The new guidance on assessing the delivery confidence of digital projects is designed to ensure assurance activities appropriately consider the unique challenges and complexities of digital projects when forming Delivery Confidence Assessments (DCAs). DCAs are an overall expression of the likelihood a digital project will deliver expected benefits for Australians on time and on budget. 

This guidance - prepared by researchers at the University of Sydney’s John Grill Institute for Project Leadership in collaboration with the DTA - is designed to fill a gap in current literature and guidance. Building on global research and experience in digital project design and delivery, it identifies the most material factors known to influence digital project success and outlines how these can be considered when forming a DCA.  

Among the factors the new guidance recommends are governance and leadership, resource management, delivery management, solution design, and having a clear purpose and business case with defined benefits.  

All digital projects across the Australian Government must undertake DCAs in accordance with the Assurance Framework for Digital and ICT Investments. This ensures a steady flow of assurance information to the centre of government to shape ongoing reforms and improvements to how digital projects are designed and delivered. It also ensures escalation processes can be triggered for at-risk digital projects. These processes apply structured responses such as remediation planning to at-risk projects to help support agencies in getting these projects back on track. 

“Good assurance is key to keeping delivery teams focussed on what must go right to succeed,” outlines Jamie Whitcombe, Branch Manager for Portfolio Assurance at the Digital Transformation Agency.  

“Ensuring assurance adapts to the unique challenges of digital projects goes to the heart of maximising its value, and ultimately in ensuring that digital projects deliver as expected for Australians”.

The guidance is designed for use by staff involved in preparing DCAs. It will be maintained and improved over time to take account of learnings from across the Australian Government’s digital projects. The guidance will also be included as part of the training program launching for Senior Responsible Officials (SROs) in early 2025. 

The guidance is also the first instalment in a research series designed to engage academia on the most important issues influencing digital project performance. This series forms part of the DTA’s commitment to ensuring the Australian Government continuously improves how it designs and delivers digital projects including by drawing on global best practice and cutting-edge research.  

To access the guidance, please visit Digital project research series | digital.gov.au.  

Enquiries on this work may be directed to portfolio.assurance@dta.gov.au. 

The Digital Transformation Agency is responsible for providing confidence that fit for purpose assurance arrangements are implemented for all in-scope digital projects. Our Assurance Framework has been developed to support the successful implementation of digital projects.