DTA to deliver digital transformation roadmap by year-end

The Digital Transformation Agency remains on track to deliver a whole-of-government digital transformation strategy and roadmap by the end of the year, according to the agency’s CEO Randall Brugeaud.

The planned strategy will aim to guide the government’s digital transformation initiatives through to 2025, Brugeaud told a Senate Estimates hearing on Tuesday.

“Our strategy describes our vision for digital transformation in government. It has been developed in close collaboration with our colleagues across government as well as our industry partners,” he said.

“It has also included public consultation which has helped to shape the strategy and roadmap and inform our implementation planning.”

Publishing the strategy is one of the agency’s key priorities for the current financial year. Other priorities include developing procurement reform and other digital capability improvements, developing the Trusted Digital Identity Framework and other whole-of-government digital platforms.

At the hearing, Brugeaud was also forced to defend the agency’s high rate of turnover, with 340 staff having left roles in its three years of existence, representing a nearly 100% turnover rate for the agency’s 342 staff.

While he acknowledged that the DTA has had a “relatively high turnover”, he said many of the leaving staff were contractors who had either been offered a new position at the agency or left following the end of their contracts.

In addition, one of Brugeaud’s key priorities since taking over as CEO in July has been to rectify the rate of turnover, he said.

“One of my priorities was to immediately provide stability and leadership. Stability and leadership has been the priority to this point, and I’ve been successful in maintaining that,” he said.

Since July only one senior executive has left the DTA, and that was a decision made prior to Brugeaud’s commencement, he said.

Meanwhile, the DTA’s Chief Digital Officer, Peter Alexander, provided the Estimates committee with an update into the agency’s evaluation of blockchain technology. The agency was allocated $700,000 to conduct the evaluation as part of the 2018 Budget.

He said the DTA’s evaluation focused on the potential of using blockchain in delivering Centrelink payments, but the agency has run into difficulties related to the anonymous nature of blockchain and the immature state of the technology.

“Our position today, and this is an early write-up, is that blockchain is an interesting technology that would be well worth being observed, but without standardisation and a lot more work, for every use of blockchain that you would consider today there is a better technology,” he told the committee members.

“We’re not saying that blockchain doesn’t have potential but today, without standardisation, there is the challenge of blockchain becoming a little fragmented... It’s an interesting technology but it’s early on in the development. It’s at the top of a hype cycle.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/freshidea

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