SFIA v6 released but what does it mean for BRM?

The Skills Framework for the Information Age http://www.sfia-online.org otherwise known as SFIA has just been updated to version 6.

What does this mean for Business Relationship Management? Well BRM falls under Relationship Management, or RLMT as SFIA call it, and they have placed this role in a group called Relationships and Engagement, where previously it was placed under Business Change. So this is a very positive move forward raising the importance of relationship management by giving it its own section.

It now sits alongside other stakeholder management roles such as Contact Management. It also sits next to Sales and Marketing roles, which depending on your organisation may or may not be as relevant!

BRM/RLMT still covers the top 4 levels of responsibility:

• Level 4 - Enable
• Level 5 - Ensure, advise
• Level 6 - Initiate, influence
• Level 7 – Set strategy, inspire, mobilise

But what does this really mean for the BRM world? Well some organisations use the SFIA framework for skills management, so that means primarily recruitment and a guide as to remuneration for differing role types based on the levels of responsibility and also for role development. The good news is BRM/RLMT is right up there in the top bracket with level 7 so it is recognised as being long term strategic based and even the lower levels are still strategy based. There are full descriptions of each level and how they should be interpreted for the role over at http://www.sfia-online.org you can evaluate them for free.

All in all a positive change from version 5 to version 6 for the role of the BRM, raising the importance and now firmly occupying one of the six key areas of skills for the information age.

If you want to discuss this change then head over to BRMI http://brminstitute.org and join the community of Business Relationship Managers.