Monitoring and managing ICT projects

Tabled Report 1: 2018–19

Tabled date

2018-07-10

Report year

2018-19

Information technology Whole of government

Entities audited

Not identified in the published HTML audit scope.

Recommendations

1. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Government Chief Information Office

   enhances the ICT dashboard and updates publishing guidelines by:

   • working with departments to publish one set of agreed criteria and supporting guidelines to be used by all departments
   • considering an increase in the estimated cost criteria of projects to be reported
   • including projects funded to initiate and or to develop a business case, with timelines and budgets for the initiate stage
   • including the ability to explain changes in projects in the delivery stage and provide information on outcomes and outputs achieved to date
   • requiring departments to include more information about key decisions and corrective actions for projects that change significantly (re-set or re-baseline)
   • automating controls to validate data when it is entered
   • expanding features on the dashboard to include links between projects, programs, and the DIGITAL1ST strategy (Chapter 2)

2. QAO's text Addressed to: the Queensland Government Chief Information Office

   strengthens whole-of-government assurance frameworks that currently complement departmental processes for monitoring ICT projects by:

   • defining the meanings of ICT, digital, or digitally-enabled projects, and projects with high business impact
   • reporting projects that are defined as high business impact and have not undergone the investment review process
   • analysing and reporting ICT project performance information to assess the effectiveness of the investment review and project assurance processes
   • encouraging departments to schedule sufficient project health checks in addition to gate reviews in the assurance plans for all high business impact projects, and following up on these if they don't occur on time
   • assisting departments in identifying root causes for project failures and successes, collating these, publishing information for learning, and encouraging departments to look for early warning signs so they can mitigate these risks (Chapter 3).

3. QAO's text Addressed to: all departments

   implement efficient and automated processes for collecting, collating, approving, and publishing dashboard data (Chapter 2)

4. QAO's text Addressed to: all departments

   publish data to the dashboard that is consistent with the QGCIO publishing criteria and guidelines and provide sufficient detail in the explanatory notes when changes are made to projects' scope, time, or budget (Chapter 2)

5. QAO's text Addressed to: all departments

   consider the need for projects with high business impact to undergo periodic health checks in addition to gate reviews and that the focus of these health checks includes the financial management (Chapters 3 and 4)

6. QAO's text Addressed to: all departments

   use learnings (including the QGCIO's summary of systemic issues) from project health checks and gate reviews in monitoring and managing programs and projects. (Chapters 3 and 4)

7. QAO's text Addressed to: for the HRIS program, the Department of Housing and Public Works

   undertakes a full analysis of the relevant end-to-end payroll and human capital management processes for the remaining entities:

   • to assess proposed solutions
   • to calculate cost estimates for the services

8. QAO's text Addressed to: for the HRIS program, the Department of Housing and Public Works

   ensures the program continually assesses that it provides enough information to enable those charged with governance to make timely decisions. (Chapter 4)

    

    

Authoritative report — Queensland Audit Office

Report PDF on QAO