SFIA Version 7  – What’s all the Excitement About?

The new version of SFIA (Skills Framework for the Information Age), version 7, was launched on Friday 22^nd June.  For the SFIA community of users, learning providers and consultancies, the release of a new version of the framework is always a much-heralded event. As Lexonis is an Accredited Global SFIA Partner we already had some insight of the updates to the framework and were involved in the consultation period which started in July 2017, but we were looking forward to seeing all the enhancements in the final published version.

Interested in SFIA 7? Attend our upcoming Webinar, 3 Hot IT Talent Management Topics – How SFIA 7 Can Help

We had an expectation that we would see some important new enhancements realised with version 7 of SFIA and the consultation itself had its own ambition – not only to directly address the skills-related issues faced by the IT industry but to adopt a more flexible and continuous consultation process.  What I really liked about it this time round, was that the consultation process had a clear objective to support the industry by pursuing active collaboration with other skills frameworks and complementary bodies of knowledge. At the same time the challenge was to maintain a vendor-neutral, non-profit approach to avoid commercial and competing interests that might skew SFIA’s reputation as a trusted framework.

So did the SFIA Foundation keep its promise?

SFIA 7, not unlike other updates, is an evolved version with the usual array of new skills, name changes, modified skills and those that have been retired.

SFIA 7 has the same recognisable format, which is reassuring; although there is an update to the generic attributes, so alongside Autonomy, Influence, Complexity and Business Skills we also have an additional attribute Knowledge, which is consistent for all the skills within the framework. In addition, generic responsibilities for Security have been added throughout Business Skills for all levels, promoting this skill as a responsibility for all in the organization.

As you can imagine, the open consultation process generated a plethora of change requests, however there has been a focus on addressing some of the ‘hot’ topics currently keeping IT professionals awake at night – Digital Transformation, Agile, DevOps, Big Data, Informatics, Cyber Security and also making SFIA more accessible to the Software Engineering community.

What is really great is a new ‘view’ showing the skills SFIA 7 suggests are needed to deliver Digital Transformation. These are displayed through four categories:

• Digital strategy, vision and investment;
• Digital leadership, culture and skills;
• Digital innovation, governance and change management;
• Digital technology enablers, architectures, business models and digital services.

Is it unusual to see a new view like this?  Are we excited by it at Lexonis?

Yes we are! This type of view is a fantastic aid for building roles and career paths that will develop much needed digital capability of individuals, organisations and across the industry.

The good news is that we have already deployed SFIA 7 for one of our clients at Lexonis, and we are migrating another to version 7.  We are looking forward to seeing how they and others will benefit from the new themes, and new and updated skills that will support their IT talent management applications – talent mobility, career development, learning and development planning, resource management and many others.

If you want to know more about implementing or migrating to SFIA 7, speak to one of our SFIA Accredited Consultants.

Attend our free Lexonis webinar ‘3 Hot IT Talent Management Topics – How SFIA 7 Can Help’ on 13^th September 2018  to learn more about making the most of SFIA.

Useful Resources and Links:

• SFIA 7 on the SFIA Foundation website: https://www.sfia-online.org/en/framework/sfia-7
• Move to SFIA 7: https://www.sfia-online.org/en/framework/sfia-7/moving-to-sfia-7
• SFIA 7 and Digital Transformation: https://www.sfia-online.org/en/framework/sfia-7/moving-to-sfia-7/sfia-7-for-digital-transformation
• Free Lexonis Webinar: /webinars/3-hot-it-talent-management-topics-how-sfia-7-can-help/