SFIA Assessment, Credentials and Digital Badges

The SFIA Logo, or any part of it in any form, must not be used in any credential or digital badge without the explicit permission of the SFIA Foundation, provided in writing.

Introduction

Note:
Self assessment using SFIA and internal assessment carried out by an organisation internally are both beneficial for people and workforce development and are strongly encouraged. General guidance for assessment is provided here.

The remainder of this section applies to approved SFIA Assessment Schemes, practice by any SFIA Assessor and also the issuing SFIA digital credentials - but is also sound advice any organisation operating an internal assessment scheme.

The SFIA Framework has been used for the assessment of skills and competencies within organisations and for professional recognition by industry professional bodies for around 20 years. SFIA’s global footprint, the vastly increased international use of SFIA as the global standard for skills and competency in the digital professions and the interest in digital badges has led to the SFIA Foundation working to establish approved assessment and credential schemes.

The basis of the SFIA Foundation approved assessment schemes and digital badges are proper use application of the SFIA Framework,  two international standards and a set of scheme requirements:

• The SFIA - Skills and Competency Framework Standard
• ISO/IEC 17024:2012 the international standard for ‘conformity assessment – general requirements for bodies operating certification of persons’
• ISO/IEC 24773  the international standard for ‘software and systems engineering – certification of software and systems engineering professionals’ (equally applicable outside of software and systems engineering certification)
• SFIA Approved Assessment Scheme Requirements

SFIA Digital Badge Schemes

The SFIA Foundation uses and issues digital badges under a number of schemes. These schemes enable the SFIA Foundation or its partner organisations to issue badges for particular achievements:

• Scheme 0: To badge understanding of particular use of SFIA for instance completion of a SFIA training course/test
• Scheme 1: To badge SFIA Accredited Practitioners, Consultants and Assessors
• Scheme 2: To badge an individual against specific SFIA Skills or Levels of Responsibility
• Scheme 3: The badging of organisations in relation to their use and application of SFIA

Currently:

• Badges issued under Schemes 0, 1 and 3 may only be issued by the SFIA Foundation
• Badges issued under Scheme 2 may be issued by Global SFIA Partner organisations only after their scheme has been approved by the SFIA Foundation

SFIA Digital Badges - Confidence and Trust

The purpose of The SFIA Foundation Approved Assessment Schemes is to provide a basis of confidence and trust for both those people achieving an award and for those organisations taking the award as an indication of knowledge, skill and competency. Trust is best achieved through clear and open criteria for any award and transparency throughout the establishment of criteria, evaluation and award and, importantly, the accountability of the SFIA Partner Assessment Scheme and the individual assessor used.

SFIA Digital Badges - Endorsement

The SFIA Foundation provides 'endorsement' of digital badges issued by SFIA Partners from their own Credibly Badge Platform. The SFIA Partner is fully responsible for the issuing of the digital badge. The SFIA Partner and their individual assessor is accountable for the the assessment and award.

Endorsement is not a verification or validation of the award, it is a recognition that the badge was issued under an approved scheme, where the SFIA Partner agrees to comply with the SFIA Foundation's requirements for an approved scheme.

Note: Removal of an endorsement. Where the SFIA Foundation feels it must remove an endorsement for a single issue, for whatever reason, the endorsement is removed from all instances of that badge issued. If the endorsement is removed from the scheme as a whole then all badges issued under the scheme also lose their endorsement.