SIST EN 16234-1:2020

e-Competence Framework (e-CF) - A common European Framework for ICT Professionals in all sectors - Part 1: Framework

This European Standard provides a reference of 40 competences as required and applied at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) business related workplace, using a common language for competences, skills and proficiency levels that can be understood across Europe. As the first sector-specific implementation of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), this European Standard aligns its proficiency levels to the EQF learning levels.
This European Standard was created for application by:
-   ICT service, user and supply organizations,
-   ICT professionals, managers and human resource (HR) departments,
-   vocational education institutions and training bodies including higher education,
-   social partners (trade unions and employer association), professional associations, accreditation, validation and assessment bodies,
-   market analysts and policy makers,
and other organizations and stakeholders in public and private sectors.

e-Kompetenz-Rahmen (e-CF) - Ein gemeinsamer europäischer Rahmen für IKT-Fach- und Führungskräfte in allen Branchen - Teil 1: Rahmenwerk

Dieses Dokument liefert eine Referenz von 41 Kompetenzen, wie sie im beruflichen Arbeitsumfeld der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) erforderlich sind und angewendet werden. Hierfür wird eine gemeinsame Sprache für Kompetenzen, Fertigkeiten und Leistungsniveaus verwendet, die europaweit verstanden werden kann.
Dieses Dokument wurde erstellt für die Anwendung durch:
- IKT-Dienstleistungs-, -Anwender- und -Anbieterunternehmen;
- IKT-Fachkräfte, -Manager und -Personalabteilungen (HR, en: human resource);
- Einrichtung der beruflichen Aus- und Weiterbildung, einschließlich Hochschulen;
- Sozialpartner (Gewerkschaften und Arbeitgeberverbände), Fachverbände, Akkreditierungs-, Validierungs- und Prüf-/Bewertungsstellen;
- Marktanalysten und politische Entscheidungsträger;
sowie andere Organisationen und Akteure in öffentlichen und privaten Bereichen.

Référentiels de e-Compétences - Référentiel européen commun pour les professionnels des technologies de l'information et de la communication dans tous les secteurs - Partie 1 : Référentiel

Le présent document répertorie 41 compétences indispensables et mises en œuvre dans l'environnement professionnel lié aux technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC), en utilisant un langage commun compréhensible partout en Europe pour décrire les compétences, les aptitudes et les niveaux d'expertise qui les composent.
Le présent document a été créé pour être mis en application par :
-   les sociétés prestataires de services, utilisatrices et fournisseurs de TIC ;
-   les professionnels des TIC, les directeurs et les départements de ressources humaines (RH) ;
-   les établissements d'enseignement professionnel et organismes de formation, y compris l'enseignement supérieur ;
-   les partenaires sociaux (syndicats et associations d'employeurs), les associations professionnelles et les organismes d'accréditation, de validation et d'évaluation ;
-   les analystes de marché et les responsables politiques ;
et d'autres organisations et parties prenantes des secteurs public et privé.

Krovni seznam e-usposobljenosti (e-CF) - Skupno evropsko okolje za strokovnjake na področju informacijske in komunikacijske tehnologije v vseh sektorjih - 1. del: Krovni seznam

Ta evropski standard podaja 40 referenčnih usposobljenosti, ki se zahtevajo in uporabljajo na delovnih mestih podjetij za informacijsko in komunikacijsko tehnologijo (ICT), pri čemer se uporablja skupni jezik za usposobljenosti, veščine ter ravni strokovnosti, ki jih je mogoče razumeti v evropskem prostoru. Ravni strokovnosti v tem evropskem standardu kot prvem uvajanju za ustrezen sektor evropskega okolja usposobljenosti (EQF) so usklajene z ravnmi učenja v tem okolju. Ta evropski standard je namenjen naslednjim uporabnikom:
– službe, uporabniki in organizacije za zagotavljanje informacijske in komunikacijske tehnologije;
– oddelki s strokovnjaki, vodstvenim kadrom ter človeškimi viri na področju informacijske in komunikacijske tehnologije;
– ustanove za poklicno izobraževanje in organi usposabljanja, vključno z višješolskim izobraževanjem;
– socialni partnerji (združenja sindikatov in zveze delodajalcev), strokovna združenja ter organi za akreditacijo, potrjevanje in ocenjevanje;
– tržni analitiki in oblikovalci politik ter druge organizacije in deležniki v javnem sektorju ter zasebnih sektorjih.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Public Enquiry End Date: 24-Jul-2019
• Publication Date: 09-Jan-2020
• ICS: 03.100.30 - Management of human resources
• ICS: 35.240.01 - Application of information technology in general
• Technical Committee: I11 - Imaginarni 11
• Current Stage: 6060 - National Implementation/Publication (Adopted Project)
• Start Date: 30-Dec-2019
• Due Date: 05-Mar-2020
• Completion Date: 10-Jan-2020
• Ref Project: EN 16234-1:2019 - e-Competence Framework (e-CF) - A common European Framework for ICT Professionals in all sectors - Part 1: Framework

Relations

• Revised: SIST EN 16234-1:2016 - E-Competence Framework (e-CF) - A common European Framework for ICT Professionals in all industry sectors - Part 1: Framework
• Effective Date: 02-May-2018
• Replaces: SIST EN 16234-1:2016 - E-Competence Framework (e-CF) - A common European Framework for ICT Professionals in all industry sectors - Part 1: Framework
• Effective Date: 25-Dec-2019

Standards Content (Sample)

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST EN 16234-1:2020
01-februar-2020
Nadomešča:
SIST EN 16234-1:2016
Krovni seznam e-usposobljenosti (e-CF) - Skupno evropsko okolje za strokovnjake

na področju informacijske in komunikacijske tehnologije v vseh sektorjih - 1. del:

Krovni seznam
e-Competence Framework (e-CF) - A common European Framework for ICT
Professionals in all sectors - Part 1: Framework
e-Kompetenz-Rahmen (e-CF) - Ein gemeinsamer europäischer Rahmen für IKT-Fach-
und Führungskräfte in allen Branchen - Teil 1: Rahmenwerk

Référentiels de e-Compétences - Référentiel européen commun pour les professionnels

des technologies de l'information et de la communication dans tous les secteurs - Partie

1 : Référentiel
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN 16234-1:2019
ICS:
03.100.30 Vodenje ljudi Management of human
resources
35.240.01 Uporabniške rešitve Application of information
informacijske tehnike in technology in general
tehnologije na splošno
SIST EN 16234-1:2020 en,fr,de

2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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SIST EN 16234-1:2020
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SIST EN 16234-1:2020
EN 16234-1
EUROPEAN STANDARD
NORME EUROPÉENNE
December 2019
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
ICS 35.020 Supersedes EN 16234-1:2016
English Version
e-Competence Framework (e-CF) - A common European
Framework for ICT Professionals in all sectors - Part 1:
Framework

Référentiels de e-Compétences - Référentiel européen e-Kompetenz-Rahmen (e-CF) - Ein gemeinsamer

commun pour les professionnels des technologies de europäischer Rahmen für IKT-Fach- und

l'information et de la communication dans tous les Führungskräfte in allen Branchen - Teil 1:

secteurs - Partie 1 : Référentiel Rahmenwerk
This European Standard was approved by CEN on 23 October 2019.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this

European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references

concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN

member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by

translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management

Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,

Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,

Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and

United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels

© 2019 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. EN 16234-1:2019 E

worldwide for CEN national Members.
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SIST EN 16234-1:2020
EN 16234-1:2019 (E)
Contents Page

European foreword ...................................................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................... 5

1 Scope .................................................................................................................................................................... 7

2 Normative references .................................................................................................................................... 7

3 Terms and definitions ................................................................................................................................... 7

4 Symbols and abbreviated terms ................................................................................................................ 9

5 Main principles .............................................................................................................................................. 10

5.0 General.............................................................................................................................................................. 10

5.1 Dimension 1: Five e-Competence areas ................................................................................................ 10

5.2 Dimension 2: e-Competences ................................................................................................................... 10

5.3 Dimension 3: Five work proficiency levels .......................................................................................... 11

5.4 Dimension 4: Knowledge and skills ....................................................................................................... 11

5.5 Transversal Aspects ..................................................................................................................................... 11

5.6 Embedded in Dimension 2, 3, 4 and in transversal aspects: Attitudes...................................... 12

6 Objective .......................................................................................................................................................... 12

7 e-Competence Framework overview ..................................................................................................... 13

8 e-Competence Framework full description ......................................................................................... 15

8.0 Transversal Aspects of the e-Competence Framework ................................................................... 15

8.1 A. PLAN: e-Competences A.1 to A.10....................................................................................................... 17

8.2 B. BUILD: e-Competences B.1. to B.6. ..................................................................................................... 27

8.3 C. RUN: e-Competences C.1. to C.5. .......................................................................................................... 33

8.4 D. ENABLE: e-Competences D.1. to D.11. ............................................................................................... 38

8.5 E. MANAGE: e-Competences E.1. to E.9. ................................................................................................. 49

Annex A (normative) Level parameters of this standard ........................................................................... 58

Annex B (informative) Positioning this standard to other structures and frameworks.................. 59

B.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 59

B.2 European Qualifications Framework (EQF) ........................................................................................ 60

B.3 ESCO ................................................................................................................................................................... 63

B.4 DigComp ........................................................................................................................................................... 67

B.5 P21’s Framework for 21 Century Learning ..................................................................................... 70

B.6 SFIA .................................................................................................................................................................... 72

B.7 European ICT Professional Role Profiles ............................................................................................. 78

B.8 Related ISO standards and standardisation initiatives .................................................................. 85

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................................. 91

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EN 16234-1:2019 (E)
European foreword

This document (EN 16234-1:2019) has been prepared by the Technical Committee CEN/TC 428 “ICT

professionalism and digital competences”, the secretariat of which is held by UNI.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an

identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by June 2020, and conflicting national standards shall be

withdrawn at the latest by June 2020.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of

patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN 16234-1:2016.

In comparison with the previous edition, the following technical modifications have been made:

— Review of terms and definitions

— Review of all existing competences in the light of latest business and technology trends

— Adding three new competences in the light of latest business and technology trends (A.10 User

Experience, C.5 Systems Management, D.7 Data Science and Analytics)

— Merging three previously co-existing competences to one (D.5. Sales Development)

— Elaboration of a new e-Competences descriptions complementary transversal concept (aspects of

cross-cutting relevance to any successful ICT professional competence performance in context)

— Adding in Annex B,

— a report relating and/ or positioning this standard against other relevant structures and

concepts in a similar field (EQF, ESCO, DigComp).

— In addition P21 is referenced as one example for making behavioural skills explicit.

— A report establishes relationships of this standard with SFIA.

— A new relationship with the European ICT Professional Profiles (CWA 16458-1:2018) is

provided: the competence content of each Professional Profile, including level assignment, has

been aligned with this standard.

— Relationships with relevant ISO standards have been systematically checked with regard to

mutual consistency in structure, terminology and/or content.

This standard for ICT professional competence outlines the minimum requirements of competence (i.e.

a threshold) in the workplace: it includes typical knowledge and skills examples that are not

standardised but provided to support orientation and understanding. When applying the standard, this

approach has to be recognised to clearly distinguish between which elements are mandatory and which

are merely examples (represented by, shall versus should/may/can, etc.).
This European standard consists of three parts:
— Part 1: is the Framework of the e-CF published as an European Norm (EN).
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EN 16234-1:2019 (E)
— Part 2: is the User Guide published as a CEN Technical Report (TR).
— Part 3: is the Methodology published as a CEN Technical Report (TR).
Part 1 is fully standalone, and part 2 and 3 rely on part 1.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the

following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,

Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,

Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of

North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the

United Kingdom.
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EN 16234-1:2019 (E)
Introduction

This standard was established as a tool to support mutual understanding and provide transparency of

language through the articulation of competences required and deployed by Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) professionals.

To support users and guide developers of applications to this standard, the following narrative provides

an overview of the underpinning philosophy and principles adopted during the standard’s construction

and maintenance. This is also intended to provide guidance for successive updates to the standard.

The Guiding Principles:

This standard is an enabler; it is designed to be a tool to empower users, not to restrict them.

This standard provides a structure and content for application by many types of users from

organizations in the private and public sector, ICT user or ICT supply companies, educational

institutions including higher education and private certification providers, social partners and

individuals. In this broad application context, this standard is designed to support common

understanding, not to mandate the use of each and every word used within it.

This standard expresses ICT competence using the following definition: ‘Competence is a

demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes for achieving observable results’. This

holistic concept directly relates to workplace activities and incorporates complex human attitudes and

resultant behaviours. Behaviour and attitude are important influences that facilitate successful

knowledge and skills application. Within each competence, embedded attitudes are reflected in

behaviour and enable the successful integration of knowledge and skills.

Competence is a durable concept and although technology, jobs, marketing terminology and

promotional concepts within the ICT environment change rapidly, this standard remains durable

requiring maintenance approximately every three years to maintain relevance.

A competence can be a component of a job role, but it cannot be used as a substitute for similarly

named job titles, for example; the competence, E.2. ‘Project and Portfolio Management’ does not

represent the complete content of a ‘Project Managers’ job role. Competences can be aggregated, as

required, to represent the essential content of a job role or profile. On the other hand, one single

competence may be assigned to a number of different job profiles.

Competence is not to be confused with process or technology concepts such as, ‘Cloud Computing’

or ‘Big Data’. These descriptions represent evolving technologies and in the context of this standard,

they may be integrated as knowledge and skills examples in Dimension 4.

This standard does not attempt to cover every possible competence deployed by an ICT

professional nor are the included competences necessarily unique to ICT. This standard

articulates competences associated with ICT professional roles including some that may be found in

other professions but are very important in an ICT context; examples include, C.4. ‘Problem

Management’ or E.3. ‘Risk Management’. However, to maintain an ICT focus, this standard avoids

generic competences such as ‘Communications’ or ‘General Management’. Although very applicable

these generic competences are comprehensively articulated in other structures. Selecting competences

for inclusion within this standard is therefore a pragmatic rather than an exhaustive process. The

selection was based on engagement with a broad cross-section of stakeholders who prioritize

competence inclusion based upon industry knowledge and experience.

This standard is structured across four dimensions. e-Competences in Dimensions 1 and 2 are

presented from the organizational perspective as opposed to an individual’s perspective. Dimension 3

defines e-Competence levels and relates to the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), it is a bridge

between organizational and individual competences. Dimension 4 provides examples of knowledge and

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skills to the e-Competences in Dimension 2, they are not intended to be exhaustive but for inspiration

and orientation only.

This latest version of the standard incorporates a new element, transversal aspects; it recognises

the relevance of a number of cross-cutting aspects that are important and provide additional generic

ICT related descriptors for successful application of e-CF competences in a workplace context. Examples

of transversal aspects identified for context-specific and flexible application within this standard are

Accessibility, Ethics and Security.

This standard has a sector specific relationship to the EQF; competence levels within this standard

provide a consistent and rational relationship to levels defined within the EQF. The relativity between

EQF learning levels and the e-competence work proficiency levels of this standard has been

systematically developed to enable consistent interpretation of the EQF in the ICT workplace

environment. It should be noted that an exact equivalency is not possible due to the different purposes

and contexts of EQF and e-CF but relevant relationship information is provided.

Continuity of this standard is imperative; following maintenance updates it is essential that users are

provided with a simple upgrade path. Users of this standard invest considerable time and resources to

align processes or procedures with it. Organizations deploying these downstream activities are reliant

upon this standard and need to be confident of the continued sustainability of their processes. Updates

of this standard need to recognize this requirement and provide for continuity, enabling use of the

existing version of the standard until it is convenient to upgrade to the latest version.

This standard is neutral; it does not follow the specific interests of a few major influencers, it is

developed and maintained through an EU-wide balanced multi-stakeholder agreement process, under

the umbrella of the European Committee for Standardization. This standard is a key component of the

European Digital Agenda for ICT Professionalism; it is designed for use by any organisation or

individual engaged in ICT Human Resource planning and competence development.
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SIST EN 16234-1:2020
EN 16234-1:2019 (E)
1 Scope

This document provides a reference of 41 competences as required and applied at the Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) professional work environment, using a common language for

competences, skills and proficiency levels that can be understood across Europe.
This document was created for application by:
— ICT service, user and supply companies,
— ICT professionals, managers and human resource (HR) departments,

— vocational education institutions and training bodies including higher education,

— social partners (trade unions and employer associations), professional associations, accreditation,

validation and assessment bodies,
— market analysts and policy makers,
and other organizations and stakeholders in public and private sectors.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply. ISO and IEC maintain

terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp
3.1
Information and Communication Technology
ICT

digital computers and internet (communication) systems, including software, hardware and

networks
3.2
Information and Communication Technology
ICT

cross sector of enterprises, including manufacturers, product suppliers or

service providers relating to the ICT field
3.3
ICT professional

person having the competence to plan, build, run, enable and/or manage Information and

Communication Technology and having a professional ICT qualification and/or ICT occupational

experience; they include both employees of ICT companies and ICT employees of organisations in all

other sectors; they are in the scope of this standard
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3.4
ICT user

person having the competence to use devices, software and systems to support his/her private,

educational, civic or work activities and normally having no professional ICT qualification or ICT

occupational experience; they are not in the scope of this standard
3.5
competence

demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes for achieving observable results

3.6
knowledge
body of facts which can be applied in a field of work or study (know what to do)
3.7
skill

ability to carry out managerial or technical tasks, and they may be cognitive or practical (know how to

do it)
3.8
attitude

representing the human element of an e-competence and reflecting the way an ICT professional

integrates knowledge and skills and applies them in a contextually appropriate manner

3.9
transversal aspects

cross-cutting topics that are relevant to all competences defined by this standard; each transversal

aspect is provided by a title and a generic description that may be applied, dependent upon context by,

‘being aware of’ or ‘behaving proactively’ with regard to the transversal aspect description; awareness

and proactivity influence attitude (3.8) linking with knowledge (3.6) and skills (3.7) as applied in the

definition of competence (3.5) in this standard
3.10
behavioural skills

interactive skills used to successfully engage with situations in the workplace, and may refer to work

quality, social interaction or emotion; examples include, communication, empathy, attention to detail

and integrity
3.11
proficiency level

level indicating the degree of mastery that allows an ICT professional to meet requirements in the

performance of a competence; proficiency levels in the e-CF are characterised by a combination of

levels of influence within a community, context complexity, autonomy, and typical behaviour expressed

by examples of action verbs; this standard incorporates proficiency levels e-1 through to e-5

3.12
learning level

level indicating a grading and may be represented by a formal qualification; they generally derive from

an education system or indicate a grading in a taxonomy of intellectual or learning behaviours (like

memorizing, applying, interpreting) and having a relationship with proficiency levels but they are not

explicitly within the scope of this standard
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4 Symbols and abbreviated terms
AI Artificial Intelligence
API Application Programming Interface
BYOD Bring Your Own Device
CMMI Capability Maturity Model Integration
COBIT Control Objectives for Information and related Technology
CPD Continuing Professional Development
CSR Corporate Social Responsibility
DBMS Data Base Management Systems
DigComp Digital Competence Framework for Citizens
DMP Data Management Plan
DSS Data Storage Server
DVD Digital Versatile Disc
e-CF e-Competence Framework
EQF European Qualifications Framework
ESCO European Skills, Competences and Occupations
ETL Extract, Transform Load
GDPR EU General Data Protection Regulation
HCI Human-Computer-Interaction
IaaS Infrastructure as a Service
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IoT Internet of Things
IPR Intellectual Property Rights

IS Information Systems (in the broad understanding of including software, hardware, data,

people, procedures and business processes)
ISCO International Standard Classification of Occupations
ISO International Standardization Organization
ITIL Information Technology Infrastructure Library
KPI Key Performance Indicator
LAN Local Area Network
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
OER Open Educational Resources
PaaS Platform as a Service
PDCA Plan - Do - Check – Act / Plan – Do – Check - Adjust
PPC Pay per click
SaaS Software as a Service
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EN 16234-1:2019 (E)
SEM Search Engine Marketing
SEO Search Engine Optimization
SFIA Skills for the Information Age
SIEM Security Information and Event Management
SLA Service Level Agreement
SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats [Analysis]
TCO Total Cost of Ownership
URI Uniform Resource Identifier
VAR Value-Added Resellers
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
5 Main principles
5.0 General

This standard is structured across four dimensions. The dimensions reflect areas of business and

human resource planning and incorporate job and work proficiency guidelines specified as follows.

In addition, this standard adds a transversal component which provides basic generic ICT descriptors

for successful application of e-CF competences in a workplace context.
5.1 Dimension 1: Five e-Competence areas

Five e-Competence areas were derived from the ICT main business processes PLAN – BUILD – RUN –

ENABLE – MANAGE in order to identify sets of e-Competences expressing the abilities of planning

(conceiving, designing, deciding, etc.), building (developing and implementing), running (delivering,

supporting, maintaining, etc.), enabling (creating the proper conditions), and managing (conducting,

ensuring, etc). They are named identically:
A. PLAN
B. BUILD
C. RUN
D. ENABLE
E. MANAGE

Assigning an e-Competence to a specific process, such as PLAN or MANAGE, is not an exact science and

is open to interpretation influenced by context and judgement. The main function of Dimension 1, in

this standard, is to serve as a navigation and entry point to the e-Competences articulated in

Dimensions 2, 3 and 4.

Dimension 1 reflects a traditional process perspective based upon the waterfall approach. However,

this standard is equally relevant to the steps applied in agile process structures such as Agile/ DevOps

lifecycles.
5.2 Dimension 2: e-Competences

This dimension encompasses a set of reference e-Competences for each e-Competence area. Each e-

Competence is specified by a title and a generic description of the competence. A total of 41 e-

Competences have been identified; they provide the generic reference definitions of this standard.

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The e-Competences defined within the standard are not exhaustive; nonetheless they provide a basic,

clear and sound orientation for individuals and organisations making decisions about recruitment,

career paths, training, assessment, etc. and also for understanding an organisations ICT Professional

competence needs. The comprehensive descriptions articulated in Dimension 2 provide primary e-

competence reference points for application of the framework.
5.3 Dimension 3: Five work proficiency levels

In Dimension 3, specific proficiency levels are assigned for each e-Competence described in Dimension

2. The level specifications of this standard encompass e-Competence levels e-1 to e-5. These levels

define proficiency criteria and describe the degree of mastery required by an ICT professional to meet

different levels of performance in each competence. The levels are characterized by a combination of

levels of influence within a community, context complexity, autonomy, and typical behaviour expressed

by examples of action verbs. See Annex A providing the level Parameters of this standard.

These work proficiency levels have a sector specific, consistent and rational relationship to the

European Qualification Framework (EQF) learning levels 3 – 8. However, the relationship between both

frameworks is not one of equivalence but rather is meant to indicate a reference relationship adding

depth and context to e-CF levels and providing a consistent bridge and shared language between ICT

Professional competence demand and ICT qualification supply. An overview of this relationship is

provided and explained in detail in Annex B.2.
5.4 Dimension 4: Knowledge and skills

Examples of knowledge and skills relate to the e-Competences in Dimension 2. These examples are

provided to add value to the competence descriptor and are not intended to be exhaustive. They offer

inspiration and orientation for the identification of further context specific knowledge and skills

assignment.
5.5 Transversal Aspects

This standard incorporates an additional concept by introducing the notion of transversal aspects that

apply across the entire framework. Transversal aspects recognise the relevance of a number of cross-

cutting aspects that are important in the ICT workplace. They are complementary to competence

descriptions and provide additional descriptors that vary in their relevance to each competence ranging

from the need for awareness to proactive engagement. The transversal aspects identified as relevant

are:
— T1 Accessibility,
— T2 Ethics,
— T3 ICT legal issues,
— T4 Privacy,
— T5 Security,
— T6 Sustainability,
— T7 Usability.

T1 – T7 transversal aspects are relevant to each of the 41 competences within this standard. They can

be applied at the framework users’ discretion by applying emphasis dependent upon granularity

requirements
...