The global skills and competency framework for the digital world

SFIA View: Business strategy and planning

Business strategy and planning

Demand management DEMM

The analysis and proactive management of business demand for new services or modifications to existing service features or volumes. Collaborating with the business to prioritise demand in order to improve business value. Developing and communicating insights into patterns of demand. Proposing responses to meet both short-term and long-term demand and facilitating decision making and planning. Integrating demand analysis and planning with complementary strategic, operational and change planning processes.

IT management ITMG

The management of the IT infrastructure and resources required to plan for, develop, deliver and support IT services and products to meet the needs of a business. The preparation for new or changed services, management of the change process and the maintenance of regulatory, legal and professional standards. The management of performance of systems and services in terms of their contribution to business performance and their financial costs and sustainability. The management of bought-in services. The development of continual service improvement plans to ensure the IT infrastructure adequately supports business needs.

Financial management FMIT

The overall financial management, control and stewardship of the IT assets and resources used in the provision of IT services, including the identification of materials and energy costs, ensuring compliance with all governance, legal and regulatory requirements.

Innovation INOV

The capability to identify, prioritise, incubate and exploit opportunities provided by information, communication and digital technologies. To develop and implement processes, tools and infrastructures to support innovation. To involve internal and external communities, employees, commercial partners, customers, users and other stakeholders in the innovation process. To provide governance, monitoring to, and reporting on, the innovation process.

Research RSCH

The systematic creation of new knowledge by data gathering, innovation, experimentation, evaluation and dissemination. The determination of research goals and the method by which the research will be conducted. The active participation in a community of researchers; communicating formally and informally through digital media, conferences, journals, books and seminars.

Business process improvement BPRE

The creation of new and potentially disruptive approaches to performing business activities in order to create business opportunities; deliver new or improved products/services; or to improve supply chains. The identification and implementation of improvements to business operations, services and models. The assessment of the costs and potential benefits of the new approaches. The analysis and design of business processes in order to adopt and exploit technologies to improve business performance. The development of enterprise process management capabilities to increase organisational agility and responsiveness to change.

Knowledge management KNOW

The systematic management of vital knowledge to create value for the organisation by capturing, sharing, developing and exploiting the collective knowledge of the organisation to improve performance, support decision making and mitigate risks. The development of a supportive and collaborative knowledge sharing culture to drive the successful adoption of technology solutions for knowledge management. Providing access to informal, tacit knowledge as well as formal, documented, explicit knowledge by facilitating internal and external collaboration and communications.

Enterprise and business architecture STPL

The creation, iteration, and maintenance of structures such as enterprise and business architectures embodying the key principles, methods and models that describe the organisation's future state, and that enable its evolution. This typically involves the interpretation of business goals and drivers; the translation of business strategy and objectives into an “operating model”; the strategic assessment of current capabilities; the identification of required changes in capabilities; and the description of inter-relationships between people, organisation, service, process, data, information, technology and the external environment. The architecture development process supports the formation of the constraints, standards and guiding principles necessary to define, assure and govern the required evolution; this facilitates change in the organisation's structure, business processes, systems and infrastructure in order to achieve predictable transition to the intended state.

Business risk management BURM

The planning and implementation of organisation-wide processes and procedures for the management of risk to the success or integrity of the business, especially those arising from the use of information technology, reduction or non-availability of energy supply or inappropriate disposal of materials, hardware or data.

Sustainability SUST

The provision of advice, assistance and leadership to enable the organisation to minimise negative environmental impact.