A structured approach to whole-of-government digital planning.
The DIP policy sets minimum standards to guide consistent, long-term digital investment planning across the Australian Public Service.
An overview of the DIP Minimum Standards.
The AI technical standard (the standard) sets consistent practices for government agencies adopting artificial intelligence (AI) systems across the AI lifecycle.
‘An AI system is a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments. Different AI systems vary in their levels of autonomy and adaptiveness after deployment.’
The standard impacts both roles and responsibilities at varying organisational levels across government, and impacts Australians more broadly. The following functions and communities may be impacted or assisted by the standard. Noting individuals may perform multiple roles.
Whole of AI lifecycle includes statements that apply across multiple AI product lifecycle stages, for ease of use and to minimise content duplication.
The design stage includes concept development, requirements engineering, and solution design.
The data stage involves establishing the processes and responsibilities for managing data across the AI lifecycle. This stage includes data used in experimenting, training, testing, and operating AI systems.
The train stage covers the creation and selection of models and algorithms. The key activities in this stage include modelling, pre- and post-processing, model refinements, and fine-tuning. It also considers the use of pre-trained models and associated fine-tuning for the operational context.
This stage includes testing, verification, and validation of the whole AI system. It is assumed that agencies have existing capability on test management and on testing traditional software and systems.
The integrate stage of the AI lifecycle focuses on implementing and testing an AI system within an agency’s internal organisational environment, including with its systems and data.
The deploy stage involves introducing all the AI technical components, datasets, and related code into a production environment where it can start processing live data.
The monitor stage of the AI lifecycle includes operating and maintaining the AI system. Monitoring is critical to ensuring the reliability, availability, performance, security, safety, and compliance of an AI system after it is deployed.
The Decommissioning stage of the AI lifecycle focuses on the planning, delivery, and documentation of decommissioning activities.
Government digital projects are complex, high-stakes investments and effective leadership and governance is critical to success.
The Government has agreed APS leaders responsible for delivering the Government’s digital projects must complete a ‘digital governance capability improvement program’, to be designed and delivered by the DTA.
This program addresses that mandate, and delivers a curriculum informed by the DTA’s experience as the Government’s trusted digital advisor, equipping senior leaders to contribute confidently and effectively in digital governance board settings.
For Senior Responsible Officials (SROs)
To register, please contact our Leadership Program and Integration team by emailing them at LPI@dta.gov.au.
"A relevant entity must only conduct a procurement at or above the relevant procurement threshold through limited tender in the following circumstances: ...
Commonwealth Procurement Rules, paragraph 10.3
- d. when the goods and services can be supplied only by a particular business and there is no reasonable alternative or substitute for one of the following reasons ...
- ii. to protect patents, copyrights, or other exclusive rights, or proprietary information, or
- iii. due to an absence of competition for technical reasons; or
- e. for additional deliveries of goods and services by the original supplier or authorised representative that are intended either as replacement parts, extensions, or continuing services for existing equipment, software, services, or installations, when a change of supplier would compel the relevant entity to procure goods and services that do not meet requirements for compatibility with existing equipment or services."
Buyer stakeholder“DTA are going into [SSA] negotiations not fully understanding what agencies’ roadmaps are.”
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) owns whole-of-government digital policies that provide direction to agencies about how they should approach particular aspects of digital and ICT investment, design and delivery, including requirements, when the policy must be applied and exemptions for certain circumstances.
This guidance on DCA ratings is based on the factors that have been found to be significant in the success and failure of digital projects. These include:
Assurance activities are typically a summative assessment at a point in time in a project lifecycle. A DCA is a predictive assessment based on the current state and trajectory of the project.
This criterion considers whether project process and management systems are established and followed, with reference to those processes most significant in digital projects.
“The effectiveness of State Penalties Enforcement Registry's (SPER) oversight of the SPER Reform Program’s procurement process was adversely impacted by weaknesses in the design of the steering committee. The chair of the steering committee also chaired the tender evaluation panel, which had the potential to compromise the independence and objectivity of the steering committee to challenge the process”(3)
Finding from Audit Office Inquiry
“Ownership of decisions are attributed to governance forums rather than individuals or roles. The lack of clear decision-making powers and accountabilities across all levels of the program is impacting the effectiveness of timely decision-making”
Review of the Modernising Business Registers Programme