Why does SFIA NZ exist?

This site serves a couple of purposes: At its heart is a desire to make the SFIA framework more readily accessible in New Zealand and to help those who are keen to adopt SFIA to do so with some basic good quality guidance.

At the Digital Skills Agency something we hear quite often from those already using SFIA is a desire to have an easily searchable, New Zealand focussed resource, with all the key information in one place. And from those who are exploring SFIA for the first time, or who are looking for guidance to help their pilot succeed, we hear a desire for more specific guidance and in particular guidance in line with what others in New Zealand are doing.

As the leading SFIA Partner in New Zealand, and with our representation on the SFIA Council and SFIA Design Authority Board, we are uniquely placed to help the full spectrum of SFIA users across New Zealand.

Community Resource

SFIA NZ exists to provide a community resource for SFIA users and those interested in SFIA across New Zealand.

Part of our mission at the Digital Skills Agency is to promote useful frameworks like SFIA within New Zealand and help grow the understanding of the digital skills that underpin much of our economy in New Zealand.

Much of the content on this site is available for free for anyone in New Zealand to use and is provided in the hope that it will be a useful resource to help organisations and individuals access SFIA content in an easy-to-use format, and have access to good quality guidance to start their SFIA journey.

Content on this site will include:

• Core SFIA content, including the SFIA framework of skills and levels of responsibility. This content is provided under licence from the SFIA Foundation, the owners of the SFIA framework.
• Supplementary guidance to help users understand some of the nuisances and build a shared understanding of the SFIA content.
• Introductory material to help new users quickly identify where SFIA can help them most and get started.
• Usage guidance to help established users and organisations seeking to make the most of SFIA operate in way that is compatible with accepted SFIA usage internationally and to help build consistency of approach and consistency in the application of SFIA. This will include (over time):
  • guidance on migrating to new SFIA versions.
  • guidance on performing key SFIA activities such as skills assessments, mapping position descriptions to SFIA, and using SFIA to support staff development.
  • links to training materials (some free, some paid) for those who want to build on the high-level guidance here and develop specific capabilities in using SFIA.
  • links to accredited training for those who wish to become SFIA Accredited specialists.
  • links to webinars and details of upcoming events of interest for the SFIA community in NZ.
• Users stories from New Zealand organisations, and other interesting case studies from the international community.
• Updates and major news of interest to SFIA users in New Zealand.

Support Resource

Our Digital Skills Agency team also needs a place where we can support our growing client base. Those clients also have a need for this community resource in common with other NZ users, and also need access to central location that can provide additional content. That content might include:

• Content unique to their organisation (internal support resources, copies of presentations provided, talks delivered, and details of who to contact internally)
• 'Premium content' from Digital Skills Agency only available to consulting clients, or content tailored to a specific organisation. This may include some of training material.
• Support resources and guidance for the tools they use that we provide.
• Other resources that their teams may like to have in a central location.

We also want our clients (both their SFIA implementation team and their staff) to be able to reach out for advice and guidance in an easy manner if they can't find the resources they need on this site and so we have included the ability for clients to log and track requests on this site and via email.