The global skills and competency framework for the digital world

#1621 Embed Energy Efficiency, Resource-Aware Code Design, Non-Functional Efficiency Testing, and On-Demand Environment Lifecycle into Software Engineering Skills [GreenOps] change request pending

Amend SWDN, PROG, NFTS, and SLEN to incorporate software resource efficiency per transaction/release, energy-aware code review, non-functional resource utilisation testing, and automated environment shutdown.

CR Raised in consultation with global GreenOps industry groups.

Problem Statement

SFIA 9 software engineering skills focus on functional correctness, security, performance, and agility. They lack competency descriptors for software resource efficiency, carbon impact per transaction, and energy optimisation. Consequently, software resource regressions go unnoticed during development and only surface months later as inflated cloud or infrastructure bills.

Proposed Change

Amend descriptors at Levels 3–5 across software engineering skills:

  • SWDN (Levels 3–5): Incorporates resource efficiency and energy consumption profiles into software architecture and module design.
  • PROG (Levels 3–5): Applies energy-efficient coding practices, refactors resource-intensive routines, and includes energy efficiency in peer code reviews.
  • NFTS (Levels 3–5): Executes non-functional testing for CPU/memory/energy resource utilisation per transaction, tracking efficiency regressions release-by-release.
  • SLEN (Levels 3–5): Designs CI/CD pipelines and ephemeral test environments that automatically start on demand and shut down when idle.

Rationale

  • Bridges the gap between software development and environmental impact, holding engineering teams accountable for the resource footprint of the software they ship.
  • Prevents resource efficiency regressions prior to production deployment.

Applies to: SWDN — Software Design; PROG — Programming/Software Development; NFTS — Non-Functional Testing; SLEN — Systems and Software Lifecycle Engineering

Note: More than 36 jurisdictions globally are actively adopting or aligning their corporate disclosure regulations with the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB) to create a global baseline for climate and sustainability reporting. Beyond the UK, the EU, and Australia, numerous other countries have formally finalised their approach to adopt or closely align with these rules, including Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Qatar, and Turkey. Additionally, nations such as Singapore, South Korea, India, and Indonesia are in advanced stages of implementing ISSB-aligned frameworks. View official implementation maps and country-by-country data on the IFRS Foundation Jurisdictional Profiles page.

Proposed change applies to Software design

Current status of this request: pending