, adhering to the Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC). Our QA efforts included creating test plans, scripts, and reports, and performing functional, integration, user acceptance, and regression testing. This approach identified bugs and errors while driving process improvements, enhancing development efficiency, and product quality.

We then trained the CDPH development team on effective processes and quality assurance (QA). We focused on educating the client how to develop, qualify, and manage subsequent releases of their product, supporting their development team’s training needs.

Challenges Overcome

Despite the successes, the project faced several hurdles. The specialized nature of the domain meant there was limited documentation available, and the product owner had multiple responsibilities, leading to insufficiently detailed stories. This necessitated heavy daily collaboration with domain experts to accurately realize the requested features. Testing was also challenging due to weak acceptance criteria, which required additional resources to clarify requirements and create effective test scripts.

The project was also highly dependent on internal tools and infrastructure provided by CDPH. This included everything from software installed on our Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to servers and Microsoft Entra ID app registrations. Our team had to remain flexible in order to work around these dependencies and finalize features as soon as the necessary resources became available.

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Process and Methodology

CTS followed a Scrum process for this project. Scrum is an Agile framework designed to enhance team collaboration on complex projects. It utilizes iterative development, breaking work into sprints, with each sprint producing a product increment. While it took a few sprints to find our rhythm, the agile methodology allowed us to incrementally deliver numerous features in an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) format.

The tight deadline for the go-live date posed a significant challenge, but focusing on the most critical aspects first enabled the CTS team to deliver a functional product on time. Post-MVP, CTS refined and enhanced the application to meet the client’s full requirements.

Additionally, the CTS team followed a Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC), ensuring high traceability and control over all changes to maintain product security. CTS has a breadth of experience with SSDLC and was able to accommodate the client’s requirement for the methodology.

Lessons Learned

This project provided several valuable lessons for the team at CTS:

Client Collaboration: Close collaboration with the client was crucial for delivering what was required for this project.
Backlog Management: A well-maintained backlog is essential for smooth Scrum processes.
Strict Adherence to Scrum: Adhering strictly to Scrum practices can mitigate many project challenges.
Effective Testing and Prioritizing Good Data: Good test data enhances confidence during go-live, and a solid DevOps test platform provides excellent traceability for features. Testing against quality data ensures fewer issues in production, making it worth the effort to develop robust test data.
Early Resource Commitment: Securing commitments for necessary tools and resources early in the project can prevent delays.
Risk Management: Identifying potential risks at the project’s start can help mitigate issues later.

Conclusion

The collaboration with CDPH on the CNDR DMS project has been a resounding success, delivering a robust, efficient, and secure system that exceeded the client’s needs while staying under budget. This project highlights the importance of flexibility, client collaboration, and a well-structured process in achieving project goals and exceeding expectations. The lessons learned will undoubtedly inform and improve our future projects, ensuring continued success and client satisfaction.