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Review the AGA website and familiarise yourself with the capabilities, services, policies and standards that are relevant to your new digital service:

• use the AGA to identify existing platforms and capabilities that can support your service offering and meet your user needs. For example, you can search for capabilities related to identity and authentication, content management, or data analytics
• contact the owners or managers of the platforms and capabilities that you are interested in reusing, and ask them about the availability, suitability, interoperability, costs, and onboarding process for their solutions.

Compare the benefits and drawbacks of reusing existing platforms and capabilities across government versus developing new ones. Consider factors such as: 

• user experience
• functionality
• security
• compliance
• scalability
• maintainability.

When reusing existing platforms and capabilities, work closely with the delivery partners to establish a collaborative and trusted relationship. 

To explore potential synergies or dependencies, engage with other agencies or delivery partners (criterion 5) that are responsible for or involved in these:

• services
• platforms
• capabilities.

Document your findings and recommendations on how to apply criterion 3.

• provide evidence to support your decisions and show how you have used the AGA to find reusable platforms and capabilities for your service offering
• evidence such as user research, cost-benefit analysis, or risk assessment can be used
• use the Digital Investment Overview (DIO) Data Collection form to report on how you have met the criterion.
• use the Digital Capability Assessment Process (DCAP) template to report on how you have met the criterion.
   

• Use the decision-making framework relevant to the service: Assess the service against the decision-making framework to understand if reusing existing platforms and capabilities is beneficial to users.
• Know your user context: Understand if users are accessing the new service as a private individual, as a representative of a business, as a representative of a service provider, or a combination of these.
• Understand if it is cost effective: Determine if using an existing access point is not prohibitive on the basis of investment required, and if the cost of using the existing portal is outweighed by the benefits. For example, Investment to uplift an existing portal is outweighed by a significantly better experience for users.
• Consider how to overcome barriers: Consider if there are any challenges making the new service available through an existing point. For example, could there be technical issues interfacing with legacy internal systems or legal barriers such as data sharing. Consider, where appropriate, using mechanisms such as the Data Availability and Transparency Act (DATA) scheme to support ethical data sharing.

Apply Criterion 4 during the Discovery phase to help consider capabilities and services available to improve user experience and promote reuse.

This criterion requires agencies to apply and follow a set of decision-making principles to determine where a new service is best placed within the existing landscape of government digital services. The decision-making framework will apply based on the users of the new digital service:

• citizen-facing services (for individuals)
• business and provider-facing services.

• Are users accessing the new service as a private individual, as a representative of a business, as a representative of a service provider, or a combination of these roles?

• Digital Access Standard Guidelines
• my Gov decision-making framework
• myGov User Audit – User Audit Report & Response to the User Audit
• Data Availability and Transparency Act 2022
• Benefits Management Policy

Informational services provide information to users, such as reports, fact sheets or videos. They may include: 

• government agency websites
• smart answers and virtual assistants
• e-learning
• publications
• online libraries
• databases and data warehouses. 
   

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

Examples of transactional services include: 

• logging in to a portal or platform
• submitting a claim
• registering a business
• updating contact details
• lodging a tax return
• subscribing to newsletters
• grant applications
• public consultation submissions. 
   

Staff facing services provide information to government employees or support employee transactions. They may include: 

• intranets
• learning management systems
• records management systems
• case/client management systems
• decision-making systems
• any systems or platforms utilised by staff. 

For more information on how ‘portals’ are defined, please refer to the Australian Government Architecture (AGA).