About SFIA
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The purpose of SFIA
The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems (IS) making use of Information Communications Technologies (ICT). It is a simple and logical two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work on one axis and levels of responsibility on the other.
The overall purpose of SFIA is to assist organizations employing IT professionals to
- reduce IT project risk
- retain staff
- make recruitment effective
- enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the IT function
by developing the right skills, by developing them to best effect and by providing appropriate development and career paths for IT professionals.
SFIA uses a common language and a sensible, logical structure that can be used to facilitate the processes of skills development in all business using or providing Information Technology. It is easily understood by:
- IT practitioners
- managers
- HR Professionals
- employers
- education and training providers; and
- government personnel.
Why we need SFIA
Information systems are essential to the success of most modern organizations. Consequently, they recognize that IT skills are key assets that the organisation must manage correctly in order to maintain effectiveness and competitiveness.
Stakeholders expect to see organizations embracing initiatives and standards that promote effective skills management. The requirement to report annually on human capital can only add emphasis to this area.
Without a standard framework, even the best-organised companies still have no external validation of their skills methods. Other organisations suffer more seriously from the lack of a common language of skills management:
- the skills available on the ground don’t match the aspirations of the strategic resource plan
- inappropriate candidates arrive for job interviews
- interviewing is based on inappropriate criteria
- projects are put at risk when the wrong skills are assigned
- people don’t seem to understand what’s expected of them
- people complain that they don’t know how to get promotion
- people cannot see any career path
- the best people leave; those that stay are inflexible
- productivity is not high enough, or it is not known whether it is improving or declining
- the corporate IT investment management (life cycle management) process is unreliable
- decisions on promotions and pay are not seen to be fair.
Where SFIA comes from
A group bringing together industry trade associations, government, professional bodies, practitioners and the academic world developed SFIA. The framework has been validated and extended by public and private sector organizations which test and refine its descriptions to make sure they work in practice. It has been a collaborative effort, organised by e-skills UK, and representing all of the key bodies involved in the development of skills in the UK.
How SFIA Works
The framework provides a clear model for describing IT practitioners’ skills. It is constructed as a two-dimensional matrix.
Categories, subcategories and skills
One axis presents the whole set of SFIA skills. These are defined in a way that makes them easily recognizable in the workplace: the practical nature of the descriptions means that they can effectively be used to construct an organisation’s internal competency framework.
The skills are grouped for convenience into categories which are further broken down into subcategories.
The categories and subcategories are purely for the convenience of the SFIA user: they form a navigation aid. For example, SFIA does not claim to be offering a standard definition of the term ‘Business Change Management’, nor is it suggesting that this should be the title of a business role or job. It is simply a convenient heading under which to group certain related skills (business analysis, programme management, project management, change implementation planning and management, organizational design and implementation, benefits management)
Levels of responsibility
The other axis defines the different levels of responsibility and accountability exercised by IT practitioners. Each of the seven levels – from new entrant to strategist level – is defined in terms of autonomy, influence, complexity and business skill.
The matrix shows the complete set of skills used by IT practitioners. For each skill at each level, SFIA provides a clear description of the level of competence required.
The matrix is not fully populated; many skills are not practiced at every level of responsibility.
SFIA can be readily understood by
- IT professionals and their managers
- HR managers
- non-technical managers
- companies’ internal staff training and people working on their development schemes
- staff working in professional bodies
- lecturers and curriculum planners in education and training organizations
- people working in IT service organizations
How SFIA is used
Primarily, SFIA is a model that allows the various skills management processes to refer to the same set of competency definitions.
SFIA allows the organisation to describe what individuals are capable of and/or what their jobs require. It does not say what their jobs are called; now does it prescribe what the roles or jobs should consist of: that is a matter for the organisation.
Business Roles
An organisation using SFIA normally identifies the various professional roles that need to be present in order for the business to work successfully. This applies whether the organisation is an IT product or service provider, or whether it is primarily a user of IT products and services. The next step is to define those roles in a set of role profiles containing descriptions of the skills required (as provided by SFIA), together with other information according to the organisation’s HR standards. Each role profile would normally consist of more than one level.
The role profiles are then used (in conjunction with specific technological or application experience) as the basis for assigning people to projects. They are also used for assessment (how well people match the profile) and development (what actions are necessary for professionals to meet the requirements of the profile, or to achieve the next level).
Flexibility
Typically, a role profile would specify SFIA skills that are not all at the same level. For example, an organisation might recognise the role of Principle Software Engineer, having the skill of Programming/software development level 5, but having the skills of Software development process improvement level 6.
SFIA does not dictate how the responsibilities should be distributed in an organisation.
Working with existing corporate skill models
SFIA has been ‘mapped’ successfully to the internal skill models used by the largest specialist IS service organizations in the world, and has been used successfully by small companies. This has confirmed SFIA as a comprehensive model, describing IT skills at all levels in a language which everyone can understand.
SFIA clarifies competencies and the way competencies contribute to the business.
