UNITY Needs Assessment Project Update
Status Update: March 14, 2025
The Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) Information Services is pleased to announce the successful completion of the UNITY Needs Assessment Project in collaboration with KPMG LLP. This achievement was made possible through extensive requirement-gathering sessions that addressed both functional and non-functional needs. Stakeholders from Clark County, Washoe County, and 15 rural counties actively participated, ensuring comprehensive representation. Additionally, Information Technology and Information Security teams contributed to addressing technical requirements. This inclusive approach provided a thorough understanding of system needs across all jurisdictions. The deliverables provided by KPMG LLP will serve as key inputs for the subsequent phase of the UNITY Modernization Efforts.
Our sincere gratitude to our stakeholders for their invaluable contributions and unwavering support, which were instrumental in completing this critical phase of the project.
Next Steps:
DCFS Information Services is currently:
• Working to contract with a Nevada State Preferred vendor to develop a Request for Proposal (RFP) for selecting a vendor to assist in the development and implementation of the UNITY replacement project.
• Pursuing the onboarding of another vendor to provide Change Management support.
Information about the project:
The Unified Nevada Information Technology for Youth (UNITY) system is considered a transitional Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) system from a SACWIS system through a modernization project that was approved by the State in 2019. DCFS has been using the UNITY application for more than 20 years providing direct services to children and families as well as oversight for programs administered at the county and local level. UNITY holds the official case record for all children and families served by child welfare agencies in the State of Nevada.
The Division of Child and Family Services intends to replace the existing mainframe application with a Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) as described in 45 CFR §§1355.50 through 1355.57.
NV Child Welfare Needs Assessment was released for bidding in the month of November 2023. The RFP evaluation team selected the vendor KPMG LLP. On December 20, 2023, State of Nevada, Department of Administration Purchasing Division issued the Letter of Intent to KPMG LLP to execute the NV Child Welfare Needs Assessment Project. The signed contract with the vendor KPMG LLP was approved by State of Nevada Board of Examiners (NV BOE) on April 9, 2024.
The vendor KPMG LLP and DCFS Information Services launched the project kick off in 3 (Three) sessions which are as follows:
- Visioning and Guiding Principles Workshop with the Executive Team- 05/10/2024 and 06/07/2024.
- Workshop's All-Participants Kick Off Meeting - 05/23/2024.
At the onset of the project, DCFS project's leadership met with KPMG LLP to validate the project timelines and detail the lower-level milestones. DCFS project's leadership and vendor KPMG LLP collaboratively conducted the requirement gather sessions (functional and non-functional topics) by including the project stakeholders from across the state (Clark county, Washoe county and Rurals (15 counties)). To ensure a systematic alignment amongst jurisdictions, all functional and non-functional workshops have consistent representation from all counties as well as the Information Technology / Information Security group.
Functional meetings: Once the functional areas have been defined, KPMG worked with the DCFS project leadership to agree on a sequence and timeline for the workshops associated with each of the topics. KPMG prepared materials in advance of the workshops leveraging KPMG KERA reference repositories. These materials were shared with DCFS at least 14 days in advance of the date of the functional meetings via email or a shared DCFS Team folder location.
The workshops for the functional areas usually span over three days with a standard agenda as: Introduction, Context Models (Current State), Processes (Future State), Requirements (Procurements Requirements) and Offline Reviews (Offline Refinements).
At the end of each of the workshops, participants were given information on specific next steps that included the timeline for receiving updated materials based on the workshop conversations as well as the process and timeline for conducting an "Offline review" of these updated materials. The offline reviews were seen as an opportunity for workshop participants to review updates made during or post workshop, further discuss any topics with teammates or other relevant stakeholders and an opportunity to bring up to KPMG any asks for additional updates or edits to the models and materials.
Non-Functional meetings: The non-functional meetings benefited from a structured approach that span from pre to post-workshop activities. Once the non-functional areas have been defined, KPMG worked with the DCFS' project leadership to agree on a sequence and timeline for the workshops associated with each of the topics. KPMG prepared materials in advance of the workshops leveraging KPMG KERA reference repositories. These materials were shared with DCFS at least 14 days in advance of the date of the non-functional meetings via email or a shared DCFS Team folder location. Similarly, at the end of each workshop, participants were given information on specific next steps that included the timeline for receiving updated materials based on the workshop conversations as well as the process and timeline for conducting an "Offline review" of these updated materials.
Below is the timeline of the UNITY Needs Assessment Project Workshops which were successfully completed as planned:
- Intake - 05/29/2024, 05/30/2024, 06/04/2024, 06/05/2024 and 06/06/2024
- Assessment - 06/11/2024 to 06/13/2024
- Case Management - Part 1 (06/17/2024, 06/18/2024,06/20/2024) and Part 2 (06/25/2024 to 06/27/2024)
- Case Review & Med Case Management/Treatment - 07/09/2024 to 07/11/2024
- Foster Care Services for App Licensing/Licensing Caseload and Resource Availability - 07/16/2024 to 07/18/2024
- Placement Stability & Permanency - 07/23/2024 to 07/25/2024
- Adoption and Independent Living - 07/30/2024 to 08/01/2024
- Court Processing - 08/06/2024 to 08/08/2024
- Eligibility - 08/13/2024 to 08/15/2024
- Financial/Provider Management/Payment Processing - 08/20/2024 to 08/22/2024
- Juvenile Justice (Part 1) - 08/27/2024 to 08/29/2024
- Child, Guardians, Parents, Resources & Collateral Profile Management workshop - 09/03/2024 to 09/04/2024
- Worker Workflows - 09/10/2024
- Security - 09/05/2024
- Data Management and Data Quality - 09/12/2024
- Forms - 09/17/2024
- Interfaces - 09/18/2024
- Report and Analytics - 09/19/2024
- Juvenile Justice (Part 2) - 12/03/2024 to 12/05/2024
These workshops focused on: Examining the current state of the application, envisioning and documenting the future state of the modernized application. Through these workshops, we aimed to facilitate discussions, gather insights, and document key findings of the application modernization process.
Upon concluding the above listed workshops, the vendor KPMG LLP provided DCFS the following deliverables (Deliverable Expectations Documents (DED)) related to the Child Welfare Information System (excluding Juvenile Justice System) which were reviewed and approved by DCFS UNITY Stakeholders.
- Attendance at all Scheduled Meetings
- Requirements
- Process Flow
- Matrix
- Cost Benefit Analysis
- Alternatives Analysis
- Recommendations
- Gap Analysis
- Technical Design Roadmap
- Knowledge Transfer Plan
- Post Implementation Evaluation
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