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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; nor 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 Principal Software Engineer, having the skill of Programming/software development level 5, but having the skill of Software development process improvement level 6.

SFIA does not dictate how the responsibilities should be distributed in an organisation.