Digital

Technology Assurance Framework – what we learned from Major Digital Project Reviews in 2024-25

September 11, 2025 by Stewart Hamilton No Comments | Category Digital Assurance Office, Digital Scotland

Guest blog by Laura Johnstone, Continuous Improvement team, Digital Assurance Office.

In 2024-25, 37 major digital project reviews were completed under the Technology Assurance Framework (TAF). These reviews generated 288 recommendations for improvement. The Digital Assurance Office (DAO), who administer the TAF, have analysed these recommendations to identify common challenges and are sharing these to support others deliver more successful projects.

This blog highlights the five dominant themes from major digital project reviews carried out in 2024-25. You can catch up on previous assurance insights on our blog.

The five top themes we explore here represent 40% of the recommendations made in 2024-25, with four of them standing out as dominant themes across all reviews that have been undertaken.

Invitation to tender (ITT) and evaluation criteria

Across all reviews this recommendation is a dominant theme and frequently appears among the top themes for individual years. You can read insights on effective procurement and contract management on our blog.

In 2024-25, recommendations for improvement focused on:

• specialist or peer review of ITT documentation
• develop criteria for determining readiness to issue the ITT, which should be agreed by project governance
• formal governance and Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) oversight to ensure the ITT reflects the scope and scale of services required and specific project requirements
• ensure clarity on pricing requirements
• clarify contract details to reduce procurement risk

Organisation and/or planning

Across all reviews this recommendation is a dominant theme and appears among the top themes for individual years a number of times. You can read insights on planning on our blog.

In 2024-25, recommendations for improvement focused on:

• have in place a high level plan that covers all key activities and accurately reflects planning assumptions. This plan is vital to support understanding across functions, drive project success, support decision making and communications
• develop detailed short and mid term plans with key tasks, dependencies, interdependencies and resource requirements identified
• regularly review plans and assumptions as circumstances change and the project moves through the project lifecycle (including financial planning and detailed planning e.g. penetration tests)
• financial details (baseline cost, profiled spend and total costs of ownership) should be included in plans
• formally agree, control and progress planning actions
• take a long term, holistic view of the project/programme

Resource requirements and/or capability

Across all reviews this recommendation is a dominant theme and frequently appears among the top themes for individual years. You can read insights on resourcing on our blog.

In 2024-25, recommendations for improvement focused on:

• proactively resource plan – prepare a resourcing plan which considers the resource needed through the project lifecycle, aligned to the project plan
• actively plan for transition arrangements to business as usual in order to secure effective handover and knowledge transfer
• secure specialist expertise/support (e.g. programme and project management, commercial, testing)
• escalate unresolved resourcing issues to senior decision makers

Governance and project control

Across all reviews this recommendation is a dominant theme and frequently appears among the top themes for individual years. You can read insights on governance and project control from previous years on our blog.

In 2024/25, recommendations for improvement focused on:

• establish formal governance processes with clear reporting and change control, these processes should be communicated, understood and followed
• ensure effective strategic oversight to provide alignment between the project and wider work
• escalate risk to secure appropriate resources
• set up appropriate governance structures to provide strategic oversight with formalised arrangements (e.g. board membership, meeting arrangements)
• keep governance arrangements under review as the project moves through the project lifecycle, with the appropriate changes made where necessary

Communications/engagement

This is the first year that communications/engagement has been a dominant recommendation theme. Recommendations for improvement focused on:

• develop clear communication plans for specific areas of work e.g. risk management, business continuity, decision making
• appropriately engage a broad range of project stakeholders to support successful delivery
• plan communications for contingencies e.g. Go-Live incidents
• monitor, review and update the communications plan throughout the project lifecycle
• share delivery plans, priorities and milestones with stakeholders

To help others improve the delivery of digital projects, the Digital Assurance Office are sharing insights from assurance and working with organisations who have had assurance to share their experiences from delivery. If you want to get involved – or have thoughts on what insights would be helpful to share – contact us at DigitalAssurance@gov.scot. Over the last year, we have shared insights and case studies via the Digital blog or on Pathways.

For further information and signposting to advice and support on programme and project management contact the Programme and Project Management Centre for Expertise.

The Scottish Government programme and project management principles are available and apply to any project of any size.

The Scottish Digital Academy is the public sector centre of expertise for digital capability and can provide information, advice and guidance on developing digital, data and technology skills to support transformation.

For expert guidance on delivering a digital project visit the Digital Scotland Service Manual.

Tags: Continuous Improvement, Digital Assurance Office, Major digital project reviews, Programme and project principles, Technology Assurance Framework

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