References
- Infrastructure and Projects Authority, 2024, IPA_Annual_Report_2023-24, accessed 21 February 2024.
- The Australian Government Treasury, 2023, Independent Review into Modernising Business Registers, accessed 21 February 2024.
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%.
Transparency and understanding of project performance is increasing
Efforts have focused on improving the availability and quality of DCAs. These are conducted by skilled independent assurers whenever possible to ensure an objective perspective. In this report, 80.3% of assessments were completed by independent assurers under the Assurance Framework, with 90.0% of Tier 1 projects meeting this standard. The remaining delivery confidence ratings reflect self-assessments by the relevant agency.
Change in delivery confidence ratings over 12 months
Image description
Diagram headline: 'Change in delivery confidence ratings over 12 months'.
The diagram demonstrates the variation between delivery confidence ratings over the 12-month period from February 2024 to February 2025. It is stated that transparency and understanding of project performance is increasing.
In February 2024, 3 projects had high delivery confidence, 12 had medium-high, 7 had medium, 3 had medium-low and 23 projects did not have delivery confidence ratings available.
In February 2025, 8 projects had high delivery confidence, 30 had medium-high, 14 had medium, 7 had medium-low, 2 had low and 1 project had an unavailable DCA as it experienced a delayed commencement, with a DCA to be conducted shortly.
Off80.3% 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.
Australians now have unprecedented transparency into the performance of the government’s digital projects
Work to improve assurance of digital projects is ensuring reliable assessments of delivery confidence are regularly undertaken. These assessments show most projects are on track to deliver expected outcomes on budget and on schedule.
Criterion 2 – Know your user
Image description
There are three bar graphs in the image.
- Image 1: Diagram header: 'Tier 1 and 2 projects including an assessment of delivery confidence'. The diagram indicates that in 2024, 52.1% of projects included an assessment of delivery confidence, in comparison to 98.4% in 2025
- Image 2: Diagram header: 'Independent delivery confidence ratings'. The diagram indicates that in 2025, 80.3% of projects included independent delivery confidence ratings (no comparison data for 2024 is provided)
- Image 3: Diagram header: Projects reporting Medium-High or above delivery confidence'. The diagram indicates that in 2024, 31.3% of projects reported Medium-High or above delivery confidence, in comparison with 61.3% in 2025.
Information management for records created using AI technologies
Guidance on identifying and managing records created by, or relating to, AI technologies employed by Australian Government agencies.
These materials are hosted on the National Archives of Australia website.
Image description
The diagram indicates that a total of 29 projects entered assurance oversight in February 2024, with a total budget figure of $7.1 billion.
High delivery confidence – 5 projects with a total budget $0.3 billion.
Medium delivery confidence - 17 projects with a total budget $5.6 billion.
Medium delivery confidence - 5 projects with a total budget $0.6 billion.
Medium-Low delivery confidence - 2 projects with a total budget $0.6 billion.
OffUnderstanding overall changes in delivery confidence to target engagement and reforms
Most (75.9%) of the 29 Tier 1 and 2 projects entering oversight since February 2024 report a High or Medium-High delivery confidence. These projects commonly report factors contributing to their delivery confidence rating at the start as: establishing effective governance early; having well-prepared documentation and artefacts; and ensuring experienced and capable personnel were ready.
This is an early sign that investment to strengthen digital project design processes is increasing overall delivery confidence. Projects often start with lower levels of delivery confidence, but the recent emphasis on ensuring mature planning is in place before projects start appears to be paying dividends, with more than three-quarters of these new projects entering oversight reporting High or Medium-High confidence. This contrasts with the United Kingdom where ‘it is not unusual for projects to be rated as Red earlier in their lifecycle, when scope, benefits, costs and delivery methods are still being explored’ (Infrastructure and Projects Authority 2024 p.13).
Reforms supporting success – partnering with industry to deliver digital projects
Recognising the crucial role of technology vendors in delivering the Australian Government’s ambitions for digital transformation, the Digital and ICT Investment Oversight Framework includes ‘sourcing’ as an area of focus. As part of this, the DTA coordinates marketplaces and agreements designed to enable agencies to easily access technology goods and services to support their digital projects. In 2023–24, the Australian Government sourced more than $6.4 billion of digital products and services from industry via these marketplaces and agreements. By accessing these arrangements through the BuyICT platform, agencies benefited from the Australian Government’s collective buying power and strengthened terms and conditions.
The DTA’s latest ICT labour hire and professional services panel, the Digital Marketplace Panel 2, adopts the APS Career Pathfinder dataset and Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) to classify ICT labour hire opportunities. The classification of roles and greater panel pricing transparency provides clearer signals for in-demand skills, their costs and potential shortages that will inform delivery capacity and confidence in digital projects. The top in-demand digital and ICT skills sourced by the APS include software engineer, solution architect and business analyst.
Supporting better digital experiences for everyone.
Evaluation of the whole-of-government trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Connect, learn and collaborate across all levels of digital government.
Supporting the Australian Government's use of artificial intelligence.