e-SKILLS : Promotion of ICT Professionalism in Europe European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT Final Report February 2015 Prepared for the European Commission DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
129
Embed
European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first point ... · e-SKILLS : Promotion of ICT Professionalism in Europe European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first point
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
e-SKILLS : Promotion of ICT Professionalism in Europe
European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first point of reference for
anyone interested in working in ICT Final Report
February 2015
Prepared for the
European Commission
DG Internal Market, Industry,
Entrepreneurship and SMEs
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 2 of 129
Service Contract: e-Skills: Promotion of ICT Professionalism in Europe No 290/PP/ENT/CIP/13/C/N01C011
This service contract is carried out by Capgemini Consulting and Ernst & Young.
For more information about this paper, please contact:
European Commission, Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
Unit for Key Enabling Technologies and Digital Economy
Appendix C: Example country factsheet – The Netherlands ......................................... 127
Appendix D: List of references ....................................................................................... 128
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 5 of 129
Table of Tables Table 1: Overview of selected international topic specific Bodies of Knowledge ................................................ 52
Table 2: Overview of Universities of interest for mapping curricula to the Foundational ICT BOK ..................... 62
Table 3: Category composition of the stakeholders’ sample – Absolute numbers and percentages ................ 105
Table 4: Role profiles of interviewed – Absolute numbers and percentages ..................................................... 106
Table 5: Gaps referred to specific technical contents of ICT profession ............................................................ 108
Table 6: Gaps referred to general aspects or differences of approach between ICT graduates / practitioners and
the demand from industry ................................................................................................................ 109
Table 7: Who should benefit from an ICT Body of Knowledge? ......................................................................... 117
Table 8: Other aspects to take into consideration, by category ......................................................................... 119
Table 9: Other Sources of information, suggested by stakeholders ................................................................... 121
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 6 of 129
Table of Figures Figure 1: Collaborative network as platform for sustainability and promotion ................................................... 10
Figure 2: Development of a Foundational Meta-Level ICT Body of Knowledge ................................................... 19
Figure 3: ACM Computer Science Knowledge Areas ............................................................................................ 20
Figure 4: Visualisation of the EU BOK in the context of life-long learning ........................................................... 24
Figure 5: Japanese ICTBOK.................................................................................................................................... 37
Figure 6: Example of Underlying areas within the Japanese ICTBOK ................................................................... 37
Figure 7: Process Flow NASSCOM Assessment of Competence-Technology ....................................................... 41
Figure 8: Sections of the Foundation Skills in IT programme ............................................................................... 41
Figure 9: Different approaches to drafting a Body of Knowledge ........................................................................ 45
Figure 10: Professional subdivision of computing field (Peter J Denning 2011) .................................................. 47
Figure 11: Activities to close gaps between ICT graduates and / or practitioners and the demand from the
industry ................................................................................................................................................ 58
Figure 12: Collaborative network as platform for sustainability and promotion ................................................. 83
Figure 13: composition of the stakeholders sample in terms of categories ....................................................... 106
Figure 14: Role profiles of interviewed............................................................................................................... 107
Figure 15: activities to close gaps between ICT graduates and / or practitioners and the demand from the
industry .............................................................................................................................................. 110
Figure 16: Are stakeholders undertaking any activities to close gaps between ICT graduates and / or
practitioners and the demand from the industry? ............................................................................ 111
Figure 17: Accreditation and certification is a means to formalise the qualifications of an ICT Professional. How
stakeholders evaluate the current ICT certification and accreditation provided by the following
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 8 of 129
proposal for a European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge provides an initial attempt, a first step.
Developing a Body of Knowledge will always remain a process requiring the involvement of a great many
stakeholders. This concrete proposal does however provide anyone interested in working in ICT with a view of
what working in ICT can offer and what is required to grasp that opportunity.
As we learned from analysing existing Bodies of Knowledge, the process of generating a Body of Knowledge is
in most cases done by practitioners who felt a need to document the existing knowledge and who took time to
develop it. Ensuring broad stakeholder support is pivotal for the success of this initiative. Throughout the
duration of this work many experts from across Europe and beyond were involved (U.S., Japan, Canada,
Australia etc.). They represented organisations in various sectors including Education, Industry, Public sector,
professional and certification associations and many others that are all committed to contribute to further
maturing the ICT profession. The development of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge is based
on a combination of thorough study and analysis of existing research and generic / specific Bodies of
Knowledge, as well as exploring and capturing the needs and demands of stakeholders. This led to the creation
of a draft BOK and version 1.0 of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. The results presented in
the final report are the outcome of much iteration and are supported by key stakeholders.
Figure 1: The European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge
The European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge includes different knowledge areas of the ICT domain
ranging from a strategic to a technological perspective. The reasoning behind this is that every ICT professional
should have knowledge of both strategy as well as technology (of course varying in balance depending on the
job one works in). These knowledge areas are presented as a continuum. There are three knowledge areas
that were selected to be ‘cross-cutting’ the ICT discipline, of which soft skills is an important one. Each
knowledge area describes the various elements one needs to master, and provides reference to the e-
Competence Framework, to possible job profiles and to specific knowledge (in specific existing Bodies of
Knowledge and / or certifications). This function of referencing is one of the key strengths of the model – as it
allows for anyone to understand what comes next. Base-level knowledge is required to start an ICT job, after
which one has to further develop specific knowledge, competencies and skills to grow and explore a career
path.
Naming this European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge a version 1.0 already implies that it will further
develop and mature into new versions in the future. The process of maintaining and enriching the European
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge through broad consensus building is critical to deliver on its potential.
This report also proposes an operating model that defines the functions contributing to achieving a recognised
ICT
Stra
tegy
& G
ove
rnan
ce
Bu
sin
ess
an
d M
arke
to
f IC
T
Pro
ject
Man
age
me
nt
Qu
alit
yM
anag
em
en
t
Secu
rity
Man
age
me
nt
Arc
hit
ect
ure
Dat
a &
In
form
atio
nM
anag
em
en
t
Ne
two
rk &
Sys
tem
Inte
grat
ion
Soft
war
e d
esi
gn &
de
velo
pm
en
t
Hu
man
Co
mp
ute
rIn
tera
ctio
n
Test
ing
Op
era
tio
ns
& S
erv
ice
man
age
me
nt
Emerging / Disruptive Technologies
Soft Skills
Legal, Ethical, Social and Professional Practices
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
Foundationalknowledge
e-CF reference
Potential Job profiles
Examples of specific BOK’s,
certification
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 9 of 129
and supported Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge that facilitates communication and understanding of ICT
professionals in Europe, thereby strengthening ICT professionalism and improving collaboration within the
profession. This includes on the one hand: coordination, funding, innovation and maintenance through
consensus building to ensure a sustainable model, and on the other hand: communication and international
collaboration to promote and stimulate take-up of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge.
The ambition of the European Commission is to promote the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge
into a European standard. This is a process that will take time. While this maturing process is going on, the
European Standardisation Body (CEN) appears to be the most expedient body to take ownership and guide
that process. It would enable the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge to grow in close relation to
the e-Competence Framework and other elements of the Framework for ICT professionalism which are
developed by CEN. Funding mechanisms are already in place as well as procedures to propose, design, discuss,
decide on and publish requests for change. It furthermore connects to international standardisation
frameworks. A relevant network of stakeholders also exists and could be easily assigned with this task. We
underline the necessity of ensuring broad community involvement, in an open and transparent matter.
One of the key success factors of promoting ICT Professionalism is the establishment of an open and
collaborative network bringing together all relevant stakeholders. While a collaborative platform is open to all
interested people, it is basically positioned as offering new insights and opportunities to key stakeholders, by
opening up another European dimension to their current activities. Such a dimension is critical for boosting ICT
professionalism across Europe. The key message is to offer all relevant stakeholders at a national, regional or
local level a ‘European dimension’ to their activities, complementary to their current practices. A successful
collaborative network must: have clear ICT practitioner-centred objectives; grow quickly to achieve a critical
mass of users and keep a constant growth. It must furthermore be a dynamic platform offering tailored
services and features, allowing outsiders to tap in as well. The figure below represents this view in the context
of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge.
Another key success factor is determining leading practices as ‘champions’, as an effective means to drive
take-up of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge in European countries. Representatives from
respected European organisations such as the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS),
the European e-Skills Association, and national organisations such as for example CIGREF and Pasc@line in
France, are well equipped for that purpose, as well as various academic networks. This would provide an
impulse to the promotion of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge and boost growth of the
collaborative network. The latter is essential because achieving a critical mass of users is required to make this
a success. Many stakeholders showed interest in the overall process up to now, were actively involved and
contributed. The best time to start further development and promotion of the European Foundational ICT
Body of Knowledge is now. This will require serious communication and promotion efforts to provide the
engine behind further European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge development and promotion would take
optimal advantage of the current momentum this work has obtained. It will also be of value to create
awareness amongst (potential) ICT professionals, directly and / or through teachers and employers – and to
further explore international collaboration.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 10 of 129
Figure 1: Possible Collaborative network as platform for sustainability and promotion
There are two choices when it comes to sustainability, as eloquently put by Prof James Lapalme: ‘either the
means is the community and the objective is the Body of Knowledge, or the means is the Body of Knowledge
and the objective the community’. Do we aim for a sustainable process, in which the needs and aspirations of
the community are addressed in the development of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge, with
the goal to increase meaning and improve decision-making? Or do we limit our scope to the contents and
focus purely on updating and reviewing the document itself? Although there is a grey area between the two
options, the community driven approach seems to be most beneficial. This is a very important assumption,
because many of the processes to maintain and enrich current European documents are often not organised
as such but are instead mostly output-driven.
With the proposal for an operating model for the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge, we also want
to make clear that more is needed to advance more quickly and achieve success. The European Foundational
ICT Body of Knowledge can only deliver on its potential if we succeed to make it part of the community. To
create a sense of ownership – not just with the governing body responsible for the actual updates but with the
entire ecosystem - and in particular the (potential) ICT professional.
Even though ‘the’ ICT profession is difficult to define - as it is broad and diverse and rapidly advancing as well –
this European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge provides a first scope with the aim to make it
understandable for anyone what possible career opportunities exist. The European Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge is aimed at anyone willing to enter the ICT profession, either coming directly from university or
from other career paths – there are vacancies that need to be filled. These jobs might still change, and new
profiles will emerge due to advancing technological developments, but to start in any ICT job would require
having a breadth of understanding of what ICT is. This European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge provides
that insight. The challenge now is to not only communicate this, but also make it of practical use for those
potential ICT professionals and hence ensure widespread adoption of the model.
Traditional channels won’t suffice, especially since there is a need to reach the younger generation who are
much more tech-savvy and expect to be approached in modern ways. The group of potential ‘job-hoppers’,
that consider a new career path, have already gone through education. If this group is to actually change
direction towards an ICT job, they would first: need to really understand what ICT is, and second: a way to
obtain the base-level knowledge required to start in an ICT function. Self-assessments could prove value to
match capabilities and demand (once the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge is further matured).
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 11 of 129
The development of an online course could also provide useful means to facilitate people on their job
orientation. It could be developed in close collaboration with academia and industry to provide a course that
any new hire should go through, while at the same time be of use to anyone orientating on a future career in
ICT to obtain the necessary knowledge required to start.
In summary, we recommend the following next steps:
For the future, maturing the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge 1.0, would require to
– Validate areas for improvement, as well as drafting proposals to further specify levels within the included knowledge areas, and
– Inserting case studies of how certain personas can make use of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge (also in relation to other pillars of the Framework for ICT professionalism - in particular the e-Competence Framework).
This will enrich the model itself, as well as open up opportunities for developing self-assessment
tools, guides and basic training courses that are necessary to enable anyone interested in working in
ICT to make practical use of the developed documents.
Take action to support the development of an open and collaborative network. A balanced approach
is required to ensure all stakeholders are involved, engaged and able to contribute – and promote the
use of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge in practice. This includes:
– Engaging champions as role models for promoting the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. This should be professional associations that represent current ICT professionals, but also those who play an important role in the decision making process of an individual that might consider a career in ICT (educational institutions and possibly also recruiters / HR departments in Industry).
– Set up of coordination mechanisms to drive the necessary actions and support the champions.
Explore how existing initiatives, such as the European Quality Assurance Network for Informatics
Education (EQANIE) and others, could be engaged in developing a quality label (or similar) to award
educational institutions and other training providers for ‘complying’ with the European Foundational
ICT Body of Knowledge. This could provide the incentive for these institutions to use the model, and
consequently contribute to a more uniform approach to ICT professionalism.
Creating transparency and clarity as regards how the various European initiatives fit together and how
these can create the synergy required to boost ICT professionalism.
Facilitate international collaboration. The challenge of maturing the ICT professional is a global
challenge and requires intensifying collaboration between Europe and other parts of the world.
Various initiatives have been launched across the globe on the development of Bodies of Knowledge
and other elements of the ICT profession. The further development of the European Foundational ICT
Body of Knowledge will surely benefit from this collaboration Direct value add can be obtained from
excellent work that has been done for instance in Japan (IPA), Canada, United States and Australia.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 12 of 129
1 Introduction
“The urgent need for up-skilling Europe’s workforce can only be achieved through the acquisition of
e-Skills. The capability of European industry to innovate and compete in the global economy is increasingly
dependent on the innovative and efficient use of information and communication technologies (ICT). This
phenomenon will grow even faster in the future. The ICT sector is responsible for five per cent of European GDP,
with an annual market value of €660bn, and it contributes far more to productivity growth through ICT
investments in all sectors. As the ICT industry is increasingly sourcing talent wherever it is available on a world-
wide basis, e-Skills are crucial to the competitiveness and the attractiveness of Europe as a region.”
Antonio Tajani2, Vice-President of the European Commission, 2010-2014
1.1 Europe’s ambition to strengthening the ICT Profession
Stakeholders, especially the ICT industry, have been promoting ICT skills for many years. At the EU level, the
European Commission established the European e-Skills Forum in March 2003 to “foster an open dialogue
between all relevant stakeholders and to catalyse actions with a view to helping to narrow the e-skills gap and
to address e-skills mismatches.” After consultation with stakeholders and Member States, this was followed in
September 2007 by the Commission's Communication and Competitiveness Council Conclusions on “e-Skills
for the 21st Century: Fostering Competitiveness, Growth and Jobs” with a long-term EU e-skills agenda.3
There is a broad consensus that industry needs highly skilled ICT practitioners and Europe needs more young
people to become ICT practitioners to fulfil future increases in demand. A report for the European Commission
in 2012 on ‘e-Skills and ICT Professionalism: Fostering the ICT Profession in Europe’ found that in the meantime
and notwithstanding of the economic crisis the number of ICT practitioners required in Europe has continued
to grow and will continue to do so.4. The demand for employees with ICT skills is growing by around 3% a year5,
while the number of ICT graduates has fell by 10% between 2006 and 20106; If this trend were to continue,
there would be up to 900 000 unfilled ICT practitioner vacancies in the EU by 2015
In order to foster the growth of digital jobs in Europe and to improve ICT Professionalism this study proposed
the concept of a ‘Framework for ICT professionalism’. This framework would consist of four building blocks
which are also found in other professions: a Body of Knowledge (from here: BOK); a competence framework;
education and training; and a code of professional ethics.
A competence framework has already been established in the form of the European e-Competence
Framework (e-CF)7. The other building blocks are to be defined. The present report elaborates on the
requirements for complying with the recommendation for the BOK building block, i.e. establishing a “European
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge”.
1.2 Rationale and objective
At the moment, there is no authoritative source within the EU that defines and organises the core knowledge
of the ICT discipline. An EU Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge is therefore needed to provide the basis for a
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 13 of 129
common understanding of the foundational knowledge an ICT professional should possess8. Having a common
way of referring to ICT knowledge, i.e. a ‘go-to’ point of reference, will facilitate communication among ICT
practitioners and provide a baseline for competency models, certification programmes, educational
programmes, and other workforce development initiatives9.
With this goal in mind, we defined a Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge as follows:
’The European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge is the base-level knowledge required to enter the ICT
profession and acts as the first point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT’.
The ultimate objective is to create a recognised and supported Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge that:
Serves as an entry point to get into ICT for anyone contemplating a career in ICT and entering from
other professions;
Facilitates communication between and understanding of ICT professionals in Europe in whatever
sector they are active, thereby reducing risks and strengthening ICT professionalism;
Increases the supply and pool of ICT professionals and enhances the image of ICT.
The European Commission and the research team of the report ‘e-Skills: International Dimension and the
impact of globalisation’ have established cooperation with key stakeholders in other regions of the world
sharing the same goals (e.g. in the US, Japan, Canada, Brazil, Australia etc.). This initiative aims to build on and
strengthen that collaboration.
1.3 Approach
The process of generating a Body of Knowledge is, as we learned from analysing existing Bodies of Knowledge
(from here also: BOK’s, read more in chapter 3), in most cases done by practitioners who felt a need to
document the Body of Knowledge and who took time (approx. 3 years) to develop it. From our own experience
in similar projects, and these insights, we are convinced that ensuring broad stakeholder support is pivotal for
the success of this project. Hence we ensured support by involving many experts from across Europe and
beyond, representing various organisations that are all committed to contribute to further maturing the ICT
profession. Besides development of content, we initiated many activities to create awareness, engage and
involve relevant stakeholders from industry, education providers, (professional) associations, certification
institutes, government and many others.
As specified in the service contract, the work was split in two phases:
The first phase (months 1-6) was dedicated to the collection and analysis of information, interviews
and surveys etc. and the preparation of the interim report;
8 ICT literacy is defined as being familiar with the fundamental information technology concepts and having the ability to utilise computers and related technology efficiently. One of the components is computer literacy. One way of becoming computer literate is by taking the European Computer Driving Licence (http://www.ecdl.org/).
9 “e-Skills and ICT Professionalism: Fostering the ICT profession in Europe”; http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ict/files/eskills/ict_professionalism_report_en.pdf
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 17 of 129
2.2 Background
In the foundational book “Social Issues in Computing14
” published in 1973, Calvin Carl Gotlieb and Allan
Borodin tackled, among others, the topic of “professionalization and responsibility,” whereby they addressed
notions such as education, professional development, ethics, etc. Their work paved the way for the concept of
an ICT Body of Knowledge.
The initiative of these authors led to the foundation of the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS),
which in turn drafted the “Guide to the Common Body of Knowledge for Computing and IT (CBOK)”, which has
been updated in 2012.
William Agresti in his paper for the IEEE Computer Society states that ‘the first requirement for any area of
practice to qualify as a profession is that it correspond to an organised Body of Knowledge’.15
He indicates that
it is important because it helps design educational and training programs; it can serve as a reference for testing
and certifying individuals and that it helps bring stature to the IT profession, to distinguish it from other
(related) professions. Furthermore, “ICT Professionalism” does not always possess sufficient levels of ICT
knowledge in the broader sense, stimulating knowledge silos and preventing efficient organisational capability
planning.
In a consultation about the 2007 update to the Australian ACS BOK, a comment was made that highlights the
need for a BOK and the added value of a professional having this knowledge: “… working through a known
program to develop a starter kit of habits and skills is useful. So is contextually relevant experience of
producing work which is a good fit for purpose. Some of these skills will be about the non-IT work of the client
/ employer / project and where the critical pressures are, on speed, on reliability, on maintainability, on its
match with other projects in a family of work, the characteristics of the community of use for the project.
Being able to hear or compare alternative approaches and understand where the strengths and costs lie and to
be able to negotiate in a mixed perspective context in order to find the best outcomes are useful.”16
In order to promote ICT Professionalism to address the needs of the future, it is now high time for the EU to
move forward in setting up a Body of Knowledge.
There had been a steady increase in the number of ICT practitioners from 2.25 million in 1995 to 4.26 million in
2008 in the EU15. However, the interest in ICT careers among young Europeans seemed to be diminishing in
Europe. The number of computer science graduates had been growing in the past, but has been in continuous
decline in Europe since 2005. In 2007, European universities produced fewer than 150,000 computer science
graduates every year and the trend showed an even further decline. Forecasts suggested that in a “back to
normal” scenario the excess demand for ICT practitioners in the EU27 would reach 384,000 by 2015. In a
“turbo knowledge economy” scenario this would even reach 669,000. Even in a “stagnation” scenario, demand
would exceed supply in the EU27. This would amount to a shortage in Europe of either 8% or 13% ICT
practitioners17
. If this trend continues, there would be up to 900 000 unfilled ICT practitioner vacancies in the
EU by 2015.
The main conclusion of the report on “e-Skills for the 21st
Century: fostering competitiveness, growth and
jobs18” was that industry desperately needs highly skilled ICT practitioners and Europe needs more young
people to become ICT practitioners to fulfil future increases in demand. In line with the rise in Internet use in
14 Calvin Carl Gotlieb and Allan Borodin, Social Issues in Computing, Academic Press, 1973 – 284 pages 15 www.computer.org/csdl/mags/it/2008/06/mit2008060018.pdf 16 www.archivum.info/[email protected]/2007-07/00268/Re-(LINK)-New-Core-Body-Of-Knowledge-for-the-ICT-
Profession.html 17 Evaluation of the implementation of the communication of the European Commission on e-Skills for the 21st Century, October
2010. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ict/files/reports/eskills21_final_report_en.pdf 18 e-Skills for the 21st Century: Fostering Competitiveness, Growth, and Jobs” Available at: http://new.eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 19 of 129
There are existing (financial) incentives that can potentially hinder convergence of BOK’s
Language issues need to be overcome (origin diversity, translation costs);
BOK’s are not mapped to roles or jobs;
BOK’s provide an incomplete view;
Delayed dissemination (e.g. due to intellectual property motivations) can cause delays in maintaining
BOK’s;
Furthermore, there are differences amongst countries and groups of stakeholders as regards to what is the
most acceptable level of detail for a BOK. Some stakeholders desire a very detailed BOK prescribing even the
number of hours that needs to be dedicated to specific topics whilst others aim for high level description of
subject areas to allow for maximum flexibility in the application of the BOK.
In the Brochure ‘Fostering ICT Professionalism21
’ there is a diagram presenting the action this service contract
has been designed to address. The mission statement embodied by the first action point is to establish a
sustainable operating model for ICT Professionalism, to do so there is a need to develop a European
foundational meta-level ICT Body of Knowledge.
Figure 2: Development of a Foundational Meta-Level ICT Body of Knowledge22
2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the very first piece of literature paving the way for ICT Professionalism.
Now 10 years later, we have progressed significantly although there is still a lot to be done. There are not
enough students entering the ICT perception and the perception of the ICT industry is sometimes negatively
impacted in some countries by reports of major ICT problems impacting society or large ICT projects having
failed. At the same time, ICT has become more pervasive and increasingly critical in society, emphasising the
need for the profession to mature23
. One way to move forward is the creation of a European Foundational
Body of Knowledge.
21 Retrieved from: http://ictprof.eu/documents/Brochure_Fostering_the_ICT_Profession_in_Europe.pdf 22 Brochure Fostering ICT Professionalism 23 Interim Report, "e-Skills: the International Dimension and the Impact of Globalisation", September 2013, IVI, IDC, Empirica and
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 22 of 129
certifications and higher education qualifications can be issued. Other professions require all members to
possess a shared understanding and language of their respective domain. The proposed framework
recommends the definition and adoption of a foundational ICT BOK that would encompass a broad range of
ICT topics or so-called knowledge areas. Given the dynamic nature of ICT, a meta-modelling approach is
proposed. Such a meta model was described as identifying ‘the areas and nature of expertise required that is
to say, we would identify the areas and nature of expertise required, possibly in the form of a syllabus, as
opposed to defining the actual detailed content therein’29
. It is also envisaged that education course providers
may be inspired to map their course offerings to this foundational level BOK in future years. 30
Furthermore,
the BOK should be vendor inclusive and provide examples of reference to certificates and trainings from
different sources. In the more established professions of engineering and accounting, the accreditation of
post-secondary curricula and the certification of practicing professionals are taken very seriously. These
activities are seen as key to the constant upgrading of professionals and the improvement of the level of
professional practice. Recognising a common Body of Knowledge is hence pivotal to the development of the
ICT profession.
It is suggested that the first requirement to establish a profession is to define an organised Body of Knowledge
around the area. This Body of Knowledge can potentially be used to set standards and develop a certification
process31
. The question that is sometimes asked is whether an IT Body of Knowledge is intended to capture the
knowledge associated with practicing professionals or with students in academic programs? The BOK should
meet both these objectives. The IT BOK shall be backward designed: to link what the professional should know
in terms of skills and capabilities with underlying knowledge.
There are many other definitions and / or descriptions of what a Body of Knowledge is, such as:
“The complete set of concepts, terms and activities that make up a professional domain, as defined by the
relevant learned society or professional association”32
It is the ontology for a specific domain, a hierarchy of
concepts within a domain, using a shared vocabulary to denote the types, properties and interrelationships of
those concepts.
“An agile framework bringing together a series of methodologies and concepts so as to ensure basic common
understanding, formal and explicit foundation between the different levels of a specific domain” (Stephen
Ibaraki)33
“An organised description of the knowledge of a field” (Denning, 2007)
Furthermore, and important in the context of this work, the initial definition presented in the report on e-Skills
and ICT Professionalism (2012)is highly relevant: “a broad and deep knowledge base which is up-to date,
accommodating both common ICT Body of Knowledge and pertinent specialist knowledge and skills34
”.
It also underlines that this: ‘[...] would solely define the base-level of knowledge required of all ICT
professionals (experienced professionals use separate domain-specific BOK’s as their careers advance).We
defined the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge as follows:
‘The European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge defines the base-level knowledge required of ICT
professionals entering the profession and acts as the first point of reference for anyone interested in
working in ICT’
29 http://ictprof.eu/documents/EU_ICT_Professionalism_Project_FINAL_REPORT.pdf 30 http://ictprof.eu/documents/Brochure_Fostering_the_ICT_Profession_in_Europe.pdf 31 William W. Agresti, "An IT Body of Knowledge: The Key to an Emerging Profession," IT Professional, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 18-22,
Nov.-Dec. 2008 32 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_of_Knowledge 33 Stephen Ibaraki (), www.cips.ca/?q=stephen-ibaraki 34 See: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ict/files/eskills/ict_professionalism_report_en.pdf, p. 14
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 25 of 129
founding of Facebook, YouTube or other famous online platforms. Such an approach stretches the
requirements made on the education and life-long training systems to produce joint but differentiate
knowledge and skills sets that were not traditionally catered for. Thus, the emergence of what several reports
have called ‘dual-thinkers39
’ should also appear in the Body of Knowledge. The result of this would be to
increase mutual understanding and recognition of both ICT and non ICT skills that intimately relate to each
other. It is crucial for ICT professionals to understand non-technical aspects of organisations, their team
members and strategies so as to deliver value successfully.
The nature of the ICT jobs is changing. It is no longer enough to merely be a technical expert. The industry
needs professionals with a diversity of knowledge and skills in ICT40
. ICT professionals are required to also
understand the business, operational and HR management aspects. Industry is looking for multidisciplinary ICT
professionals and dual thinkers. ICT is no longer a back office support tool or one department within a
company but permeates all the layers and units of a company. ICT has moved itself to the forefront into a key
strategic asset in every day (professional) life. Therefore, it is no longer sufficient to only have knowledge of
one specific ICT domain.
The need for a broad IT systems viewpoint is essential, with the ability to understand the possibilities and
constraints of the various technologies and to talk a common language with the diversity of people involved.
This was expressed as a concept for the first time by David Guest in 199141 through the use of the T-shape
metaphor, which has been widely adopted since.
The vertical line of the T represents the depth of related skills and expertise in a single field, whereas the
horizontal bar is the ability to collaborate across disciplines with experts in other areas and to apply knowledge
in areas of expertise other than one’s own. This model thus differs from another classic type: “I-shaped” —
with a deep understanding of one specific discipline, but not necessarily of any other. In the current ICT
environment, employers find themselves trying to do a “T” job with “I” people.
The ICT profession very domain-specific: each ICT professional in a certain domain will have / need the in-
depth knowledge of that domain. However, not every ICT professional will acquire understanding of each
knowledge area – just those relevant to their current (or future) occupation. Nevertheless, it is necessary to
have a relevant breadth of ICT knowledge.
39 ICT Professionalism Report 40 http://www.ictc-ctic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ICTC_Outlook2011Summary_EN_11-11.pdf 41 The term is now widely used and first appeared in 3The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing," in The
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 26 of 129
2.4.4 Who is the target audience?
Agresti highlights that a BOK must be clear about its audience and intended purpose.42
Such a BOK should
address both the internal relationships among the topics in a model IT curriculum and areas of professional
practice as well as external relationships linking it to the practice of IT with society at large. An ICT BOK should
thus aim to target ICT professionals at large, addressing ICT professionals in the ICT industry but also those in
industries using ICT.43
We defined ‘foundational’ as the entry level knowledge to the ICT profession. The target audience hence
consists of anyone who aims to pursue a career in ICT.
The term ‘ICT Professional’ is interpreted differently in countries. Previous research44
developed the following
definition for ICT professionals:
ICT Professionals:
Possess a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of a relevant Body of Knowledge,
Demonstrate on-going commitment to professional development, via an appropriate combination of
qualifications, certifications, work experience, non-formal and / or informal education;
Adhere to an agreed code of ethics / conduct and / or applicable regulatory practices and,
Through competent practice deliver value for stakeholders.
This definition, which was reviewed and widely accepted reflects the importance of the key building blocks
found in other professions: Bodies of Knowledge; Education and Training; Competences and Ethics. These
constitute the foundations of the aforementioned framework for ICT Professionalism.
The European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge will support ICT professionals as well as organisations in
the ICT profession in the following way:
For students – or any individual – to orient their future careers, and to plan their careers
For industry: a reference or guide to identify knowledge areas and create development paths,
together with skills and behaviours – and to help employees re-orient to new careers
For education providers: a source of inspiration for curricula development and a means of supporting
students in determining their career ambitions.
The use of the Body of Knowledge can be versatile and can be a compass for an ICT professional, together with
the relevant building blocks.
Organisations in the ICT profession can use the Body of Knowledge as an ultimate go-to reference to gain
understanding of what constitutes the ICT profession. Education and other service providers can use the Body
of Knowledge as a source of reference, to place their curricula and certifications into a broader context. In
addition, those within the ICT field who would like to switch and specialise into another ICT sub domain or
towards management can use the Body of Knowledge as a reference guide. Therefore, the current ICT
community must play an important role in providing the necessary input to structure and mature the Body of
Knowledge.
There will be different uses of the Body of Knowledge by different stakeholders. This will be further explored
and described in chapter 4 (ecosystem / stakeholder analysis). Our focus is on creating an identification point
42 www.computer.org/csdl/mags/it/2008/06/mit2008060018.pdf 43 www.forbes.com/sites/piyankajain/2013/03/27/analytics-is-a-core-competency-for-business-professionals/ 44 E-Skills and ICT Professionalism. Fostering the ICT Profession in Europe
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 27 of 129
and an overview of the possibilities in the ICT profession. This requires looking at how it can be used by the
professionals themselves, education- and training institutes and organisations in the ICT industry.
The objective of this initiative is to identify a suitable structure and to develop a first version of a European
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge, with clear connection to the other elements of the framework for ICT
professionalism and in particular the e-Competence Framework (e-CF) 45
. The e-CF provides the starting point
for drafting the overall structure of the Body of Knowledge, and other relevant frameworks such as the
European Quality Framework and the European ICT Profile Family tree provided guidance.
The ambition is to grow this framework into an international authoritative source that defines and organises
the core knowledge of the ICT discipline. However, developing, promoting and maintaining a regularly updated
international Foundation ICT Body of Knowledge is a long-term endeavour. We are at the beginning of the
maturity path of a Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge
Our key objective is to finalise the first version of a European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge and to
elaborate recommendations to promote ICT Professionalism (including detailed information regarding
governance, operational- and funding models as well as a possible register).
45 The European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) provides a reference of 40 competences as required and applied at the
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) workplace, using a common language for competences, skills and proficiency levels that can be understood across Europe. See: http://www.ecompetences.eu/. Copyright with CEN.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 28 of 129
3 Drawing lessons from existing Bodies of Knowledge
There are different Bodies of Knowledge (BOK’s) existing in the field of ICT. These have a variety of ways to
structure IT-related knowledge. A Body of Knowledge aims at providing clear definitions of an ICT domain or
domains and to organise IT knowledge to a certain logic. There are many Bodies of Knowledge which are used
around the world. In order to avoid reinventing the wheel, the objective is to use them as a source of
inspiration.
This chapter identifies, categorises and obtains best practices from the existing BOK’s in the ICT field. Part 3.1
aims to identify the different existing BOK’s, define criteria and categorise them in terms of their scope. The
scope is an important element as the European ICT Foundational Body of Knowledge aims to have a broad
scope of ICT knowledge areas. Thereafter, in Part 3.2 a separate analysis is made from a number of selected
Bodies of Knowledge that could be a direct source for the European ICT Body of Knowledge. Each analysis is
followed by a key conclusions that feed into the overall conclusions in 3.1.9 for drafting the European
Foundational Body of Knowledge. Moreover, from this research best practices are identified that will serve as
examples for drafting the pan- European Foundational Body of Knowledge. Furthermore, in part 3.2 we take a
brief look into specific Bodies of Knowledge that have a more focused scope and how these can be a source of
inspiration for drafting the pan- European Foundational Body of Knowledge. In Part 3.3, an assessment is made
of professional societies in order to have a general idea of the communities existing at European level. The
final section 3.4 will also address the co-existence of different education paths and identify higher education
and training organisations.
3.1 Analysing and categorising Bodies of Knowledge
There are many Bodies of Knowledge in the ICT field, however there are overlaps and gaps. There is currently
no global or European Body of Knowledge that is all encompassing and which addresses all aspects of ICT46.
The landscape is very fragmented. In some cases several countries have a national ICT Body of Knowledge
adapted to their national context which determines the core knowledge47; in other cases specific organisations
made a standardisation of knowledge and skills necessary in isolated fields of ICT or standards required for
certification and accreditation of curricula for education48.
There are different existing BOK’s. What are the differences?
Scope: generic Bodies of Knowledge which capture a large part of the IT domain and Bodies of
Knowledge which are focusing on one a single IT area.
Approach: Bodies of Knowledge can view the IT domain from different perspectives
Purpose: the Bodies of Knowledge can have the purpose to provide general guidance to curricula
designers and indicate in a very detailed manner what should be in the study programme while others
have the objective to certify professionals and provide them with a reading list.
Target level: Some Bodies of Knowledge are targeted at different levels: student’s level, practitioner’s
level or manager’s level.
46 At current IEEE is drafting an Enterprise IT BOK that has the objective to create a formal, certified, recognized and respected
common source of information about enterprise IT. This Enterprise IT BOK is to become a common yardstick of what constitutes an IT Enterprise professional and a common language of IT.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 29 of 129
Origin: the existing Bodies of Knowledge are mainly located in USA and British isles and
predominantly used and recognised at national level. As such there is also a language issue as the
current Bodies of Knowledge are mainly in English.
The large number of Bodies of Knowledge related to ICT can be categorised into 2 main categories49
: Generic
and topic-specific Bodies of Knowledge.
Generic Bodies of Knowledge cover a wide spectrum the field and domains in ICT:
ACS CBOK
CIPS BOK
Japanese BOK
BCS UK
India FSIT
EUCIP Core
IEEE-Computer Society IT BOK Guide
It should be noted that at European member State level, there are hardly any generic Bodies of Knowledge in
the sense of the Australian Computer Society BOK except for the UK50.
Topic Specific Bodies of Knowledge are focused on an isolated field of ICT. These topic specific BOK’s will form
the source material for specific sub domains within the IT e.g. SWEBOK for software engineering.
ACM Computing Curricula
DAMA International’s DAMA DM BOK
PMI’s PMBOK Guide (Project Management BOK)
ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) describes a variety of practices for IT Services
Management
CMMI
IT CMF, IVI
TOGAF
CobiT (Controlled Objectives for Information and Related Technology (Guidance materials for IT
Governance)
SWEBOK (IEEE Computer Society) developed for software engineers having 4 years of working
experience51.
HBO-i BOK
The focus of the following section will be on the generic type of Bodies of Knowledge, such as the European
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge should become, and that cover a wide spectrum of areas in the ICT field.
49 http://www.eskills-international.com/assets/interim-report-%28issued---for-comment%29.pdf, p. 76 50 Commission, www.eskills-international.com/assets/interim-report-%28issued---for-comment%29.pdf, Appendix A: Country
Profiles 51 Tetsuro Kakeshita,. & Mika Ohtsuki, Requirement Analysis of Computing Curriculum Standards J07 and Japan
Information Technology Engineers Examination Using ICT Common Body of Knowledge. Journal of Information Processing, Vol. 22, No.1, 1-17, Jan 2014, see: www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ipsjjip/22/1/22_1/_pdf
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 30 of 129
Below, we will present a concise analysis of various generic BOK’s. The next paragraph in this section (3.2) will
summarise main characteristics of specific BOK’s.
For the analysis of each BOK, it was essential to understand the characteristics of the existing Bodies of
Knowledge. The following criteria were determined to analyse the various BOK’s:
Approach: from which point of view or ‘How’ is the BOK drafted?
Objective: for whom is the BOK drafted?
Knowledge Area: which knowledge areas are addressed?
Format: In what form is the BOK presented?
Model: : Bodies of Knowledge can set different requirements: exhaustive models requiring users to
use or know the entire content of the Body of Knowledge or the permissive model which requires one
to use or know a sufficient part of the Body of Knowledge
3.1.1 Australian Computer Society’s ICT Profession Body of Knowledge
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) is the principal society for ICT Professionals in Australia. In 2008, its
Professional Standards Board developed an ICT Profession (Core) Body of Knowledge (CBOK) which was
updated in 2012.
The objectives of this Body of Knowledge are:
The provision of a structured approach to the design of study programs of study and their subsequent
accreditation
The determination of ‘meta level’ knowledge requirements for professional certification
The support of programs that produce graduates with the skills required for defined ICT roles.
The Professional Standards Board of the ACS has specifically taken a ‘Program design’ approach for the
drafting and use of this BOK. This means that the ACS BOK provides a framework that guides and encourages
program designers to focus on the roles that graduates are likely to undertake and carefully consider what
underlying knowledge is needed. This in contrast to tight and detailed program descriptions (cf. the curriculum
driven approach of ACM) that could constrain the development of study programs given the rapid change in
the ICT profession. With the CBOK it is expected that the study programs or curricula cross the boundaries of
the traditional disciplines take into account market trends and skills gaps leading to blended degrees.
Moreover, this ‘framework’ program design approach allows for flexibility towards the ICT as a practical
science and work52, and allows for taking into account the context of the ICT industry at local levels and
regional employment opportunities in Australia.
To this end, the ACS’s BOK Framework comprises four key components to guide program designers:
1. SKILLS Block: The technical and professional skills developed during a given program of study that qualify
graduates to undertake one of more ICT roles.
52 Strasser states that ‘a practical science is a science which is conceived in order to make possible, to improve and to correct a
definite kind of extra scientific praxis’ cf. Strasser, S. 1985, Understanding and Explaining Basic Ideas Concerning the Humanity of the Human Sciences, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 31 of 129
This block requires the program designers to identify potential ICT roles that could be undertaken by
graduates of a given program of study, identify the skills required for these roles, and the level of
autonomy and responsibility that needs to be developed for that roles based on e.g. SFIA53.
2. CORE Block: the Core Body of Knowledge (CBOK) encompassing common core knowledge areas of which
study programs should address:
a. ICT problem solving;
b. Professional knowledge;
c. Technology building;
d. Technology Resources;
e. Service management; and
f. Outcomes realisation.
This block defines the minimal core knowledge essential for anyone who is an ICT professional. The 6
areas are further detailed in the
3. SPEC Block: Knowledge that is specific to a particular degree program or ICT discipline, and that is
necessary to undertake the intended ICT role(s).
This block directs program designers to identify ICT role specific knowledge to practice the skills identified
in the SKILL Block. It is about advanced knowledge that builds on the ‘basic’ knowledge defined in the
CORE Block. The ICT role specific knowledge should where possible use existing internationally recognised
curricula and Body of Knowledge to identify this knowledge e.g. for Software engineering use SWEBOK.
4. COMP Block: The program designers shall identify complementary knowledge that broadens a student’s
education, enhances employability and prepares graduates for ICT careers in the global economy, and to
be of service to society and the local community. Examples of complementary knowledge are given below
in the visual of the ACS’ BOK Framework.
The CORE Block of the ACS BOK is especially of importance. The six Meta level knowledge areas are further
detailed in a next layer:
5. ICT problem solving;
a. Abstraction and design solutions
6. Professional knowledge;
a. Ethics
b. Professionalism
c. Teamwork and concepts
d. Interpersonal communication
e. Societal issues / legal Issues / Privacy
f. History and status of Discipline
7. Technology building;
53 SFIA has been identified by the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) International Professional Practice
Program (IP3) program as the framework whereby the professional programs of the member societies will be judged
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 32 of 129
a. Programming
b. Human Computer Interaction
c. Systems Development
d. Systems Acquisition
8. Technology Resources;
a. Hardware and software fundamentals (computer architecture and organisation, and systems
software)
b. Data and Information Management (data modelling and abstraction, physical file storage techniques,
Data Management Systems (DBMS), information assurance and security
c. Networking (network concepts and protocols, network security, wireless and mobile computing,
distributed systems)
9. Service management
a. Service Management
b. Security Management
10. Outcomes Management
a. IT Governance
b. IT Project Management
c. Change Management
d. Security Policy
The identification of these knowledge areas were done through workshops and analysis of the content overlap
in international curriculum documents of the ACM. The feedback received over the course of 3 years54 resulted
in a different way of presenting the core areas, categorising and naming them.
The ACS BOK, which is presented in the form of guidelines, is an interesting example that is different from the
existing generic BOK’s. Its main strengths are that it is flexible and a permissive model as it describes
knowledge areas in not too much detail and focuses on a clear and comprehensible goal, namely ICT Job
profiles and skills. It also uses existing competence frameworks.
3.1.2 Canadian Information Processing Society IT Body of Knowledge
The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) is the professional association for Information technology
practitioners in Canada that sets IT standards, certifies Information Systems Professionals (I.S.P) and accredits
computer science, software engineering and Management Information Systems (MIS) programs at university
in Canada. The CIPS developed an Information Technology Body of Knowledge55 in 2005. Following that
adoption of the CIPS Initial Body of Knowledge (iBOK) in 2005, CIPS embarked in 2010 on a project to define a
more comprehensive document56 leading to the Guide to the Common Body of Knowledge for Computing and
IT in 201257.
54 Information received through an interview with Mr. Michael Johnson of ACS on 14 March 2014 55 www.cips.ca/?q=system/files/BOK.pdf 56 www.cips.ca/CIPS-publishes-the-Guide-to-the-Common-Body-of-Knowledge-April2012 57 www.cips.ca/sites/default/files/CBOK%202012.pdf
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 33 of 129
The objective of the iBOK of 2005 was to develop a comprehensive description of the sum of knowledge and
professional practices that are generally accepted within the IT profession in Canada. The iBOK provided
topical access to knowledge areas and serves as a foundation for individual certification of IT practitioners. It
was mentioned that IT is a broader subject than what was captured in the iBOK and it can thus only be a
reasonable and informed depiction if the IT industry.
The model or approach for the BOK was envisioned to be modular and extensible with a core and extended
Bodies of Knowledge. The iBOK was divided into 11 core Knowledge Areas. Each of these knowledge areas was
divided into a context / definition section and a list of topics part.
Professional Issues in IT
Architecture
Networks
Databases
Object orientated programming
Project Management
Service Management
Software Engineering
Systems Analysis
Systems Design
The objective of the Guide of the Common Body of Knowledge for Computing and IT is to provide a foundation
for curriculum development, program accreditation and for individual professional certification. The Guide
does not attempt to define the Body of Knowledge but instead “serves as a compendium and guide to the
Body of Knowledge that has been evolving over the past four decades”. The Guide intentionally avoids
detailing rapidly changing technologies, although it does mention their general principles.
The 8 knowledge areas are designed to provide a high level distinction among the various concepts, allowing
the readers to find their way quickly to subjects of interest. Upon finding a subject, readers are referred to sub-
topics and a definition of the sub-topics58
:
A. Professionalism and Ethics in Computing and IT
A.1. History (history of computing
A. 2. The Profession (governing bodies and societies)
A.3.Social Responsibility and impact on Society
A.4. Impact on environment
A.5. Codes of Ethics
A.6. Labour Market
A.7. Standards for Skills and Education (Accreditation + Skills Frameworks)
G.1. Organisation of a business involving IT or computing
G.2 Value analysis
G.3. Business Software application types (ERP, Financial, HR etc.)
G.4. Business continuity, disaster recovery
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 36 of 129
G.5. International business
G.6. Electronic Commerce
G.7. Services Management
G.8 Security management
G.9. System acquisition
H. Soft skills
H.1. Problem solving
H. 2. Written communication
H.3. Oral Communication
H.4. Negotiation Skills
H.5. Workplace culture
H.6. Change Management
H.7. leadership
H.8. Teamwork
H.9 Strategic PlanningH.10 Portfolio Management
For each of the subtopics a Bloom’s Knowledge level has been provided:
Vocabulary knowledge level: one should be able to understand the terminology in a conversation
about the topic, to know what they do not know so they can delegate to others, and to know when
others may or may not be competent in the area.
Comprehension knowledge level: One should be able to intelligently discuss the topic and perform
basic tasks using knowledge of the topic
Application knowledge level: one should be able to apply the knowledge so as to perform tasks in the
area with a level of competence ordinarily expected in work environment
These 3 knowledge levels are indicators for developers of curricula as regards the level of depth. It is not a
definitive classification but an indication of the starting point level of depth. Two thirds of the subtopics
require a vocabulary of comprehension knowledge level. Furthermore, all subtopics have references in order
to help course developers to determine which material can be used for testing, help students to know which
material they should master and serve as a source of information. The references consist of academic articles,
references to other IT Associations and their topic –specific BOK’S, legislation, codes of ethics
The development of the CBOK Guide took 2 years including consultation of 175 stakeholders of the broader IT
community. Thereafter, CIPS has been working with the Certification Council and Accreditation Councils to
reconcile the CBOK with the Councils’ existing criteria. The CBOK Guide is leaning towards a permissive model
as it is modular and extensible and limits the details of the knowledge areas. However, it is more detailed than
the ACS BOK.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 37 of 129
3.1.3 Japanese ICT Common Body of Knowledge
In Japan, an ICT common Body of Knowledge (ICTBOK) was developed in 2008 to uniformly represent the
knowledge and skills standards of ICT professionals belonging to various ICT job categories and levels. It is
defined by analysing the Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA)’s – governmental organisation skills
standards for ICT professionals:
ITSS (Skills standards for ITS professionals) for people working for the IT services industry
ETSS (embedded technology skills standards) for embedded software engineers
UISS (user’s information system skill standards) for information system users
The objective of the ICT BOK is to provide a common vocabulary to define various activities of ICT education.
The ICT BOK is used as the reference to map ICT Knowledge and skills requirements in Japan. Most recently,
the information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ)59 guidelines for college level ICT education in the form of
Computing Curriculum Standard J07 were mapped against it. This standard is compatible with the Computing
Curriculum 2005 of the ACM, IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) and AIS. IPA’s Japan Information Technology
Engineers Examination (JITEE), a well-known ICT Qualification in Japan was also mapped against the ICTBOK.
The ICTBOK is thus used to unify and act as a reference for skills and knowledge required in IT Skills standards
and educational programs. In this way the ICTBOK helps to clarify the relationship between existing ICT BOK’s
for ICT professionals and examinations in Japan. This is a first step towards building an effective education
system and fosters the relationship between academia and industry. For this reason, requirement data and
achievement data from academia are being collected using the ICT BOK and compared. The collection tool is a
web based system called ‘cresie’.
The ICT BOK has a three-level hierarchical structure composed of 7 Categories, 23 Fields and 155 areas. To
each of the areas a requirement level is defined based on the bloom taxonomy.
Below is an overview of the 7 categories and 23 Fields. The ‘Business’ and ‘Competency’ fields are considered
as non-ICT among the seven fields. The field ‘Others’ is defined so that users can address new innovative fields
or others that are missing from the ICTBOK. The Fields are further specified into areas. In the table below,
between the brackets the abbreviation of the field is given followed by the number of areas are linked to a
field (e.g. PRG, 5).
Figure 5: Japanese ICTBOK
Figure 6: Example of underlying areas within the Japanese ICTBOK
59 Kakeshita, T. & Ohtsuki, M, Requirement Analysis of Computing Curriculum Standards J07 and Japan Information Technology
Engineers Examination Using ICT Common Body of Knowledge. Journal of Information Processing, Vol. 22, No.1, 1-17, Jan 2014, see: www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ipsjjip/22/1/22_1/_pdf
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 39 of 129
are eligible to apply for BCS Associate (AMBCS) membership65. Moreover, the Certificate in IT is a prerequisite
for the Diploma in IT.
The Diploma in IT66 comprises a mandatory core module and three modules to be selected from diverse
optional IT subjects such as database systems and software engineering. The Diploma in IT is the academic
equivalent to year two of a university honours degree in England. The syllabi for the Diploma in IT
qualifications consist of:
Mandatory Core Module
Professional Issues in IS Practice syllabus67
– Optional Modules (three to be chosen)
Computer Networks syllabus68
Database Systems syllabus69
Principles of Internet Technologies syllabus70 (this module replaces the Internet & World Wide Web
module)
IT Project Management syllabus71
IT Service Management syllabus72
Object Oriented Programming syllabus73
Software Engineering syllabus74
Principles of User Interface Design syllabus75
Systems Analysis and Design syllabus76
– A minimum of 225 hours of study is recommended for each module.
– Each of the Syllabi of the Certificate in IT and Diploma in IT set out the rationale, aims, objectives, content and literature references. The content part sets out in detail the sub elements of a certain topic. For instance the content of Information Systems Syllabi for students which is part of the Certificate of IT is subdivided into:
Data management
Systems analysis and design
Organisations
The abovementioned Certificate and Diploma followed by a Professional Graduate Diploma in IT77 give access
to a Master Course at specific universities78 and are the steppingstones to become an IT professional. In order
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 42 of 129
The FSIT is slightly different from the other BOK’s as it considers itself as an add-on to certain curricula.
Nevertheless, it could be categorised as a permissive model with a specific focus on soft skills.
3.1.6 European Certification of Informatics Professionals Core Body of Knowledge
The Institute of IT Professionals (IITP)in New Zealand is the authoritative voice of IT professionals in New
Zealand86. Before July 2012, IITP was known as the New Zealand Computer Society (NZCS)87. The IITP exists to
promote education and ensure a high level of professional practice amongst ICT professionals. The Information
Technology Certified Professional (ITCP) launched in 2009 is a professional certification programme operated
by the IITP. It is a comprehensive assessment of all the areas of skill, knowledge and competence expected of
genuine and true ICT professionals. The Body of Knowledge underpinning the ITCP is the EUCIP Core.
The European Certification of Informatics Professionals (EUCIP) Core is a professional entry level certification
and competency development scheme, aimed at informatics professionals and practitioners. A professional
qualification and also allow employers to recruit internationally. EUCIP, which originated with the Council of
European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS), is offered in a range of European countries through
national computer societies88. The EUCIP certifications are maintained by ECDL Foundation89.
EUCIP Core stems from a series of earlier projects in the area of IT competence at European Level. These
include the EISS (European Informatics Skills Structures) and EICL (European Informatics Continuous Learning)
(circa 1995-1999), EPIC (European Professional Informatics Certificate) in 2000, which aimed at providing a
basic level of IT professional certification, followed by EPICS (European Professional Informatics Certificate
Service) in 2001–2003, which saw the development of what was soon to become the EUCIP Core syllabus90.This
EPICS activity involved input from several European Subject Matter Experts. The name was changed to EUCIP
in late 2001 and a EUCIP central organisation was created as part of CEPIS. During 2004 CEPIS decided to hand
over operation and maintenance support for EUCIP to ECDL Foundation. According to ECDL Foundation, the
EUCIP Core provides students with a solid foundation for all types of ICT related work.[4] To achieve a EUCIP
certification, the candidate must successfully pass a test in all three knowledge areas. These are:
The involvement of ECDL Foundation has led to further revision to the EUCIP programmes. In 2008, a EUCIP
Syllabus 2.6 was reviewed in order to ensure that it reflected on-going advances in technologies and relevant
ICT practices. This resulted in the completion of EUCIP Syllabus 3.0 which is currently being phased in by
national operators. The EUCIP Core Syllabus is made up of three knowledge areas (KAs), supporting ICT
professionals to Plan, Build and Operate information systems. Each is structured in the same way, comprising
module goals, major knowledge categories, topics within each category, and specific knowledge items.
There are 3 main Knowledge Areas which are further detailed in a second and third layer:
1. Plan Area: The Use and Management of Information Systems
This area refers to requirements analysis and planning in the use of ICT within an organisation. It is
therefore directly concerned with management processes and defining requirements within a strategic
perspective.
2. Build Area: Development and Integration of Information Systems
This area includes processes for specification, development and testing, and maintenance of Information
Systems. It deals with methodological and technological issues related to development processes.
86 http://www.iitp.org.nz/ 87 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_IT_Professionals 88 Among which AICA (www.aicanet.it/attivita/pubblicazioni/AICA_profile_Marzo_2007.pdf) 89 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EUCIP. It should be mentioned that EUCIP Core is not available in the website of the ECDL but is
however available on the CEPIS website: www.cepis.org/index.jsp?p=1120&n=1121 90 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EUCIP
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 45 of 129
Exhaustive models requiring users to use or know the entire content of the Body of Knowledge or
The permissive model which requires one to use or know a sufficient part of the Body of Knowledge.
The approach and model chosen for the EU Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge is structuring it from an
industry point of view: what are the knowledge areas required from an person entering the ICT profession.
This means that the we consider there is a range in any kind of ICT project or process from strategy, planning,
design to developing it, using technology, to testing and having it into operation. This follows also the logic of
the e-CF’s ‘Plan, Build, Run, Enable and Manage’. In similar vein, it also corresponds to the ICT Job profiles
family tree. The objective is to have a spectrum of ICT foundational knowledge areas that ranges roughly
speaking from strategy to technology implementation. This means that there is no definite order, however it
follows a certain logic of an IT process.
Figure 9: Different approaches to drafting a Body of Knowledge
The analysis of the generic BOK’s lead to the following conclusions for the development of a European
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge:
The so-called, backward design96
, programme design 97
or Outcome based Format98
approach should be taken
from an industry perspective to ensure that study programs are designed for students to obtain the relevant
96 W. Agresti
Program design/Outcome Based Format/Backward Design approach
Approach: General indication of generic components of a academic IT program with specific focus on the role an ICT professional could take in practice, in the industry
Objective: Universities , ICT students, and professionals – accreditation of university programs,
Format: syllabi, guidelines, Index
Curriculum driven approach
Approach: Detailed guidance for the determining the content of the curriculum, could include indication of hours to spend on a certain subject
Objective: Universities and ICT students
Format: Mostly in the form of syllabi
Japan
IPA (Information technology Promotion Agency)
ICTBOK
UK: BCS (British Computer Society)
Canada:
CIPS (Canadian Information Technology professionals)
CBOK
Australia
ACS (Australian Computer Society)
CBOK
USA:
ACM (Association of Computing Machinery)
India
NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies)
Foundational Skills in IT (FSIT)
USA:
IEEE ((Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
Enterprise ITBOK Guide
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 46 of 129
knowledge required in practice. This implies the benefit that the ICT profession is looked at from what the ICT
professional should know in the practice dependant on the ICT domain, and also the sector and the size of the
business and national specificities. The generic EU Foundational Body of Knowledge shall capture the general
core knowledge areas and refer to specific Bodies of Knowledge that focus on knowledge areas (see below).
Furthermore, the EU ICT Foundational BOK shall be a permissive model and not an exhaustive model. Due to
the diversity of the ICT domain, in order to be an efficient ICT professional you will need to know a relevant
part of the BOK. In practice an ICT professional cannot and will not know and need the whole BOK. For
example an user interaction designer will not know and hardly use business process alignment models. ICT
professionals should aim to have a large breadth of ICT knowledge and have an understanding of the
surrounding topics, e.g. as much as breadth possible around its specific ICT domain. It could be the case that
there are two ICT professionals that are the end of both parts of the spectrum (as mentioned above) that do
not have a shared core knowledge.
The ICT Knowledge area spectrum is thus the horizontal bar of an inverted T-model. If an ICT professional
would like to go to a different field than his specialisation, he / she should come down again to the horizontal
bar (the base-level) and find a connection to other knowledge areas in order to build out his breadth of
knowledge.
In addition, the BOK should also include the soft skills because you cannot purely have knowledge, e.g.
database management could only be set theory and group theory if we would purely focussing on knowledge,
but knowledge of DBMS is also applying SQL language. Skills are thus the usage of knowledge, because it is
geared to an ICT professional, application of knowledge.
3.2 Specific Bodies of Knowledge
There are a large number of specific BOK’s of professional associations which have become internationally
recognised standards and qualifications. Some countries even have legislation around the use of any particular
ICT Body of Knowledge99. These topics specific BOK’s will be the references in the European Foundation Body
of Knowledge to gain insight in specific IT fields. It should be mentioned that many of these BOK’s address IT
professionals who already entered the IT domain or are working in the field and who want to specialise. This is
also evident from the fact that the industry often requires professionals to have obtained certain foundational
level certificates and to obtain the advanced qualification over the course of one’s professional career. Many
State agencies and employers stipulate that knowledge of one or more Bodies of Knowledge is required in job
applications. In the UK, Prince 2 is mandated for UK Government appointments and contracts. These topics
specific BOK’s are mostly established by practitioners and are funded by large companies and government
agencies.
In order to create a meta model, cooperation between existing and competing BOK’s is necessary. Thus,
building on the experiences of existing Bodies of Knowledge is very valuable.
Peter Denning and Dennis Frailey (2011)100 identified over 40 professional groups that were allocated to three
categories shown in Figure 11. Each of these disciplines has its own set of Bodies of Knowledge and research
communities. These offer a basis on which to build a wider index to the Body of Knowledge using academic
syllabi. The Core disciplines are the core technologies of computer science and engineering. The IT intensive
disciplines are other branches of science, engineering and commerce that innovate in IT as part of their work.
The IT supportive occupations are newer professional specialities that support and maintain the IT
97 ACS BOK 98 INDIA FSIT 99 Report "e-Skills and ICT Professionalism, Fostering the ICT Profession in Europe”, p. 129 100 Peter J Denning (2001), When IT Becomes a Profession. Denning Institute available online:
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 52 of 129
Name
Developed by
(date) Objective Definition
Specifics / sub-
domains
ICT
Secu
rity
Certified
Information
Systems Security
Professional
(CISSP)106
The CISSP is
updated annually
with the best
practices by (ISC)2
(information
security
certifications).
The CISSP is globally
recognised
certification in the
information security
market. The listed
domains reflect up-
to-date best
practices
worldwide, and
establish a common
framework of terms
and principles to
discuss, debate and
resolve matters
pertaining to the
profession.
CISSPs must have
a wide breadth of
knowledge across
information
security in order
to provide
direction to their
teams and ensure
the right systems
and processes are
in place.
Information security.
The architecture,
design, management
and controls that
assure the security of
business
environments.
ERP
Information
Technology
Capability
Maturity Model
(IT-CMF)107
IT-IMF is a
methodology
developed by the
Innovation Value
Institute. The last
update is of 2010.
The IT Capability
Maturity
Framework (IT-
CMF) is a model
that evaluates and
improves an
enterprise’s
information
technology (IT)
capabilities. It
assesses the current
practice and
identifies and
prioritises the
opportunities.
The IT-CMF
comprises four
macro-capabilities
to emphasise their
complexity and
their importance
in managing IT for
business value.
Manage IT like a
business, manage
IT budget,
managing IT for
business value and
managing the IT
capability.
Maps IT organisations
onto a capability
maturity curve based
on empirically derived
industry best practice
across 35 different
capabilities of IT
management.
Ente
rpri
se A
rch
ite
ctu
re
TOGAF108
The Open Group
Architecture
Framework (TOGAF)
is a registered
trademark of the
Open Group in the
United States. The
latest version of is
TOGAF 9.1,
published in 2013.
It is a framework for
enterprise
architecture which
provides a
comprehensive
standard to ensure
consistent
standards, methods
and
communication.
TOGAF certification
is at hand.
The organising
logic for business
processes and IT
infrastructure
reflecting the
integration and
standardisation
requirements of
the firm’s
operating model.
Approach for
designing, planning,
implementing, and
governing enterprise
information
architecture. It is
typically modelled at
four levels: Business,
Application, Data, and
Technology.
Table 1: Overview of selected international topic specific Bodies of Knowledge
106 CISSP® – Certified Information Systems Security Professional, see: https://www.isc2.org/CISSP/Default.aspx 107 Why the IT-CMF meets the needs of IT and Business management https://ivi.nuim.ie/it-cmf 108 TOGAF https://store.opengroup.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=122
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 54 of 129
23. Modelling and simulation,
24. Programming languages,
25. Complex systems,
26. Nanotechnology,
27. DNA computing,
28. Game theory and applications.
An examination of ICT societies from a geographical perspective and for what they regard as their sphere of
influence further underlines the diversity of European societies and the sometimes limited range of their
operation. It is clear that there are a number of European societies operating internationally in many fields
while there are many European organisations operating only within Europe nut with a clear potential to make
a contribution outside Europe. There is a third category operating only within Member States and sometimes
using the national language for exchanging information.
There are therefore gaps in the European landscape of ICT societies in operational scope and themes. Filling
these gaps is regarded as essential to the promotion and consolidation of ICT and of benefit to researchers,
industry and society. The following is a non-exhaustive list of professional and scientific societies at European
and national level:
At European Level there are quite some professional organisations:
Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS);
European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS);
The European Professional Society on Computer Systems (EuroSys);
European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM);
Association of Logic Programming (ALP);
European Chapter of the Association of Computational Linguistics (EACL);
Central European Association for Computational Mechanics (CEACM);
European Association for Computer Graphics (EG);
European Association for Computer Science Logic (EACS);
European Association for Machine Translation (EAMT);
European Association for Speech, Signal and Image Processing (EURASIP);
European Neural Network Society (ENNS);
European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT);
European Association for Programming Languages and Systems (EAPLS);
European Association of Software Science and Technology (EASST);
Complex Systems Society (CSS); International Society of Dynamic Games (ISDG);
European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering (Euro-Case);
Informatics Europe;
Euromicro;
Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets (AITO).
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 55 of 129
At European level some professional groups joined together in the European Forum for Information and
Communication Sciences (EFICST)110
. It was established in 2011 in Milan with the intention to create an
open platform for cooperation among the scientific ICT Societies in Europe.
Background
In 2008, the EC asked European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) to organise
an expert group to discuss the issues at ICT Conference that year. A report111
was produced that outlined
the needs. ERCIM was asked to organise another session at ICT 2010, now also including the outcome of a
SMART project that had reported on the many options for greater cooperation.
At the European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2010) in Prague a special panel112
led by Jan van Leeuwen,
then VP of Informatics Europe, assessed the situation of the scientific societies and their possible evolution
in “the changing landscape”113
. The panellists agreed to take a next step towards the possible realisation of
a platform organisation.
On March 17, 2011 at the CEPIS office in Brussels, the panel (in extended form) met again and decided to
form a `strong but low overhead’ platform organisation, in the interest of all societies present and the ICST
field in general. A Task Group was formed to design a blueprint for an open platform for all (scientific) ICST
societies in Europe. The Group consisted of: V. Baltac (CEPIS), B. Bigalke (EAI), Chr. Choppy (Informatics
Europe), K. Jeffery (ERCIM), M. Shapiro (ACM Europe), P. van Roy (EAPLS), and J. van Leeuwen (Informatics
Europe, ACM Europe, and EATCS, moderator).
On November 7th, 2011 and co-located with the European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2011) at the
Politecnico di Milano, the panel met again for a final meeting. The panel decided unanimously to establish
the European Forum for ICST as a joint, open platform for further cooperation, as described in the blueprint
report114
. In 2012, CEPIS left the initial group, but ECCAI joined the Forum. In 2013 more societies are
expected to join. Early 2013 the Forum issued its Strategy 2013-2015 report, outlining the next steps in its
development as the cooperative platform of ICST societies in Europe.
Objective
“The development of common viewpoints and strategies for ICST in Europe and, whenever appropriate or
needed, a common representation of these viewpoints and strategies at the international level”.
Current Members
ACM Europe
Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per l’Informatica (CINI)
European Association of Software Science and Technology (EASST)
European Association of Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS)
European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI)
European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM)
IINFORMATICS Europe
Société Informatique de France (SIF)
110 www.eficst.eu/ 111 http://www.cs.uu.nl/groups/AD/panel-Scientificsocieties.pdf 112 ACM Europe, CEPIS, European Alliance For Innovation (EAI), European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics
(ERCIM), EAPLS, European Association of Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) 113 www.cs.uu.nl/groups/AD/panel-ictsocieties.pdf 114 www.cs.uu.nl/groups/AD/agreement2011.pdf
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 57 of 129
Vereniging van Register Informatica (VRI)
Den Norske Dataforening (DND)
Polskie Towarzystwo Informatyczne - Polish Information Processing Society (PTI-PIPS)
Slovak Society for Computer Science (SSCS)
Slovenian Society Informatika (SSI)
Asociación de Técnicos de Informática (ATI)
DF Dataforeningen i Sverige (Swedish Computer Society)
BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT
In the US the position of ICT scientific societies is extremely important with the ACM and IEEE performing
significant roles including:
Organising the most authoritative conferences and publishing some of the journals with the highest
impact factor in the field
Producing guidelines and reference curricula for education in ICT at all levels in the form of Bodies of
Knowledge
Producing reports on research and innovation that have a meaningful impact on governmental
decisions etc.
In Europe such a role is almost absent with existing societies unable to exert the same influence. In general,
European ICT societies are not homogeneous, mainly small and specialised, mostly single-country and single-
topic and sometimes based on a specific national language. However because of excessive fragmentation, the
impact of ICT societies in Europe is far from optimal and there is a need to stimulate European societies to
organise across country and topical boundaries.
In 2012, it was stated that there is limited evidence in the European Union of generic Bodies of Knowledge
being used as the basis for developing academic courses116. This was definitely the case for the Bodies of
Knowledge at European level.
This lack of generalised ICT scientific societies rooted in Europe is widely perceived as a weakness of the whole
ICT education, research and innovation ecosystem117. There is an urgent need for a new European system to
strengthen the links between industry and academia, foster scientific and technological excellence, build and
spread technology transfer and entrepreneurship, and preserve cultural heritage within the context of the
whole ICT ecosystem. Such a system should make entry easy, dissemination global, be self-sufficient and
address not only European specific issues, but also open global initiatives.
3.4 Universities Curricula
One of the recommendations of the report on ‘e-Skills and ICT Professionalism, Fostering the ICT Profession in
Europe” of 2012 was to see if colleges and universities would be willing to share and pool share their syllabi as
a basis for European Body of Knowledge. This could avoid to a large extent the need to translate the Body of
Knowledge and each country could merge their courses into the reference list when the BOK is implemented
at national level.
116 IVI & CEPIS, "e-Skills and ICT Professionalism, Fostering the ICT Profession in Europe", 2012, p. 124 117 www.cs.uu.nl/groups/AD/panel-Scientificsocieties.pdf
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 64 of 129
4 Building a Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge
In this chapter we present the process to build and develop an European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge.
This process took place over the course of one year and involved many different stakeholder groups to discuss
and validate, step by step, the draft deliverables. In describing the process to build and develop the
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge three steps can be identified. These will be further detailed in this
chapter, in terms of sources / references used, the interactions with stakeholders and the outcomes.
Step 1 (from March to May): initial BOK framework / structure
Step 2 (From June to September): refined BOK framework / structure and draft content
Step 3 (from October to December): approved BOK framework / structure, improved concept and
content
Figure 12 – Main steps of building process
4.1 Design principles
Before entering the process of constructing the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge, a key step has to be
mentioned that provided the basis for all future step. This step consisted in defining design principles. During
the first phase of our work several design principles have been identified, adapted and validated, with the
direct involvement of stakeholders both through interviews as well as in workshops.
The design principles establish the criteria to build the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge and set the
requirements and expectations of stakeholders as regard to its development and maintenance. Assessing
principles and guidelines coming from existing ICT Bodies of Knowledge (i.e. ACS Body of Knowledge, IEEE
SWEBOK) and Curriculum guidelines (i.e. Computer Science Curricula 2013 – ACM and IEEE Computer Society),
the following design principles were defined:
Principles & approach to BoK design
Initial framework
Workshop 1:Building the foundations
Workshop 2:Draft meta-model BoK
Workshop 3:The way forward
Workshop 4:Finalisation
Refined meta-model BoK
Draft operating model
Finalised meta-model BoK
Approved operating model
STEP 1 Building STEP 2 Refining STEP 3 Finalising
First round Interviews
Second round
Interviews
Co
nte
nts
Co
nsu
ltat
ion
sSo
urc
es
SteerComeeting
SteerComeeting
Survey
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
e-CF 3.0 Existing Bodies of Knowledge
University curricula
European ICT Professional Profiles
Certifications
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 65 of 129
Reference to the e-Competence Framework (e-CF): It is a valuable index that should be used as a common
dictionary. Alignment with the competencies in the e-CF should be sought when drafting the Body of
Knowledge.
Sustainability: This means that the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge needs to be sustainable. This is
addressed in the governance and operating model. It is important to link it to what has already been
established.
Straightforward: in that it should be written in a way that is comprehensible for existing and aspiring ICT
professionals, especially young people.
Relevant: The Body of Knowledge should address the needs of ICT professionals and European enterprises,
SMEs and public administrations. The information provided to the user should be relevant to the user’s task
and context.
Flexible: as regards to being able to adjust to technological change and the necessary new developments in
the ICT profession, it should however provide a robust and solid foundation.
Objective: the foundational Body of Knowledge should be inclusive. It should make reference to diplomas,
certificates and training from different sources may these be open source of vendor specific.
Valid: its content should be periodically updated with relevant stakeholders to ensure the focus remains of
developing knowledge that is building the appropriate and necessary e-Skills.
These design principles provide a comprehensive view on how to construct and align the structure of the
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge to deliver its strategic objectives.
Based on design principles the building process for the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge took place in
three main steps which have been mentioned above.
4.2 Step 1: Constructing the framework of the Body of Knowledge
The first step was focused on the set up of the framework, the structure to organise the knowledge areas. At
this aim, activities and research in this phase were aimed at identifying the initial contents and structure of the
European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge (the ‘what’ and the ‘how’). Consultations with stakeholders and
experts were carried out through two workshops and a round of 200 interviews in order to ensure alignment
between results, purposes and requirements.
The e-Competence Framework (e-CF) was adopted as main source to define the model for the following
reasons:
The e-CF is known in European Union and commonly accepted from the most part of stakeholders –
industries, educational institutions, certification providers, professional associations, governments;
The e-CF provides a structure which can be linked to existing national ICT competence models;
The e-CF describes ICT competences related samples from a business perspective, providing a view of
ICT Professionalism that includes both the organisational and individual aspects;
The e-CF is designed to relate to specific skills and job profiles frameworks (e.g. AITTS, CIGREF, EUCIP,
SFIA, etc.) coming from different cultures and experiences across Europe, as demonstrated by the
CWA 16458 on European ICT professional Profiles;
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 66 of 129
The e-CF provides a solid and durable framework despite the continuous and rapid changes in the ICT
environment.
Figure 13: e-Competence Framework 3.0
The e-CF is structured from four dimensions that reflect different levels of business and human resource
planning requirements in addition to job proficiency guidelines:
Dimension 1 includes 5 areas, derived from the ICT business processes – Plan, Build, Run, Enable,
Manage
Dimension 2 describes a set of e-Competences for each area
Dimension 3 defines the proficiency levels of each e-Competence which are related to the EQF levels
Dimension 4 includes samples of knowledge and skills related to e-Competences in dimension 2.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 67 of 129
Figure 14: Dimensions of the e-CF - example
Looking at the e-Competence Framework and its Dimensions, some important findings have been
identified that contributed to define the overall approach:
Dimension 1, defining ICT business processes, can provide a map to define the high level structure of the
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. The 5 areas of Dimension 1, matched with the ICT professional profiles,
provide an exhaustive view of the ICT profession both from a business perspective (ICT processes) and as well
as from an individual’s perspective (role profiles). According to this approach six Domains have been designed
that reflect the six ICT profile families:
Business Management
Technical Management
Design
Development
Service and Operation
Support
Dimension 2 and 3, being focused on e-competences rather than on knowledge, should not be immediately
adopted to define the model of the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. A more detailed explanation of this
assumption has been provided in the previous chapter thanks to the distinction between Knowledge (savoir)
and competence (savoir être).
Dimension 4, including knowledge samples for each e-competence, can provide substance to define the
knowledge areas and contents of the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. The depth of description in this
dimension could be considered too detailed for company needs. Nonetheless, such in-depth descriptions can
for example be useful to define specific and precise outcomes to be assessed within companies’ competence
assessment sessions. On the other hand, dimension 4 is critical for training and certification institutions
because they need to specify qualifications in terms of learning outcomes. In this context, skills and knowledge
represent a bridge between organisation competences and vocational training and qualifications.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 68 of 129
Assessing Dimension 4, following actions were defined and then approved by stakeholders and ICT experts
during the first and second workshops in order to effectively build on the e-CF:
Further research on academic curricula and certification programs was required in order to close the
gap and make the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge as much as possible exhaustive.
A deeper analysis of knowledge samples was required in order to find out relevant contents at the
right level of depth. As a result of this first step, the general structure of the Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge was set up that consists of three layers:
– First Layer – Domains: Domains represent the macro areas in which knowledge are grouped at very high level (i.e. Business Management). They are derived from the ICT Job Profile Family Tree and are consistent with the Areas Dimension 1 e-CF.
– Second Layer – Sub-domains: Sub-domains define the subjects that compose each domain (i.e. ICT strategy) and are derived from the clustering of knowledge Dimensions 4 e-CF.
– Third Layer – Knowledge Areas: Knowledge Areas represent the basic level of contents and are derived from the collection and elaboration of knowledge Dimension 4 e-CF (i.e. Organisation and Business model).
Figure 15: Example of organising Knowledge areas in layers
This draft structure was in line with the structure of other existing international Bodies of Knowledge, such as
the ACS Body of Knowledge that have been assessed and analysed through the desk research. The framework
shows a common approach in terms of contents clustering. The illustrative sample below has been taken from
the Australian Body of Knowledge. Differently from the pan European ICT Body of Knowledge we proposed,
the Australian one adopted the SFIA model as reference framework to map knowledge area.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 69 of 129
Figure 16: Australian Computer Society – The ICT Profession Body of Knowledge
4.2.1 Defining the breakdown of knowledge
Defining the breakdown of knowledge into Domains, Sub-domains and knowledge areas constituted a key step
in drafting the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. For this reason, several criteria have been adopted (also
looking at existing ICT BOK’s) to lead the process in a structured way:
The breakdown of contents is expected to be “relevant and consistent,” not “perfect.”
Content must be “generally recognised”, in other words, they should not presume specific application
domains, industry / sectors, organisational structures, management philosophies, etc.
Knowledge should be compatible with the reference ICT literature and standards.
The breakdown of contents is expected to avoid overlaps of knowledge, even where some knowledge
can be included in different domain (i.e. quality management)
The breakdown of topics should be at most two or three levels deep. Even though no upper or lower
limit is imposed on the number of topics within each Domain, a reasonable and manageable number
of Knowledge areas are expected to be included in each Domain. Emphasis should also be put on the
selection of the topics themselves rather than on their organisation in an appropriate hierarchy.
Topic names must be significant enough to be meaningful even when cited outside the Foundational
ICT Body of Knowledge.
According to these criteria, the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge has been drafted by proceeding gradually
through the analysis and elaboration of Knowledge examples Dimension 4 e-CF as follows:
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 70 of 129
Step 1: Dimension 4 of the e-CF has been assessed and grouped in Knowledge areas that are homogeneous in
terms of subject. Clusters have been created according two steps:
Identifying and merging recurrent knowledge in different areas within the framework (i.e. knowledge
“structured project management methodologies” is included both in PLAN and in MANAGE areas)
Grouping knowledge with different naming but similar in terms of contents and strongly related to a
specific knowledge. The table below shows an example of this analysis.
Figure 17: Approach to grouping Knowledge Areas from e-CF Dimension 4
The output of the first assessment was a list of about 70 knowledge areas. This number is intended to be
variable depending of ongoing analysis and clustering.
Step 2: Knowledge areas have been further grouped in sub-domains. Given the technicality of contents, this
clustering activity has been done with the support of several ICT experts. The initial output of this step is a list
of about 20 sub domains.
Figure 18: example of grouping Knowledge Areas from e-CF Dimension 4
Step 3: Finally the sub-domains have been associated to the six Domains according to their contents and
consistently with the scope of the different Domains.
As a result of the clustering process all knowledge areas in Dimension 4 of the e–CF have been mapped and
further elaborated to draft the breakdown structure of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 82 of 129
The Workshop has contributed to the long-term development of the e-Skills Agenda of the European
Commission since. It aims to address e-skills shortages, gaps and mismatches as well as the persistent digital
divide that affects productivity growth, competitiveness, innovation, employment and social cohesion in
Europe. The CEN Workshop on ICT Skills has resulted in the creation of numerous CEN Workshop Agreements
(CWA). These are deliverables that may take the form of best practice agreements, codes of conduct or pre-
standards, with the formal backing of CEN. One of the most well know achievements is the European e-
Competence Framework (e-CF).
This framework was approved (through consensus) by the ICT Skills Workshop, which is composed of a broad
range of experts from various stakeholder groups. It is the CEN who decides on stakeholders to be involved, in
close collaboration with the European Commission. The steering committee of the ICT Skills workshop receives
proposals from its members and coordinates the processing of these, and fulfils a steering role in reaching
consensus on a proposal. CEN holds the copyright of any output from the workshop and this is only to be used
by CEN and its members at national level (national standardisation organisations).
Through this model, which has already proven its value, the Body of Knowledge could be further developed in
the coming years. Building on the experience with drafting and maintaining the e-CF, and the network
involved, but also to establish a close relation between both documents that are two of the key elements of
the Framework for ICT Professionalism.
5.1.5 Creation of a collaborative network is a critical success factor
We are convinced that one of the success factors of promoting ICT Professionalism is the establishment of a
collaborative network bringing about all relevant stakeholders. While a collaborative platform is open to all
interested people, it is basically positioned as offering new insights and opportunities to key stakeholders, by
opening up another, EU-wide dimension to their current activities. Such a dimension is critical for boosting ICT
Professionalism across Europe. The key message here, is to offer all relevant stakeholders at a national,
regional or local level a ‘European dimension’ to their activities, complementary to their current practices.
The success of a collaborative network is dependent on several factors which closely relate to the identified
risks of a Europe-wide profession and the guidelines for any proposed solution set forward in the ICT
Professionalism report136
:
Collaborative networks must matter. To be relevant, a collaborative network must matter to any stakeholder
and must help them do what they need to do. To this end, it is necessary to formalise a clear operating model
with a suitable governance structure that allows it to grow in a sustainable way while providing value for its
users. Value can be created and ensured by centring the platform on its users – the community of ICT
Practitioners. The platform must be designed in such a way that practitioners embrace and contribute to what
is the aim of the network, moreover to Europe as a whole: to promote ICT Professionalism, inspire potential
new practitioners, encourage educational institutions to offer syllabi that respond to future challenges, and
industry to deliver the right certifications and qualifications to their staff.
A collaborative network increases in value as the network expands. Having more potential connections will
lead to greater access to resources, contacts, and support from fellow ICT practitioners. For professional
networking, this has obvious benefits. Only when many people have access, it becomes a powerful tool. As
Metcalfe’s law states: ‘the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number
of connected users of the system’137
. In other words, for the collaborative network to create value, it must
expand rapidly. This can for example be done targeting communication activities towards the large community
136 Report “e-Skills and ICT Professionalism: Fostering the ICT profession in Europe”, by IVI and CEPIS, pages 179/180. 137 Available at: www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Metcalfe_s_law.html
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 85 of 129
Japanese ICT BOK: the Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) in Japan aims to contribute to
the growth and advancement of Japanese economy by providing the strategic technological and
human resource infrastructures.
The analysis is presented in the following sections clustering the following elements:
Development is a collaborative exercise involving stakeholders and experts (further elaborated in
paragraph 5.2.1)
Designing governance (5.2.2) & Stable funding to ensure sustainability (5.2.3)
Innovation is essential to keep relevancy (5.2.4)
Adaption at national level to increase take-up (5.2.5)
International collaboration to enable synergy (5.2.6).
The sections 5.2.1 – 5.2.5 refer to the aim of ensuring sustainability of a Body of Knowledge, and sections 5.2.5
– 5.2.6 present insights about stimulating take-up of the model.
Each section provides analysis, leading up to key questions that need to be answered.
5.2.1 Development is a collaborative exercise involving stakeholders and experts
As previous research shows, Bodies of Knowledge are used extensively in practice140. They consolidate a
current understanding in a particular field and are often based on accepted good practice. Previous research
by IVI / CEPIS141
showed that the existing Bodies of Knowledge were generated for the most part by
practitioners who felt a need to document knowledge relevant to the specific field of ICT they work in, in order
to create clarity and a common understanding (‘written proof’).
Bodies of Knowledge can be initiated by special interest groups or communities of practice working on
advancing and standardising specific areas. Likewise academic research can lead to the development of Bodies
of Knowledge, as can government initiatives. Combinations of all three contributors will often work together to
produce and maintain Bodies of Knowledge. New Bodies of Knowledge are typically developed around new
competences or technologies that lack a standards approach to language, scope, proficiency levels,
certification or qualifications142.
Involvement of stakeholders is essential. The Canadian CBOK was developed by a committee of CIPS members
from across Canada, and involved extensive public consultation with over 170 IT and computing professionals
from a wide variety of industries. The development of the Australian CBOK also included several industry
workshops as well as analysing content overlap with international curriculum documents.
It appears that involving practitioners and academics is not always easy. One of the challenges they have at the
EA BOK is that a lot of the actions in what you could and should be doing is known by the practitioners but
they do not have time to contribute to the BOK. Academics do have time but they might not want to get
involved. A contributor to the IEEE BOK mentioned a similar issue: academics are driven by publishing and
getting quoted, and so many set other priorities than contributing to a Body of Knowledge.
Involving stakeholders and experts clearly is pivotal. How to involve them efficiently and effectively is the key
question. Europe is much more diverse than Australia and Canada. It consists of 28 autonomous Member
States, 25 languages and many cultural and historical elements that define context. An European initiative is
140 Report “e-Skills and ICT Professionalism: Fostering the ICT profession in Europe”, by IVI and CEPIS, p 199. 141 Report “e-Skills and ICT Professionalism: Fostering the ICT profession in Europe”, by IVI and CEPIS, p. 124 142 Report “e-Skills and ICT Professionalism: Fostering the ICT profession in Europe”, by IVI and CEPIS, p. 198.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 86 of 129
nothing without support from the nations itself, and the organisations involved in e-Skills developments for
which this Foundational ICT BOK should have added value. In this context it is important to actively manage
cultural biases out of a BOK. It is necessary to actively involve practitioners from culturally different
backgrounds working together143.
The operating model for the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge should hence make clear:
Which stakeholder groups should be involved to compose a balanced European representation;
How this representation can be organised and with which frequency;
5.2.2 Designing governance
In terms of governance, by looking at existing ICT-related Bodies of Knowledge it shows that a possible
operating model includes:
Steering Committee: it is responsible of approving knowledge areas and producing the Body of
Knowledge
Sub- or technical committee: it is responsible of producing drafts of specific Knowledge Areas and
revising them
ICT Communities: they are responsible of providing feedback, both through presentations at
conferences and direct review requests. Community input are collected and processed by the Steering
Committee
In particular of relevance to the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge, is to consider its governance
in close relation to the other pillars of the Framework for ICT professionalism of which the e-Competence
Framework (e-CF) should create most synergy.
5.2.3 Stable funding to ensure sustainability
Existing Bodies of Knowledge were generated for the most part by practitioners who felt a need to document
the Body of Knowledge. Funding in many cases came from the practitioners but also from large companies or
government agencies (e.g. CMMI / Prince2). They appear to be well funded, perceived as delivering value by a
sufficient number of practitioners to ensure their continued viability into the future.
It is evident that further development of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge will continue in
years to come. Stable funding hence is critically important to facilitate that journey. Where other BOK’s are
funded through membership and education activities (CIPS, ACS, BCS), this EU BOK will need to find a different
scheme.
In the case of the e-CF, the European Commission provided the funding through the ICT Annual Work
programme to the CEN. Funding is only a minor source of income to the CEN (about 5%), with memberships
from national standardisation organisation covering for the large part of its budget. These national
standardisation organisations in turn profit from CEN approved documents that they can publish and sell at
national level.
The operating model for the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge should indicate:
143 Report “e-Skills and ICT Professionalism: Fostering the ICT profession in Europe”, by IVI and CEPIS, P 127.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 87 of 129
How stable funding can be guaranteed to ensure long-term development, preferably a construction
that delivers on the potential synergy with the other elements of the Framework for ICT
professionalism;
5.2.4 Innovation is essential to keep relevancy
Innovation is an essential function that needs to ensure relevancy over time. The profession further develops
and hence Bodies of Knowledge need to adapt. There is a need to be responsive and adapt quickly to change.
However, not every new fad or idea will find its way to an ‘accepted good practice’. The process behind this
function is closely related to the question of how IT-companies, entrepreneurs and start-ups at the
technology-frontier can be involved to share their experiences and knowledge, for instance through
collaborative networks.
The Body of Knowledge codifies in a way the fast changing ICT field for a moment in time. It should be avoided
that Bodies of Knowledge become static, as this will affect use by practitioners, education institutes,
businesses. This is confirmed when looking at other Bodies of Knowledge.
The CIPS CBOK144 states that the ‘Guide must, necessarily, develop and evolve as the ICT profession matures.
Planning for the evolution process has started and will require approval by the CIPS Board of Directors’. The
British Computer Society (BCS) mentions that it ‘is maintaining the Body of Knowledge and it is being kept
current’. And ACS makes clear that ‘regular updating of this document will be needed, because of ongoing
change in ICT, and will require continuing discussion among the many stakeholders’. But how does this work?
Who is involved and responsible? And how can we define ‘regular’ or ‘current’?
In Canada the CBOK was updated after 7 years (launched in 2005, updated in 2012), in Australia 4 years passed
for the first update (launched in 2008, updated in 2012) and we know that BCS ‘has dropped knowledge areas
in 2010 and added some new ones in 2010 and 2011’ and seems to have a more flexible approach. The
development of the BOK for bachelor programs at several educational institutes in the Netherlands (HBO-I)
started more than 15 years ago and has seen 4 iterations so far. Innovation is considered by HBO-I as an
iterative process with companies and experts, HR Managers and HR Developers (at national level), with
regional workshops with colleges and industry representatives, and every two years, the HBO-I initiative visits
universities and research centres outside of Europe (Tokyo, Beijing, Bangalore, New York etc.). There is also an
board of advisors with industry representatives.
Innovation could be defined as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated
needs or existing market needs. In this context, the challenge is to determine when new ideas become proven
ideas, good practices so to say, and could be included in the BOK. We see new technologies emerge and
adoption rise (for instance could computing, mobile devices, sensors). Practitioners develop skills to
understand these new technologies and being able to apply them (trained by companies or education
institutes). Somewhere along the line, it should be considered whether this implies new knowledge areas
should be included, old ones should be dropped or adjusted.
Not only is it important to make this process transparent, it should also be clear who is responsible for any
decisions concerning the BOK. Many of the BOK’s we looked at are owned by the professionals association,
who have assigned a committee or board to take on the process of updating the BOK. The development of the
European BOK is of course in close collaboration with the European user’s association (CEPIS is part of the
steering committee) – but the creation itself is assigned by the European Commission and a service contract
has been awarded to a partnership of Capgemini and Ernst & Young after an open call for tenders published in
144 See: http://www.cips.ca/CBOK
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 88 of 129
2013. The transfer of the deliverables to the future organisation that will maintain the BOK (‘owner’) should
also be taken into account.
The need for continuous innovation is clear. The key question hence is: how, who and with which frequency.
The operating model for the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge should provide clarity on:
How the process of adding, updating or removing of knowledge areas is organised;
Who is responsible for final decisions and which stakeholders are consulted;
When is the right moment to incorporate innovation (regular updates or a more flexible, open approach?)
In the case of the e-CF, the CEN ICT Skills Workshop is end-responsible for taking decisions as regards adding,
updating or removing elements of the Body of Knowledge. There is a role for the steering committee of this
Workshop to coordinate and steer towards consensus.
There is an obligation to consider updating of the document after three years (five years in case of standards),
but the Workshop is free to decide to implement changes at an earlier stage. It should however avoid too
frequent updates as this can cause confusion for the public and decrease the value of the publication.
As members of the CEN ICT Skills Workshop are responsible for updates, and the decision when an update
should be considered, it is hence of vital importance to ensure all relevant stakeholders are part of the
workshop.
Finally, the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge is aimed at people orienting to enter the ICT
profession and to support them fulfilling that ambition. The European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge
should hence also be owned by the greater community, not just the (paying) members of the Workshop.
Transparency and an open, collaborative approach to further development is critical to realise success.
5.2.5 Adoption at national level to increase take-up
An important step towards promoting the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge requires mobilisation and
collaboration between the different stakeholder communities at a national and European level. Initiatives
aimed at communicating and promoting its use, are also needed, in particular to show involvement of
champions and leading practice to engage national level. Language issues and translation need to be taken
into account. This section consists of analysis of what other BOK’s have shared on this topic, and an
introduction to our approach to drive adoption of the BOK at national level in Europe.
A key element of any business plan is promotion and communication. How do you make your ‘product’ known
to the world and stimulate people / organisations to actually use it? Who do you target?
The CIPS is ‘working on ensuring that the CBOK has widespread adoption in the community of stakeholders.
Presentations are made to the academic community, which is encouraged to use the CBOK in academic
papers. Consultation is also taking place with the international community’. To ensure wide distribution,
the CIPS Guide to the Common Body of Knowledge for Computing and IT (CBOK) may be copied for non-
commercial purposes in whole or as part of any form or by any means provided that CIPS is identified as the
source of the CBOK.
Communication revolves around the audience, or target groups: who do you want to address and also how?
In this European context, language is consequently a challenge to deal with. English is only one of the 25
languages in Europe. IVI / CEPIS already signalled that in their report: ‘translations take time and thus, the
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 89 of 129
availability of Bodies of Knowledge in other languages is delayed. These delays vary from months to years’145.
The type and nature of the BOK significantly impacts the linguistic translation effort. As the current EU
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge will identify the areas and nature of expertise required (like a syllabus),
rather than defining the actual content therein, the effort could remain low.
Besides language, it is very important to design a robust, comprehensive communication plan that sees to
create awareness and involvement of stakeholders across Europe (and beyond). Focus, i.e. segmentation of
target groups, is required as it is not feasible to directly address everyone.
The operating model for the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge should articulate:
Who is responsible for communication and promotion activities, aimed towards increasing take-up of
the BOK;
Whereas the CEN can play an important role in coordination, maintenance and consensus building, it might
not be primarily equipped for communication and promotion activities to achieve uptake of the model. We
have seen that national standardisation bodies will publish the document for national purposes. Question is
whether this is sufficient to achieve our end-goal: to foster the growth of digital jobs in Europe and to improve
ICT Professionalism by creating a “go to – ICT reference” that will function as an international authoritative
source that defines and organises the core knowledge of the ICT discipline and so contributes to increasing its
maturity.
Mere publication is likely not enough and complementary actions are required to achieve this goal. Following
previous initiatives, such as the e-CF or the Digital Champions initiative, we know that a good example will be
keenly followed. Determining leading practice or ‘champions’ is an effective means to drive uptake in other
European countries. Leading practices that could champion the BOK and convince others to follow – in
particular to increase uptake in the various European countries. Also, we have seen slow take-up of the e-CF
and other European initiatives. The v1.0 of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge has gained great
attention over the past months, as more and more people from across Europe and the world are aware and
involved in the process. Next steps should build on this ‘momentum’ and ensure it does not slip away but
remains high on priority lists of stakeholders.
5.2.6 International collaboration to enable synergy
An important function of the operating model needs to ensure European developments and global initiatives
not only are aligned, but also benefit from each other. Process should describe a regular routine to bring
together stakeholders from across the globe and facilitate knowledge exchange and experiences.
At the moment, the IPA in Japan has just announced a new iCompetency Dictionary – which is a very detailed
piece of work and could be of value for the development of the European Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge.
The IEEE is working on framework document outlining the Guide to the Enterprise Information Technology
Body of Knowledge (Enterprise ITBOK Guide). IEEE Computer Society’s Enterprise ITBOK Guide will be a
compendium of high-level descriptions of knowledge areas that are generally required for the successful
operation of enterprise information technology (IT) services.
Enterprise IT is a huge area, and much work has already been done in specialized BOKs. Thus, the goal is to
provide an umbrella document that delineates a “map” of the territory of enterprise IT and points to the most
145 Report “e-Skills and ICT Professionalism: Fostering the ICT profession in Europe”, by IVI and CEPIS, p. 127.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 90 of 129
relevant, objective, and impartial information the team could identify—not to write a textbook detailing how
to perform enterprise IT’s multiple tasks.
Reaching out to the international community is important as maturing the ICT profession is a global concern.
Some other relevant existing initiatives (outside of Europe) are mentioned below.
The International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3) vision under the auspices of the International
Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) is a global partnership that will define international
standards of professionalism in ICT; create an infrastructure that will encourage and support the
development of both ICT practitioners and employer organisations; and give recognition to those who
meet and maintain the required standards for knowledge, experience, competence and integrity.
Amongst its members are organisations that have experience in developing Bodies of Knowledge,
such as ACS.
The Seoul Accord146 is a multi-lateral mutual-recognition agreement among agencies responsible for
accreditation or recognition of tertiary-level computing and IT-related qualifications.
– Membership (called being a signatory) is voluntary, but the signatories are committed to development and recognition of good practice in Computing and IT-related education. The number of signatories is expected to grow, and the activities of the Accord signatories are intended to assist growing globalisation of mutual recognition of Computing and IT-related qualifications. The Seoul Accord principles are that:
– There will be transparency to the accreditation systems of the signatories and to the educational systems to which the accreditation systems are oriented.
– The Accord should avoid any perception that it is arbitrary and capricious in its practices and policies, including admitting members and applying rules of membership.
– The Accord should work to become recognised as the international authority on quality assurance for education in the Computing and IT-related professions.
– The Accord will promote and develop best practices for the improvement of education in Computing and IT-related disciplines.
– The Accord should continually review its policies and procedures to ensure that they are relevant and reliable indicators of the future of Computing and IT-related technologies.
The operating model for the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge will make clear:
How the EU BOK aligns with other international initiatives to jointly collaborate on further maturing the ICT
Profession;
5.3 Sustainability
Sustainability is a key goal of the operating model and consists of the following functions: coordination,
funding and maintenance and innovation through consensus building.
We have involved and engaged as many stakeholders as possible in this project to promote the development
of an European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. It involved 200+ interviews with stakeholders across
Europe, 4 workshops, an online survey, a conference and 2 expert-review rounds. The project was monitored
by a steering committee including CEPIS, EeSA, BCS and CIGREF. We reached out to existing associations and
organisations for feedback and review. In doing so, and due to the crucial importance of stakeholder
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 91 of 129
involvement, each activity was aimed at promoting the active collaboration of stakeholders. Interviews and
workshops are not only used to collect information and preferences from different stakeholders but also to
assure their full commitment and sense of ownership in relation with the BOK.
During the workshops as well as in the survey, various stakeholders indicated that it would be most efficient to
use the existing approach and procedures that are operational in the development of the European e-
Competence Framework – which are guided by the CEN ICT Skills Workshop. With standardisation as eventual
future scenario the Workshop would also be the most logical organisation / network to take up this role. It
could be considered to re-name to the ‘Workshop for ICT professionalism’ as per suggestions made during the
e-Skills conference 2014.
5.3.1 Description of sustainability functions
Coordination
The Workshop is coordinated by a project manager from CEN, who is responsible for operational matters as
regards planning, organisation and reporting on meetings. It is an important role which requires a pro-active
attitude to ensure chair and / or steering committees are well facilitated and can focus on the content and
process. In the case of establishing supporting mechanism to drive promotion and take-up of the BOK, it would
also require to ensure efficient coordination.
Funding
It is evident that further development of the EU Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge will continue in years to
come. Stable funding hence is critically important to ensure sustainability. Building on the existing procedures
as regards the e-CF, the BOK should be funded in a similar way which is through the ICT Annual Work
programme to the CEN.
Maintenance through consensus building
There are different causes that could lead to reconsideration of (elements of) the BOK:
Emergence of new areas of knowledge based on (debates on) common practice, relevant
publications, industry developments and similar – either pro-actively proposed for discussion
(instigated by a certain expert or stakeholder organisation in the broader community) or passively
(signalled by members of the CEN workshop);
Update of existing job profiles or competences in the e-Competence Framework;
Update, emergence (or disappearance) of an existing specific Body of Knowledge;
Proposals derived from collaboration with international partners, such as IPA Japan and their very
detailed iCompetency Dictionary that describes 8000 elements of knowledge as well as various job
profiles (amongst which ‘data scientist’);
The general process to follow is:
Any proposal for change should be submitted to the steering committee of the CEN Workshop on ICT
Skills. This committee coordinates the processing of proposals, and fulfils a steering role in reaching
consensus on a proposal. Usually these proposals are submitted by members of the Workshop.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 92 of 129
If the Workshop reaches agreement on a proposal for change, this proposal needs to be further
elaborated and integrated into a new version of the BOK. This is usually done by a sub- or technical
committee with experts in the involved area that is subjected to change. Obviously it is important to
involve well-known experts in drafting the proposal, but also the wider community.
This proposal should be shared for review with the broader ICT community – not just the Workshop.
the open platform that drives the promotion of the BOK should be ideally suited for this purpose. It
would allow to gather broad feedback – both through quantitative (% of supporters) as well as
qualitative measures (text suggestions and such).
After review decision should be made final and published. Outcomes should also be communicated
with relevant parties, for instance owners of specific Bodies of Knowledge.
Some aspects to take into account when implementing the process above:
Any change to the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge implies a change to the Framework
for ICT professionalism (being one of the 4 pillars). Hence any change should be carefully considered
and be seen in relation to the other pillars, in particular the e-CF.
It is advisable to not directly publish a new version after a single change, but to do this periodically.
For instance at the end of the year and preferably with similar timing as updates of the e-CF will be
made known.
The open platform should also be used pro-actively to interact with the community and gather advice
on possible changes, e.g. based on current developments. This could be done through polls – but also
by inviting experts to share views by issuing short papers or points of view. The latter could stimulate
online discussion and consequently feed into discussions at the Workshop’s meeting. It could provide
members of the Workshop with ‘ammunition’ to submit proposals.
The BOK provides references to specific Bodies of Knowledge. For both documents it is important to
remain aligned and up to date, and provide proper referencing. The platform could provide a basis for
ongoing communication, if it would also allow messages from these organisations to be published.
This way the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge and specific Bodies of Knowledge can
complement and support each other.
Proper communication is vitally important to timely inform stakeholders on consultations and
changes (new versions).
5.4 Promotion and stimulating take-up
This second key function of the operating model for the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge
includes communication and international collaboration.
5.4.1 Communication
General objectives
A successful communication provides direction to develop and encourage commitment to the promotion of
ICT Professionalism. The goal of this stream is to promote the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge by
constantly seeking support from the relevant stakeholder and, establishing commitment. Important to achieve
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 93 of 129
this goal is to take into account the message, the target group, the chosen channel, timing and the desired
effect.
The goals for the communication strategy should therefore be as identified below:
Build trust, engagement and collaboration with the right messages communicated to the right
stakeholders at the right time and delivered by reliable and influential messengers.
Establish and sustain momentum with communication that recognises milestones.
Promote enthusiasm by creating a ‘brand management’ atmosphere designed to create awareness
and excitement.
Gain acceptance by developing commitment with stakeholders so that they understand and are ready
to do what is required to implement and sustain the change.
Deliver consistent messages and reinforce messages over time to demonstrate that the initiative is
staying the course.
Proactively manage the changing communication needs of stakeholders over time (different phases
and development of the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge ).
A European Body of Knowledge will affect numerous stakeholders. The potentially impacted stakeholders need
to be aware and understand the benefits of this Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. The goal of
communication and dissemination activities is that they become actively involved in the defining of the
content while at the same time demonstrate support and commitment. To this objective, a repository of
stakeholders should be maintained and updated regularly. Preferably this should be an open database to allow
people to find expertise and connect.
At every stage of the communication, the message and the stakeholder groups are defined. Developing
opportunities for stakeholders to provide feedback and become involved in decisions, will enable stakeholders
to continue to focus on the critical elements of their job during the development and the dissemination of the
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge.
Fostering Adoption of the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge
Essential to the further development and the embedding of the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge in
practice, is gaining a deep understanding of the different e-Skills and / or ICT Professionalism policies in
Member States. The national key drivers of ICT Professionalism differ, being public or private drivers or a
combination of both. Moreover, it is essential to have a clear view on the influential stakeholder groups to
make a Body of Knowledge ‘stick’.
Following previous European initiatives, such as Digital Champions and the dissemination and uptake of the e-
Competence Framework, we know that a leading practice is a successful vehicle to promote adoption in other
European countries and stakeholder groups. Therefore, we have determined which countries are the leading
countries when it comes to ICT Professionalism. On the basis of the criteria below, have made a selection to
identify these countries:
The country has served as an example for other countries when it comes to ICT Professionalism147
The country has an elaborate digital strategy / agenda, under the responsibility of one ministry.
The country has a high level of policy and stakeholder activity in the e-skills domain148
147 Input in Steering Committee on 12 June 2014. 148 Empirica, Country Reports ‘e-Skills: Monitoring and Benchmarking Policies and Partnerships in Europe’, see: http://eskills-
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 94 of 129
The country uses the e-CF, or another skills framework at governmental or departmental level.
The country has made a national or local coalition pledge in the context of the Grand Coalition for
Digital Jobs.149
The country is listed in the top 25 of the World Economic Forum Network Readiness Index150
Based on these criteria Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and The United Kingdom
have been indicated as leading countries. These ‘champion’ countries can play an important role in promoting
the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge and stimulating its usage.
Based on these prerequisites, it is important to further identify the national stakeholders such as the
responsible ministries, multi-stakeholder initiatives and the professional associations that are at the
foundation of ICT Professionalism. A relevant example is the one of Estonia, where the Estonian Ministry of
Economic Affairs and Communication is a driver of ICT Professionalism.151 The Ministry is in charge of the
funding professional ICT associations and moreover has taken the initiative to potentially create a Nordic ICT
Body of Knowledge. With this initiative the Nordic countries aim to cooperate more to enhance the connection
between academia and the ICT industry. This example makes clear that any communication activity should be
‘customised’ to ensure message comes across correctly, in the right context and to the relevant audience.
However, there are more specific stakeholders that can support promotion of the BOK. In particular,
associations that represent ICT professionals, Industry and (networks of) educational providers. Organisation
such as CEPIS are of vital importance to promote the BOK amongst its members. Educational providers are
most close to potential beneficiaries of the BOK, namely students. Industry representations can promote the
BOK in particular amongst the SME community – as this might be the category of companies that could use
support more than larger firms.
We believe based on results from the interviews conducted, that the input and updates from the European ICT
community are essential, also to overcome the possible cultural differences regarding a sustainable European
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. Respect for the national and local differences is extremely important
however also, a challenge.152 To have the community contribute to the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge
could be a means to steer clear of the cultural bias. In the end it should be about the community, and the BOK
is a means to strengthen that community.
Therefore, it is recommended to create an open and interactive online platform. To guarantee a continuous
flow of information and innovation, the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge should be accessible for anyone
and serve as an online repository.153 As mentioned, the maintenance and the responsibility of keeping an
online platform up to date need to be addressed by the European Commission within efficient cooperation
and coordination mechanisms (at least on the short term).
149 Member States are now launching national coalitions in the context of the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs launched by President Barroso in March 2013 (e.g. A Greek coalition was launched on 6 May 2014 and a Bulgarian coalition was launched on 10 June 2014. It is expected that an Italian coalition would be launched this year). We will continue to monitor these important developments.
150 World Economic Forum, Global Information Technology Report www3.weforum.org/docs/GITR/2014/GITR_OverallRanking_2014.pdf Network Readiness Index measures the performance of 148 economies in leveraging information and communications technologies to boost competitiveness and well-being
151 Republic of Estonia, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication www.mkm.ee/en and Nordic Digital Agendas Day http://e-estonia.com/nordicday/ June 2014
152 Information received through an interview with a representative of IEEE on 5 May 2014 153 Information received through an interview with a representative of the EABOK on 2 July 2014
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 95 of 129
5.4.2 International collaboration
The ICT profession is a profession that has had a different development than most professions. Neither
companies nor individuals are restricted by national borders. The unique challenge in the development of the
profession is that ICT practitioners are increasingly working in global teams, however, educational and
professional standards (national and international) have not yet been defined.154 An European Foundational
ICT Body of Knowledge to which all ICT professionals can relate, regardless of their nationality, could support
this process.
The base-level knowledge about ICT can be considered as international155. Also, several specialised existing ICT
Bodies of Knowledge that contain more specific knowledge are already used internationally156. For Europe as a
continent, it requires reaching out to ‘global’ stakeholders, to learning from their experiences, exchanging
knowledge and aligning with similar initiatives (many of which have already been mentioned in this report). It
is therefore desirable to exchange information and to continue to seek international cooperation to ensure the
best quality and relevance of the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge.
During desk research, many international examples of Bodies of Knowledge have been analysed and in the
past months we have conducted interviews with experts all over the world. Examples of the expert
organisations we have spoken to are amongst others, the Australian Computer Society, the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IFIP IP3, the Canada Association of I.T. Professionals, the British Computer
Society, IT Promotion Agency Japan, the Association of Enterprise Architects and Multimedia Development
Corporation (MDEC) Malaysia. These in-depth interviews have been useful to learn about the existing
initiatives and to build upon their experience on how to develop an ICT Body of Knowledge and a sustainable
organisational model. Multiple stakeholders have already expressed their interest in the initiative and wish to
stay up to date.
Examples of further collaboration could be:
The IPA in Japan has developed a very detailed iCompetency Dictionary. This includes 8000
knowledge elements, which could possibly enrich the current European Body of Knowledge. Their
work also includes new job profiles for Cloud manager and Data scientist that could be of interest.
Possible collaboration could take form in exchanging knowledge to help further mature the European
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge. On the other hand, the experience in Europe with drafting
statistics and benchmarks for IT Workforce and Skills development could provide an incentive for IPA
and would contribute to the development of a representative global index. IPA has also developed
statistics around this. All would benefit by being able to compare on indicators and derive good
practice for all to benefit from.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) has developed a IT Body of Knowledge which served as
example for the European Foundational ICT BOK. Exchanging experiences on how to increase uptake
and further mature the model will be of value to both organisations, independent of cultural / societal
/ other differences.
The IEEE Computer Society is governing the development of the Guide to the Information Technology
Body of Knowledge, and is at this moment defining ‘a basis for a (...) common language to facilitate
communication between IT professionals with individuals in the organisations that IT serves.’
Exchange of information and consultation should be sought in order to create synergies.
The experiences in Malaysia with the development of a register for ICT professionals have proven
valuable lessons learned, which stimulate the debate here in Europe and other parts of the world.
154 Interim Report "e-Skills: the International Dimension and the Impact of Globalisation", IVI, IDC, Empirica and CEPIS, 2013 155 Information received through an interview with a representative of ACS on 14 March 2014 156 Report "e-Skills and ICT Professionalism, Fostering the ICT Profession in Europe", IVI & CEPIS, 2012
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 96 of 129
Moreover, research on the possibilities of international alignment with initiatives such as the Seoul
Accord are desirable157.
It is however important to determine some principles of collaboration, when putting more flesh on continuing
the international collaboration and preparing concrete meetings or small projects. These principles could be
formalised in a short note, a gentlemen’s agreement almost, that can also be made public to ensure further
promotion. It should include general goal of the collaboration and some leading principles on referencing,
transparency, possible limitations and such.
5.5 Way forward
The European Commission has expressed the ambition to develop the European Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge into a standard. Standards can support and improve competitiveness, increase efficiency and
facilitate innovation and could provide a benchmark against which businesses can measure the quality and
performance of their own resources or of the resources they are hiring. Standards can also be used to diffuse
knowledge throughout the market. The CEN has defined a standard as:
‘a document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and
repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the
optimum degree of order in a given context. Standards may include requirements and / or recommendations
in relation to products, systems, processes or services. Standards can also be used to describe a measurement
or test method or to establish a common terminology within a specific sector’158.
Each proposal for a standard should be prepared by a technical committee of experts. It will then be shared
with members of the Workshop for consultation. National standards bodies will be involved. Consensus is
required to approve the standard. Maximum duration of this process is 3 years.
There are a few guidelines to take into account when developing the BOK into a standard159:
The BOK should respond to a market need: it is not the CEN who decides to develop a new standard,
but an actual need expressed by industry, education, associations, government or other stakeholders.
In this case previous research has already indicated the need to develop a Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge, and the Commission and members of the steering committee expressed the need to
further develop it into a standard.
The standard should be based on global expert opinion. This means that the CEN Workshop, and / or
the technical committee that will draft the proposal, will need to also consist of experts from beyond
Europe. This is a logical consequence of the ambition to intensify international collaboration and the
fact that ICT knowledge is not limited to borders. The aforementioned scheme on sustainability and
promotion of the BOK shows the connection to international standards through the CEN Workshop.
Development of the standard should be based on consensus from diverse stakeholder: professional
associations, industry, educational providers, government and other relevant parties. The ICT
community covers all, and all will have to deal with the standard in one way or another.
The CEN has described the process of standardisation very clearly in their brochure ‘hands on
standardisation’160, to which we refer for further details.
157 The Seoul Accord is a multi-lateral agreement among agencies responsible for accreditation or recognition of tertiary-level
computing and IT-related qualifications. See: http://www.seoulaccord.com/accord/index.jsp 2014 158 http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards_development.htm 159 With reference to key principles in standard development by ISO http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards_development.htm 160 http://www.cen.eu/news/brochures/brochures/Handsonstandards.pdf
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 98 of 129
Most concerns raised include the following (based on previous research162 and case study of Malaysia’s
government who are in the process of realising such register):
It could restrict recruitment and act as barrier to entry for foreigners unless mutual recognition could
be established;
A broad variety of certifications and qualifications on offer which makes it difficult to compile a
complete register;
It is expected that Education providers might be prepared to share their database with current and
future courses, however might lack desire to compile and submit data retrospectively. This would
then be up to individual professionals;
The demand of practitioners for such a register is unclear. The value of such a register should be very
clear for them, otherwise they won’t contribute (e.g. as required in previous bullet). Even worse,
when approaching implementation of a register for IT professionals too much as a top-down exercise,
this could create societal unrest amongst ICT professionals, as was seen in Malaysia where many took
to the streets to voice their concerns. Introducing legislation that forces professionals to achieve
certain levels of certification for specific roles might very well be considered as a negative.
Data protection laws could conflict with situations where education providers want to submit their
data to a commercial company developing the register (as proposed in previous research163).
ICT projects are often complex and involve many stakeholders. If licensing contributes to ensuring a
certain liability for these projects, the question remains who to hold responsible, and consequently
who to license (just the project lead or the complete team?).
Enforcement might be challenging and resource intensive.
And of course, a register does not guarantee competences – but is aimed at increasing likelihood.
The Malaysian case study shows that establishment of such a register can be best initiated through a bottom-
up approach, by forming an alliance with industry and practitioners that will draft the framework required to
set up the register. While time is not an issue per se, the complexity here is that this would consequently need
to be a national initiative in the first place. It would require countries to work out this option, and find a way to
establish a national register (through bundling many existing registers within each education provider). That
could then possibly be unlocked at European level.
MCS Malaysia is an organisation that facilitates cooperation between the Malaysian government and the
industry. They are working on a national register for ICT professionals to professionalise the ICT sector. A
driver to create such a register is the failing of big ICT projects and the financial overrun. At a current state,
MCS encounters that there is no ownership and accountability when these ICT projects fail. With this
initiative they want to incite professionalism.
Board of computing of Malaysia together with the board of engineers work together as the latter is very
regulated and the MCS thinks the ICT profession could learn from this example.
An overview of steps in the process in Malaysia to realise formal regulation of the ICT profession:
Firstly, MCS looked for an independent association that could certificate ICT professionals, to
create transparency and uniformity in certifications. They did not find an appropriate body as the
field was too diverse, there were too many players.
162 With thanks to professor Liz Bacon, BCS President and Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Greenwich, London. 163 Report “e-Skills and ICT Professionalism: Fostering the ICT profession in Europe”, by IVI and CEPIS, p 184.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 99 of 129
Secondly, MCS initiated a legal act to form the board, but the industry players and freelancers
voiced out their concerns (in the streets!) that regulation would jeopardise their work. The legal
act was then put on hold.
Subsequently, they went back to the industry to ask what they wanted to regulate concerning ICT
professionals and currently the MCS is forming an alliance such as the ACS. The forming this entity
will take another 2/3 years, they started in December 2012. With this alliance they will map
competencies and try to create a framework of necessary competencies for a national ICT register.
Ideally the government will set up the register. First subscription will be free, on the long run ICT
professionals will be a fee. They are trying to make it attractive to get certified and they try to make it as
easy as possible to get registered. There should be a very clear benefit for the ICT professional.
Besides Malaysia, there are other countries who have experimented with licensing164:
Nigeria: where a license is mandatory and non-licensed professionals will be prosecuted. In this
country obviously many societal challenges hamper proper implementation (large number of IT
professionals are not registered) and enforcement, but there also is a lack of ensuring sound
government IT policy.
South Africa: is proposing a mandatory professional membership of the Institute of Information
Technology Professionals South Africa which brings CPD’s, a code of conduct, and a code of ethics and
practice. At the moment the precise implementation and implication remains unclear as it is in its
early stages of development.
Other countries have seen initiatives starting and / or discussion continuing. Obviously there is much to discuss
before taking any measures, but the discussion about accountability is valuable in itself.
164 Based on the contribution of prof Liz Bacon during the e-Skills Conference 2014, 2& 3 November in Brussels.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 100 of
129
6 Recommendations
It is an inspiring process to collaborate with so many people that are truly engaged with maturing the ICT
profession and facilitating this step towards a version 1.0 of the European Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge. This project enabled the development of an European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge, by
investigating the requirements and expectations on ICT professionalism from many different perspectives. It
constructed a framework that addresses the needs of multiple stakeholders across different EU Member
States (and even beyond Europe). At this stage we have designed a version 1.0 that defines Foundational
Knowledge to be understood by all ICT professionals.
The process of maturing the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge however will take multiple years, reflecting
the same path that other professions have taken, and in fact it will basically never end as ICT will continue to
develop and impact the model. There is thus no time to rest on our laurels. Dedicated action is required to
drive the development of this framework, in terms of content, collaboration, promotion and usage, and
international collaboration.
To this end, we propose the following observations and recommendations to increase the impact of this
initiative and make it a success on the longer term.
Concerning the content development of the Body of Knowledge:
It is necessary to define levels of depth within the included knowledge areas, according to existing
guidelines such as the EQF. This could be guided by a dedicated committee to ensure coherence with
existing EU initiatives (EQF, ECF, SFIA etc.). Validation should also be done with owners of relevant
specific Bodies of Knowledge, academia and industry.
It is necessary to ensure a regular maintenance of the link between the BOK and the e-CF. It has to be
carried out in order to ensure a clear and complete alignment between ICT core knowledge and
competences. Moreover, explicit reference to e-CF is required to relate the Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge to the existing frameworks (e-CF, CWA job profiles). One of the most relevant statements
designing the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge is its direct link to e-CF. e-CF 3.0 was adopted as a
reference framework to define the meta model. The Knowledge included in e-CF 3.0 was assessed,
selected and clustered in order to draft the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge.
Considering the fast evolution of ICT, a regular update is required of the foundational knowledge list
per knowledge area, indicative job profiles, and relevant specific Bodies of Knowledge and
certificates, to ensure the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge to be exhaustive and up to
date. An option would be to collect up-to-date information about current and future ICT job profiles,
for instance by running a survey amongst organisations that could enrich the current set of commonly
accepted job profiles and consequently feed into the European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge.
This initiative would provide an overview of required competencies and knowledge for certain
profiles, from which different levels of proficiency could be derived in order to develop and further
specify knowledge required of ICT professionals. This would also be beneficial to the ICT Job Profile
family tree and e-CF.
Developing the ICT Body of Knowledge requires a continuous and collective effort to identify and
adopt best practices at local and international level in order to ensure content application. Drafting
the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge, best practices exemplified across a number of leading
tertiary institutions in the delivery of ICT training have been assessed and taken into account to
design the meta model and define content.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 101 of
129
It is recommended to maintain a balance between technical and non-technical knowledge along the
broad spectrum ICT Foundational knowledge: given the growing demand and importance of the so-
called “dual-thinkers, it is important that ICT professionals also understand non-technical aspects of
organizations in order to deliver value successfully. With this aim, the current structure of the
European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge, creating a breadth of knowledge from Business and
Technical elements, should be maintained although further development and changes are required.
Given the breadth and variation of knowledge required within the ICT community, any attempt to
generate detailed content across the whole of ICT would be unsustainable. For this reason, a high-
level meta-model approach is applied resulting in a guide to facilitate the on-going maintenance and
relevance of the Body of Knowledge to stakeholders. Developing the Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge, scope and nature of the framework have to be clearly defined in order to ensure self-
consistency and sustainability. Moreover, particular attention has to be paid to terms and concepts
used to define the Foundational ICT knowledge in order to avoid risk of ambiguity.
Concerning the process of development and collaboration:
It is needed to ensure coherence between the BOK and the other elements of the framework of ICT
professionalism and other existing initiatives (EQANIE) glue these projects together to create synergy,
but also to increase clarity for users and help them understand how they can benefit. The appearance
of a European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge begs the question how this model related to other
existing frameworks and initiatives in Europe (and beyond). The e-CF and a Code of Ethics of course,
as pillars of the Framework for ICT Professionalism. But also to other relevant developments such as
the EQANIE initiative that awards quality labels.
A balanced approach is required to ensure all stakeholders are involved, engaged and able to
contribute to the process of further development. A new review round should be the starting point of
any follow up to this project. This review round should then also gather views on how the key
recommendations listed here can be followed up, when, and by whom.
The user-perspective should have priority in all further developments. How can we ensure (potential)
ICT professionals will use these models to their advantage? How can it be made ‘practical’? Some
examples that should be considered:
o Self-assessment tools to help people design their path to enter the profession and / or
further specialise,
o Use cases or case studies that explain for different personas how these models can be
applied,
o Clear online guidance through one platform, avoiding diffusion of various documents across
different web pages.
o Training tutorial or open online course to explain how to start a job in ICT: what do certain
jobs require in terms of knowledge, competences and skills – and where and how can you
obtain these?
Thought should be given to possible scenarios for certification or quality labels:
o For educational institutions that design curricula that include the elements in the European
Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge, for instance through a quality label (similar to, or
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 102 of
129
better: in collaboration with EQANIE165) that would also give ‘proof’ to the student to show to
future employers that his education is in line with European guidelines around knowledge
development.
o For practitioners that want to enter the profession and would benefit if they can proof that
they have the required foundational knowledge to start a career in a specific area of their
interest. That would require from the next version of the European Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge to include levels (as suggested above) possibly allowing to (self-)assess
individuals.
As regards ensuring sustainability and promotion:
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge is a document that concerns the whole ICT
community – being in education, government, industry, associations etc. – and it should hence be
‘owned’ by all involved. Realising an open platform that presents the document, and allows for
continuous interaction and feedback loops will contribute to that. We found that many different
interpretations exist as regards what a Body of Knowledge is and where it should aim for. For further
communication and promotion activities, clear and uniform messaging is critical to ensure the ICT
community understands the objectives and values of this Foundational Body of Knowledge and is able
to use it for their benefit.
Promotion concerning ICT professionalism needs to address the younger generation, and use
innovative ways that technology nowadays offers. In this regard any practical tool that supports a
potential ICT professional to orient on a future career, such as an online tutorial or MOOC would be of
huge benefit. It will also require to create awareness amongst professors and teachers that interact
frequently with this younger generation and convince them to advise to use the Body of Knowledge.
Multi-party stakeholder initiatives at national level should be created. Collaboration between
government, education and industry at national / local levels are most effective and will directly
influence e-Skills challenges. This could be stimulated at the European level through sector-specific
hubs, initiated and driven by the aforementioned champions, that would be responsible for bringing
the relevant stakeholders together, and facilitating the initiation of that process as well as sharing
knowledge and experiences.
With the purpose to increase international collaboration:
The challenge of closing the e-Skills gap and maturing ICT professionalism is a global challenge and
requires intensifying collaboration between Europe and other parts of the world. Various initiatives
have been launched across the globe on development of Bodies of Knowledge and other elements of
the ICT profession. Direct value add can be obtained from excellent work that has been done in for
instance Japan (IPA), Canada, United States and Australia. And these countries and organisations
could benefit vice-versa. The examples mentioned in paragraph 5.4.2 could serve as starting point.
165 http://www.eqanie.eu/pages/about-eqanie.php
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 103 of
129
Appendix A: Interview Report
1 Objective and methodology of interviews
The objective of the first interview session was to identify the requirements and the expectations as well as
the scope, nature and characteristics of a European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge.
Interviews have been conducted by interviewers fully aligned on the survey topic and instructed on the
objectives, on the expectations from the survey and next steps.
The interviews have been streamlined in a standard interview guideline to ensure consistency of approach
across countries and comparability of findings.
The format used for the interviews is semi-structured. We preferred semi-structured interviews since they
allow the respondent to express him / herself freely, rather than being confined to a strict template. Semi-
structured interviews made it possible for interviewees to elaborate on certain questions and for interviewers
to ask additional clarification questions. This does justice to the explorative character of the interviews. The
interviews were based on written protocols and an online tool that set the basic questions that needed to be
answered. During the interviews, the respondent was invited to develop the relevant topics in his / her own
way (the interview template has been shared with the interviewee before the interview).
The interviews were telephone-based, carried out prior to an agreed set appointment, and lasting an average
of 1 hour each. Only few interviews, when preferred by interviewed, have been compiled online directly by
stakeholders.
The interviews were generally in the English language, managed directly by the core team.
Experts from different stakeholders’ categories were interviewed to identify the requirements and the
expectations as well as the scope, nature and characteristics of a European Foundational ICT Body of
Knowledge.
The interviewed stakeholders have been clustered in the following categories:
Industry
Research & Development
Consultancy
Educational institution
Certification and accreditation body / Training provider
Standardisation body
Association (business representatives, etc.)
Trade Union
Local, regional, national governments
Individual expert
We realise that within each group diverging views exist, that each group can be further broken down in sub-
categories and that our sample does not allow getting statements that are statistically representative for an
entire group. Such an approach would not fit available resources and time. But even more important: it would
not add much more value to the results. However, qualitatively, the stakeholders we interviewed represent
experts and organisations that care about maturing the ICT profession, who have very relevant opinions and
are willing to contribute. They were selected and advised by others we interviewed. They are likely to engage
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 104 of
129
and participate, and can fulfil an important role as regards the promotion of ICT Professionalism. And that is
why their opinion counts.
The data from interview have been elaborated and analysed both in an aggregate way, to get general figures
from all stakeholders, and separately, comparing the different answers by each stakeholder category. Figures
and pictures of the analysis by categories are provided only when it is significant for understanding the
phenomenon. In other words when answers do not change significantly when analysed by category, only
aggregate data are provided. If On the contrary if the analysis by category gave some interesting evidences,
those evidences are illustrated..
Hereby we provide the full set of information from interviews, when possible elaborated in tables and graphs.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 105 of
129
2 The Sample
In this first interview session, 113 stakeholders have been interviewed. Considering that 255 had been invited
and contacted, the overall ratio of participation is 44%.
This ratio is adequate to the level of expectations. In fact the interviews where peculiar for at least two
aspects:
The extensive duration of the interviews – The interview required an average of one hour.
The level of responsibility of interviewed people – The majority of invited stakeholders have a high
level of responsibility within his organisation (21% Of interviewed are CEO / Director). This ensures a
high level of quality and representativeness of information gathered from interviews.
2.1 Sample composition and representativeness
The following table illustrates the composition of the interviewed stakeholders, in terms of categories their
organisation belongs to.
The sum of number of interviewed people for each category is higher of the total of interviewed. This is due to
the fact that some interviewed indicated their organisation belonging to more than a single category (e.g.
Consultancy AND certification and accreditation body)
Category Number of interviewed % of total
Educational institution 29 26%
Association (business representatives, etc.) 28 25%
Consultancy 19 17%
Research & Development 18 16%
Certification and accreditation body / Training provider 17 15%
Industry 15 13%
Local, regional, national governments 8 7%
Standardisation body 8 7%
Trade Union 3 3%
Individual expert 2 2%
Table 3: Category composition of the stakeholders’ sample – Absolute numbers and percentages
The following graph allows one to notice a proper balance in terms of representativeness of the sample
respect to the different categories of stakeholders.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 106 of
129
Figure 13: composition of the stakeholders sample in terms of categories
If we look at roles of interviewed within their organisation, the sample has the composition showed in the
following table.
Again, the sum of the number of interviewed people for each role profile is higher than that of the total
number of people interviewed. This is due to the fact that some individuals interviewed indicated their
belonging to different roles at the same time (e.g. Project / Program manager AND Professor)
Category Number of interviewed % of total
Project / Programme manager 41 36%
CEO / Director 24 21%
Policy officer 16 14%
Professor / researcher 16 14%
Consultant 14 12%
CIO / ICT manager 13 12%
Expert 12 11%
HR manager 8 7%
ICT Practitioner 4 4%
Individual expert 2 2%
Trainer 2 2%
Table 4: Role profiles of interviewed – Absolute numbers and percentages
The following graph allows one to see the balance in terms of representativeness of roles of interviewed
stakeholders.
Educational institution 26%
Association (business
representatives, etc.) 25%
Consultancy 17% Research &
Development 16%
Certification and accreditation body/Training provider 15%
Industry 13%
Local, regional, national
governments 7%
Standardisation body 7%
Trade Union 3% Individual expert 2%
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 107 of
129
Figure 14: Role profiles of interviewed
Project/Programme manager 36%
CEO/Director 21%
Policy officer 14%
Professor/ researcher 14%
Consultant 12%
CIO/ICT manager 12%
Expert 11%
HR manager 7%
ICT Practitioner 4%
Individual expert 2%
Trainer 2%
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 108 of
129
3 Need perception and present behaviours of stakeholders
The perception of stakeholders has been captured in terms of following aspects:
Gaps perception between ICT graduates and / or practitioners and the demand from the industry and
related activities to close the gaps
Evaluation of present ICT accreditations and certifications
Awareness and usage of the existing Bodies of Knowledge
Knowledge and usage of the common e-Competence Framework
For each aspect both close and open questions have been asked to stakeholders in order to have the highest
possible level of information on the perception of the present e-Skills scenario.
3.1 Gaps perception between ICT graduates and / or practitioners and
the demand from the industry
Being one of key elements of the present work, an open question on interviewees’ gaps perception has been
asked during the interviews. The interviewers took notes of the following discussion and analysed all the
results in order to get some key findings.
82% of interviewed agreed that a gap exists and had a personal idea about it. Answers gave two different
orders of information:
Gaps referred to specific technical contents of ICT profession
Gaps referred to general aspects or differences of approach between ICT graduates / practitioners
and the demand from industry
The first perspective showed a substantial alignment between different categories of stakeholders. In practice
there is a common view, within different categories of stakeholders, of the main technical skills that represent
a gap. Using the second perspective (general aspects), it is instead possible to see some differences, in terms
of perceptions of different stakeholders categories.
In the two following tables key findings from the above different perspectives are summarised.
The most recurring themes when speaking of technical Gaps
Cloud Computing
Big Data
Networking
ICT security
Agile Methods
Software development tools
Data Analytics
Linux
Table 5: Gaps referred to specific technical contents of ICT profession
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 109 of
129
Associations and Trade Unions
Business and management skills
Certification and accreditation body / Training provider
Mainly specific technical skills
Consultancy and Industry
Too much theory in the University studies
Communication and Soft skills
ICT governance
Educational institutions
Communication, leadership and soft skills
Individual experts
Business skills
Local, regional, national governments
Permanent and structural gap due to obsolete curricula
Research & Development
Too much silos. There is a very little view of other ICT roles
Table 6: Gaps referred to general aspects or differences of approach between ICT graduates / practitioners and the demand from
industry
3.1.1 Activities to close the gaps
The vast majority of stakeholders (90% of interviewed) is undertaking specific activities in order to close gaps
between ICT graduates and / or practitioners and the demand from the industry.
Possible actions have been categorised in three clusters:
External ICT Training on specific skills and knowledge areas
Internal tailored Training on specific skills and knowledge areas
Career and certification paths for key roles
In the next figure it is possible to notice how only 13% of interviewed does not take any action to close the
gap. The remaining 87% sees the majority of stakeholders taking all the 3 possible actions (33%), then a
combination of two actions (17%, 12% and 9%) and a low percentage of stakeholders take only one action (6%,
6% and 5%)
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 110 of
129
Figure 15: activities to close gaps between ICT graduates and / or practitioners and the demand from the industry
Moving to analyse the actions by categories of stakeholders it is possible to notice that industry and
educational institute are the most active categories in trying to reduce the gap between ICT graduates and
demand.
This is an interesting result, considering that industry and educational institute often have different
perspective of the “gap”, but with the same interest to “close” it.
NO action 13%
career and certification paths + external training + internal
training 33%
career and certification paths + external training 17%
external + internal training 12%
career and certification paths + internal training 9%
external training 6%
internal training 6%
career and certification paths 5%
87%
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 111 of
129
Figure 16: Are stakeholders undertaking any activities to close gaps between ICT graduates and / or practitioners and the demand from
the industry?
3.2 Evaluation of present ICT accreditations and certifications
Some differences exist in stakeholders’ perception of current Certification and Accreditation provided by
different categories of institutions. 44% of interviewed thinks that Certification and Accreditation provided by
different publicly funded training associations are below expectations. The best perception is referred to
professional associations that for 59% of interviewed meet expectations, for 14% exceeds the expectations
and only for 27% performs below expectations.
The following figure gives the full picture stakeholders answers, sorted by highest to lowest percentage of
“below expectations” answers.
44%
57%
67%
88%
65%
71%
82%
86%
61%
71%
61%
50%
38%
59%
76%
41%
43%
75%
86%
50%
54%
100%
50%
63%
47%
76%
86%
79%
71%
Consultancy
Association (business representatives, etc.)
Trade Union
Local, regional, national governments
AVERAGE
Research & Development
Certification and accreditation body/Training provider
Standardisation body
Educational institution
Industry
My organisation facilitates external ICT training on specific skills and knowledge areas
My organisation develops internal tailored training on specific skills and knowledge areas
My organisation promotes career and certification paths for key roles
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 112 of
129
Figure 17: Accreditation and certification is a means to formalise the qualifications of an ICT Professional. How stakeholders evaluate
the current ICT certification and accreditation provided by the following bodies
3.3 Knowledge and usage of the common e-Competence Framework
On Average 76% of stakeholders are aware of e-Competency Framework and the majority is using it.
Looking at the different categories of interviewed comes to evidence that Consultancy has the lowest rate of
knowledge (45%) and usage (27%) of e-CF, while Industry and R&D have the highest rate of usage (both 60%).
During the interviews different kinds of possible usage are referred. In many cases the e-CF is used to “inspire”
further elaborations or considerations. Sometime it is not clear to stakeholders how it is possible to use, in
practice, the e-CF.
The following pictures illustrate the percentages of awareness of stakeholders.
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 113 of
129
Figure 18: Awareness and usage of e-Competency Framework
On average, 76 of interviewed knows the e-CF and 70% of them is also using the e-CF (that is 53% of
interviewed). Consultancy and education are under the average in terms of awareness. On the contrary,
Industry and R&D sector have higher rates of awareness and usage of e-CF
Not aware 55%
Aware and using 27% Aware NOT
using 18%Other 45%
Consultancy
Not aware 30%
Aware and using 60%
Aware NOT using 10%
Other 70%
Educational institutions
Not aware
26%
Aware and using 53%
Aware NOT
using 23%
Other 76%
Average (all Categories)
Not aware 20%
Aware and using 60%
Aware NOT using
20%
Other 80%
Industry
Not aware 13%
Aware and using 50%
Aware NOT using 38%
Other 88%
R&D
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 114 of
129
3.4 Awareness and usage of the existing Bodies of Knowledge
Stakeholder’s level of knowledge and usage of existing Bodies of Knowledge has been assessed in order to
understand the existing scenario.
Moreover the answers allowed to build a map of the importance of existing documents.
Figure 19: Stakeholders awareness and usage of existing Bodies of Knowledge
THAT FUNCTION AS AN OVERARCHING FRAMEWORK
4%
4%
8%
9%
9%
10%
10%
10%
11%
11%
12%
13%
19%
12%
22%
37%
20%
25%
16%
22%
23%
22%
30%
18%
30%
27%
84%
75%
55%
72%
66%
75%
69%
68%
68%
59%
71%
57%
54%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Advanced Composite Structures Australia (ACS-Australia)
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 122 of
129
Appendix B: Survey report
1 Objective and methodology of interviews
The objective of the second round interviews was to assess stakeholder’s views on the possible governance,
operational and funding models for the promotion of ICT professionalism at national and EU level and also to
discuss with the stakeholders the interest and benefits of a European Body of Knowledge. In addition,
information gathered via interviews were used to validate preliminary findings drawn from desk research. The
information gathered serves as a knowledge base for WP 3 Outreach and dissemination activities.
Interviews have been conducted by interviewers fully aligned on the survey topic and instructed on the
objectives, on the expectations from the survey and next steps.
The interviews have been streamlined in a standard interview guideline to ensure consistency of approach
across countries and comparability of findings.
The format used for the interviews was the same adopted in the first round interviews: semi-structured
format in fact allows the respondent to express him / herself freely, rather than being confined to a strict
template. Consequently, quantitative input can be enriched by qualitative information.
Based on the list of stakeholders used in the first interview session, 200 stakeholders were selected and invited
to the second round in order to achieve at least 100 interviews. The main target group involved in interviews
were ICT professionals and those involved in the CEN ICT Skills workshop of the European Standardisation
Committee. Those include experts from the government, academic, and private sector that are able to provide
key insights governance, operations and funding of a Body of Knowledge.
2 Foundational ICT BOK Value Statements
One of the success factors for the Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge is the establishment of a collaborative
network bringing about all stakeholders. It is necessary to formalise a clear operating model with a suitable
governance structure that allows the collaborative network to grow in a sustainable way, while providing value
for its users. For this reason value statements for each stakeholder have been drafted.
In order to capture stakeholders views on this topic the following question has been asked:
“To what extent do you approve / recognise the following value statements associated with each stakeholder’s
group?”
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 123 of
129
Table above shows that respondents generally agree with the proposed value statements. In particular
91% of stakeholders think that ICT BOK provides a common knowledge that all ICT professionals
should possess. This will allow them to understand the domains within (and outside of) the
profession, to identify personal and professional development opportunities and to improve the
communication between professionals
82% of respondents think that ICT BOK helps educational providers design their curricula in order to
provide a comprehensive coverage of all technical, research, and leadership principles and practices
needed to make students effective professionals. It will help to better match curricula with business
needs.
This perception results fully aligned with the defined purpose and audience of Foundational ICT BOK:
The target audience defines for whom the Body of Knowledge has been developed. First of all, it consists of
anyone interested in working in ICT and / or in understanding how to approach the ICT profession:
Students and individuals who want to enter the ICT profession, to orient them to possible future
careers;
Individuals moving to ICT from other professions, to improve their awareness of the ICT domain.
The potential users are those interested in using the Body of Knowledge as a point of reference for their
own mission. This requires looking at how the Body of Knowledge can be used by education providers and
training institutes, professional associations and the industry. A few examples of different uses of the Body
of Knowledge can be provided to explain this concept:
Education providers: as a source of inspiration for curricula design and development;
Professional Associations: to promote the Body of Knowledge to their members, ICT professionals;
9%
9%
9%
18%
18%
18%
36%
55%
55%
45%
64%
73%
18%
27%
27%
36%
9%
9%
27%
9%
9%
9%
9%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
... leads to economic and social benefits by reducing the e-skills gap. It will also ensure that there is an appeal to ICT education that could
attract non-ICT professionals to know more about the ICT profession
... provides the opportunity to mature the ICT profession and promote the interest of their stakeholders
... provides clarity on the knowledge and capability of the workforce. It will be a fundamental base for competency models and thus provides a useful utensil to improve recruitment and workforce development.
... increases (inter)national mobility of ICT professionals and the visibility of the profession
... helps educational providers design their curricula in order to provide a comprehensive coverage of all technical, research, and
leadership principles and practices needed to make students effective professionals. It will help to better match curricula
... provides a common knowledge that all ICT professionals should possess. This allow them to understand the domains within the profession, to identify personal and professional development
opportunities & to improve the communication between professional
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 127 of
129
Appendix C: Example country factsheet – The Netherlands
The Country fiche shown below is an example of a country fiche for the Netherlands. Similar country fiches
have been made for other EU Member States.
Netherlands Click to return to TOC
Political Policy Rationale Design Deployment Impact (ex ante, ex post)
Ministries
Ministry for Economic Affa i rs Digi ta le agenda To promote ICT for the benefi t of bus inesses and customers Fol lows European Digi ta l Agenda; EU e-Competency Framework i s used; a lega l act Other agencies :ECP Ongoing process , Action taken so far: Based on the findings of Task force, propagating ini tiatives such as Digivaardig & Digivei l ig
Minis try of Internal Affa i rs Covenant Dutch Government with ICT Sector To improve the qual i ty of ICT projects and mainta in and improve ta lent among the ICT profess ionals Qual i ty Framework for Information Management i s developed by the Dutch government based on the e-CF, a lega l act Other agencies : Nederland ICT Action taken so far: 'Innovation den' to reduce the gap between government and SME's
Minis try for Education, Culture and Science Innovation in education To make the education related information ava i lable at the right time at right place Encouraging innovation and digi ti zation in education;EU e-Competency Framework i s not used; a lega l act Other agencies : The Department of Education (DUO) for a secure digi ta l data exchange Ongoing process ; Action taken so far: 158 primary and secondary schools receive funding during the grant period 2011-14
Ministry of Securi ty and Justice National Cyber Securi ty Centre To enhance the defens ibi l i ty of the Dutch society in the digi ta l domain Developed National Cyber Securi ty Strategy;EU e-Competency Framework i s not used; a lega l actOther agencies : the Minis tries of Economic Affa i rs , Agricul ture and Innovation, the Interior and Kingdom Relations , Foreign Affa i rs and Defense Ongoing process , Actions taken so far: Establ ished ICT Response Board to advise on measures to counteract IT dis ruptions
Agencies/Bodies Rationale
Public Bodies
AWT The Advisory Counci l for Parl iament and Government on Science and Technology Pol icy
Centre for Expertise & Network Organization Setup by Mediawi jzer to provide a framework for ci ti zens to become media l i terate so that they can participate ful ly in society
Private Bodies
WTR A cooperative organization in which univers i ties and research insti tutes work together on groundbreaking ICT innovations .
SURF A cooperative organization in which univers i ties and research insti tutes work together on groundbreaking ICT innovations .
NGN IT profess ionals , mostly managers of computer networks
CIO platform Independent association of CIOs and IT di rectors of private and publ ic organizations in the Netherlands
Chambers of Commerce Rationale
KvK To enable entrepreneurs to s tart their bus iness and success ful ly innovate their services and products by providing quick access to right information
Trade Unions Rationale
CNV Trade union that makes agreements between labour and employers about work and income. CNV is a member of key advisory bodies such as the Economic and Socia l Counci l and the Labour Foundation
FNV Trade union that negotiates with employers and government on behal f of employees , sel f-employed and pens ioners
MHP Trade union federation in the Netherlands and defends the common interests of a l l secondary and higher education profess ionals
Policy initiatives Rationale
Public Initiatives
Digi ta l Future Aims to s trengthen the ICT Sector, in l ine with the European Commiss ion’s Grand Coal i tion for digi ta l jobs
Digivaardig & Digivei l ig Publ ic-private partnership to promote digi ta l l i teracy and the impact of digi ta l society and digi ta l securi ty, Involved in the implementation of e-CF ( part of Digi ta lagenda.nl )
Media Li teracy Programme To promote the use of ICT and increase awareness among the publ ic ( ini tiative of Minis tries of Education, Culture and Science, Youth and Fami ly )
e-CF NL Ini tiative of Digivaardig & Digivei l ig to adapt the European e-competence framework to the Dutch s i tuation
Private Initiatives
NA
Educational & training Programme discription e-skills defined Certification Students enrolled Teachers involved
Qualification framework
NVAO Dutch profess ional association for ICT; appl icable for both ICT and Non ICT related bodies NA NA NA NA
Kwal i tei tsraamwerk IV The Qual i ty Framework Information (IV), in accordance to e-CF framework; appl icable for both ICT and Non ICT related bodies NA NA NA NA
Certification bodies
EXIN Ini tiative of Minis try for Education, Culture and Science to dis tribute Exams for IT Profess ionals ; Involves ICT related courses ICT practi tioner ski l l s EXIN Cloud;EXIN ITSM based on ISO/IEC 20000;ITIL®;PRINCE2®;EXIN Agi le Scrum;EXIN GREEN IT;EXIN Information Securi ty;USMBOK NA NA
ECABO Centre of Expertise setup by Minis try of Education, Culture and Science on Vocational Education, Tra ining and Labour Market for the economic/adminis trative, ICT and securi ty profess ionals ; Involves ICT and Non-ICT related programmes ICT user ski l l s E-User Certi ficate NA NA
ECDL Netherlands The international ly recognized European Computer Driving License, which indicates the level of knowledge in computer ski l l s , Involves ICT a related programmes ICT user ski l l s ECDL 13mi l l ion(Worldwide) NA
HBO-I Foundation Cooperation of ICT players within Higher Profess ional Education; Involves ICT related programmes ICT practi tioner ski l l s Bachelor in ICT NA NA
Loket MBO-ICT Ini tiative of ECABO to develop and mainta in framework of qual i fications in ICT;Involves ICT related programmes ICT practi tioner ski l l s APL-Experience Certi ficate NA NA
Accreditation bodies
NVAO Organization that independently ensures the qual i ty of higher education in Flanders and the Netherlands ; appl icable for both ICT and Non ICT related bodies NA NA NA NA
Hobéon Group Consultancy for s trategic i ssues of educational and research insti tutions , industry associations , profess ional associations and government agencies ; appl icable for both ICT and Non ICT related bodies NA NA NA NA
Certiked Independent eva luator operating under the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation organization; appl icable for both ICT and Non ICT related bodies NA NA NA NA
NQA Netherlands Qual i ty Agency B.V. assesses s tudy programmes and advises educational authori ties ; appl icable for both ICT and Non ICT related bodies NA NA NA NA
SocietalGovernment s tructure: Parl iamentary democracy ICT Practi tioners as % of tota l employment in 2012: 4.03
Population (in 1000): 16834 Unful fi l led ICT jobs (2011): 8600
Unemployment rate(2013): 9.5% Growth of the core ICT workforce (2011-2012): 20,7%
Labour force(in 1000 as on 2013) : 11577 Amount of fi rs t degree graduates in Computer Science, 2011: 1119
Population of labour force with tertiary education (%): 32 Graduates per 1000 population aged 20-24 (2011 %): 3.4
Ratio (% of workforce) of people working in the field of ICT education: NA % individuals that have used the internet in the last 3 months (2011/2012): 89
Economic factorsGDP (mi l l ion €, 2012): 599,338 Overal l ICT expenditure (in % as on 2010): 5
GDP per capita (in € as of 2013): 35900 Forecast excess demand 2015:23,000
GDP growth: -1.3% (2012) Forecast excess demand 2020:34,000
Share of ICT in GDP (% in 2008): NA
Standards and technological Specifics Solution Governance model Open source/proprietary solution
Professional bodies
SNIR Dutch Foundation for regis tered informatics – monitors qual i fications and profess ional ism of ICT members . Standard ISO/IEC 17024 NA Open
GIA Society for Information Architects VRI s tandard job descriptions NA Open
ISOC ISOC is a not for profi t organization for developing and promoting Internet s tandards and protocols for the benefi t of a s table internet Standards Works in association with Internet Engineering Task Force , the Internet Architecture Board , the Internet Engineering Steering Group , and the Internet Research Task ForceOpen
NEN- Normal ization insti tute Netherlands eCompetence Framework to improve functioning of ICT market by promoting supply and demand transparency e-CF NA Open
Nederland ICT Trade association for ICT, telecom, internet and office companies in the Netherlands to improve ins ight on ICT labour market
NVAO The Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organization which ensures qual i ty of higher education in The Netherlands and Flanders Assessment frameworks NA Open
Private companies Speci fics
Capgemini Academy IT Tra ining
Bra inport Development NV Works with representatives from industry to s trengthen the Bra inport top technology region
IT Staffing Association of highly experienced Freelance IT Profess ionals in the Netherlands . Uses the European Competence Framework in their recrui ting and matching systems for better transparency and qual i ty
IT Performance House A network of IT organizations to innovate together with focus on IT and technology by sharing knowledge and expertise
SAP Offers courses and training in IT field
Industry association
ECP Knowledge platform where government and industry can exchange their knowledge & experience.
Communication Policy and value story Stakeholders Channels used Reach Evaluation
Public Initiatives
NA
Private Initiatives
Let's Connect Promotes use of e-portfol ios in order to s timulate the employabi l i ty of worker in the Bra inport regionMulti -s takeholder partnership between industry partners , publ ic education & research insti tutions and government at regional levelNA NA NA
Ethics Specifics Stakeholders Reach
NGI Dutch profess ional association for ICT NA NA
VRI VRI i s an Association of Regis tered Information Scientis ts . NA NA
NOREA Profess ional association for IT-auditors in the Netherlands NA NA
LegalAuthori ty for Consumers and Markets Works together with minis tries , other regulators , government agencies , scienti fic insti tutions , compla ints boards , and organizations that protect the interests of bus inesses and consumers
Telecommunications Act Act guarantees free Internet access across the Netherlands
The Dutch Personal Data Act
The Government Information (Publ ic Access ) Act (amended in 2005)
An European Foundational ICT Body of Knowledge: a first
point of reference for anyone interested in working in ICT
Page 128 of
129
Appendix D: List of references
ACM (2013), Computer Science Curricula 2013. Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Computer Science. Available at: http://www.acm.org/education/CS2013-final-report.pdf
Agresti, William W. “An IT Body of Knowledge: The Key to an Emerging Profession,” IT Professional, vol. 10, no.
6, pp. 18-22, Nov.-Dec. 2008
Attwel, Graham (2013), ‘Thinking about a career in developing apps?’. Available at: http://careerstalk.org/blog/2013/09/16/thinking-about-a-career-developing-apps/
Australian Computer Society (2012), The ICT Profession Body of Knowledge. Available at: http://www.acs.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/7792/The-ICT-Profession-Body-of-Knowledge.pdf
Beckers, Mischa (2013), BOKS HBO-ICT. Available at: http://www.nioc2013.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/NIOC2013-BOK-hbo-ict-BeckersMischa.pdf
Bourque, P. and Fairley, R.E., eds. (2014), Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge, Version 3.0, IEEE Computer Society. Available at: http://www.computer.org/portal/web/swebok
Career Space Consortium (2001), Curriculum development Guidelines. New ICT Curricula for the 21st
century: designing tomorrow’s education. Available at: http://people.ac.upc.es/toni/papers/CurrITEng.PDF
CEN ( (2013), European e-Competence Framework. Available at http://www.ecompetences.eu/
CEN Workshop Agreement CWA 16458- (2012) - European ICT Professional Profiles
CIPS (2005), CIPS IT Body of Knowledge. Available at: http://www.cips.ca/?q=system/files/BOK.pdf
David Ing (2008). T-Shaped professionals, T-shaped skills, hybrid managers. Available at: http://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/t-shaped-professionals-t-shaped-skills-hybrid-managers/
Denning, Peter J (2001), When IT Becomes a Profession. In: Denning Institute. See at:
European Commission (2007), Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions ‘e-Skills for the 21st Century: Fostering Competitiveness and Growth. (online) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52007DC0496&from=EN
European Commission (2008), European Qualifications Framework. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/ploteus/en/content/descriptors-page
European Commission (2010) Digital Agenda: ICT for Jobs. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/pdf/themes/12_digital_agenda_ict.pdf
Ezer, Jonathan (2006), India and the US: A comparison through the Lens of Model It Curricula. In: Journal of
information Technology Education, Volume 5, 2006. See at: http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol5/v5p429-
440Ezer133.pdf
Greenwich University (2014), Project Management Undergraduate Course: http://www2.gre.ac.uk/study/courses/ug/bus/n106/courses?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZuZWxzb24uZ3JlLmFjLnVrJTJGcGxzJTJGY3JzZSUyRnVvZ3dlYnNpdGUucF9jcnNlSW5mbyUzRnRlcm0lM0QyMDUwMDAlMjZzdWJqJTNEQlVTSSUyNmNyc2UlM0QxNTk1JTI2Y29kZSUzRCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D)
Guest, David (1991). The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing. In: The Independent, September 17, 1991
Held, Gilbert (2000), Understanding Data Communications, From Fundamentals to Networking, 3rd Edition
Kaner, Cem (2006), ‘Exploratory Testing’. Florida Institute of Technology, Quality Assurance Institute Worldwide Annual Software Testing Conference, Orlando, FL, available: http://www.kaner.com/pdfs/ETatQAI.pdf
Leppimäki, Sami; Tammi Mari; Meristö, Tarja (2004), professional Skills in the ICT Industry. Available at: http://is2.lse.ac.uk/asp/aspecis/20040092.pdf;
Miller K.W. and Voas J., “Computer Scientist, Software Engineer, or IT Professional: Which do you think you
are?”, IT Professional, vol. 9, no. 4, 2007, pp. 4-6
Reffell, P. & Whitworth, A. (2002). Information fluency: Critically examining IT education. New Library
World,103, 427-435. See at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=860130