I have just returned from Edinburgh, which marked the last event on a month long promotional tour of SFIA (the Skills Framework for the Information Age). From IEEE in California, ISACA’s Cyber Security conference in Washington, the itSMF USA Fusion Conference in New Orleans, ISACA’s EuroCACS Cyber Security and Risk Management Conference, and finally the IT in the Park conference in Edinburgh, I was pleased to see so such a renewed interest (across the globe) in SFIA and its benefits. I also had the pleasure of being part of the SFIA Version 6 launch events in both the UK and in Australia back in July and August. The Australian conference in particular provided a number of real life case studies of how SFIA is being used in practice – you can view these presentations by visiting www.sfia.events and selecting the Australian conference. By the way, if you’re not sure what SFIA is, you can visit the SFIA website and download the SFIA version 6 manual at www.sfia-online.org.
In the last week, I have taken some time to take a breath – giving me the opportunity to reflect on the last few months and note just how far we have come in not only understanding the benefits of SFIA but actually implementing them and realising the benefits. Organisations with as few ICT professionals as 6, right up to organisations of staff in the thousands (and tens of thousands), SFIA is being used and implemented in around 200 countries.
Now that Version 6 has been released, the area that has seen most interest has been the Cyber Security world. Version 6 brought the framework up to date with the massive advances in Cyber Security, and not only added two new skills, but also a number of skills were updated, for example, adding a level 7 description for Information Security, and level 1 and 2 descriptions for Security Administration. There’s heaps more I could tell you about Version 6 and the updates, but I’ll leave you to visit us at the ITSMF UK conference next week!
Speaking of the ITSMF UK conference, I will be delivering a session on Monday at 3pm entitled “SFIA V6: Using Skills to Leverage your Biggest Asset – People”. This presentation will take attendees through some of the changes in V6, but more importantly, shows HOW having an understanding of the skills in your organisation can ensure cost savings in recruitment, better decision making on the “right” training, more productive performance review discussions…. I could go on!
I look forward to seeing you at my session – or if you can’t make it, you can also catch me on the BSMimpact stand in the exhibition hall.
Matthew Burrows
Matthew Burrows
Matthew has served on numerous industry bodies, including as President of the Institute of Service Management, Management Board member for itSMF UK, various authoring teams, and the ITIL Change Advisory Board. He was the Design Authority for SFIA version 6, published in June 2015. In addition to his role as Director, Matthew is active as part of our consulting team, working with colleagues to deliver initiatives for our clients.
