Skills
Description of all SFIA 6 skills
Network design
The production of network designs and design policies, strategies, architectures and documentation, covering voice, data, text, e-mail, facsimile and image, to support strategy and business requirements for connectivity, capacity, interfacing, security, resilience, recovery, access and remote access. This may incorporate all aspects of the communications infrastructure, internal and external, mobile, public and private, Internet, Intranet and call centres.
Database design
The specification, design and maintenance of mechanisms for storage and access to both structured and unstructured information, in support of business information needs.
Programming/software development
The design, creation, testing and documenting of new and amended software components from supplied specifications in accordance with agreed development and security standards and processes.
Animation development
The architecture, design and development of animated and interactive systems such as games and simulations.
Safety engineering
The application of appropriate methods to assure safety during all lifecycle phases of safety-related systems developments, including maintenance and re-use. These include safety hazard and risk analysis, safety requirements specification, safety-related system architectural design, formal method design, safety validation and verification, and safety case preparation.
Sustainability engineering
The development and application of appropriate knowledge and methods to assure sustainability in all phases of the life cycle of energy- or materials-consuming systems and services, including maintenance and re-use. These include such things as energy supply risk analysis, specification of guidelines for sustainable procurement of assets and materials, energy efficiency and sustainability factors influencing system design, system design for sustainable operation and use, efficient coding design and adoption of re-use/sharing principles, achieving behaviour change to more sustainable ways of working, and the verification of energy and resource efficiency in operation.
Information content authoring
The management and application of the principles and practices of designing, creation and presentation of textual information, supported where necessary by graphical content for interactive and digital uses. The adoption of workflow principles and definition of user roles and engagement and training of content providers. This material may be delivered electronically (for example, as collections of web pages) or otherwise. This skill includes managing the quality assurance and authoring processes for the material being produced.
Testing
The planning, design, management, execution and reporting of tests, using appropriate testing tools and techniques and conforming to agreed process standards and industry specific regulations. The purpose of testing is to ensure that new and amended systems, configurations, packages, or services, together with any interfaces, perform as specified (including security requirements) , and that the risks associated with deployment are adequately understood and documented. Testing includes the process of engineering, using and maintaining testware (test cases, test scripts, test reports, test plans, etc) to measure and improve the quality of the software being tested.
User experience analysis
The identification, analysis, clarification and communication of the context of use in which applications will operate, and of the goals of products, systems or services. Analysis and prioritisation of stakeholders’ “user experience” needs and definition of required system behaviour and performance. Resolution of potential conflicts between user requirements and determination of usability objectives
User experience design
The iterative development of user tasks, interaction and interfaces to meet user requirements, considering the whole user experience. Refinement of design solutions in response to user-centred evaluation and feedback and communication of the design to those responsible for implementation.
User experience evaluation
Evaluation of systems, products or services, to assure that the stakeholder and organisational requirements have been met, required practice has been followed, and systems in use continue to meet organisational and user needs. Iterative assessment (from early prototypes to final live implementation) of effectiveness, efficiency, user satisfaction, health and safety, and accessibility to measure or improve the usability of new or existing processes, with the intention of achieving optimum levels of product or service usability.
Systems integration
The incremental and logical integration and testing of components and/or subsystems and their interfaces in order to create operational services.
Porting/software configuration
The configuration of software products into new or existing software environments/platforms.
Hardware design
The specification and design of computing and communications equipment (such as semiconductor processors, HPC architectures and DSP and graphics processor chips), typically for integration into, or connection to an IT infrastructure or network. The identification of concepts and their translation into implementable design. The selection and integration, or design and prototyping of components. The adherence to industry standards including compatibility, security and sustainability.
Systems installation/decommissioning
The installation, testing, implementation or decommissioning and removal of cabling, wiring, equipment, hardware and associated software, following plans and instructions and in accordance with agreed standards. The testing of hardware and software components, resolution of malfunctions, and recording of results. The reporting of details of hardware and software installed so that configuration management records can be updated.
Availability management
The definition, analysis, planning, measurement, maintenance and improvement of all aspects of the availability of services, including the availability of power. The overall control and management of service availability to ensure that the level of service delivered in all services is matched to or exceeds the current and future agreed needs of the business, in a cost effective manner.
Service level management
The planning, implementation, control, review and audit of service provision, to meet customer business requirements. This includes negotiation, implementation and monitoring of service level agreements, and the ongoing management of operational facilities to provide the agreed levels of service, seeking continually and proactively to improve service delivery and sustainability targets.
Service acceptance
The achievement of formal confirmation that service acceptance criteria have been met, and that the service provider is ready to operate the new service when it has been deployed. (Service acceptance criteria are used to ensure that a service meets the defined service requirements, including functionality, operational support, performance and quality requirements).
Configuration management
The lifecycle planning, control and management of the assets of an organisation (such as documentation, software and service assets, including information relating to those assets and their relationships. This involves identification, classification and specification of all configuration items (CIs) and the interfaces to other processes and data. Required information relates to storage, access, service relationships, versions, problem reporting and change control of CIs. The application of status accounting and auditing, often in line with acknowledged external criteria such as ISO 9000, ISO/IEC 20000, ISO/IEC 27000 and security throughout all stages of the CI lifecycle, including the early stages of system development.
Asset management
The management of the lifecycle for all managed assets (hardware, software, intellectual property, licences, warranties etc) including security, inventory, compliance, usage and disposal, aiming to protect and secure the corporate assets portfolio, optimise the total cost of ownership and sustainability by minimising operating costs, improving investment decisions and capitalising on potential opportunities. Knowledge and use of international standards for asset management and close integration with security, change, and configuration management are examples of enhanced asset management development.