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Your responsibilities

To successfully meet this criterion, you need to:

• develop a business case for change
• survey the policy and service landscape
• understand your service’s life cycle 
• adopt an agile methodology

Of the 17 continuing Tier 1 and 2 projects that reported delivery confidence in February 2024, 11 projects either maintained or dropped in delivery confidence to Medium or lower in February 2025. These projects are routinely managing 3 or more delivery challenges that affected their assessments. Common trends include: financial pressures; scope complexities; resourcing constraints; tight schedules; technical issues; and a need to improve project management maturity.

While the goal is to see DCAs improving over time, it is common for delivery issues to worsen before they improve, especially when complex technical issues are involved. Some projects reporting lower DCAs are depending on the successful delivery of other projects as part of a wider reform program. While they have been closely monitoring delivery, setbacks in other projects can result in these projects being delayed, as key components required to stay on track become unavailable when needed.

Reforms supporting success – using new ways of collecting data to enable timely support and course corrections

In July 2024, the DTA began a Project Data Reporting Standard (PDRS) trial. The trial is testing a new approach to enable more seamless and timely central tracking of project performance across the Australian Government, using ‘natural systems’.

Using ‘natural systems’ means project data is collected from internal reporting projects are preparing for their governance boards, rather than requiring agencies to prepare specific reporting for central tracking purposes.

This approach is:

1. improving the quality of reporting and advice the DTA can provide to stakeholders across the Australian Government – including by enabling data to be collected more frequently
2. supporting decision-making by ensuring digital governance boards consistently have the minimum necessary information required to enable good decisions (a condition of the trial is that a minimum set of information must be provided to the board)
3. improving the experience of agencies providing data to the DTA in our oversight role.

The trial is enabling more timely and effective central oversight of digital projects, helping ensure support can be provided where it needed most and at the earliest stage when the chance of charting a course back to green is greatest.

How the Australian Government’s digital projects are performing

This section sets out how digital projects are performing. Digital projects present unique challenges and the reforms set out in previous sections are playing a key role in ensuring the conditions exist for each and every project included in this report to succeed.

Projects worth $7.3 billion of total budget are on-track

Consistent DCAs for major digital projects provide an overview of each project’s performance, spotlighting where support is needed most. This transparency also aids in reforms aimed at creating optimal conditions for digital projects to succeed and enhance public services and people’s lives.

Across the 2 years of reporting, the DCAs show many projects in the portfolio are on track to deliver agreed outcomes. This reflects the easing of technology supply disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing investment in strengthening how the Australian Government designs and delivers its digital projects.

Total number and budget of projects in each delivery confidence rating category (Tier 1 and Tier 2)

Improving transparency for Australians on the performance of digital projects

In recent years, the Australian Government has actively invested not just in new digital projects but in understanding what projects are underway and how they can best be supported to succeed. Transparency is an essential ingredient for good governance and this section sets out the improvements which have been made to ensure Australians know how their digital projects are performing.

Almost all Tier 1 and 2 projects now have delivery confidence assessments

Tier 1 and 2 digital projects must undertake regular delivery confidence assessments (DCAs) under the Assurance Framework for Digital and ICT Investments. DCAs indicate how likely a project is to meet its objectives at a given point in time. DCA ratings range from High to Low (see Appendix for details).

A lower DCA rating signals issues or risks that need to be addressed. However, a low rating does not necessarily mean a project will fail. Instead, it’s an early warning system that allows for timely interventions to support project teams in mitigating risks and overcoming challenges. By taking the right steps, projects can recover from lower delivery confidence ratings and go on to deliver expected outcomes for Australians on budget and on schedule.

The DTA plays a crucial role in this process. When delivery confidence decreases, we work closely with agencies to make sure they take the right measures. This involves:

• providing guidance, resources and support to project teams
• facilitating the best use of assurance processes
• promoting strategies to address issues as early as possible, when course corrections are more likely to succeed.

Ultimately, this collaborative effort aims to enhance the likelihood of successful project delivery, ensuring that investments provide expected benefits to Australians and businesses.

Since the introduction of the Australian Government’s Digital and ICT Investment Oversight Framework in November 2021, there has been a concerted focus on increasing understanding of how digital projects are performing, as well as the conditions that need to exist to best support their success.

In the last report in February 2024, 52.1% of Tier 1 and 2 projects included a delivery confidence assessment. In February 2025, this has increased to 98.4%.

80.3% independent assessments

In this report, 80.3% of assessments were completed by independent assurers under the Assurance Framework, with 90.0% for Tier 1 projects meeting this standard. This independence is key to ensuring often complex and challenging digital projects receive the expert, objective advice they need to succeed.

Reforms supporting success – bringing objectivity and rigour to assessing delivery confidence

Delivery confidence assessments are vital for directing effort and support to where it is most needed to ensure the success of all the Australian Government’s digital projects. Therefore, these assessments must be objective and rigorous.

In 2024, the University of Sydney’s John Grill Institute of Project Leadership worked in collaboration with the DTA to prepare best practice guidance on assessing the delivery confidence of digital projects. This guidance identifies the factors that are most significant in the success and failure of digital projects, and sets out how they should be considered when forming an assessment.

This section sets out how digital projects are performing. Digital projects present unique challenges and the reforms set out in previous sections are playing a key role in ensuring the conditions exist for each and every project included in this report to succeed.

Criterion 2 – Know your user