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CalSTRS says Pension Solution UAT begins Oct. 1 after AWS migration and SIT progress
Summary
Project director reported completion of the cloud migration to AWS, ~86% SIT test pass coverage, revised test script projections of ~33,100, and UAT starting Oct. 1 to run through June 2025; GuideHouse oversight urged qualitative UAT assessment and highlighted sequencing risks.
CalSTRS project leadership told the board on Sept. 24 that the long‑running Pension Solution project has completed a cloud migration to Amazon Web Services, substantially staffed the core team and is entering a nine‑month user acceptance testing (UAT) phase starting Oct. 1.
Anthony Sweeney, the pension solution project director, said the team has onboarded five system analysts experienced with the Sagitec Neospin product, completed employer readiness visits with the agency's largest reporting sources and revised its expected total system integration test scripts to about 33,100. "We have already passed more than 86% of all the test cases identified for SIT," Sweeney reported, while acknowledging an increase in overall defects that he said are being tracked and mitigated.
The board heard that the project completed migration to AWS and is operating on the cloud platform as part of an effort to eliminate aging on‑premises infrastructure. Sweeney said the project has planned $104.7 million for post‑go‑live maintenance, operations and stabilization activities and that the project remains on budget through July 31.
Chris Capote of GuideHouse, the independent oversight contractor, told the board he shares the cautious optimism but urged the board to focus on the types and clustering of defects rather than raw counts. "What we care about is what they're finding, the type of defects... Are we finding defects that should have passed SIT?" Capote said, emphasizing qualitative metrics and careful sequencing between SIT and UAT to avoid tester fatigue and perception problems.
Sweeney outlined key risks the project monitors, including outstanding defects, data reconciliation and ensuring employer readiness across 93 reporting sources; the team emphasized targeted mitigation steps, staged UAT cycles and additional vendor support (Linea) to coordinate execution. The board was told UAT will be executed in cycles and extend into mid‑2025 to allow careful validation before any production cutover.
