Happy New Year!  As the new year starts, development efforts for Program Increment I continue. January’s sprint activities focus on: 

• lobbying and campaign registration and disclosure 

• initial previews of screens for the candidate registration module 

• configuring the Decisions tool with business rules 

• mapping legacy data fields to CARS 

• creating training materials 

• reviewing and updating user stories for future testing 

• meeting with the Third Party Software Vendors 

The SharePoint site was created for external stakeholder wireframe review and invites were emailed on December 27. If you did not receive an invite and would like to have access to the SharePoint site, please send an email to PRDCARS@sos.ca.gov. 

On the Horizon: Upcoming Project Milestones and Activities 

• CARS Project Third Party Software Vendor API Meetings: The next meeting is scheduled for 1/21/25. 

• CARS Monthly External Stakeholder Meetings: A recurring meeting series is scheduled the second Wednesday of each month from 1:30 to 2:30 PM to keep stakeholders informed about the CARS Project and provide real-time Q&A sessions. The next meeting is scheduled for 2/12/25.  

• Share your ideas for upcoming CARS Project Monthly External Stakeholder Meetings by completing a five-minute survey: Survey Link Post 1/8/25 External Stakeholder Meeting  

• External Stakeholders Hybrid Agile Training: A recording is available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRqg7cdRHnE 

• SharePoint Document Review Site launched for External Stakeholders: See the next section for access information and instructions.  

• Program Increment (PI) Activities:  
  • PI I Development: 12/16/24 – 6/13/25 
  • PIs II, III, and IV Targeted Design Reviews: 2/25 – 6/25 
  • PI I User Acceptance Testing: 7/14/25 – 8/15/25 

We encourage you to seize this opportunity to review the materials, provide your valuable feedback, and remain actively engaged with the CARS Project. If you did not receive an invite and would like access, please complete the following steps:  

1. Send an email to PRDCARS@sos.ca.gov with first and last names and email address.
2. A guest account will be created using the email address you provide. This may take up to 48 hours for SOS to process. 
3. When the account is created, a link to the CARS Stakeholder Repository SharePoint site will be emailed from carsstakeholders@sos.ca.gov to the address provided by the account requester.
4. Access to the SharePoint site requires user authentication in one of two ways:
   1. Verification code (sent to the email provided by the requester)
   2. Authentication (requires use of MS Authenticator mobile app) 

Once the reviewer is authenticated, the site will open displaying the folders with the files to review. Email your feedback to: PRDCARS@sos.ca.gov