SFIA 8 LAUNCH – September 28 2021

BACKGROUND
SFIA Evolution
SFIA defines the skills and competencies required by
professionals who

design, develop, implement, manage and protect

the data and technology

that power the digital world.

SFIA Evolution
Within the scope of SFIA are many of the world's
most in-demand occupations, including
SFIA has become the professionals working in fields such as…
globally accepted
common language
Information and
Digital
communications Business change
transformation
technology

for the Data science and Software Information and

analytics engineering cyber security
skills and
competencies Learning and
Applied
computing and User centred
education computational design
science

for the digital world. Digital product

Human resource
development,
and workforce
sales and
management
marketing
What’s changed

Readability Content Navigation Generic New look

changes attributes documentation

Guidance notes New skills Categories and sub- Updated attributes New summary chart
New skill levels categories Behavioral factors 2 reference manuals
Concise skill
definitions Renamed skills SFIA views Same 7 levels of (pdf)
Shorter sentences Retired skills Related skills responsibility Excel download
 Core framework Navigation Tools and resources

✓ Mappings to
Summary chart, pdfs and Excel industry
7 levels of
121 frameworks
professional
responsibility Categories and sub-
skills ✓ Standard skills
categories
profiles
SFIA 8
SFIA views ✓ Assessment
guidelines
5 generic 495 skill level
attributes descriptions Related skills for website ✓ Links to c.50 bodies
browsing of knowledge

✓ User stories
SFIA 8 DOCUMENTS
SFIA 8 documents
New look Summary chart

Professional skills Levels of responsibility and generic

attributes

… built with hyperlinks to SFIA 8 website content

 2 pdf documents
SFIA Framework reference - The SFIA standard About SFIA - Guidance for the use of the SFIA standard
The full description of the SFIA levels of responsibility, the An overview of the SFIA Skills and Competency Framework
generic attributes that define the SFIA levels, the behavioural and essential understanding for how it can be used in the
factors, knowledge statements and all the SFIA professional management and development of people.
skills.
Optimised for on-screen viewing not for
printing

Each SFIA skill displayed on its own page

3 new appendices

Appendices
SFIA - Behavioural factors
• This describes the behavioural factors that are distributed
throughout the generic attributes.

SFIA - Knowledge, skill and competency

• This describes how SFIA aligns with ISO Standards
related to the assessment of knowledge, skills and
competency and how these maybe used to help manage
the development of a workforce.

SFIA - More than just a skills and competencies

framework
• This describes some of the range of activities of the SAFIA
Foundation.
SFIA 8 Excel spreadsheet

• To help you incorporate SFIA into

your own internal SFIA documents
and tools

• It provides the content of the SFIA

levels of responsibility, the generic
attributes (behavioural factors and
knowledge statements) and the
professional skills

Unlike other frameworks which use encrypted PDF documents that do not allow printing or "copy and paste" of content.
SFIA 8 UPDATE PROCESS

➢ Details of the consultation

and update process
➢ SFIA’s provenance and
longevity over 8 versions
➢ Ensuring confidence and
trust in the global skills
and competency
framework for a digital
world ... built by industry
for industry
 SFIA Past and Present ...
Future Ideas ...
Available
Standard Role Profiles
Flexible
SFIA: Relevant
... & actually useful Collaborations
Correct
Guidance
SFIA Views
SFIA Context Global Footprint Bodies of Knowledge
Infrastructure
Industry Themes
Industry Developments
1 Language 3 Languages 6 Languages 11 + 2 Languages

SFIA V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 SFIA 8

92 … 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

UK Initiatives UK Collaboration Global Open Consultation Global Open Collaboration

Provenance and Sustainability → Confidence and Trust ...

... the global common reference model for skills and competency …... built by industry for industry!
 Consultation in progress

We find out what industry wants ... We work out the options for what SFIA can do …

• Themes For example:

• Workshops • Change to the SFIA Framework
• Direct input from industry end • Develop a SFIA view Working groups
users • Provide SFIA Guidance Material
• Dialogue with industry bodies • Do nothing – and explain why Volunteers
• Input from SFIA Council
• Input from SFIA Design Authority SFIA Design
• Learning from SFIA 7 Update core Develop “tools and Authority
• Desk/secondary research into framework - SFIA 8 resources”
industry trends
• Change Requests

Check back, test, beta release of SFIA 8

... visibility throughout ... see it being built ... monthly newsletters
SFIA 8 CONTENT

THE
PROFESSIONAL
SKILLS
Changes to the professional skills for SFIA 8

• 23 additional skills
• 4 skills retired
• 7 skills re-named/ 9 re-structured
• 28 levels added / 3 levels moved replaced
23 additional skills
Information and cybersecurity DevOps, DevSecOps, Software People and skills
• Vulnerability research VURE engineering • Workforce planning WFPL
• Vulnerability assessment • Systems and software life • Employee experience EEXP
VUAS cycle engineering SLEN • Organisational facilitation
• Threat intelligence THIN Computational science OFCL
• Scientific modelling SCMO • Subject formation SUBF
Data privacy
• Numerical analysis NUAN • Certification scheme
• Personal data protection PEDP
• High-performance computing operation CSOP
Data and analytics HPCC
And last, but not least…
• Data engineering DENG
Business analysis • Service catalogue
• Data science DATS • Business situation analysis management SCMG
• Business intelligence BINT BUSA • Investment appraisal INVA
• Machine learning MLNG • Feasibility assessment FEAS • Audit AUDT
• Business administration ADMN
4 skills retired
SFIA 7 SFIA 8
Analytics INAN ▪ Content refined and extended by creating 3 new skills:
▪ Data science
▪ Business intelligence
▪ Machine learning
Business analysis BUAN ▪ Content refined and extended by creating 2 new skills:
▪ Business situation analysis
▪ Feasibility assessment
Conformance review CORE ▪ Content covered by a refreshed version of Quality assurance and the
new Audit skill
Network planning NTPL ▪ Content covered between Network design and Service level
management.
▪ Network design has also been refreshed for SFIA 8.
7 skills re-named
SFIA 7 SFIA 8
Security administration Security operations
Information content authoring Content authoring
Information content publishing Content publishing
Systems installation/decommissioning Systems installation and removal
Change management Change control
Relationship management Stakeholder relationship management
Information governance Information management

For these skills ̶ re-naming does not change the overall intent and scope of the skill
9 skills re-structured
SFIA 7 SFIA 8
Enterprise IT governance Made more generic – renamed as Governance
Business risk management Made more generic – renamed as Risk management
IT management Shift the focus to technical service delivery management –
renamed as Technology service management -
Change implementation planning and – broader scope and 2 new levels – renamed as Organisational
management change management
Teaching and subject formation Some parts moved to new skill called Subject formation –
renamed as Teaching
Business process testing Broader scope and new levels – renamed as Acceptance testing
Data management Some parts moved to new skill called Data engineering
Porting/Software configuration Shift focus to design and deployment of software configuration,
particularly for (not exclusively) enterprise scale systems and
large SaaS – renamed as Software configuration
Resourcing Some parts moved to new skill called Workforce planning
SFIA 8
GENERIC ATTRIBUTES
AND LEVELS OF
RESPONSIBILITY
Summary of changes to generic attributes and
level of responsibility in SFIA 8

• Highlight SFIA’s behavioural factors

• Updates to generic attributes to enhance readability and
consistency across levels and attributes
• Behaviours related to security, privacy and ethics
updated
• Entry level descriptions edited to help employability
• 2-way look up - by levels and by generic attributes
• New look graphic for the Summary chart
New look Summary chart
• Help new SFIA
users understand Levels of responsibility and generic attributes
the design of the
levels of
responsibility
• Designed for
onscreen viewing
or A3 printing
• Built with
hyperlinks to SFIA
8 website content
• The SFIA levels describe recognisable levels of
responsibility and accountability — this is universally liked
by SFIA users.
• This is why the structure of SFIA has remained the same
— 7 levels of responsibility characterised by generic
attributes which describe behavioural factors, along with
professional skills and competencies described at one or
more of those 7 levels.
Changes to generic attributes

• There have been a number of small focused changes to

attributes
• The changes do not affect the scope
• Previous SFIA assessments are not impacted by these
changes
2 way look up
By level – same as SFIA 7 By attribute – new for SFIA 8
Behavioural factors
Focusing on behavioural factors is an alternative view of
looking at the generic attributes in their summary form.
These two approaches provide significant flexibility:
• Organisations with their own behavioural model, or
corporate values, can map them to the generic attributes
(considering the individual behavioural factors).
• The generic attributes as summary statements are
particularly useful for a balanced view when considering
professional certification or internal role balancing.
• Organisations, such as small and medium-sized
enterprises, without their own behavioural model, can
adopt the behavioural factors explicitly. This can be
beneficial for example, in defining specific behaviours
required for a role or for individual staff development
planning.
Glossary of behavioral factors
In accordance with the design principles of SFIA, the Behavioural Factors Knowledge Statements
behavioural factor descriptions are generic.
❑ Collaboration ❑ Generic Knowledge
• This ensures they can be universally applied to any ❑ Communication Skills ❑ Specialist Knowledge
organisation, its structure, its internal capability ❑ Creativity ❑ Domain and Localisation
❑
framework, its ways of working and culture. Decision Making Knowledge
❑ Delegation
❑ Execution Performance
❑
The behavioural factors themselves have two components, Influence
❑ Leadership
the first describes the behavioural element and the second ❑ Learning and Professional
describes the organisation scope, context and impact. Development
❑ Planning
❑ Problem Solving
The behavioural factors are discussed in a separate ❑ Security, Privacy and Ethics
documents available from the SFIA website. Glossary of ❑ Contextual and Attribute
behavioural factors within the 7 levels of responsibility. Descriptions

• In the glossary document, the following behavioural

factors and knowledge statements are addressed
alongside autonomy, influence and complexity.
Readability

Guidance Short skill Shorter

notes description sentences

Strong, concise
Related skills Simpler
opening
(on the web) translation
sentence
Readability

Guidance notes added to all skills

❑ Guidance notes do not
change the meaning of
the skill
Reordering skill levels on the web pages – low to high
❑ SFIA 7 – 10% of
sentences have more
Re-ordering and re-formatting the sentences within the skill
than 30 words, 27% have
level descriptions.
more than 20 words

Very long sentences (30+ words) removed/restructured ❑ SFIA 8 – 0% > 30 words,

3% > 20 words

Most long sentences > 20 words restructured

Shorter
descriptions plus
guidance notes
Guidance notes are – in
essence – a reformatting
of the lengthy overall skill
description in SFIA 7.

This approach is to help

users…
➢ select relevant skills
➢ choose between
similar SFIA skills
➢ understand the scope
of the skill

Guidance notes do not change the meaning of the skill.

Make clear what the user will get from the link

SFIA 7 SFIA 8

This is made possible by having a shorter description

SFIA 8 Themes

Data and Computational People and

Security
analytics science skills

Agile/self-
Business
DevSecOps organising Cloud
analysis
teams

IT Service Service Systems

Blockchain
management design engineering
Security and privacy approach
• For professionals that are security specialists … ensure
• core specialist security skills are available
• security-related skills are available
• other skills (not explicitly security oriented), relevant to their specialist roles, are available

• For professionals that build and support secure systems … ensure

• all skills, relevant to the work they perform, have a security component

• For all others … ensure

• security and privacy is clearly a necessary component of their work -

This drives SFIA's position that security and privacy is part of

everyone's role and not something to be left to security specialists
alone.
Security and privacy summary
• Design principle
• There are specialist security roles
• AND a wide range of roles where security is an essential part of their day-to-day
responsibilities
• And all other roles are covered by SFIA’s generic attributes which describe security
and privacy responsibilities
• So:
• 9 explicit security skills
• 41 skills where security is an essential component
• Security is an explicit component of the generic attributes and behaviours at all
levels
• Navigation and orientation aids
• SFIA view – Information and cyber security
• 2 new sub-categories
• Guidance notes and readability improvements for all skills
SFIA 8 – Security and privacy related changes
Updated professional skills Updated generic attributes

Re-named/
Additional skills New skill levels
re-structured skills

▪ Vulnerability ▪ Security operations ▪ Information

research VURE SCAD assurance INAS
▪ Vulnerability ▪ Governance GOVN ▪ Digital forensics
assessment VUAS ▪ Risk management DGFS
▪ Threat BURM ▪ Continuity planning
COPL
intelligence THIN
▪ Penetration testing
▪ Personal data PENT
protection PEDP ▪ Contract
▪ Audit AUDT management ITCM
 SFIA view – Information and cyber security

Skills for security professionals Secure software development Security practice management

Information security SCTY 3 4 5 6 7 Systems development management DLMG 5 6 7 Performance management PEMT 4 5 6
Enterprise and business architecture STPL 5 6 7 Requirements definition and management REQM 2 3 4 5 6 Professional development PDSV 4 5 6
Governance GOVN 6 7 Solution architecture ARCH 4 5 6 Employee experience EEXP 4 5 6
Risk management BURM 3 4 5 6 7 Systems design DESN 3 4 5 6 Demand management DEMM 5 6
Audit AUDT 3 4 5 6 7 Software design SWDN 2 3 4 5 6 Workforce planning WFPL 4 5 6
Information assurance INAS 3 4 5 6 7 Programming/software development PROG 2 3 4 5 6 Resourcing RESC 3 4 5 6
Continuity management COPL 2 3 4 5 6 Testing TEST 1 2 3 4 5 6 Competency assessment LEDA 3 4 5 6
Incident management USUP 2 3 4 5 Real-time/embedded systems development RESD 2 3 4 5 6 Quality management QUMG 3 4 5 6 7
Vulnerability research VURE 3 4 5 6 Systems integration and build SINT 2 3 4 5 6
Threat intelligence THIN 2 3 4 5 6 Release and deployment RELM 3 4 5 6
Security operations SCAD 1 2 3 4 5 6 User experience design HCEV 3 4 5 6 Other security-related skills
Vulnerability assessment VUAS 2 3 4 5 Change control CHMG 2 3 4 5 6
Digital forensics DGFS 3 4 5 6 Strategic planning ITSP 5 6 7
Penetration testing PENT 3 4 5 6 Consultancy CNSL 4 5 6 7
Research RSCH 2 3 4 5 6 Secure infrastructure Specialist advice TECH 4 5 6
Personal data protection PEDP 5 6
Technology service management ITMG 5 6 7
IT infrastructure ITOP 1 2 3 4 5
Network design NTDS 3 4 5 6
Security programmes Network support NTAS 2 3 4 5
Hardware design HWDE 3 4 5 6 Levels of responsibility
Programme management PGMG 6 7 Asset management ASMG 2 3 4 5 6
Project management PRMG 4 5 6 7 Database administration DBAD 2 3 4 5 Level 1 ̶ Follow
Learning delivery ETDL 2 3 4 5 Storage management STMG 3 4 5 6 The SFIA Framework describes seven levels of Level 2 ̶ Assist
Learning design and development TMCR 3 4 5 Quality management QUMG 3 4 5 6 7 increasing responsibility, accountability and impact from Level 3 ̶ Apply
Stakeholder relationship management RLMT 4 5 6 7 Sourcing SORC 2 3 4 5 6 7 Level 1, the lowest, to Level 7, the highest. Level 4 ̶ Enable
Measurement MEAS 3 4 5 6 Supplier management SUPP 2 3 4 5 6 7 Level 5 ̶ Ensure, advices
Each of the seven levels is labelled with a guiding phrase
Knowledge management KNOW 2 3 4 5 6 7 Facilities management DCMA 3 4 5 6 to summarise the level of responsibility. Level 6 ̶ Initiate, influence
Level 7 ̶ Set strategy, inspire,
mobilise

Information and cyber security view (sfia-online.org)

Data and analytics summary
• Analytics has been in SFIA since version 4 (2008) – it has been regularly updated since. For SFIA 8 it
has been refined and extended by creating 3 new skills in SFIA 8:
• Data science DATS @ levels 2 to 7
• Business intelligence BINT @ levels 2 to 5
• Machine learning MLNG @ levels 2 to 6
• Consequently - Analytics INAN is retired from SFIA 8
• SFIA 7 skill descriptions will remain available for you to use
• Data engineering was covered in previous versions of SFIA (as part of Data management). For SFIA 8 –
it has become a standalone skill because of industry specialisation in the topic
• Data Engineering DENG @ levels 2 to 6
• Consequently level 2 and 3 are removed from Data management
• Changes
• A new level 3 has been added to Data visualisation VISL
• Information governance IRMG renamed to Information management to avoid confusion with Governance GOVN
• Navigation and orientation aids
• SFIA view – Big data and data science
• New sub-category to bring data and analytics skills together
• Guidance notes and readability improvements for all skills

Big data/Data science view — (sfia-online.org)

Applications of
computational science
• Geoscience
• Meteorology
• Scientific and industrial research
• Defence science and technology
• Nuclear science and technology

3 additional skills for SFIA 8

• Scientific modelling
• Numerical analysis
• High-performance
computing
Cloud engineering
• For SFIA 7 - cloud is referred explicitly or implicitly in several SFIA skills
• For SFIA 8 - the design choice was between...
1. adding new cloud-named skills versus
2. cloud solutions and services being a specific application of existing SFIA skills

• Option 2 was selected for SFIA 8

• but this change request is being kept in the deferred list to be re-visited for future SFIA updates

• So for SFIA 8…
• Cloud is explicitly referenced in 22 SFIA skills – typically in the guidance notes as an example application
for the skill
• For Cloud engineering in particular - the SFIA skills of Solution architecture ARCH and Systems design
DESN are examples of skills which are involved in the design of IT service solutions to meet specified
requirements, compatible with agreed cloud computing architectures,
• the re-structured Software configuration PORT skill has been re-written and can be applied to software
as a service (SaaS) solutions, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS)
Agile
• SFIA professional skills are generic and can be applied in a variety of systems, service or product
development lifecycle models
• At SFIA level 4 and higher it is typically expected that individuals will be able to adopt and adapt
approaches.
• In many organisations a range of lifecycle models or hybrid development approaches are used
• Agile is highly dependent on a culture of learning, adaption and improving working practices
• For SFIA 8 – the addition of Guidance notes has meant that more specific examples of agile working
practices have been mentioned in the framework
• Agile is explicitly referenced in 20 SFIA skills and implicitly in others
• An additional SFIA 8 skill called Organisational facilitation reflects the skills needed to support teams
to organise themselves to deliver. Includes helping teams adopt agile working practices and
behaviours.
• The addition of Employee experience is also supportive of different people management practices and
expectations of employees which can be associated with agile working.
People management
People management
• An additional skill called Employee experience has been added to provide some flexibility in SFIA to
reflect a range of different people management practices and expectations of employees.
• Employee experience will not be applicable to all employers or teams – but has an increased
importance with different working practices and team structures.
• Resourcing has been a skill in SFIA for some time. It included some elements of workforce planning.
• For SFIA 8 Workforce planning has been brought out as an additional skill to recognise its importance,
and, also that some roles specialise in either Resourcing or Workforce planning
• An additional skill called Organisational facilitation reflects the skills needed to support teams to
organise themselves to deliver. Includes helping teams adopt agile working practices and behaviours.

Additional skills Re-structured skills

▪ Employee experience EEXP ▪ Performance management PEMT

▪ Workforce planning WFPL ▪ Resourcing RESC
▪ Organisational facilitation OFCL
SFIA 8 - People management skills
Performance Improving organisational performance by developing the performance of Levels 4 to 6
management individuals and workgroups to meet agreed objectives with measurable
results.

Employee Enhancing employee engagement and ways of working, empowering Levels 4 to 6

experience employees and supporting their health and wellbeing.

Organisational Supporting workgroups to implement principles and practices for effective Levels 4 to 6
facilitation teamwork across organisational boundaries and professional specialisms.

Professional Facilitating the professional development of individuals in line with their career Levels 4 to 6
development goals and organisational requirements.

Workforce Estimating the demand for people and skills and planning the supply needed Levels 4 to 6
planning to meet that demand.

Resourcing Acquiring, deploying and onboarding resources. Levels 3 to 6

DevSecOps
• SFIA already describes the skills that practitioners working in DevOps roles/teams need.
• This change request and the IEEE/ISO DevOps standard (2675) highlight a gap around developing and
improving the collaborative & technical environment associated with DevOps.
• “In practice, DevOps is a full life cycle endeavor which gives equal consideration to each stage. DevOps is a set
of principles and practices which enable better communication and collaboration between relevant
stakeholders for the purpose of specifying, developing, continuously improving, and operating software and
systems products and services. It is not just a matter of technical practices affecting other life cycle
processes”.
• For SFIA 8 – we have looked at the skills associated with contemporary approaches to secure software
engineering and operations – with a focus on business value and practitioners establishing and improving
their own practices.
• An additional skill for SFIA 8 called Systems and software lifecycle engineering has been created.
• It has been written such that it can be applicable to ways of working labelled with terms such as DevOps,
DevSecOps, site reliability engineering, developer productivity engineering.
• However - it is likely to find wider applicability in specialised areas.
SFIA 8 Skills management changes
Teaching
• Split the Subject formation aspects of teaching from the delivery of teaching so these can be evaluated separately
• The skill has a 4 new levels (level 2, 3 4 & 7) to support the whole range of responsibilities and roles found in teaching and related
professions
Subject formation
• New skill @ levels 4 to 7
Certification scheme operation
• Focussed skill to implement certification and badging schemes (including digital badging)effectively
Competency assessment
• Edited to be applicable in a range of contexts such as — but not limited to — recruitment, career progression, professional
development planning or accreditation/certification. .

Additional skills Re-structured skills Updated skills

▪ Subject formation SUBF ▪ Teaching TEAC ▪ Competency assessment

▪ Certification scheme operation LEDA
CSOP
Business analysis
• Business analysis has been present in the SFIA framework from the
earliest versions
• The job title “Business analyst” cover a broad professional discipline
• In addition - business analysis responsibilities are found in many
jobs / roles and different organisational contexts
• Project, product, strategic, operational, programme/portfolio
• Business analysis is also being deployed in newer domains such as cyber
security and data science
• It is helpful for business analysts to use a common language to
describe the breadth professional skills associated with the work
they perform.
• this promotes what business analysts can offer, and,
• opens up a broader range of potential career paths
Business analysis is a broad professional discipline

Breadth of the business analysis

discipline

Role / Role /
assignment assignment

Adapted from Business Analyst by Adrian Reed

❑ Individual roles and assignments do not use the entire breadth of business analysis related skills in
SFIA.
❑ Roles in other professional roles and with different job titles will also make use of some of the SFIA
business analysis related skills.
❑ This knowledge areas (KAs) in the BABOK are similar – depending on roles different KAs have
more or less importance. The BABOK KAs are also relevant to other professional roles and with
different job titles
❑ SFIA also provides flexibility by having multiple skill levels which can be aligned to
roles/assignments
SFIA 8 content for business analysts
1. The SFIA 7 skill called Business analysis has been split into constituent parts
• New skill - Business situation analysis
• New skill - Feasibility assessment
• This provides greater granularity and flexibility – for example to support
o definition of business analysis roles, assignments
o skills assessment, identifying skills gaps
o targeted learning and development solutions
o developing career paths
o resourcing (recruiting, deployment)
2. Restructure and rename 2 skills
• Business process testing (levels 4 to 6) becomes Acceptance testing (2 to 6)
• Change implementation and management (5 to 6) becomes Organisational change
management (3 to 6)
3. Publish illustrative SFIA skills profiles for a number of industry roles
4. Continue mapping of BABOK to SFIA (updated for SFIA 8) and IIBA UK Job roles
mapping
Robotic process automation
• For SFIA 8 covered by a combination of existing skills and the additional skills in Data and analytics
• For example
• Data engineering DENG for extracting, combining, quality checking the data, real-time collection of
data to feed analytics
• creating reports based on the information extracted - Business intelligence BINT
• Performing complex predictive analysis would need Data science DATS
• If the bots were learning to take different actions over time then they would need Machine learning
MLNG
• Data visualisation VISL would be needed for creating insightful, actionable graphics from the data –
(but would need to be more than just the off the shelf Excel chart)
• Where bots are used to navigate legacy systems via their user interfaces then there are the 2 new skills
Business situation analysis BUSA and Feasibility assessment FEAS plus Business process
improvement BPRE and Requirements management REQM. Depending on the solution then Software
configuration PORT may be required (configured by users rather than Software developers)
Other themes
• SFIA and Blockchain (sfia-online.org)
• Blockchain was revied during the SFIA 8 consultation. The agreed position is that r working assumption is that
"Blockchain" is a not an additional SFIA skills Blockchain" is a not an additional set of SFIA skills
• It is best treated as the application of a new technology in anumber of SFIA skills.
• Service design —(sfia-online.org)
• Service design" has been a SFIA sub-category since SFIA v4 (2008). This was introduced to reflect the structure of ITIL
v3.
• Service design as a professional discipline and as a role has changed since then.
• ITIL has moved on also and with ITIL v4 - their definition of service design has changed considerably.
• The Service design sub-category has been removed. Illustrative SFIA skills and examples of service design activities
and artefacts have been published instead.
• Service management (sfia-online.org)
• An additional SFIA skill – Service catalogue management has been added @ levels 3 to 5
• Systems engineering
• A mapping to ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 Systems and software engineering — System life cycle processes is being
worked on and will be published when available
SFIA 8 NAVIGATION
Categories
A to Z skills SFIA related
and sub- SFIA views
list skills
categories

SFIA
SFIA skills
framework
profiles
mappings
Categories and sub-categories
SFIA 8 continues to group the skills into categories and subcategories.
These do not have definitions - they are just a navigation aid.
Colour coding is also used to identify the categories.
Categories and sub-categories

Development Relationships
Categories
Strategy and Change and Delivery and People and
and and
architecture transformation operation skills
implementation engagement

Sub-categories
Strategy and Change Systems Technology People Stakeholder
planning implementation development management management management

Security and Change Data Service Skills Sales and

privacy analysis and analytics management management marketing

Governance,
Change User Security
risk and
planning experience services
compliance
• These categories and subcategories do not equate to jobs, roles,
Advice and Content
organisational teams or areas of personal responsibility.
guidance management
• It is common practice for a specific job description, for instance, to
comprise skills taken from multiple categories and subcategories.
Computational
science
• Many users find these categories useful, but SFIA is a flexible
resource and the SFIA Skills can easily be grouped and filtered into
alternative views to support specific industry disciplines, particular
environments and frameworks.
A to Z Skills list

https://sfia-online.org/en/sfia-8/all-skills-a-z
Related skills
Links to bodies of
knowledge and
standard skills
profiles

Web navigation to
find the skills you
need

The related skills are a navigation

aid only. They are not part of the
core framework.
SFIA views – Design concept

Digital
• SFIA is an extensive resource for skills
Transformation and competencies
• It is not expected that any organisation
would need all the skills in SFIA.
Enterprise IT Agile • Categories and sub-categories are a
useful way to look at SFIA.
• But they offer just one perspective and can
Full SFIA not reflect the way SFIA is used in different
framework contexts.
• By creating SFIA views - we allow for a
navigation of the framework from
Information
and cyber DevOps
different perspectives
security • Many of SFIA’s skills are shared across
sectors and professions, some are specific
to certain industry sectors and professions.
Big data/Data • The 7 levels of responsibility are common to
science
all and universally liked
SFIA views - contents
•The conventional view of SFIA •Set up agile culture and • DevOps culture • Data governance
used for the summary chart and capabilities • DevOps automation • Data culture and capability
framework reference guide • Support & guide agile • DevOps ways of working • Data lifecycle management
•Categories & sub-categories practices
• Data security and quality
• Adopt agile practices
• Measure & learn to improve
agile practices

Big data/Data
Full framework Agile DevOps
science

• Skills for security •Strategy and architecture • Digital strategy, innovation

professionals • Change and transformation and investments
• Security programmes • Development and • Digital culture, skills and
• Secure software development implementation capabilities
• Secure infrastructure • Delivery and operation • Digital & data transformation,
change and governance
• Security practice • People and skills
management • Digital technology enablers
• Relationships and
• Other security related skills engagement

Information and Digital

Enterprise IT
cyber security transformation
SFIA framework mappings

• Service management practice areas and roles

• NIST
• COBIT 2019
• Software engineering body of knowledge (SWEBOK)
• Business analysis body of knowledge (BABOK)
• Service design

This provide alternate routes to finding SFIA content.

Mappings will be updated to SFIA 8 and published in the coming weeks.
SFIA 8 beta - illustrative skills profiles

The SFIA framework is flexible

by design...
• it does not prescribe or define
jobs, roles, organisation
structures or career paths
• instead - SFIA describes the
skills that roles, jobs or career
steps require
We have collated a set of generic
mappings of SFIA skills for the
industry's most common role
families...
• These provide a quick-
start list of the most relevant
SFIA skills for a selection of
common roles.
• This work has been ongoing for
some time - and there is more
to do
• We are publishing this now to
support SFIA 8 and to illustrate
how the skills in SFIA 8 can be
deployed in the workplace.

https://sfia-online.org/en/tools-
and-resources/standard-industry-
skills-profiles
MOVING TO SFIA 8
SFIA SFIA 7
Changes in
change Moving to Change log
detail
process notes
Moving to SFIA 8 notes on each SFIA 7 skill

This is a new feature for SFIA 8. On the website each SFIA 7 skill has its own Moving to SFIA 8 note
The SFIA ecosystem
• User guidance
• Mappings to industry frameworks
• Links to industry bodies of knowledge
• SFIA accredited partners and specialists
• SFIA Skills mapped to standard roles
• SFIA accredited training
• Not-for-profit stewardship of the SFIA framework
 SFIA
Employers global ecosystem
Accredited
BoK
Partners &
owners
Consultants

Industry
frameworks
SFIA Education
providers

Individuals Tools using

SFIA
Other
Professional
competency
bodies
frameworks
 SFIA
Employers global ecosystem
Accredited
SFIA views BoK
Partners &
owners
Consultants SFIA
accreditation
Standard
profiles

SFIA Mapping to
training BoKs
Industry Education
frameworks Core SFIA providers
Framework
Digital APIs & open
badging data

Individuals Assessment Framework Tools using

guidelines mappings
User
reference
SFIA
guide Other
Professional
competency
bodies
frameworks
 Ecosystem supported by developing the website…

❑ Future SFIA (changes) ❑ SFIA Framework

• 10 languages

❑ Tools and Resources ❑ Site search

• Guidance and help ❑ Collaborations
• Detailed SFIA
assessment
guidelines
• Bodies of
Knowledge
• SFIA Views
• SFIA skills profiles
• Mapping to
complementary
frameworks
Use web site analytics to identify improvements
and extensions
 Track record of open consultation and wide collaboration
200 200 2005 2008 2011 2015 2018 202
0 v1 1 v2 v3 v4 v5 V6 v7 1 v8

2000 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

UK
UK Consultation
Global Open Global Open
Consultation Collaboration
Initiatives

SFIA eco-system
Ancestors Core SFIA framework
 Putting the community first
A global not-for-profit Foundation
• To develop, maintain and support the global skills and competency framework

Users Accredited Partners Accredited Consultants

Global Responsible for framework

advisory group Council Design Authority Board integrity

Responsible for:
- running the Foundation
Operations
- developing the SFIA ecosystem

Board