The global skills and competency framework for the digital world

#1380 DGFS level 7 - for development? change request pending

more senior Digital Forensics skills that provide an external commentary, policy making or expert witness role.

this is a placeholder CR to note that there are more senior Digital Forensics skills that provide an external commentary, policy making or expert witness role. How does SFIA show this? Does another skill cover it and need adjustment?

Proposed change applies to Digital forensics

Current status of this request: pending

What we decided

"An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as an expert. The judge may consider the witness's specialized (scientific, technical or other) opinion about evidence or about facts before the court within the expert's area of expertise, to be referred to as an "expert opinion". Expert witnesses may also deliver "expert evidence" within the area of their expertise. Their testimony may be rebutted by testimony from other experts or by other evidence or facts. "

Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_witness

This does imply something beyond a SFIA level 5 - it implies the expertise is recognised outside the organisation and in fact enough to influence/determine legal proceedings.

Defer to see if there is industry demand for this level of expertise to be reflected in SFIA descriptions.

Matthew Burrows
Mar 11, 2021 08:47 AM

Expert commentary and analysis is something we would expect at level 5. Policy making is generally level 6. So I'm not seeing the need for anything at level 7 here. Expert witness activity is covered by TECH level 5 - "Provides definitive and expert advice in their specialist area(s)"

Ian Seward (General Manager)
Jun 07, 2023 05:21 PM

I agree with Matthew. I think this is a reflection of misunderstandings of the SFIA Levels and how they change as the levels of responsibility progresses. A 'Head of Digital Forensics' role is likely to be a Level 6 role.

I think this might need to be settled through better 'explanation' of the LoRs or possibly by 'illustration' of roles - at the generic level from the SFIA Foundation that can be refined for specific organisations ...

Ian Seward (General Manager)
Jun 07, 2023 05:23 PM

Additional note to further explanation of the LoRs - there really is still a lot of people who see SFIA 7 and being better at a skill than SFIA Level 5.

SFIA Updates Manager
Jun 07, 2023 07:11 PM

This CR was raised by someone very familiar with SFIA levels. I think the question is whether a level 5 "Provides definitive and expert advice in their specialist area(s)" has the necessary influence outside their own organisation to be an expert witness, industry commentator.