#1327 Add a new SFIA Service Design skill and rename the current ITIL-based service design to something more accurate. change request accepted

Add SFIA Service Design role

Rename the current "service design" category to better reflect the ITIL concept it is trying to define. Once renamed add a new correct Service design skill that reflects the service design work that service design practitioners do.

Service design 'proper' is not currently properly split out as a formal activity and skill. It has been a structured and defined role on digital projects for some years now, at least 6 years in commercial practice and perhaps a more than decade in academia.

Project domains such as government programmes under the GDS framework necessitate and enforce a service designer working as part of the project.

Definitions:

• Neilsen Normal definition from 2017: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/service-design-101/

• GDS definition: https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2016/04/18/what-we-mean-by-service-design/#:~:text=Service%20design%20is%20the%20activity,up%20so%20that%20they%20do.

The current narrow tech-only definition of service design in SFIA is incorrect. It is currently under the category of "Delivery and operation" and is not the correct definition and practice of service design as it is understood by digital projects, GDS, and academia.

A better category would be for a new skill of "service design" to fit under under "Strategy and architecture" or "Change and transformation", and the existing misnamed "service design" to be renamed to something more appropriate to the ITIL definition it is trying to cover.

Summary

• The current service design category in the SFIA framework is wrong against the everyday commercial practice and academic definition of service design

• The current service design category should be renamed, so that it aligns with the ITIL concept, but does not distract from a more 'correct' category of service design

• A new 'correct' skill of service design should be added under the SFIA framework category tree, after consultation with academia for definitions and placement

Current status of this request: accepted

What we decided

Include in review of SFIA sub-categories and also creation of SFIA view or guidelines to highlight the SFIA skills relevant to Service design