DGIWG was established in 1983 as a multi-national body comprising individuals committed by participating nations to collectively advance the state of geospatial interoperability between their Defence organisations. It operates in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Participants (member nations).

DGIWG addresses interoperability challenges between nations by creating the standards, implementation guidance and procedures required to enable the provision, exchange and use of standardised geospatial information. Many of the standards developed by DGIWG are built upon generic and abstract standards for geographic information defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO TC/211). DGIWG also makes use of the web services standards that are developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).

DGIWG defines a geospatial reference architecture; a set of information components for use in the development of product specifications and application schemas for military geospatial data; and establishes service specifications, encoding formats and testing methodologies to meet military requirements for geospatial interoperability.