• The requirements for each criterion are listed below, along with a brief description and best practice guidance to meet the requirements.

  • Uplift and exemption

  • 1 – Determine if further action is required

    Check if you have ticked all the boxes across Steps 3 and 4. 

    • If yes, your service is compliant. No further action is required.
    • If no, your service is not currently compliant with the policy, continue to step 2.
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  • Adopt an agile methodology

     

    Use a multi-disciplinary team: Consider tools and techniques based on agile values and principles. Engage a multidisciplinary team to understand the whole problem and create an effective solution. Monitor time and effort expended to understand and refine whole-of-life investment costs from the outset. 

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  • 2 – Determine how to comply with the policy

    If you have not been able to tick all the boxes, the service is not currently compliant with the policy, you will need to either: •

    • Uplift the service to be compliant by 1 July 2025 for the Digital Service Standard and compliant with the Digital Inclusion Standard by 1 January 2026.
    • Seek an exemption from the DTA. 

    How to uplift my service to comply with the policy 

    1. Go back through the checklists.
    2. Identify which of the boxes have not been ticked. This is where you will need to focus your efforts to uplift the service. Use the guidance next to the checklist to understand what activities to conduct to meet the requirements. 3
    3. The service will be compliant with the policy once you have ticked all the boxes. 

    Please note that this will need to be done before 1 July 2025 for the Digital Service Standard, and before 1 January 2026 for the Digital Inclusion Standard. If you require more time or are unable to meet one of the requirements due to e.g. legacy challenges, you can apply for an exemption if applicable (information below).

    Decide if your service needs an exemption

    If you are unable to meet the requirements set out in the Digital Service Standard and Digital Inclusion Standard by their implementation dates, please seek an exemption.

    You may seek exemptions to these standards for: 

    • legacy technology barriers that cannot be reasonably overcome 
    • substantial financial burden associated with modifying a service to meet requirements.

    Exemptions vary in nature and can be permanent, temporary, partial or full and may apply to one or more criteria or the entire standard. Each exemption application will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and must be applied for through the DTA.

    For further guidance on the exemptions process please see Digital Experience | digital.gov.au or email standard@dta.gov.au. 
     

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  • Purpose

    These checklists are for auditing and uplifting your existing public facing digital services for compliance with the Digital Experience Policy (the policy). 

    We recommend that agencies complete the checklists for each individual existing service, rather than at an agency level. The checklists will help understand if each service is in scope of the policy requirements. 

    This page contains 4 sections:

    1. Scope and applicability – determine if the policy applies to the digital service.
    2. Digital Service Standard criterion checklist – check if an in-scope service complies with the Digital Service Standard.
    3. Digital Inclusion Standard criterion checklist – check if an in-scope service complies with the Digital Inclusion Standard.
    4. Uplift and exemption checklist – determine the activities agencies need to complete after finalising the checklist and if the service needs an exemption.

    Note:

    • The language in this checklist is tailored to existing public facing digital services. It may differ from content and compliance criteria for other services.
    • The checklist includes best practice for meeting the requirements of the Digital Experience Policy. This is guidance only. Agencies may meet the requirements through other activities.

    Existing public-facing services 

    Existing public-facing services in scope of the policy must comply with the Digital Service Standard and the Digital Inclusion Standard. 

    The Digital Service Standard and Digital Inclusion Standard will come into effect for existing public facing services as of the following dates: 

    • Digital Service Standard in effect 1 July 2025
    • Digital Inclusion Standard in effect 1 January 2026.
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  • Scope and applicability

  • Use this checklist to determine if the policy applies to a service.

  • 1. Is the service an existing public-facing digital service

    Does the service meet all 3 requirements? 1. It’s an existing service. 2. It’s a public-facing service. 3. The service is digital. • If yes, continue to step 2. • If no, no further action is required in this checklist. If it’s a new or a replacement digital service, visit digital.gov.au/policy/digital-experience for further information.

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  • 2. Is the service informational or transactional

    Determine if any of the following describe your service: • The service is informational and/or transactional service, it provides information to users, such as reports, fact sheets or videos through government agency websites, smart answers, virtual assistants, e-learning, publications, online libraries, databases and data warehouses*. • The service is a transactional service, it leads to a change in government-held records, typically involving an exchange of information, money, licences or goods such as logging into a portal or platform, submitting a claim, registering a business, updating contact details, lodging a tax return, subscribing to newsletters, grant applications and public consultation submissions*. • If yes, continue to step 3 • If no, no further action is required in this checklist. *These descriptions are a guide only. A service may still be defined as transactional and/or informational if it does not match the examples set out above.

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  • 3. Page visits or transactions per annum

    Review analytics to determine if the service has more than 50,000 visits and/or transactions per annum. • If yes, complete all checklists in this document to determine if the service complies. • If no, the policy still applies to all existing services, however reporting on compliance is only for services with more than 50,000 visits and/or transactions per annum. The exclusion from reporting for services with fewer than 50,000 page visits and/or transactions focuses resources and compliance efforts on high-impact services. This makes sure the most widely used digital services adhere to the policy standards and smaller-scale services can operate with greater flexibility.

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  • Section 4: Digital Roadmap

    This section is to design your agency’s Digital Roadmap, it should be high level and align with your agency’s overall business strategy and goals, or the Strategy.

    The Digital Roadmap visualises key initiatives across the digital horizon.

    The timeline can help agencies visualise implementation of planned activities and upgrades and to map their progress on a half-yearly basis.

    Example of a Digital Roadmap

    Example of a Digital Roadmap across a ten-year horizon running from 2025 until 2035. Greater detail in the accordion below.
  • image description

    This image shows an example Digital Roadmap across a ten-year horizon running from 2025 until 2035. Four example strategic goals are listed with a series of example key initiatives plotted across the ten-year horizon. Additionally, each example initiative is highlighted with the intended funding source: TBD Funding, Internally Funded and Externally Funded. Initiatives that are linked as Dependency are indicated with a blue arrow. 

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  • New Systems and Major Upgrades

    Accompanying the Digital Roadmap, the New Systems and Major Upgrades section should outline critical new systems or major upgrades across the short, medium and long-term digital horizon.  

    Initiative, Program of Work or System

    High level overview of initiative, program of work or system. 

    Proposal Type

    Outline the proposal type or business case pass: Pilot, 1PBC/Discovery, 2PBC/Implementation, Next Tranche/Phase or Sustainment.

    Purpose

    Define if the system is a new capability, or if it enhances or replaces an existing capability.

    Funding Source

    Outline intended funding source. 
     

  • Section 5: Enablers

    For this section we want your agency to consider and define the key enablers that underpin the delivery of your DIP. 

    Workforce

    Define your key workforce roles.

    What are your critical skills gaps? 

    Do you have the workforce capability to deliver your plan?  

    What are the gaps and what measures are being undertaken to address these gaps.

    External Assets and Dependencies

    Are there any external assets or dependencies that your agency relies upon to deliver your services?

    Key Vendors

    This section should answer if you utilise any key vendors to deliver critical digital services, for either in-flight or planned activities.  

    It should also include the length of time that these critical vendors have been in use and what measures are being put in place to reduce the reliance on them.

    Policies and Frameworks

    Alignment with related whole-of-government objectives, strategies, policies, frameworks, standards and schemes. 

    An overview of the data and digital policy landscape. 
     

  • Section 6: Risks

    For this section we want your agency to identify and define the key risks that may disrupt the delivery of your DIP.

    Risks may include funding, workforce, schedule, dependencies and technology.

    Operational Risks

    What are the operational risks to your agency? This may include reliance on vendors or workforce limitations.  
    What will be the impact to your critical services or dependent agencies if these risks are realised?

    Technology Risks

    What technical risks to your agency have been identified?  

    Have legacy systems been identified?  

    Explain your Essential Eight maturity level and any relevant planned enhancements?  

    Is there a level of technical debt in your agency?  

    What would be the impact to your critical services or to dependent agencies if these risks were realised?

     

  • Glossary

    Australian Government Architecture (AGA)

    The AGA is a collection of digital artefacts and guidance to help agencies align with the digital direction of government.

    Identifying the AGA capability relevant to your initiative enables you to:

    • confirm the policies and standards that apply, including any requirements or recommendations to ensure components you create are reusable
    • review designs and patterns associated with your initiative's capabilities, ensuring you have appropriately explored opportunities to reuse existing technology and architecture.

    Data and Digital Government Strategy (the Strategy)

    The Strategy sets the vision for the Australian Government’s use of data and digital technologies to 2030. The Strategy puts people and business at the centre of the Government’s data and digital transformation. 

    The Strategy sets out the Australian Government’s 2030 vision:

    To deliver simple, secure and connected public services for all people and business through world class data and digital capabilities.

    The Strategy sets out 5 key missions to guide the APS’ data and digital transformation.

    Defining digital services

    The Digital Service Standard (DSS) establishes the requirements for the design and delivery of digital government services.

    Digital services must be user-friendly, inclusive, adaptable and measurable.

    The DSS defines digital services as:

    Informational services provide information, such as reports, fact sheets or videos, to users.

    Transactional services lead to a change in government-held records, typically involving an exchange of information, money, licences or goods.

    Staff-facing services provide information or support transactions to government employees.

    Defining legacy

    A collection of information and communications technology (i.e. hardware, software, services, protocols, and/or systems) is ‘legacy’ when it meets one or more criteria in both Category A and Category B.

    Category A
    • Considered an end-of-life product, or
    • Out of support, and extended support from the manufacturer, vendor or developer.

    and

    Category B
    • Impractical to update or support within the entity, or
    • No longer cost-effective, or
    • Considered to be above the current acceptable risk threshold, or
    • Offers diminishing business utility, or
    • Prevents or obstructs fulfilment of the entity’s ICT strategies.

    Dependency

    A dependency is the relationship between activities such that the completion or the initiation of one is reliant on the completion or initiation of the other.

    Digital Capability Assessment Process (DCAP)

    The Digital Capability Assessment Process (DCAP) is a set of whole-of-government digital and ICT policies and standards that all new digital and ICT investment proposals will need to demonstrate a level of alignment and compliance with, prior to consideration by Government.

    Digital Experience Policy (DX Policy)

    The Digital Experience Policy (DX Policy) supports a whole-of-government focus on improving the experience for people and business interacting digitally with government information and services, setting a benchmark for good digital services and integrating data based on real-world use. This will strengthen the government’s Investment Oversight Framework (IOF), further assuring that investments deliver on their commitments and are aligned to whole-of-government strategic objectives.

    Digital and ICT Investment Oversight Framework (IOF)

    The IOF is a six-state, end-to-end framework providing a way for the Government to manage digital investments across the entire project lifecycle.

    State 1 – Strategic Planning (pre-budget):

    Defines the Government’s digital and ICT-enabled investment portfolio, it’s future objectives and identifies capability gaps.

    State 2 – Prioritisation (pre-budget):

    Prioritises, plans and advises on investments to deliver on the Government’s digital and ICT objectives.

    State 3 – Contestability (budget):

    Ensures proposals are robust and meet whole-of-government digital standards immediately prior to government consideration.

    State 4 – Assurance (implementation):

    Provides assurance to the Government that investments are on-track to deliver expected benefits/throughout delivery.

    State 5 – Sourcing (implementation):

    Ensures Government obtains the best value for money from digital and ICT-enabled investments.

    State 6 – Operations:

    Regular data collection provides intelligence on the size, health and maturity of the Government's Digital and ICT investments.

    Digital Service Standard (DSS)

    The Digital Service Standard (the Standard) establishes the requirements for designing and delivering digital government services. The Digital Service Standard puts people and business at the centre of government digital service delivery. It guides digital teams to create and maintain digital services that are: user-friendly, inclusive, adaptable and measurable.

    End-of-life

    A system that has reached the end of support and is in the process of being retired. 

    End of support

    When a company ceases support for a product or service. The is typically applied to hardware and software products when a company releases a new version and ends support for certain previous versions.  

    Essential Eight

    Organisations are recommended to implement eight essential mitigation strategies from the Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents as a baseline. This baseline, known as the Essential Eight, makes it much harder for malicious actors to compromise systems.

    The mitigation strategies that constitute the Essential Eight are: patch applications, patch operating systems, multi-factor authentication, restrict administrative privileges, application control, restrict Microsoft Office macros, user application hardening and regular backups.

    Key Workforce Roles

    Core Digital and Data Roles

    These are roles required to perform the work essential to delivering the 
    enduring functions of your agency on a regular and ongoing basis. These are 
    roles you expect to remain important over the next 5-10 years.

    Emerging Digital and Data Roles

    These are roles that might be relatively new (i.e., in response to new technologies) or have changed significantly from what they have been previously and for which you expect agency demand to increase over the next 5-10 years.

    Hard to Fill Roles

    These are the roles that are difficult to fill with APS staff. This could be due to high demand, niche skills, intermittent work, or high training needs (or requiring large amounts of time to maintain currency). 

    Legacy Skill Needs

    These are the skills and/ or expertise needed by your agency to support legacy systems over the next 5-10 years.

    Secretaries’ Digital and Data Committee (SDDC)

    The purpose of the SDDC is to provide strategic leadership to promote an APS-enterprise approach to the planning, coordination, investment, assurance, and delivery of trusted and secure digital and data capabilities across government. 



     

  • Key Things to know
    • DIPs are mandatory from 1 July 2025
    • Applies to all  NCEs
    • Must include short-, medium-, and long-term investment planning
    • Plans should align with agency’s strategic and ICT goals
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  • Digital Investment Plan (DIP) Guidebook

    The Digital Investment Plan (DIP) Guidebook supports Australian Government agencies to prepare their DIP in line with the key requirements outlined in the DIP policy and the six minimum standards defined in this guidebook.

    The guidebook is not a template, but a flexible planning resource. Agencies can adapt the format, language, and level of detail to align with existing planning processes and documents. It is intended to support meaningful strategic thinking while ensuring the six minimum standards are addressed. 

    The guidebook is supported by a detailed policy, which sets out the key requirements agencies must meet when developing their DIP.

    The guidebook provides practical guidance on how to meet those requirements. It is intended to support, not replace, the DIP Policy. Agencies should refer to the policy for compliance obligations.

    What this guidebook covers

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