The cycle of management of people's skills and capability involves a number of processes.

• People are recruited into the organisation
• They may be assigned to specific jobs, or they may be in an assignment-based environment, working on a series of projects
• Their work is assessed against the job requirements and objectives
• The underlying reasons for their level of success are analysed, so that appropriate development plans can be agreed.
• Decisions about pay and promotion are made, based on factual data.
• The overall management of human resources involves planning for future demand, bearing in mind the different professional capability profiles that may be needed. In addition, general policy decisions are made about salary levels relating to grades and job types or professional profiles.

All of these activities require a factual information base, so that decisions can be made objectively.

The common language

One of the key pieces of information is a description of capability. This can be the capability required of a new recruit, or by a specific role on a project that is being staffed. Or it might be the actual capability of an individual. In order for the processes to work as an integrated capability management system, the definitions of capability must be consistent, they must be objective and they must be used as the reference base throughout these individual processes.

The fundamental determinant of professional capability in IT is the professional skill. SFIA provides the most widely used descriptions of professional IT skills, presented in objective terms at clearly defined levels of attainment.

This information may appear in a job description: while providing a description of the job itself, the job description should also describe the capability required by a job holder - a 'person specification' or a 'professional profile'. Alternatively, in an assignment-based environment there might be a set of free-standing documents containing professional profiles: these would give descriptions of what is expected of the various classes of IT professionals needed by the organisation, such as business analysts, software engineers or service managers.

Then, the same criteria used when recruiting can be used when deploying people on projects, assessing their competence or producing development plans. Also, the whole process of resource planning can be based on clear definitions of the types of IT professional that will be needed to carry out future work.

That set of profiles, based on the SFIA skills, becomes the common language of skills in the organisation.

Type of information needed

To give a complete picture of capability, several classes of information are usually included to support the SFIA skills. The job description or professional profile is likely to include:

• Professional skills provided by SFIA, such as programming/software development, availability management or network planning. Several skills would typically be included. These have an important dual effect: they emphasise the professional element so often missing from merely technical interpretations of 'skill'; they also have a structural effect, thanks to SFIA's seven levels of competency that can be related to the organisation's grading system.
• Behavioural skills, such as team working, communication, creativity
• Knowledge of things such as specific technologies, products or programming languages, internal processes, application areas
• Experience, expressed in specific terms, such as successfully completed assignments
• Qualifications, such as a University degree, or certifications such as a Manager's Certificate in ITIL Infrastructure Management, or an Intermediate Certificate in Software Testing.

It is important to note that a single SFIA skill does not define a job or a role. Rather than constrain the way you work, SFIA leaves you free to implement your own roles and practices.

Diagnostic

A SFIA skill is not intended as a complete definition of all the activities that could be carried out by someone with that skill. Rather, it is intended for diagnostic use: to help determine if a given individual has the skill; and if so, at what level.

Staying relevant

The SFIA Foundation maintains and updates SFIA on behalf of the community of users. The update exercises are based on a period of open consultation. Feedback from users forms the basis of the update exercise.

The policy is for SFIA to reflect current IT practice, rather than to dictate it.

By these means, SFIA stays relevant to the needs of the IT industry.