Digital Transformation Measurement Extension
Preliminary Comparison Between Qiyas 2026 and Qiyas 2025
This section is designed to extend the existing "Digital Transformation Measurement" page on the Pioneers DX website and present the preliminary comparison between Qiyas 2026 and Qiyas 2025 based on the updated presentation, highlighting what is new, what changed, what was reordered, and what was removed in the 2026 cycle.
Executive Summary
Comparison Overview
The 2026 edition introduces wider structural changes across the measurement model, including new standards, major updates to existing standards, reordered items, removed standards, and one innovation standard that was split into two.
- 10 perspectives
- 23 axes
- 95 standards
- 385 requirements
- 10 perspectives
- 24 axes
- 89 standards
- 390 requirements
New Standards
Focused on the national design system, proactive services, emerging technologies, and website/content quality.
Changed Standards
Includes added requirements, merged requirements, updated evidence, and stronger mandatory application.
Reordered Standards
Moved to new numbers in the 2026 structure without all of them being in the same major-change category.
Removed Standards
Mainly concentrated in data governance, open data, and non-automated service development.
Split Standard
Digital innovation management was divided into two more specialized standards.
Implementation Requirements
Total implementation requirements in Qiyas 2026 compared with 385 requirements in Qiyas 2025.
What’s New
New Standards in 2026
According to the updated deck, the 2026 edition includes seven new standards focused on the national design system, proactivity, emerging technologies, and website/content quality.
National Unified Design System
Applies the platform design code across the entity’s websites, apps, and platforms, together with quality certification requirements.
Proactive Services for Internal Beneficiaries
Covers employee onboarding, career path services, and service completion, with pre-filled internal services and performance reporting.
Proactive Services for External Beneficiaries
Raises the threshold for proactive service delivery and pre-filled digital services for external beneficiaries.
Use of Emerging Technologies
Uses analytics and intelligent tools to understand beneficiary requests and generate actionable improvement recommendations.
Website Reliability and Security
Focuses on reducing errors and warnings, improving routing, and enforcing SSL and HTTPS across all site pages.
Website Efficiency and Search Visibility
Improves performance, crawlability, keywords, sitemaps, and overall search-engine visibility.
Editorial Quality of Content
Emphasizes content organization, language quality, image quality, and consistent headers, footers, and key links.
Key Changes
Most Important Structural Changes
This section now reflects the updated deck more closely, summarizing the most important changes by theme while keeping the exact same layout and presentation style.
Governance and Operations
- 5.1.3: Added a transferred requirement from 5.2.2 for project management methodology, policies, and processes.
- 5.2.1: Added documentation of roles and responsibilities for all IT-related job levels.
- 5.3.4: Added an exemption for holders of the NORA national enterprise architecture certification at level three.
- 5.5.2: Updated evidence for digital leadership qualification plans by requiring recent invitation and certificate samples.
- 5.5.3: Added requirements for periodic reports and analysis to support leadership decisions.
Risk and Business Continuity
- 5.9.1: Removed the periodic steering-committee meetings requirement and changed several items to mandatory for the authority.
- 5.9.2: Added steering-committee approval of major risks and raised the status of risk-analysis and KRI-related requirements.
- 5.9.3: Updated risk-reporting so reports are raised to the risk management steering committee.
- 5.10.4 - 5.10.5: Updated business continuity requirements to cover RTO/RPO, cost-benefit analysis, and backup communication plans.
Cloud and Shared Systems
- 5.13.1: Greatly expanded the cloud unit standard across governance, policies, indicators, and training plans.
- 5.13.2: Updated cloud adoption planning for 2026-2027 with 60% and 70% targets plus operational and financial feasibility studies.
- 5.13.3: Added periodic monitoring of usage, spending, security, compliance, and cloud contracts or purchase orders.
- 5.14.1 - 5.14.2: Added a secure instant-messaging activation plan and expanded unified access requirements to include digital identity utilization tracking.
- 5.15.2 - 5.15.3: Reworked platform and domain governance standards with broader unification and governance requirements.
Services, Platforms, and Content
- 5.16.4: Updated priority-service development to focus on the entity’s most requested digital government services, especially external ones.
- 5.17.1: Added registration of non-automated services on Raqmi and the third package plan for service availability through Tawakkalna.
- 5.17.2: Requires a comprehensive bilingual service guide and continuous service registration and updating on the Raqmi platform.
- 5.17.5: Updated the RWD evidence requirement so compliance is tracked directly by the authority without file submission.
- 5.22.1: Converted the former proactive publishing standard into “Added Value of Digital Content” with broader interactive-content and multilingual requirements.
Beneficiary Experience and Innovation
- 5.18.1: Removed some Istithlaa-related requirements and added quarterly co-creation and innovation initiatives through Tafaul.
- 5.18.2 - 5.18.3: Added handling of digital reports and expanded beneficiary engagement to cover all digital service design stages.
- 5.19.2: Updated the beneficiary relationship program to explicitly use digital tools for measuring progress and objectives.
- 5.20.5: Requires defining and launching at least three life journeys in 2026, with AI included in at least one.
- 5.23.2 - 5.24.1: Added an annual innovation activities plan, expanded innovation governance, and required an inventory of applicable innovation solutions.
Renumbering Map
Reordered Standards
This mapping helps work teams track standards as they move between editions without confusing renumbering with deeper subject-matter changes.
Removed & Split
Removed and Split Standards
This list has been updated according to the new deck and includes the standards that were removed entirely from the 2026 structure, in addition to the innovation standard that was split into two.
Removed Standards
- 5.15.1 Development of non-automated government services
- 5.19.1 Establishing a data governance and management unit
- 5.19.2 Developing data governance and management policies
- 5.19.3 Activating data governance and management
- 5.20.1 Strategy for data utilization
- 5.20.2 Activating data sharing
- 5.20.3 Advanced data analytics
- 5.21.1 Planning open data availability
- 5.21.2 Reviewing open data sets
- 5.21.3 Benefiting from publishing open data
Split Standard
5.22.4 Digital Innovation Management
Governance is now separated from solution development, making follow-up clearer at the execution level.
