Definition
Case management capability refers to government agencies’ ability to manage the workflow of events to their resolution to meet the needs of individuals or business. This may involve engagement, assessment, planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring, and evaluation.
Given the diverse requirements across government entities, case management systems vary greatly in design and functionality. As such, the Australian Government Architecture (AGA) therefore considers this functionality grouped into several archetypes, with acknowledgement that there are no hard divisions between these groups. Specific use cases can be broadly categorised as follows:
- contract management
- investigation management
- service management
- human resources management
- complaints management
- compliance management
- claims management.
Purpose
Effective case management in government ensures that complex processes involving individuals, businesses, or other entities are tracked, coordinated, and resolved efficiently. It enhances government service delivery by streamlining workflows, improving decision making, and ensuring transparency and accountability.
The Case Management capability is realised through:
- implementation of solutions that align with specific case management archetypes based upon the nature and complexity of cases being managed
- consideration of important case management design components including scale, security, privacy, and availability.
Objective
The objectives of this content are to:
- consolidate case management solutions with aligned functions across the digital landscape through archetyping and linking to related designs
- adopt, where suitable, low-code to no-code solutions that allow the development of complex workflows and rulesets through a human centred interface rather than programmatically
- reduce implementation risk through the reuse of proven designs within government
- ensure that new case management solutions draw efficiency from preceding investments, implementations, and learnings
- foster consistency across agencies in technologies, data, and workflow, resulting in simpler and more accessible services
- implement build-once-use-many solutions that allow for consistent application and maintenance of business and work practices across different systems and channels
- ensure traceability and auditability across complex systems and processes without having to embed these functions in all parts of the solution
- establish whole-of-government purchasing arrangements for case management products and services.
Whole-of-government applicability
The Data and Digital Government Strategy (DDGS) sets a vision for 2030 to deliver simple, secure and connected public services for all people and business, through world class data and digital capabilities.
Suitable handing of case management as a capability supports the DDGS missions of:
- Provide simple and seamless services: By 2030, Australian Public Service (APS) plans to integrate technology, data, and analytics to offer simple, inclusive, and accessible services. Governments are shifting from traditional department-based delivery to an integrated model. As digital use rises, both individuals and businesses expect better government services. To address this, the Government is adopting a 'digital by design' approach.
- Trusted and secure: supporting the APS to embody best practice engagement by putting in place the right settings and infrastructure to build and maintain public trust and embedding safety by design.
Policy Elements
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Understand alignment to case management archetypes
An entity should understand the archetype of their system and use this as a focal point when evaluating similar past investments and in assessing the suitability of a solution.
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Develop a comprehensive understanding of requirements
An entity should analyse its specific needs and define requirements for a case management solution before exploring technology options.
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Check for existing re-useable case management designs before engaging in new development processes
Before developing new solutions, an entity should consider ways to minimise risk, improve consistency, accelerate delivery and reduce overall costs by using existing standards and designs.
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Build for reuse
If reuse isn’t possible, entities should provide evidence of which government systems have been investigated (focusing on system type, users, scale and security classification). Entities should be able to demonstrate that the new investment can be expanded and put into operation for future reuse and to explain how it could benefit other entities in need of similar capability.
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Lower development and maintenance complexity of government solutions
Low-code/no-code documented process and business rules logic that may be invoked across many channels and systems must be considered for suitability prior to programmatically developing a unified software unit that is self-contained and independent from other applications (monolithic).
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Understand the existing technology environment
Initiatives utilising case management solutions must demonstrate engagement and applicability of the solution in the context of the technological environment within which they will operate, informing the technology decision and implementation approach.