Is IM a new profession? Or a blurring of disciplines?

TFPL has  been working with the recently formed Information Management Group (IMG) to identify the set of skills that make up Information Management.  The IM Group, whose members include  the Metropolitan Police, Yell, Henley Management Centre and CILIP,  argues  that the  capability  that enables  organisations to effectively manage and exploit information call for a range of skills not currently well understood by the IT community.  There is, they suggest, a 'new profession' waiting in the wings.  The immediate objective of IMG is to develop a set of IM specific skills which will influence the development of the 4th edition of Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).

A joint TFPL/IMG workshop on 6th March explored these arguments, the skills included in the current version of SFIA and the IM responsibilities identified by TFPL in its  'Information Management Framework: responsibilities in the e-landscape', and the developments needed.   The outcomes of that workshop are currently being summarised but the overall impression was that IM and IT skills are different - but interdependent, and that the development of one Framework addressing both IT and IM communities would be difficult.   But a look at the SFIA website with its four supporting organisations, and consideration of the range of organisations and professional groups that make up the non IT information professions, illustrates why IM is poorly understood.  IM is all pervasive - but poorly articulated.  Many of the skills required exist but are not visible; others are in short supply. The information profession needs to keep talking to SFIA and other organisations - it needs to ensure that IM becomes a key competence, not an 'also ran'.

Your opinions and comments would be very valuable.

TFPL's Information Management Framework is available on our website - the white paper called 'Who's managing information?'

The IM Group presented their arguments at a seminar at Online Information last December, and have written a number of articles.

The SFIA Foundation is jointly owned by the British Computer Society, E-skills UK (the sector skills council), Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS),and The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

"The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) provides a common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems (IS) making use of Information & Communications Technology (ICT)".