the digital skills landscape in 2018 · the digital skills landscape in 2018 matthew burrows...

The Digital Skills Landscape in 2018

Matthew Burrows

“Gartner predicts that, by 2020, 75 percent of organizations will experience visible business disruptions due to I&O [IT Infrastructure & Operations Management] skills gaps, which is an increase from less than 20 percent in 2016.

Given the lack of digital dexterity for hire, I&O leaders must begin by developing these skills with the talent they already have.

Most companies don't have an accurate inventory of the available skills of their current IT workforces, so this must be a first step.”

March 27, 2018 https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3869879

A 2018 Digital Leaders survey from BCS uncovered a common vulnerability which risks their brand reputation and organisation’s success by failing to deliver on promises to customer, internal stakeholders and investors:

“Only 14% of participants feel their organisation has enough resources to achieve success in 2018”

https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3869879

Six out of seven admit to having a skills and resource problemHow did we get there, and, more importantly, what urgent action is needed to help fix this?

Having the right people with the right skills at appropriate levels, is essential for all organisations.

Getting there requires a definitive and detailed answer to two key questions:

What skills do we have?

What skills do we need?

Is it acceptable for any CIO, COO, HR Director, or any senior leader, to not know the answers?

• Examples of organisations who have started to address this issue?

• How do you do it?

• What the data reveals

What I’m going to cover

8

Free to use*Descriptions of Professional

Skills

Written for/by the industry

Plain language Easy to

understand

Regularly updated

Used Globally

Several translations

* Subject to free usage license conditions – use individually or within your company

SFIA is the common language for skills in the digital world

Been around since early 1990’s

Recent accelerated uptake driven by the combination of digital transformation vs skills shortages

Delivers significant ROI – easier to recruit & resource, work with partners, drive engagement and reduces churn, drive professional development and operation efficiency.

www.sfia-online.org

Skills Framework for the Information Age

Country Corporate Personal

Great Britain 1689 4770

Australia 883 3,229

Europe

(excluding UK)400 1,477

United States 425 948

Canada 90 729

New Zealand 135 393

India 72 241

UAE + Saudi

Arabia50 198

China + Hong

Kong25 75

Rest of the World 318 2,218

Non specified 182 1,586

Total 4,269 15,864

SFIA - Globally Accepted Framework & Common language

http://www.sfia-online.org/

WHO USES SFIA?

11

“SFIA plays a role in countering weapons of mass destruction”

“The primary reason we wanted to go through the SFIA Assessment was to help get more data for our

department's workforce plan.”

“The more time that the management has spent understanding what SFIA is, the more value we are

seeing it can have.”

12

“SFIA will prove useful in drafting appropriate position descriptions (PD) and individual training plans for

specific roles within government IT.”

“Using SFIA as a skills reference establishes consistency and logical skills mapping within the

organization.”

“Of particular note is SFIA6 additions to skill descriptions that are specific to cyber (like PENT –

Penetration Testing and DGFS – Digital Forensics) and the upgrade of SCTY – Information Security that

now has a level 7 description.”

US Navy

13

“A key challenge for the team was the need to understand the skills required to support not only the existing Heritage

systems but also those skills required to support the transformation process as well as the new services platform. It

was decided that SFIA (Skills Framework for the Information Age) was the framework they would need to ensure they

had a consistent and structured set of skills to work from.

Inland Revenue engaged BSMimpact to conduct a SFIA baseline assessment across the ICT organisation to

understand what skills they had. This included assessing and validating 300+ ICT staff and producing an

organisation-wide report detailing the overall levels of responsibility, outlining skill gaps and providing observations

and recommendations for improvement. Each ICT member was provided with an individual SFIA skills profile. The

information from the consolidated organisation report was used to inform strategies for Learning and Development,

sourcing strategies and Organisational Design.”

New Zealand Inland Revenue

https://bsmimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Case-Study-IRD.pdf

https://bsmimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Case-Study-IRD.pdf

14

CenSus – local government IT, UK

The intention and plan at CenSus was to form a single team capable of providing ICT support services for

the participating organisations, both for Business As Usual (BAU) activities and for transformational and

developmental projects. To do this, it was necessary to understand the skills and capability of each team

member to ensure that the right people were in the right roles.

The results for CenSus found that there was a significant amount of potentially untapped capability in

resources not currently using previously held skills. Often this represented experience which could be

used to mentor others, or to support those working to close their own skill gaps. The resulting report

identified that some SFIA skills were not fully present, facilitating an informed discussion about which

skill gaps might need to be addressed based on whether they are required by the organisation.

15

NSW Department of Land Property

and Information (LPI), Australia

“I wanted all my staff to understand what their skills were and how we could help them to develop those

skills to meet our future needs.”

Steven Woodhouse, Chief Information Officer

To do this, he had to set up a vision of what the organisation would look like. In order to see this 'future

state', they needed to understand their current situation. LPI turned to SFIA to understand what skills

they had currently, and to determine what skills they would need in the future.

https://bsmimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Case-Study-CenSus.pdf

https://bsmimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Case-Study-CenSus.pdf

https://bsmimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Case-Study-NSW-LPI-1.0.pdf

https://bsmimpact.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Case-Study-NSW-LPI-1.0.pdf


and


How to answer the key questions

Skill Profiles


Governance and Management of Change

Awareness, Training and Skills Transfer

Skills Assessment and Analysis

Operating Model and Role Profiling

Skill Profiles


Roles / Job Descriptions

What skills do we need? Governance and Management of Change




Skill Profiles




Individual Self-Assessment





Skill Profiles










Skill Profiles




Role / JD Review or Development







Skill Profiles












Skill Profiles













Skill Profiles




Independent Assessment










Skill Profiles










Data Analysis

Development Planning





Skill Profiles










Data Analysis


Review / Presentation





Skill Profiles










Data Analysis


Review / Presentation

Embedding of SFIA





What a Successful SFIA implementation looks like

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 DeliverablesObjectives


Operating Model & Role Profiling

Assessment Configuration

SFIA Awareness

Operating Model Review Workshop



Kick-off; Workshops; Comms. Development

Execute Communications Plan

Data Analysis

Week 5 Week 6

Review Workshop

ASSESS CHANGE EMBED

SFIA Self-Assessment

Skills Discussion Sessions

SFIA Training (optional)

Communications Package

Role Profiles and Development Plans

Skills Profiles and Analysis


Role Profile / Job Description DevelopmentPosition Matching and

Gap Analysis


What does the data show?

• Effective resourcing requires a baselining of current skills and capabilities

• There is a natural reticence on behalf of leaders to try to answer this question

Key Takeaways

• Human Resources professionals often feel ineffective and excluded because of translation and communication issues between technology and HR, with each community having a different set of terminology and acronyms.

• SFIA is an excellent framework that helps address this precise issue by providing a common language that is accessible to all.

Key Takeaways

• There is a perception that finding out what skills are present, and which are needed is difficult to do.

• Our experience is that assessment of current skills is much easier to do than expected, if an appropriate approach is taken. Sadly, we have noted that common practice is often not what we’ve found to be effective good practice, and this can undermine the perceived value of SFIA itself.

• We still need to help our people improve their Influence. This will make them better communicators, become evangelists, and interact more effectively with business colleagues and suppliers.

Key Takeaways

• To support Digital Transformation, we need to move more staff from responsibility level 4 to 5. This will help embed new processes and methods and ensure consistency and compliance.

• We don’t know how to share! The lack of skills in Information Systems Coordination is going to inhibit the adoption of Cloud technologies and multi-supplier models such as SIAM.

Key Takeaways

• The lack of skills in User Experience means we are still creating solutions for IT people and the business executives, not our end customers. The dramatic rise of organisations like Xero and products from Apple show the importance of getting the User Experience right. Without these fundamental skills, we will continue to disenfranchise large parts of our demographic and reinforce the Digital divide.

Key Takeaways

• Our people managers focus on employee performance, not professional development, which negatively impacts staff churn and often wastes time and money on the wrong training and development activities.

Key Takeaways

• Whilst we talk about the great skills shortage, some of the skills we lack the most are described in SFIA’s Skills management sub-category. This includes learning assessment and evaluation (LEDA), which is found in less than 1% of our respondents. Why do we care so little about understanding critical learning needs?

• Our approach to Information and Cyber Security continues to be fragmented, with a lack of Enterprise ownership and coordination.

Key Takeaways

• Our on-demand attitude has made us lazy in Capacity Management, creating an ‘Oliver – more please’ mentality. Whilst this approach can work for commodity services, we still need to manage supply and demand to ensure we continue to provide value to the business.

• The grey areas between Accountability and Responsibility continue to confuse our people, even our most senior leaders, creating confusion about what people do and the skills they need.

Key Takeaways

• As we transform our IT organisations from teams of people that manage technology to empowered individuals that deliver outcomes, we will need to enhance our skills in Service Level Management, Contract Management and Sourcing. IT professionals will broker ‘fit for purpose’ solutions based on business demand; incorporating Cloud services and in-house capability, implemented with an Agile approach. Solution Architects who understand Security and have their head in the Clouds will rule the roost, building beautiful solutions with the ultimate User Experience.

Key Takeaways

LEVELS OF RESPONSIBILITY

• The lack of staff purely operating at level 1 could indicate that few organisations bring people into their organisations at this level.

• Artificial intelligence, machine learning, general automation, outsourcing?

• Influence tracks below at levels 5, 6 and 7


• Level of influence tracking below/behind other characteristics

• Whilst many claimed level 7 through self-assessment, only 0.96% of the validated subjects could provide sufficient evidence for the Assessors to validate autonomy at level 7.


• The 2016 report showed the proportions of Autonomy and Influence the other way around for those at level 7

• indicating a reduction in the average level of –being given the Autonomy, but lacking the Influence to back that up.

Performance management (PEMT)

Relationship management (RLMT)

IT strategy and planning (ITSP)

Consultancy (CNSL)

IT management (ITMG)

IT governance (GOVN)

Programme management (PGMG)

Project management (PRMG)

Contract management (ITCM)

Technical specialism (TECH)


Application support (ASUP)


Customer service support (CSMG)

Incident management (USUP)

Programming / software development (PROG)


Problem management (PBMG)

System installation / decommissioning (HSIN)

Project management (PRMG)





Testing (TEST)


IT infrastructure (ITOP)

Security administration (SCAD)


Systems design (DESN)

Sustainability engineering (SUEN)

Sustainability assessment (SUAS)

Sustainability strategy (SUST)

Safety assessment (SFAS)

Sustainability management (SUMI)

Independent AssessmentSelf-AssessmentManagement of Change Analytics

Data CaptureSelf-Assessment

What skills and capabilities do we

have?

Optional 360-degree and/or Independent

Assessment

Independently assess and certify skills and

experience

Planning, Communication and

System set-up

Engage and empower participants, allay fears,

build awareness

Leverage the data and analytics

Individual developmentCareer PathsRecruitment

Role Profiling

Create SFIA-based Role Profiles and/or

Job Descriptions

What skills and capabilities do we

need?

Professional Services and Support as required e.g. Help with Roles Profiles, Skills Discussions, Training and Mentoring etc.

SFIA is a globally accepted framework and common language for digital and IT skills

SkillsTx is a user-friendly and powerful SFIA tool that answers…

What Skills and Capabilities Do We Have?

What Skills and Capabilities Do We Need?

… and delivers value to Senior Managers, Team Leaders, HR, L&D and Individuals

Career Planning& Continual Professional

DevelopmentImprove Wellbeing,

Retention, Recruitment,& Training / L&D ROI

Resourcing / Mitigate Project

Skills Risks

Standardise role/job

profiles & functions

Succession Planning & Merger / Acquisition

integration

Baseline CurrentSkills & Capabilities

• SFIA describes skills and competencies used by professionals in:

• ICT and related roles• Digital roles• Software Engineering roles

• Globally accepted common reference model• Used in almost 200 countries• Used by governments, corporates, education, professional bodies,

small businesses, and individuals• Available in multiple languages

• It’s free!• Free for most non-commercial use …



• Vendor, framework, sector, and tool agnostic

• Skill descriptions are focussed on activity• Describes what you can do at various levels of competence

• Global collaborative development of industry / business / users• Updates come from real users of SFIA• Overseen by global Design Authority Board

• Global governance – SFIA Council• Professional bodies – e.g. ITP, BCS, …• Industry bodies – e.g. itSMF, ISACA, … • Leading partners – e.g. BSMimpact, …

• SFIA is “owned” by the non-for-profit SFIA Foundation


• SFIA focusses on professional skills

• Professionals skills are demonstrated through (and developed through) experience

• Professional skills are placed in the context of:

• Behaviours

• Knowledge• Technical knowledge

• Tools and methodologies

• Contextual information

SFIA

• 102 skills• 390 skill-level descriptions

• 7 level of responsibility• 5 aspects at each level:

• Autonomy

• Influence

• Complexity

• Knowledge

• Business Skills

SFIA 7

Example Skill

Website• Moving to SFIA7 guide

• Online reference guide

• Previous versions

• Publish mappings

• Change requests

• Contextual ‘views’

• Translations

• List of partners, tools, …

• More information …

• www.sfia-online.org

• Straight-forward, jargon free language

• Accessible to those who support ICT/Digital workers

• Wide breadth of coverage

• Flexible, non-prescriptive

• Designed to fit into your organisation’s way of working

• Skills are described in their essence, not prescribed

• Recognised by professional bodies, industry bodies, education …

• E.g. ITP CITP based on SFIA descriptions

• Industry bodies aligning with SFIA (Software Engineering, Business Analysts, …)

WHY USE SFIA?

http://www.sfia-online.org/

WHY USE SFIA?

WHO USES SFIA?

• Assess skills

• Career planning

• Professional development

• Skills profiles / CV

Individuals

• People management

• Resource deployment

• Capability overview

• Job descriptions

Line Managers

• Strategic capability planning

• Aligning capability and strategic plans

• Digital transformation

• Mergers/acquisitions

Organisational Leaders

• Job descriptions

• Workforce planning

• Career pathways

• Organisational performance

Human Resources

• Development outcomes

• Blending learning solutions

• 70/20/10 Development

Learning & Development

•Job specification

• Interview questions

•Competency based selectionRecruiters

•Aligning process roles will skill requirements

•Role design and validation

•Assessing organisational skills gaps

Process Consultants

•Management of outsource service providers

•SFIA based rate cardsProcurement

•Alignment of bodies of knowledge

•Membership/certification assessments

•Professional development

Professional and Industry

Bodies

•Align courses to employer/employee needs

•Alignment to global standards

•Support development evaluation

Education Sector

• Digital and Digital Transformation• Refined skills and specific Digital Transformation view

• Software Engineering• Refined skills and added new skills

• Agile/DevOps• Reviewed skills and Agile / DevOps views (to come)

• Big Data / Informatics• Reviewed skills, new skill added

• Information Security & Cybersecurity• Reviewed skills, security explicitly added in Business Skills

• Knowledge• Skills added, and explicit Knowledge attribute added

SFIA 7 UPDATES - THEMES

56 skills updated

9 new skills added

43 new skill levels added

4 skills retired (or merged)

41 update skill

descriptions

169 updated skill level

descriptions

SFIA 7 UPDATES

• Public register of changes requests• Enables continuous consultation

• Global Design Authority Board established

• Contributions and review by community• Beta release viewed 20,000 times in 146 countries

• Further language translations enabled• Spanish, German, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese

• Further work on French and other languages anticipated

SFIA 7 UPDATES - PARTICIPATION

• Show you how to answer the “What skills do you have, and what do you need?” challenge in only a few weeks

• Share case studies from organisations who have already done so using SFIA, the Skills Framework for the Information Age

• Provide insights for the latest Digital Skills Landscape Report, an analysis of the data collected from the organizations around the world who have completed skills assessments

• Help you start your own individual skills assessment

• Give you an actionable plan for your team/department/organization

LESSONS LEARNED

• Answering the “what skills do we have?” question is a necessity• Or else, how do you know where you’re starting from, your risk, or whether

any of your training is appropriately targeted?

• Take a view on what skills you need• Whether that’s short, medium, or long term – or indeed just for a new

service or a specific project

• Start soon!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

the digital skills landscape in 2018 · the digital skills landscape in 2018 matthew burrows...

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