Executive Summary
The DTA engages across the digital project lifecycle to support, advise and coordinate the Government’s digital and ICT-enabled investments. With visibility of digital projects across government, the need became evident for guidance on the effective design, composition and operation of digital project governance boards. Reviews of digital project successes and failures routinely place significant emphasis on the performance of governance arrangements, so this guidance is critical to ensure the right blend of structure, capability, culture and information flows are established to steer a digital project to successful delivery.
To provide this guidance, the DTA collaborated with researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ) to elicit the most recent research and best practice. The DTA has found this combination of research and experience is invaluable for providing evidencebased,
practical guidance, and most importantly, having a positive impact.
Inputs for this report included:
- a review of the academic literature, industry standards and publications on project governance
- public domain reports on government digital projects and relevant government publications.
- Semi-structured interviews with professionals directly involved in digital project governance, including DTA and government staff, independent assurance providers to government and SROs.
- Analysis of project assurance reports of relevant digital projects.
Report findings were validated through a workshop session with DTA and SROs.
This guidance addresses the aspects of structure, people and information required to equip an effective digital project governance board.
Specifically, the report:
- Explains the differences between digital project boards and other governance forums
- Identifies the necessary skills, capabilities and behaviours governance board members should possess to be effective, and how that might vary over the project lifecycle
- Identifies the common challenges associated with digital project boards.
- Provides recommendations, based on relevant literature, DTA insights, and stakeholder engagements, on how to address these challenges
- Provides a self-assessment tool for SROs and boards to use
The primary audience for this guidance is:
- SROs within agencies who are accountable for digital projects
- Governance Boards and Steering Committees overseeing digital projects
- Departments and agency leaders and independent assurance providers (IAPs) engaged by agencies
- Central agencies of the Australian Government (e.g., the Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet).