The British Computer Society is pressing major IT suppliers
to adopt a common framework to assess and describe the skills of
their staff.
It wants to create a single set of job descriptions and skill
levels for all UK IT professionals in both user and supplier
organisations.
The project will make it easier for IT departments to assess the
skills of consultants and suppliers, and whether they have the
right skills for the job, said BCS chief executive David
Clarke.
"If someone is a project manager level-three in one supplier, he
might be a senior project manager in another. In future, customers
will know what they are getting," he said.
The BCS is working with suppliers to map the skills of their
workforce to industry standard the Skills Framework for the
Information Age (SFIA). Last year IBM became the first supplier to
map its internal skills framework to the BCS SFIAmodel.
Other suppliers and user organisations are keen to follow IBM in
adopting a standard model for assessing and measuring the skills of
IT staff, said Clarke.
"All the companies we have been talking to feel there is a real
benefit in having a single structure. They want to make sure they
have competent, qualified people who are employed to do the right
thing," he said.
IBM and the BCS mapped three internal IBM professions - IT
architect, specialist and consultant - to the SFIA. Staff working
in these areas now qualify automatically for BCS membership,
allowing their skills to be recognised outside IBM.
"SFIA is an enabler to allow clients to have confidence," said IBM
senior engineer Chris Winter, who initiated the programme.