2006 e-Government Strategy, Responsive Government: A New Service Agenda
3. Strategic priorities
The government has identified four strategic priorities to guide agencies over the next five years:
- meeting users’ needs
- establishing connected service delivery
- achieving value for money
- enhancing public sector capability.
3.1 Meeting users’ needs
AGIMO’s comprehensive June 2005 report, Australia’s Use of and Satisfaction with E-government Services (Australia’s Use) found relatively high satisfaction levels with current government online services. However, it also revealed low expectations of what can be achieved online, and showed that other channels, such as face-to-face, are still preferred for transactions which are considered more complex or ambiguous.
In response, this strategic priority outlines actions designed to improve people’s satisfaction when dealing with government and accessing government services.
Australia’s Use also found that there is no such thing as ‘a typical government user’. The number and diversity of users will increase, and this strategy outlines how the government will address this increasing diversity.
3.1.1 Security and privacy
Building trust and confidence has been a consistent theme of the government’s
e-government strategies. Respecting and protecting the privacy and information security of citizens, businesses and community and other organisations will underpin all e-government activities. As part of the government’s wider set of initiatives to promote a culture of security in relation to e-commerce, AGIMO, in conjunction with the Privacy Commissioner and relevant security agencies, will assist government agencies to understand and implement the government’s own legislation and requirements for security and privacy. This will lead to even better protection of people’s personal information.
3.1.2 Measuring user needs and preferences
The government will develop a consistent and coordinated approach for agencies to measure the use of and satisfaction with their services. Not only will agencies be better able to respond to user needs, a consistent approach across government will also allow an aggregate picture of use and satisfaction levels, enabling a whole of government approach to meeting the needs of users. The needs of specific groups, such as the disabled, can be better identified and addressed. Government policy development and implementation will be better informed. AGIMO will complement agency-based measurements with annual overall measurements of the use of and satisfaction with e‑government services.
3.1.3 The Australian Government entry point
The government will review and consolidate its websites, so that it is easier for people to find what they want. A simpler, more streamlined government online presence will be easier to promote, enhancing awareness and use. The principal entry point to the Australian Government will be australia.gov.au, incorporating publications.gov.au and directory.gov.au. Other major government entry points will be integrated more tightly to australia.gov.au, to further streamline the government’s online presence and make it easier to use. The security arrangements for australia.gov.au will be enhanced to match its more prominent role.
3.1.4 User accounts and personalised services
The government will provide individual, personalised accounts through australia.gov.au. All users—citizens, citizens of other countries who need to interact with the Australian Government, businesses and organisations—will only need to update details once, with the option for the update to be made automatically across other government agencies. They will also be able to change their government‑registered details when interacting with participating non-government service providers.
User accounts will address the growing diversity of people interacting with government. Each will be able to construct a personalised view of government highlighting the services and information most relevant to their needs.
3.1.5 Visible and traceable services
It will be possible to track government transactions in real time. Users will be provided with immediate receipts for transactions which cannot be completed straight away. As part of the reform of government business processes, many more transactions will be completed electronically at the time of commencement than is possible using traditional means.
3.1.6 Increasing user awareness of service delivery options
The Australian Government will promote its electronic service delivery options more prominently, so it is easier to find and access government services. AGIMO will work closely with agencies such as the Department of Human Services, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, the Department of Health and Ageing, the Department of Education, Science and Training, the Australian Taxation Office and others to increase user awareness. Despite efforts to date including creating facilities such as australia.gov.au, Australia’s Use found a lack of awareness about services available over the Internet. This is a significant barrier to greater e-government uptake and indicates the need to consolidate and more effectively promote government online services.
3.1.7 Online engagement with Government
The government will set principles for online engagement to support a consistent experience for everyone engaging with Australian governments electronically. The entry point at australia.gov.au will also provide consolidated information about government online consultation and engagement initiatives and how to take advantage of them.
AGIMO will work with government agencies to enhance their understanding and uptake of online engagement, including developing guidelines and better practice guides.
Actions:
Initial phase 2006 – 2008:
- Continue to measure overall use and satisfaction with government services annually.
- Develop a consistent and coordinated approach by agencies to measuring the use of and satisfaction with their services.
- Develop australia.gov.au as the principal Australian Government entry point, including a consolidated entry point to government online engagement initiatives.
- Review and consolidate the number of the government’s own websites.
- Provide users with basic individual government service accounts.
- Enable users to track incomplete transactions.
- Promote the government’s service delivery options more prominently.
- Establish principles for online engagement, plus practical guidelines and better practice guides.
- Introduce access to government services through selected non-government providers.
- Introduction of limited capacity for users to opt to have their government‑registered details updated automatically when they interact with selected non-government service providers.
Final phase 2008 – 2010:
- Provide users with fully-functional government service accounts which they can personalise.
- Widespread access to government services through participating non‑government providers.
- Users able to opt to have their government-registered details updated automatically when they interact with participating non-government service providers.
3.2 Building connected service delivery
The concept of connected government was outlined in the Management Advisory Committee report Connecting Government: Whole of Government Responses to Australia’s Priority Challenges (2004). Delivering the vision of connected government by 2010 will require substantial reform of government business processes. It will also require government agencies to implement connected government in a practical way through redesign of their business processes, reform of the associated knowledge management practices and greater cross-agency integration of their information technology systems. Collaboration across agencies must become the norm rather than the exception for the vision to become reality. This strategy outlines actions designed to use the opportunities presented by technology to drive reform of business processes, and to plan and implement connected government.
Transformation and modernisation of government to deliver connected government involves three main areas: technology, business and people. While technology enablement is a key driver of change, all three areas must be considered to ensure meaningful change. Actions relating to technology and business changes are dealt with under this section, while section 3.4 outlines how the government will address the area of people, through enhanced public sector capability.
3.2.1 Reform and transformation
The government will reform poorly designed and redundant business processes, and reduce duplication by combining similar processes across agencies. While technology will be an enabler for these reforms, the main effort will be in implementing new ways to undertake government business.
Even if the context or target group varies from agency to agency, many systems and processes are common across government agencies, such as:
- identity management
- registration
- application
- reporting and accountability
- information and content management
- payments.
The Australian Government will work towards common, standardised, modular business processes across its agencies. When new policy proposals that relate to service delivery are submitted by ministers for government consideration, they will also be assessed against their contribution to reforming and improving government business processes, and whether they support the goal of a common business process structure across government. The expectation is that most new policy proposals related to service delivery will demonstrate consistency with the Access and Distribution Strategy for Australian Government Services (2006) outlined in Appendix A, and therefore deliver improvements through changes to business processes, particularly through technology enablement.
In other words, connected government means that agencies can no longer operate as isolated silos. Reforms will break down segregated approaches to dealing with citizens, businesses and organisations. Agencies will be required to work together with the intention of providing the best possible service. With collaboration will come responsibilities for agencies, such as vigilance in terms of data quality and the ongoing observance of agreed standards.
3.2.2 Technology enablement
The government will design an overall blueprint or roadmap for how government agencies will use information technology to interact with each other and with citizens, businesses and organisations under connected government. A detailed technical description of the actions related to this strategic priority is at Appendix A.
In brief, the blueprint will comprise:
- technologies, services and business processes that need to be built so that agencies’ systems can communicate and interoperate
- standards that agencies need to meet to support the use of common technologies, services and business processes across governments.
The blueprint (technically termed ‘system architecture’) will build on the considerable work done to date to reach agreement on cross-agency interoperability standards. It will also incorporate a stocktake to assess the capability of the public sector to deliver the vision for 2010.
Implementation of the blueprint will be project-based, through a set of ‘pathway projects’ that will break ground in key areas and can then be scaled up for wider implementation across government. Pathway projects will relate to key components of the vision such as:
- user accounts which can be customised
- a simplified sign-on facility, which will be a single sign-on, except where circumstances require otherwise
- connected services, such as when notifying a change of address
- facilities to allow people to re-use information already submitted to government, such as repeated grant applications
- specific technologies, such as mobile connectivity and smartcards.
The projects will start with a limited range of services and government agencies, but will allow for more agencies to participate over time, with a growing range of services. They will be selected to drive strategic investments which fill gaps identified by the stocktake, and to drive reform of government business processes.
The blueprint will plan pathway projects in three distinct areas:
- service delivery to citizens
- service delivery to businesses
- government interaction with community and other organisations and sectors.
This will enable faster progress in implementing the blueprint, while still ensuring overall consistency of systems and services across these three areas, and sharing and reuse of systems. In addition, it will allow for the government to address the legitimate privacy and security concerns of each group, which is essential to achieving connected government. While privacy and security is important for all three groups, the precise concerns, and how to best deal with them, will vary.
Actions:
Initial phase 2006 – 2008:
- Initiate a filter for budget processes to ensure that new policy supports the reform of business processes.
- Lay out a blueprint for connected government, which enables and drives the reform of business process reforms.
- Finalise interoperability tools and frameworks.
- Conduct a stocktake of existing government capacity against the blueprint.
- Identify and implement pathway projects.
- Commence technology-enabled transformation of government business processes.
- Start to increase the number of non-government service providers within the connected government framework.
Final phase 2008 – 2010:
- Government business processes extensively technology-enabled.
- Extend the number of participating non-government service providers within the connected government framework.
- Pathway projects fully incorporated into whole of government infrastructure to support connected government.
3.3 Achieving value for money
This strategic priority outlines how government will improve its ICT investments to gain better value for money. A stronger focus on efficiency will ensure more targeted ICT investment that contributes to and drives reform of government business processes, particularly through re-use and sharing of existing investments across agencies.
3.3.1 A robust investment framework
The government will develop a robust ICT investment framework, improving the quality of:
- ICT strategic planning
- project development and management
- procurement
- evaluation.
The ICT investment framework will be used by AGIMO and other agencies to ensure that ICT investment across government is well planned and managed, and will deliver the responsiveness and value for money required by government. The framework will identify duplicate proposals, and opportunities for collaboration between agencies, contributing to the reform of government business processes.
The framework will guide agencies on business case development, applying the Australian Government Demand and Value Assessment Methodology (DAM/VAM) to a broader range of ICT projects.
The framework will encourage good practice and consistency in ICT strategic planning, by providing access to good practice tools and methodologies. Business cases will be assessed against a good practice review guide to ensure projects are appropriately planned and avoid common causes of project failures.
A mechanism to gather and analyse strategic and procurement plans of agencies that are major investors in ICT will also be included in the framework. This will forecast significant future pressure on the Federal Budget and on the ICT skills market, and help to prioritise whole of government strategic directions and capability development.
The framework will include tools to improve planning and managing that will help achieve measurable benefits and outcomes, including a performance indicator library and resources for designing evaluation strategies. Central reviews of business cases by AGIMO will focus on planning to measure and manage performance and on delivering outcomes.
3.3.2 Project management capability
The Australian Government will introduce a new project management process known as Gateway™ to improve the delivery of major projects.
Gateway™ is a project assurance methodology originally implemented by the United Kingdom’s Office of Government Commerce in 2000, and has been used in Victoria since 2003. Gateway™ involves short, sharp reviews at critical points throughout a project’s life, conducted by reviewers not associated with the project. In this way, it provides an arm’s length assessment of the project against its specified objectives and identifies any areas that may require corrective action.
Information technology projects valued over $10 million and procurement or infrastructure projects valued over $20 million will be assessed for risk. Where the risk warrants it, the Gateway™ methodology will be applied to those projects. To support agencies and to facilitate the reviews, a small Gateway™ unit has been established in the Department of Finance and Administration. The unit will develop detailed advice for agencies on the application of Gateway™. Reviews will commence in 2006–07 with all projects assessed as medium or high risk, and over the financial thresholds, subject to Gateway™ from 2008–09.
The government will also encourage the establishment of Project Management Offices in government agencies, to improve project management skills and capability in the Australian Public Service.
3.3.3 Inter and intra-agency re-use and sharing of systems
The adoption of common, standardised, modular business processes by government agencies is intended to eliminate or change duplicated, redundant and inefficient processes. This will require the re-use and sharing of existing systems.
A repository will be established so that agencies can discover, publish and re-use information, business processes and systems in a trusted environment. One possible repository, GovDex, is being trialled by selected government agencies.
Actions:
Initial phase 2006 – 2008:
- Develop and implement a robust ICT investment framework, including online guidance and tools for ICT strategic planning, business case development, and project management, benefits realisation and evaluation.
- Establish a government-wide approach to project management, involving independent peer reviews for major government projects, including ICT projects.
- Encourage the establishment of Project Management Offices in agencies.
- Implement a repository of business and technical systems implementation, including a catalogue of design solutions, to encourage re-use of existing systems.
Final phase 2008 – 2010:
- Adopt common business processes across government agencies.
3.4 Enhancing public sector capability
Successful implementation of this strategy will depend on the Australian Public Service having the necessary capability. This strategy outlines how government will enhance the capability of the public sector.
3.4.1 Service capability and maturity
The government will measure the extent to which it has the necessary capabilities to deliver the vision, and will assess the maturity of these capabilities, using the Delivering Australian Government Services—Service Capability Model, which lists the elements of the government’s service delivery capability. This stocktake will identify strengths and address any revealed gaps and weaknesses in capability and maturity.The stocktake will cover the following service delivery requirements:
- people
- business processes
- business continuity
- physical facilities (non-ICT)
- information and communication technologies
- knowledge and information management
- accountability and governance.
This model provides an agreed language to describe, build and improve all those things that enable an agency to deliver efficient and effective services. It will be applied across government to ensure online service delivery is enabled by the maturity of departments’ and agencies’ capabilities.
3.4.2 Skills development
There is increasing recognition in government and industry of the need to ensure Australia has the ICT skills that it requires. The government will increase the ICT skill level of its employees as part of the process of building agencies’ service delivery capability and maturity.
Particular emphasis will be placed on raising the level of information technology literacy amongst executives and senior executives. In addition to ICT-specific skills, including technical interoperability and information architecture expertise, skills will be required in a wide range of areas, such as business processes, project management, and security.
Some skills strategies are included here. For example, the ICT investment framework will broaden and deepen the skills base, as will Gateway™. In addition, a systematic process to address recruitment and retention is already being implemented to strengthen skills. AGIMO has partnered with the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) and other agencies through the Chief Information Officer Committee, to coordinate the newly established working group of the Committee, the ICT Professional and Skills Development Group.
In support of skills development, the government will be a leader in using ICT to design and build more efficient and effective work processes, for example enabling greater and better use of telework (that is, working in locations independent of the central employer or contractor, using ICT to facilitate communications).
3.4.3 ICT procurement
The government will develop procurement plans at the agency and whole of government levels, to promote more strategic and targeted decisions about ICT procurement. An increased preparedness by agencies to collaborate on ICT procurement and systems will help obtain the best prices and deliver improved efficiency and effectiveness.
Industry will also have an important role in improving public sector ICT procurement. In developing its procurement plans, the government will consult fully with industry to draw on private sector expertise.
3.4.4 APS employee identity management
The government will develop a secure identity management framework for government employees and for its contractors, enabling government to streamline access and better account for its own staff. Government security will be enhanced while making it easier for people to move across organisational boundaries and into new organisational arrangements.
3.4.5 Enable the legislative framework where necessary
The government will identify, review and remove any legislative barriers to connected government. The reasons for such barriers will vary and new ways of overcoming them will be found, for example offering connected services while respecting privacy by enabling people using technology to manage their own privacy.
Actions:
Initial phase 2006 – 2008:
- Conduct a stocktake of the extent to which the government has the necessary capabilities to deliver the vision, and assess the maturities of these capabilities.
- Strengthen skills through a systematic process to address recruitment and retention.
- Develop procurement plans which promote good ICT procurement decisions by agencies.
- Implement a secure identity management framework for all government employees.
- Review and address legislative barriers to connected government.
Final phase 2008 – 2010:
- All gaps in capacity will have been addressed.
- Public sector capability is reinforced by achievements under the strategy.
Contact for information on this page: estrategy@finance.gov.au