This work supports increasing the visibility and re-use of existing and planned cross-government services and platforms. An objective of the Taskforce is to take government from siloed capabilities to a landscape of connected platforms and services.

Architecture concepts

One stream of the Taskforce’s current work is to develop a framework of architecture concepts. The term ‘concepts’ refers to categories of architectural components relevant to the Taskforce’s objective. We selected these concepts from the range of components needed to conduct the business of government.

For example, one concept is ‘Government Service’, shown in the diagram below. This is the end-to-end means of meeting a user need, such as applying for the age pension, or lodging a tax return. 

Another concept is ‘Platform’. Agencies can reuse this building block in many government service delivery contexts. A platform is a ‘black box’ that exposes services — called ‘Enabling Services’. These are used by many systems and processes that deliver government services to people and businesses.

The line of visibility

A ‘line of visibility’ separates the concepts. Those above the line relate to the reasons people and organisations engage with government. The concepts below the line relate to the means of government service delivery. The central concept, ‘Government Service’, straddles the line of visibility. It also links to the current and potential initiatives to develop new platforms and shared capabilities.

The purpose of the concepts model

The concepts model provides an easy-to-understand structure to simplify the complexity of government. It defines core architecture concepts and illustrates them with examples and clarifications, offering a new way of looking at government architecture. It emphasises improving service delivery for users and identifying common capabilities. 

The selected architecture concepts provide a foundation for the Taskforce’s other streams. For example, the Taskforce is also cataloguing existing platforms. It will list the enabling services each platform provides and map them to the relevant business capability.

Applying the concepts model

The Beta concepts model includes architecture canvas templates, which we have trialed with the agencies involved. The canvases are 1-page views of a single government service or business scenario. They show the government components contributing to the service or scenario.

For example, in the scenario of a person needing income support, the customer may access several government products or services. These might be services like JobSeeker, Veteran’s Pension, Carer Allowance, or tax offsets. Another example is the scenario of a business importing goods from overseas. They will access government services such as Import Permit, Customs Duty Assessment, and Biosecurity Clearance. A scenario canvas shows all these possibilities and the important components that enable their delivery.  

A canvas focused on a government service maps the details of the components to deliver that service. The canvas view gives a clearer insight into what makes a government service work.

Find out more

The private Beta version of the Government Architecture Concepts Model is now available to interested government agencies. Contact the Taskforce at architecture@dta.gov.au for more information.