Assessing delivery confidence of digital projects

The DTA engages across the digital project lifecycle to support, advise and coordinate the government’s digital and ICT-enabled investments via the six states of the Investment Oversight Framework (IOF). State 4 (Assurance) of the IOF aims to provide assurance to government that approved digital projects are on-track to deliver expected outcomes and benefits – including by ensuring projects plan for and implement fit-for-purpose assurance activities to support good decision-making throughout delivery. The DTA engaged the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership at The University of Sydney to contribute to a research series aimed at eliciting best practice guidance to maximise the rate of digital project success. As the first topic in this series, this paper and the guidance within supports independent assurers tasked with assurance activities that review and assign Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) ratings for digital projects.

The primary purpose of this document is to help improve the consistency and understanding of DCA ratings for digital projects. Specifically, this publication is intended to:

• – address the unique challenges and issues faced by digital projects
• – outline inputs and focus areas that assurance reviewers could use to determine DCA ratings
• – provide general tolerance levels for each rating category
• – uplift capability and understanding of DCA ratings for the people who use them, including Senior Responsible Owners (SROs) and steering committees.