DTA releases a formal framework for Digital Investment Plans

The Digital Transformation Agency has announced its first formal policy and guidebook for preparing Digital Investments Plans.

The purpose of Digital Investment Plans (DIPs) is to outline and define an agency’s digital goals and initiatives. The plans emphasise how digital uplift can improve outcomes for an agency’s provision of services while aligning digital investments with the strategic priorities, business needs and user expectations of the agency.

“Our policy and guidebook for developing Digital Investment Plans aims to address critical gaps in planning,” said Chris Fechner, CEO of the DTA. “It establishes a consistent, structured framework with clear standards for considering strategic uplift and a focus on the future when investing in digital projects.”

From 1 July 2025, DIPs are mandatory for all non-corporate Commonwealth entities (NCCEs) subject to the Whole‍-‍of‍-‍Government Digital and ICT Investment Oversight Framework.

“During development, government stakeholders wanted a means to enable informed decision-making on digital investments, while also enhancing transparency, accountability and efficiency across their digital transformation projects,” Fechner said.

“DIPs also provide a valuable opportunity to align digital investment strategies with key government priorities outlined in the Data and Digital Government Strategy,” added Ben Leech, DTA Branch Head of Digital Capability Planning. “These investment plans create a positive feedback loop for government to map a comprehensive view of digital initiatives. They would be used to identify shared challenges across agencies and opportunities to share solutions and resources.”

To drive the efficacy of this long-term planning, the DTA’s research identified six key standards DIPs should contain:

1. Agency overview: Defining roles and functions, emphasising how digital technology supports service delivery and outcomes.
2. Current state systems: An important stocktake of existing digital or ICT systems in use, including expected end of life, planned upgrades or replacements, and significant system investments or replacements.
3. Digital outlook: A vision statement on the agency’s planned use of digital technologies and data for better outcomes to stakeholders and customers.
4. Planning: A digital roadmap aligned with the agency’s business strategy and goals, visualising key initiatives on the digital horizon so they can visualise their progress on a half-yearly basis.
5. Enablers: Defining key enablers that support delivery of the DIP, covering workforce roles, critical skills gaps, workforce capability, external assets and dependencies.
6. Risks: Defining factors that may disrupt the delivery of an agency’s DIP.

“We were really pleased that this policy and guidebook was driven by genuine needs from within the Australian Public Service,” Leech said. “Agencies came together with clear requirements, and we were able to build on those through a two-phase collaborative approach.”

The DTA said its goal is to ensure that the standards are effective and comprehensive before rolling them out to the rest of the government.

“The DTA will utilise DIPs to help strengthen advice given to committees such as Secretaries Digital and Data Committee and Digital Leadership Committee,” Leech said. “This advice is provided through products such as the Digital Investment Overview and Integrated Digital Investment Plan.”

The full Digital Investment Plan Policy can be found here and supporting guidebook here.

Image credit: iStock.com/Urupong