Corporate Plan 2019–23

This DTA Corporate Plan 2019–23 covers the period 2019–20 to 2022–23, as required under paragraph 35 (1)(b) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).

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CEO’s statement

I am pleased to present the Digital Transformation Agency Corporate Plan 2019–23, which outlines how we are leading digital transformation to make government services simple, smart and personalised.

Every day the talented and dedicated staff of the DTA work to improve the experience of people and businesses in their dealings with government.

We lead whole-of-government digital and ICT strategy, policy and advice to ensure government services are well designed and customer-centred.

We work to understand customer needs and develop whole-of-government capabilities and platforms that make government services easier to use.

We support the Australian Public Service (APS) to develop the skills and capabilities needed to deliver better government services now and into the future. We also support agencies to improve the design and delivery of their digital projects.

We develop and improve digital and ICT sourcing arrangements so that APS agencies have broad access to industry partners who provide cost-effective, contemporary solutions.

We share and promote leading digital practices through our engagement with our colleagues across the Commonwealth, jurisdictions and internationally.

Over the past year, we have made strong progress in leading digital transformation across government. We delivered the Digital Transformation Strategy, progressed the development of common platforms including Digital Identity, enhanced the Digital Marketplace and significantly increased our engagement with our government counterparts, including across jurisdictions. This corporate plan builds on these achievements and sets out our priorities for the year ahead. We are excited about our recent move to work alongside Services Australia in the Social Services Portfolio and the opportunity this provides to further enhance the delivery of government services.

Randall Brugeaud
Chief Executive Officer

Our purpose

We lead digital transformation in government to make services simple, smart and user-focused.

Our environment

Digital is fundamentally changing how Australians live, work and interact with government. The Australian public expects government services to be simple, easy and fast to use. To meet these expectations we must be innovative, practical and user-centred in our work.

Our operating environment is complex and fluid. The pace of technological change is opening up new opportunities to radically re-think how government services are designed and delivered. To stay ahead of the curve, we need to constantly be testing new ideas, tools and practices that will assist APS agencies with their digital transformation.

The smarter use of data is key to designing and delivering personalised digital services that better meet the needs of customers. The DTA works to ensure that data and digital issues are considered and progressed together.

Digital transformation requires high levels of coordination and collaboration across government. It requires the DTA to work effectively with APS agencies to identify opportunities for change, agree on a course of action, and actively manage delivery risks for government. To do this, we must be willing to learn from our colleagues as well as to share our skills and insights with them.

Our priorities

In 2019–20 we will focus on the following strategic priorities:

1. Deliver whole-of-government strategies, policies and advice to support the Government’s digital and ICT agenda.
2. Design, deliver and support common, government-wide platforms and services that enable digital transformation.
3. Deliver a program of digital and ICT capability improvement, including sourcing, to enhance capability and skills across the APS.
4. Drive collaboration and partnerships to enable and accelerate the digital transformation of government services.

Our Annual Performance Statement will track our performance and achievements against these priorities through the measures in this Corporate Plan and the performance criteria in our Portfolio Budget Statement.

Appendix A maps our Portfolio Budget Statements to our Corporate Plan.

Priority 1: Deliver whole-of-government strategies, policies and advice to support the Government’s digital and ICT agenda.

Our approach

The DTA is responsible for whole-of-government strategy, policy and advice on digital and ICT. We provide advice to government on opportunities to accelerate and coordinate digital transformation across government, as well as advice on emerging trends and risks. This includes advice on new policy proposals as well as current projects.

We directly support agencies with practical guidance and tools to help them design and deliver digital projects that align with government priorities and improve service delivery outcomes.

Working towards our purpose

Key activities for this year:

• Develop and implement whole-of-government strategies and policies that accelerate digital transformation and improve government service delivery.
• Expand and implement a framework to identify, prioritise and accelerate service improvements around key life events.
• Provide advice on whole-of-government digital and ICT sourcing.
• Provide advice to agencies and Government on new digital and ICT-enabled policy proposals.
• Provide guidance and advice to agencies to support the design and delivery of digital and ICT initiatives.
• Measure and report on digital and ICT delivery and transformation across the APS.

Opportunities, challenges and risks

• The establishment of Services Australia provides further opportunities to accelerate the digital transformation of government. Services Australia has a strong focus on improving customer experience and making it easier to deal with government. These opportunities are supported by the increasing interest from APS agencies on digital transformation strategies and practices.
• Coordinating digital initiatives and investment across government will require high levels of agency engagement and cooperation.
• Risks include delivering policy and strategy settings that do not reflect the government’s changing operating environment. There is also the risk that agencies do not accept DTA advice or contribute information to enable government to track its progress.

Priority 2: Design, deliver and support common, government-wide platforms and services that enable digital transformation.

Our approach

We are driving a new way of government service delivery that is user-centred, end-to-end and collaborative. This is supported by government-wide platforms that provide consistent experiences and enable agencies to focus on meeting customers’ needs.

The DTA is leading the delivery of these common whole-of-government platforms and services to enable the Government’s service delivery vision.

Our work is based on a clear understanding of how customers access and use government services. This helps us design and deliver platforms and services that meet their needs. Our objective is to provide customers with seamless, integrated interaction based on their life events, rather than services designed around the structures of government.

Our approach also allows us to understand and improve the efficiency of our digital and ICT environment by simplifying and harmonising delivery.

Working towards our purpose

Key activities for this year:

• Lead the delivery of government-wide digital platforms and enabling services that will improve customer experience. This includes Digital Identity and Payments In.
• Work across government to design and deliver a common, secure, standardised and easy-to-use desktop and mobile operating environment, so that agencies can direct their resources to improving customer services.
• Improve services through the whole-of-government data analytics capability, the gov.au Observatory, and our guidance and advisory services.
• Provide advice and support to Government and the APS on a range of topics including program delivery, emerging technologies, cyber security and technology innovation.

Opportunities, challenges and risks

• Government-wide platforms and services reduce the need for each agency to build their own capabilities, reducing duplication, improving collaboration and freeing them to focus on how to best meet customer needs. They also support better and more consistent experiences that help customers to easily interact with government, regardless of the number of agencies involved.
• The challenge is to demonstrate the value of a coordinated approach, particularly for services that have traditionally been contained within an organisation.
• There is a risk that agencies will resist transition to government-wide platforms and services, preferring to continue to use their own organisation-specific capabilities. There is also a risk that the transition to government-wide platforms and services may disrupt service delivery.

Priority 3: Deliver a program of digital and ICT capability improvement, including sourcing, to enhance capability and skills across the APS

Our approach

To accelerate the Government’s transformation agenda, we are working across the APS to improve digital and ICT capabilities. This includes providing guidance, tools and training to help teams design, build, run and maintain digital services.

We are also improving access to quality assured digital training. We support the exchange of ideas and leading practice through communities of practice, directly partnering with government agencies and hosting special events that encourage innovation, collaboration and connection. We provide access to mentoring and coaching, including for women in digital roles.

In addition, we are driving improvements in the sourcing of digital products and services. This includes redeveloping the processes, platforms, tools and support to improve the sourcing experience for both suppliers and buyers.

Working towards our purpose

Key activities for this year:

• Continue to build the digital and ICT capability of the APS, focusing on upskilling staff, developing digital leadership skills and attracting and retaining digital talent.
• Continue to implement the recommendations of the ICT Procurement Taskforce. Through this program we will continue to introduce policies, principles, tools and guidance for government agencies to deliver cost savings and make government easier to deal with, increase participation of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), encourage competition and drive innovative thinking.
• Continue to simplify and streamline whole-of government agreements, panel arrangements, and digital and ICT marketplaces to offer suppliers and agencies better ways to sell and buy digital products and services.

Opportunities, challenges and risks

• Australians are early adopters of new technologies, many of which offer significant opportunities to improve government services. The Government is committed to uplifting digital skills across the APS to improve service, program and policy outcomes. Further opportunities exist to improve sourcing, making it simpler for industry to sell to government, and for government to achieve better value for money through increased competition and innovation.
• While improvements have and will continue to be delivered in the short-term, capability improvement requires a sustained focus in order to achieve its full potential.
• The risk is that failing to act will lead to capability gaps and potentially sub-optimal outcomes in government. Engaging SMEs will require a change in mindset and different approach to government sourcing.

Priority 4: Drive collaboration and partnerships to enable and accelerate the digital transformation of government services.

Our approach

Delivering seamless, joined up digital services requires thinking beyond the lens of individual government agencies, jurisdictions and countries.

To challenge and change the way services are traditionally delivered, we collaborate and partner with all levels of government, as well as industry and academia. In addition, we engage with international colleagues to continue learning from and applying global leading practice to digital transformation in Australia. As we are committed to improving customer experience, we also regularly engage with customers through user research activities and private and public trials.

We collaborate nationally to drive coordinated digital transformation and optimise digital services and customer experiences. This approach is essential, in particular for life events where services span different levels of government, industry and the not-for-profit sector.

Working towards our purpose

Key activities for this year:

• Lead and coordinate inter-agency collaboration on key whole-of-government projects. Digital Identity and customer experience platform improvements are major priorities this year.
• Engage with state and territory counterparts through initiatives such as the cross-jurisdictional Chief Information Officer (CIO) forum and other senior official groups.
• Continue to partner with state and territory governments on life event initiatives, for example our work with the ACT Government on the ‘birth of a child’ life event, and the NSW Government on the ‘end of life and ‘retirement’ life events.
• Engage internationally to ensure we continue to learn from and apply global leading practice to digital transformation, including with the United Kingdom Government Digital Services (GDS), the Estonian Government, Singapore’s GovTech, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Continue, where appropriate, to provide DTA representation at key international digital transformation conferences, such as Hub Berlin in Germany. Collaborate and share expertise with the Canadian Government on digital initiatives under the auspices of the Canada Australia Public Policy Initiative (CAPPI).
• Progress and provide support to nationally important data and digital projects identified by the Australian Data and Digital Council, a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) sub-committee.
• Partner with the Australian Industry Information Association (AIIA) on industry engagement, including the renewal of our Memorandum of Understanding.
• Continue to use the Digital Leadership Group (DLG) to contribute to strategic planning across the APS in line with the whole-of-government digital transformation agenda.

Opportunities, challenges and risks

• There are opportunities to reorient the way we think about providing services to deliver more coordinated and integrated customer-centred services. Our engagement program creates opportunities to learn from other sectors, jurisdictions and countries, and share solutions and successes.
• Coordinating stakeholders across jurisdictions and sectors is complex. We work to minimise this challenge by aligning strategic objectives through forums like the Australian Data and Digital Council, where states and territories form a common view on priorities that deliver value for customers across Australia.
• A key risk is that our engagement is ineffective and does not deliver value. To drive innovation and digital transformation across government, we must actively include and collaborate with key stakeholders.

Our capability

We are a small executive agency and our people have a unique set of skills and experience that allow us to successfully lead the Government’s digital transformation agenda. These include:

• User-centred research and design skills—an ability to understand customer needs and translate them into practical requirements.
• Agile delivery methodologies—the use of contemporary delivery methodologies that support an iterative development approach.
• Digital design and build skills—the ability to capture business requirements and design and implement high quality digital and ICT solutions.
• Systems architecture skills—the ability to support service and interaction design, and front and back-end engineering.
• Stakeholder engagement skills—the ability to engage and influence multiple government and non-government stakeholders concurrently.
• Strategic sourcing skills—the ability to optimise the value of software, hardware and services, driven by closer and more effective alignment between the needs of buyers and offering of sellers.
• Agile policy development skills—a deep understanding of government policy position and the iterative development skills needed to guide public policy design.
• Change management skills—the ability to understand user needs and help them navigate through changes that impact them.
• Project, program and portfolio management skills—the ability to plan, lead, and deliver a collection of projects and programs to achieve strategic objectives.
• Data skills—the technical, analytical and conceptual skills to question, understand, and share learnings from data.

We work in an agile way. We form multidisciplinary teams, respond quickly to change, work in small, fast cycles and deliver continuously as we learn through research with users.

Our workforce plan is helping us to build a responsive and agile workforce. It includes five areas of focus:

1. Align our workforce with our operating environment—through targeted strategies, identify and build the skills and capabilities we need today and into the future, to drive and enable better service delivery, improve digital and ICT investment and procurement, and build digital capability across the APS.
2. Attract and retain talent—develop strategies to promote and embed a culture of leadership, growth and development, and inform the development of an updated employee value proposition.
3. Strengthen partnerships—develop strategic partnering arrangements with public and private sector organisations to create a culture of collaboration. Strategic partnerships will be essential to meeting and managing future demands.
4. Improve resource management—implement a resource management model with supporting tools and guidance to ensure our resources (financial, people, assets etc.) are directly aligned with our priorities.
5. Implement strategic workforce planning—establish a systemic and organisation-wide approach to workforce planning. This will provide a clear view of workforce supply and demand, including our contingent workforce.

Risk management

Risk statement

The DTA will deliver the priorities described in this Corporate Plan. However, a significant proportion of our delivery program depends on collaboration with partner agencies, industry and academia.

A flexible and agile delivery approach is fundamental to everything we do. This allows us to drive change in an incremental way, learning from our experiences and harnessing new opportunities as they emerge.

We apply our resources to improve digital capabilities across government. This includes bridging the ever-increasing digital skills gap, improving whole-of-government procurement outcomes and delivering common architectures and platforms, which allow us to solve common problems in a more coordinated way.

Given the nature of our operating environment, we need to tailor our risk management approach to identify the priority risks and customise our ongoing response plans. We also need to build strong relationships with partner agencies to share and, in many cases, jointly manage these risks. If this is not done well, there is a risk that the quality of government services will be impacted.

Our investment advisory and oversight role allows us to shape digital and ICT investments to better meet the Government’s objectives. Reform in this area requires a much more collaborative approach across government. It is also likely to require structural changes to investment and monitoring frameworks. There is a risk that public expectations exceed the capacity of government to change. Our approach is to promote a common understanding of our objectives and ensure that agencies commit to collaboratively deliver against an agreed plan.

The use of temporary personnel such as contractors and consultants can present risks in relation to value for money, skills and the management of intellectual property. To address this, we will continue to work with the Australian Public Service Commission to build digital capability in the APS and establish partnerships with the private sector to develop the necessary skills more broadly.

Risk management approach

We manage risk in line with the AS/NZS 31000:2018 Risk management—Guidelines as well as the Commonwealth Risk Management Guidelines. Managing risk is everyone’s responsibility at the DTA. However, ultimate responsibility rests with our Chief Executive Officer as the Accountable Authority. The Chief Executive Officer is assisted by the Executive Board, taking an enterprise-wide view of our activities. Our Executive Board periodically reviews identified enterprise risks to confirm existing risks and identify new risks, update the risk rating based on a common criteria, consider the adequacy of current controls based on the risk rating, and develop resource treatment plans to move risks to the desired level/risk rating.

All DTA employees engage with risk, and commensurate with their role, treat risks for their accountabilities and escalate as required. All projects conduct periodic risk assessments, with treatment plans bringing risks into an acceptable tolerance. Risk assessments allow project owners and Division Heads to assess areas of resourcing need and escalate with a common language to gain the attention of management and executive. We will continue to grow our risk maturity and aim to have all projects and business using risk as a key management tool.

Guided by our Enterprise Risk Framework we will continue to update our strategic and enterprise risk assessments. On an ongoing basis, we update our Security, Privacy and Fraud risk assessments and treat risk where it exceeds our appetite. We will use these risk assessments, along with project and enterprise risk assessments, to inform the development of a fit-for-purpose Internal Audit program. This will provide assurance that risk is managed appropriately and identify ongoing improvements the DTA may adopt.

A: Portfolio Budget Statement mapped to Corporate Plan