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Business Process and Workflow policy

This policy describes the requirements for entities planning digital investments and adopting business process and workflow practices and solutions. 

Applicability

Digital investment proposals are assessed against this policy by the DTA through the Digital and ICT Investment Oversight Framework (IOF).

Commonwealth entities are encouraged to apply this policy to all digital investments.

Policy requirements

  • Develop a comprehensive understanding of the business and workflow processes targeted for automation

    Detailed analysis of agencies’ business processes will help determine the requirements and suitability for automation before starting any technology investigation.

  • Check for existing re-useable business process and workflow designs before engaging in new development processes

    Utilising existing business process and workflow solutions in public sector services will assist agencies in reducing risk, enhancing consistency, expediting delivery, and lowering costs by adhering to established standards and designs before considering new developments.

  • Build for reuse

    When reuse is not feasible, agencies must provide evidence of examined government systems, including details on usage, users, scale, and security classification. Additionally, it should be considered how new investments can be adapted for future reuse and able to support agencies with similar requirements.

  • Lower development and maintenance complexity of government solutions

    Evaluate the suitability of low-code/no-code documented processes and business rules from different channels and systems before developing a standalone, independent applications.

  • Understand the existing technology environment

    Initiatives using business process and workflow solutions must show how the solution fits within the technological environment, guiding technology decisions and implementation.

Capabilities

This policy includes requirements that relate to the following capability.
CAP57

Business Process and Workflow

Standards

The following standards show what to do to satisfy this policy.
Business Process and Workflow solutions can consolidate one or more business processes and utilise workflow management or allow for the consistent definition and application of rulesets to facilitate user-centric transactions from beginning to end. They support commonly used functionality needed by…

Designs

The following designs can be relevant to meeting the requirements of this policy.
Responsible agency: Australian Electoral Commission The Indigo program is a major modernisation initiative currently being delivered by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). The program aims to replace several legacy systems and an outdated infrastructure in AEC and to improve the efficiency…
The Dataplace website has integrated SurveyJS for easy content development of new web forms, in a solution that protects the privacy of form data from third party providers.
Establishment of the ICT infrastructure necessary for a national worker screening and registration scheme from 1 July 2024.
The Parliamentary Document Management System (PDMS) provides a service delivery capability to connect Australian Government agencies and Parliament under the Whole-of-Government (WofG) Parliamentary Workflow Solution (PWS).
Direct link: https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/317437/Automated-Decision-Making-Better-Practice-Guide-March-2025.pdfResponsible agency: Commonwealth OmbudsmanLast updated: March 2025 Technological advances have made it easier for agencies to make automated decisions. However…
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