Digital

Technology Assurance Framework – what we learned from Major Digital Project Reviews in 2025-26

June 24, 2026 by Stewart Hamilton No Comments | Category Digital Assurance Office, Technology Assurance Framework

Guest blog by Anneke Davie, Audit and Assurance Insights team, Digital Assurance Office.

In 2025-26, 45 major digital project reviews were completed under the Technology Assurance Framework (TAF). These reviews generated 345 recommendations for improvement. These recommendations have been analysed to identify common challenges and are shared to support others to deliver more successful projects.

This blog highlights the six dominant themes from major digital project reviews carried out in 2025-26. You can catch up on previous assurance insights on our blog.

The six top themes we explore here account for 45% of the recommendations in 2025-26, with four of them standing out as dominant themes across all reviews undertaken.

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 a deep dive into resourcing recommendations on our blog.

In 2025-26, recommendations for improvement included:

• strengthen strategic and longer-term resource planning aligned to delivery phases
• proactive resource planning to reduce risks to delivery including considering critical points of failure, approaches to resolve resource bottlenecks, continuity of personnel and succession planning
• effective transition to business as usual, including resourcing through transition and post transition continuity and support
• define key roles and secure specialist expertise or support across a range of areas including contract management, procurement, user research, testing and development
• ensuring workforce capacity meets planned delivery demands during the project and at transition to business as usual

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 a deep dive into effective procurement and contract management recommendations on our blog.

In 2025-26, recommendations for improvement included:

• developing ITTs aligned to the specific needs of the project, with consistency across documentation (e.g. procurement strategy, Statement of Requirements) including transition activities
• defining and documenting the approval process for authorising the issuing of the ITT, supported by readiness plans and a clear checklist of artefacts and approvals to be completed before release
• quality assurance of tender documentation including through specialist or peer reviews of all or parts of ITT documentation to test completeness, consistency, compliance with standards and overall clarity
• providing transparency and clarity to suppliers including clear evaluation criteria, assessment approaches (e.g. how assumptions will be assessed) and supporting material e.g. dummy pricing evaluation sheet to enable high quality bids

Organisation and/or planning

Across all reviews this recommendation is a dominant theme and frequently appears among the top themes in individual years. You can read a deep dive into planning recommendations on our blog.

In 2025-26, recommendations for improvement included:

• developing an end to end plan for the project at the outset to define overall sequencing, dependencies and key milestones. The level of detail will firm up over time with short term phases planned in detail and later stages progressively developed as the project evolves. The project plan should include a clearly defined critical path, supplier activity and resource requirements.
• regularly reviewing and updating plans and assumptions across the project

Contract management and supplier relations

This is the first time this has emerged as a dominant theme since 2021-22. You can read a deep dive into effective procurement and contract management recommendations on our blog

Recommendations for improvement included:

• having a clear definition of requirements for the contract including supplier and client responsibilities, success criteria and performance metrics
• building a collaborative partnership with suppliers to support shared understanding, effective transition and knowledge transfer
• defining supplier performance criteria with output measures and reporting arrangements
• having sufficient capability, governance and resources in place to effectively manage the contract and meet requirements

Governance and project control

Across all reviews this recommendation is a dominant theme and frequently ranks among the top themes in individual years. You can read a deep dive into governance and project control recommendations on our blog.

In 2025-26, recommendations for improvement included:

• establishing and operating governance processes that support delivery and go-live readiness, including reporting, change control, project tracking, readiness criteria and escalation routes
• putting in place governance structures aligned to delivery needs, with clear roles, responsibilities, decision-making arrangements and formalised terms of reference that enable timely decisions and effective control throughout key delivery stages, including go-live
• reviewing and adapting governance arrangements as the project moves through its lifecycle, with appropriate changes made where necessary so they remain proportionate to the stage of delivery

Communications and engagement

This is the second consecutive year that communications and engagement has been a dominant recommendation theme. You can read a deep dive into communications and engagement recommendations on our blog.

In 2025-26, recommendations for improvement included:

• engaging a broad range of project stakeholders to share delivery plans and priorities, provide progress updates and build relationships
• developing and maintaining communication and engagement plans that cover the full lifecycle and for specific delivery stages such as transition and go-live
• providing timely and targeted communications for specific areas of work
• monitoring, reviewing and updating communications plans throughout the project lifecycle

Examples of good practice

Review teams identified 67 examples of good practice across 30 projects, with most examples of good practice found around shared understanding between project teams, the wider business and delivery partners, governance and control and resource requirements and/or capability. Over the last year, we have shared insights and case studies, highlighting examples of good practice via the Digital blog or on Pathways.

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.

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: digital, Major digital project reviews, Recommendations, scottish government, Technology Assurance Framework

Comments