This corporate plan builds on our first year of delivering on our current mandate as a trusted adviser to government. It has been a significant year of change, transformation and hard work. In the year ahead we will demonstrate and embed our work to guide and measure the government’s ambitions in Australia’s digital future.

Chris Fechner, Chief Executive Officer

Digital Transformation Agency

Statement of preparation

I, Chris Fechner, as the accountable authority of the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), present the 2022–23 DTA corporate plan, which covers the period 2022–23 to 2025–26, as required under paragraph 35 (1)(b) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act).

Chris Fechner

Chief Executive Officer, 24 August 2022

Vision

The Australia Government is a world-leader in digital government for the benefit of citizens, businesses and communities by 2025.

Mission

To be the trusted adviser to the Australian Government and Commonwealth entities on digital and ICT matters and investment decisions.

Strategic objectives

1. Lead government’s digital transformation strategy.
2. Oversee the short, medium and long-term whole-of-government digital and ICT investment portfolio.
3. Manage whole-of-government digital and ICT strategic sourcing and contracts.
4. Be a valued employer with the expertise to achieve our purpose.

Operating context

Delivering world-leading digital government means going beyond having simple online services and investing in cutting-edge technology: the people and businesses that engage with government expect these services to be stable, secure, reliable and capable of anticipating the future needs of every user. The degree to which the APS effectively and efficiently transforms the digital landscape today will impact on the trust individuals and businesses have in government and how much public value we deliver tomorrow.

Environment

We are responsible for stewarding the government through the rapidly changing and complex digital and ICT environment. Fast-paced technological change is challenging the way we work and engage across society – creating constant opportunities to rethink how decisions about digital and ICT investment are made, and how government services are designed and delivered. Digital disruption, increased demand and the global pandemic have seen a significant shift towards digital as Australians’ preferred way of accessing services. This environment has also changed the nature of the way government operates as a digitally enabled enterprise.

The national response to COVID-19 has highlighted what is possible, however, challenges remain. We need to address fragmented digital delivery and channel inconsistencies in customer services as well as lack of investment in interoperability and reuse of digital capabilities as standards across government. In addition, ongoing reforms to the public service and fiscal challenges place a premium on the government’s ability to more effectively plan and prioritise digital transformation in the most cost-effective way. The path forward requires leadership and high levels of coordination and collaboration across government and industry. It requires alignment with an overarching investment framework from early planning through to initiative delivery and realisation of planned benefits, underpinned by a clear digital government architecture that links strategies, policies, standards and guidance.

We will continue to work diligently across government and industry to be the trusted advisor on digital and ICT matters and investment decisions. We will also continue to reinforce the essential building blocks of digital transformation, providing an informed picture of current digital capability and capacity, and mapping future needs.

The DTA is committed to strategic investments to make digital services simple, helpful, respectful and transparent to customers, and that increase focus on building capabilities that support those customers, whether they be people, communities, businesses or employees of the APS. In doing this, we will increase rigour of digital investment oversight to maximise value while reducing risk and waste.

Capability

We are an Executive Agency within the Finance Portfolio. Our people have expertise and skills in:

• overarching strategy, policy, standards and guidance for government digital and ICT investment and service delivery
• whole-of-government digital and ICT enterprise architecture
• whole-of-government digital and ICT investment portfolio planning, prioritisation, contestability and assurance
• whole-of-government digital and ICT sourcing and contracts
• discovering, framing, establishing and transitioning new digital and ICT initiatives for government
• enabling services to support a responsive, capable agency.

Through our workforce planning and development we are building an agency that can adapt to the challenges, risks and opportunities in our current and future operating environments through use of emerging technologies, contemporary approaches and broad collaboration to achieve our purpose.

Values and behaviour

Our values and corresponding behaviours reflect our mandate as a trusted adviser to government. They underpin and guide our day-to-day work practices across all facets of the way we work – within the DTA and across the APS:

• Collaboration – we work together to achieve goals.
• Respect – we make everyone feel safe, supported and included.
• Transparency – we build trust through being authentic and honest.
• Future focused – we use our expertise to support the government’s digital agenda.
• Excellence – we strive for excellence in all we do.

Diversity and inclusion

The DTA believes it is crucial to have a diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects the range of people, communities, cultures and diversity groups we serve.

We are committed to building and maintaining an inclusive working environment based on trust, mutual respect and understanding. We want everyone, regardless of who they are or what they do for the DTA, to feel equally involved in, and supported in, all areas of the workplace.

Our diversity and inclusion strategy focuses on leadership and culture, awareness and creating a sense of belonging, celebrations through recognised events, and our diversity network. Our Executive Diversity Champion plays a visible leadership role across the DTA to work with staff to create a valued, respected and diverse culture.

We ensure our offices are accessible and offer reasonable adjustments as required.

The DTA is a member of the Diversity Council Australia, the Australian Network on Disability and Pride in Diversity, and we have special access to diversity and inclusion resources.

Risk oversight and management

Our work practices and regular, open and transparent communication with stakeholders enables us to quickly identify, understand and respond to emerging risks.

We manage risk in line with the AS/NZS 31000:2018 risk management standard and have implemented the guidance to comply with the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy (RMG 211) to support the requirement of section 16 in the PGPA Act.

To achieve the strategic objectives we have developed to support the government’s mandate for the DTA, we have considered our associated strategic risks, which are summarised in the following table along with corresponding mitigation strategies.

Cooperation

We work most closely with Australian Government agencies.

We also work with state, territory and international governments, advisory and oversight bodies as well as industry and academia, and people who provide or use government services.

We cooperate effectively with our stakeholders across government and industry to understand the operating environment, identify challenges and opportunities for improvement, and provide trusted advice to government.

We are improving our ways of working by developing an agency service map of the models, tools, processes and data used across the DTA. Through this, we are identifying opportunities to improve connectedness and transparency to embed into an improved operating model to work more effectively across our organisation and across government.

The aim is to ensure better awareness and management of priorities, actively manage our peak periods and surge activities, manage consistent workflow and methods, improve reuse of data and intelligence, and implement value and benefits management across the DTA.

Performance

The DTA is responsible for leading and linking the overarching direction for digital strategy, policy and services, while being independent of its delivery. This means the benefits (impact) are often delivered by other agencies.

The following performance measures are therefore intended to assess the DTA’s contribution to the impact, rather than assess the impact itself. We will continue to refine and mature our performance measures as we mature as an agency and update our corporate plan accordingly.

Key activities

• Provide strategic and policy leadership on digital government through whole-of- government and shared ICT planning, investments and digital service delivery.
• Develop, deliver and monitor whole-of-government architecture strategies, policies and standards for digital and ICT investments and sourcing.

Key activities

• Manage whole-of-government digital sourcing and purchasing to simplify processes for government agencies and industry, reduce costs, increase speed, and generate reuse opportunities.

Key activities

• Forecast and manage required workforce, capabilities and resources.
• Support the DTA to pursue our strategic objectives.