SFIAv9 Levels of responsibility and generic attributes
This section describes the generic attributes that characterise SFIA’s seven levels of responsibility and accountability. The underlying structure of the framework ensures that the definitions of professional skills are defined in a way that makes their different levels recognisably distinct and aligned to the levels of responsibility.
The power of the levels of responsibility
The SFIA seven Levels of Responsibility not only enable recognition of career progression but also provides a means by which other frameworks and corporate structures may map to the SFIA Framework. The nature of the generic attributes makes them suitable for use as the basis of core competencies, mappings and stages within a career path.
- An organisation that already has a set of core competencies or values can use them in combination with SFIA’s professional skills and benefit from the spacing that the SFIA levels provide.
- An organisation, or a professional body or trade association for instance, that wishes to map its own established structure to SFIA can do so using the levels of responsibility characterised by the generic attributes as the basis of such a mapping.
Universal applicability
SFIA is intended as a framework for the digital, IT and software engineering community – the professional skills reflect this, although many are directly relevant outside of this area. Its universal applicability means that SFIA can be extended beyond these broad areas into a range of knowledge-intensive/technical professions. These levels of responsibility allow for an integration of different professional work using the levels of responsibility as the foundation whether that be framework to framework or an organisation’s structure to the SFIA Framework.