Curated Articles - IT Workforce

Curated articles on the IT Workforce

Here’s a collection of insights from key industry sources which are relevant to everyone interested in SFIA and creating a high performing IT workforce. Not all the sources are specific to IT – many look at leading practice elsewhere and how this can be applied to IT organisations and IT people.

Topics include IT skills assessments, IT career paths and career families, modern / social learning for IT organisations and IT people, IT workforce planning, high performance, employee engagement and performance, IT organisation design, IT role design, SFIA.

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SFIA, ITIL and High Performance

How SFIA can support your ITIL service transformation. I have recently read the excellent “Owning ITIL” by Rob England. It got me thinking about the part that SFIA can play in bringing about an ITIL led Service transformation Our starting point is that a service...

Why get certified in the first place?

Professional Certifications: Why get certified in the first place? by Przemek (Shem) Radzikowski read Shem's article at linkedin.com There are some very good points made in this article and it is very comprehensive. I would add a couple of other points:...

Book review – People Capability Maturity Model PCMM

The bible! A complete reference guide for managing the capability of your workforce. It is written in the familiar CMM style and contains a enormous amount of information and insights to support good practice in improving the capability of your workforce. Although not...

Book review – IT Capability Maturity Framework

This book provides a very useful and comprehensive guide to Capabilities. It covers all IT domains and its focus is on business value - not processes. Can be used as an alternative to ITIL and COBIT to support organisation design and Target Operating Model projects....

Using SFIA version 6 – 10 Things Change Management and OD Professionals need to Know

Supports organisation design, Job design and competency modelling, resources. Very quick to develop and iterate – quicker than traditional job descriptions and easier to understand Quick identification of skill gaps to drive change management strategies. Supports high...

How SFIA helps people move into IT

Here's an article describing how New tech and innovative business models are changing the shape of tech employment - How cloud computing and the on-demand economy are remaking IT careers | ZDNet I’m not sure how much of this is “news” – people have been joining IT...

Using SFIA – 10 Things IT Professionals need to Know

This article complements the summary information provided in 10 things you should know about SFIA. It describes SFIA from an individual's point of view. What can you use it for, what if you are asked to use it and how can it help you and your career. 1. It's free to...

Professional profiles for the Technology workforce

Professional profiles provide a different way of approaching job descriptions. They offer time and cost savings in production and maintenance. More importantly they support strategic resourcing and talent management for your technology / IT workforce. They enable an...

Strategic IT Resource Management

12 signs that you should be more strategic with IT resource management When asked in industry surveys – your CIO is the one who responds “we have skills gaps but no plan to fill skills gaps" Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, surveyed more than 2,000 employers. He...

SFIA & OD Consultancy for IT Organisations

What makes a great Organisation Development (OD) consultant for IT organisations and for getting the best out of SFIA? Q. What is organisation development? A. a systematic approach to improving organisational effectiveness – one that aligns strategy, people and...

Focus on performance not learning

Why its better to eliminate the need for learning rather than deliver training. This provides a great model and an analogy why formal training in topics such as ITIL and PRINCE2 do not improve performance. Read more from Nick...

Getting the Most Out of 70-20-10

This article is from Robert Demare who led a successful adoption of SFIA within DHL. In the article he challenges the approach many organisation have adopted to using 70:20:10. I found this refreshing - it can seem that many organisations feel they are enlightened and...

What does Blended Learning mean?

Blended learning is a concept (or is it a piece of jargon) which has been with us for sometime. Its one of those phrases where it is easy to assume everyone understands it and it has a common meaning. Step forward Jane Hart to expose the reality: "Blended Learning"...

Building Cloud Competencies

I have put together a story board of slides below to demonstrate how IT organisations can respond to the challenges of 2 speed IT and building Cloud competencies in a structured and timely way. It includes using SFIA (Skills Framework for the Information Age) as a...

High performing ITSM needs good people and a strong team

It is a feature of the profession that many IT managers see the solution to performance improvement is through better processes, tools and technology. Of course, these are important - but the fact is high performing people can overcome the limitations of processes and...

63 things you can do with SFIA

This makes SFIA a very powerful tool but it does come with a health warning; be wary if someone tells you how to "implement" SFIA. The real question should be "What are your IT workforce related challenges and opportunities" and how can adopting SFIA help you tackle...

Employability of Graduates in IT

The IT skills shortage is a recurring topic in any conversation about the IT workforce and one of the often quoted causes for the lack of skills is the employability of graduates / entry level professionals in IT. This has led to 2 developments: A push to make higher...

SFIA level 6 & level 7 – developing strategic thinking

Developing strategic thinking is a common development problem for IT professionals who aspire to leadership roles. I came across an article from HBR.org which highlights some approaches to developing strategic thinking. So I thought I would try and link this to SFIA...

IT Transformation – Putting people first

The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) is a great tool to support transformational change in IT organisations. This article from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) highlights the importance of the people side of Transformational change and the puts the case...

Has SFIA become zombified in your organisation?

have just come across a monster word - "Zompetencies" - I found it in a great article by Stacia Garr at Bersin by Deloitte. It's a reference to Zombie competencies ... where competencies seem to be collapsing under their own weight, dying a very slow death Stacia...

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I have been working in IT for 30 years and in IT Talent Management for the last 15 years. I have worked with SFIA since 2003 and I have a track record of success with organisations large and small and in the UK and beyond that proves my approach works. It can work for you as well.

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