Appendix A: The detailed approach
The DTA engaged BDO to support this work by analysing and distilling the initial identified 64 closed digital project reports, distilling to a sample of 30 reports. A total of 393 lessons learned were identified across the 30 selected digital projects and programs which were further refined to 331 after a quality review.
The following considerations informed the selection of projects and programs that were included in the sample:
- Project/program closure recency (within the last 5 years)
- Complexity of the project/program
- A variety of projects and programs across Commonwealth Government Departments/Agencies
- The project’s internal tier or priority level within the department or agency, where this information was available.
This review highlighted the difficulty of analysing lessons learned at scale, with some entries omitted because their quality, clarity or context limited their usefulness for reliable analysis. The assessment criteria below illustrate the practical challenges of working with lessons-learned material and help explain why whole-of-government synthesis of these insights remains limited in the available literature.
Assessment criteria used to determine lessons omitted from analysis:
- A number of lesson entries were reflective narratives or general project recounts, rather than actionable, project/program-specific lessons.
- Inconsistencies in terminology and syntax affected the clarity and comparability of the lessons.
- Many lessons lacked sufficient project context or were overly specific to the project and program or Department, requiring assumptions to interpret their broader relevance
This analysis resulted in 10 key themes with a total of 37 synthesised lessons.