April 2024 - SFIA 9 consultation update

A date for the SFIA 9 beta publication

Estimated reading time - 2 min.

we are aiming to publish the beta version of SFIA 9 for review in week commencing July 1st
this provides an early version of SFIA 9 that contains most of the major features, but is not yet complete or fully reviewed
we are making this publicly available to SFIA users for testing and feedback
the beta will be focused on the content of the framework - published on the website
at this stage the supporting documentation will be basic in nature - just enough to help testing and feedback
the beta will be published in the English language only

making the levels of responsibility, behaviours and workplace skills in SFIA easy to consume with improved readability
updating of SFIA skills (new or revised) to reflect industry developments, contemporary working practices and feedback on SFIA 8
restructuring some SFIA skills to provide greater flexibility in their use e.g. for skills assessments, mapping skills to roles/jobs
- e.g. Information management, Financial management, Testing, Release and deployment, Security operations
expansion of SFIA in related digital disciplines
more support for entry level employees
positioning SFIA 9 for artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI /ML)
- recognising that the industry is in an intermediate position - we won't be predicting the future but we begin to identify
  - the SFIA skills needed for developing and operating systems that use AI/ML
  - how generative AI can augment human performance of SFIA skills
Evolution not revolution – SFIA has a long heritage of use and a very large world-wide base of day to day users (more than 50,000 users visit the website each month). We always aim to make the new versions of SFIA recognisable and easy to use.

we are planning a number of webinars to support publication
we will provide a summary of what’s in the beta and how you can use it, help test it and provide feedback

this part of the project is very busy
effort over the coming weeks will focus on...
- completing tasks where we know what we need to do
- making decisions where we have a number of options
at this stage of the project we have a number of volunteers and interested parties reviewing, providing input and finalising content
for some skills and themes, we come across a number of competing options in how the SFIA framework can model the skills required
- our aim is for a flexible design which doesn’t favour a particular methodology but enables most organisations and industry professionals to make use of the framework

SFIA Updates Manager & SFIA 9 Project Manager