Network Optimization Project and SFIA Framework

This article discusses the network optimization project and SFIA framework for King Living Furniture. It covers the challenges faced by the organization, the required skills and competencies, and the implementation plan for a robust network system.

Running head: NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
Network Optimization Project and SFIA Framework
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
The original definition of the term Professionalism..............................................................3
The perceived definition of the term professionalism............................................................3
Assessment of the SFIA skills................................................................................................3
Generic assessment of the SFIA skills...............................................................................4
Specialist assessment of the SFIA skills............................................................................6
Assessment of the skills used in project.................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

2NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
Introduction
The organization of King Living Furniture is a company mostly dealing with the
manufacture and the supply of furniture items for households. They are not a traditional and
physically existing organization, and they have their developed networks as well. However,
the organization is facing several problems in coming up with the network connection that is
hampering the business (Siekmann and Fowler 2017). The network connections that were
previously handled by the Cisco routers were no longer capable of handling the entire
network connection for the organization. Therefore, the organization is looking forward to the
setting up of a better network system that would enable the organization to have a robust
network system. It would have the lowest latency, but it would provide the organization with
the best possible technology. For this system, the organization needs to be following the
proper way of implementation for including the routers, along with the Ethernet Cables, the
new parabolic antennas that would be required to boost the signal strengths of the networks.
The installation would also include the power adapters that would meet the energy demands
along with the switch mode power supplies. All the systems to be implemented for the
completion of the project are required to create a seamless connection. It would be needed for
the branches of the organization all over Australia. The assignment is thus necessary to create
a Business Report. This would follow through a proper definition of the term
professionalism, the assessment of the specific and general SFIA skills, both required for the
project group to produce appropriate Statements of Work (Murnane and Thornley 2017).
Along with these, the report would also address the individual current personal generic and
specialist SFIA skills in evidence to the assessment produced. The business report would thus
help in providing motivation and opportunity to consider and reflect on the professional
capabilities, aspirations and career plans as well.

3NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
The original definition of the term Professionalism
In real terms, the word professionalism is defined as the way by which a person
behaves in their respective careers. These are assured by some set standards going beyond the
normal behaviour of an individual in that particular career in the most formal way possible
according to the business framework (Pa and Karim 2017).
The perceived definition of the term professionalism
According to the theoretical study of the meaning of professionalism, it could be said
that professionalism is perceived, is the way by which a person behaves in their career. How
a person acts in their daily lives is not how the person should behave in their professional
lives as well (Mason 2018). This is the way by which a person should act in their respective
careers. This should be justified as per the rules and regulations of the professional areas. The
idea that a person behaves depending on their respective careers and according to the
expectations of the organization is what professionalism depends upon.
Assessment of the SFIA skills
The foundation of the SFIA or Skills Framework for the Information Age is
dependent on the skills model. It is on which the management of skills and competency is
dependent on based upon the working models of a specific project in Information and
Communication Technology or ICT. It is a globally accepted framework for describing the
required skills and competencies needed for a structure in the digital world. The frame is
standardized by the British Computer Society of BSC (Siekmann 2017). There are seven
levels of responsibility that needs to be followed by employees in a specific workplace. The
projects are dependent on the organizational standardization of the SFIA and how the
employees or the project team within the organization are performing their respective skills

4NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
and competencies according to the framework of SFIA required for the specific project. The
theoretical aim of the structure is to provide the organizations with a management tool
primarily meant for the executives in a project to analyze the skills and competencies of the
employees in the project team (Bacon and MacKinnon 2017). The framework helps in
analyzing the competencies and the capabilities of the employees. This is done by creating a
window for the executives in the business to take a note on all the employees and find out
who is providing proper professionalism according to the SFIA framework. All the skills and
competencies mentioned in the SFIA framework is mostly diagnostic and not prescriptive
(FÃll, Hauser and Thiesse 2018). These provide enough information to the executives of the
specific organization to rationally analyze the employees and make better judgements about
the employees to establish which employee has the required skills and competencies for the
project completion. Following would be an assessment of the skills and competencies
necessary for the comprehensive evaluation of the SFIA skills of an employee and the
specific review of the SFIA skills according to the general professional skills.
Generic assessment of the SFIA skills
The seven levels of the responsibility according to the SFIA skills are dependent on
various factors that materialize the general professional skills and competencies that a person
professionally behaves in (Brockmann and Saraswat 2017). The following would be a
presentation of the assessment of the general SFIA skills that are assessed to analyze the
capabilities of the employees within the organization for a specific project:
Autonomy: The autonomy level skills in the workplace means the freedom that is
provided to the employees while they are working in a particular project within the
organization. With this skills level, the employees are allowed to have their schedules set on
their terms. The organization ensures this skill level to the employees to ensure proper

5NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
satisfaction of the jobs (Binsfeld, Whalley and Pugalis 2016). This is the ways by which the
employees would want to govern themselves or want to make their individual decisions. This
skill at a higher level makes it easier for people to analyze if the responsibility of a particular
employee.
Influence: Influencing is a specific skill that is required in every workplace, and that
is necessary to analyze the skills of an employee as well. It is essential for every person in the
workplace. It means that it is needed for every person involved within the business,
irrespective of the level of hierarchy that they belong in. This is characterized by the ability
of an employee to make other people follow the standard of thinking that one person believes
in without coercion or force. These are important for a person to build personal relationships
with the people within a team, and then these skills can be analyzed. This is because it is
identified that the establishment of a good relationship makes a person be influencing the
other people as well. This skill makes it easier for business executives to understand the
influencing and leadership powers of an employee.
Complexity: Complexity skills are defined as the skills where an employee has to
take many decisions, and the same time needs to process a considerable number of
information as well. This skill needs to go through a lot of information processing and at the
same time, needs to process a lot of decision making a piece of information simultaneously
(Fischer 2019). This makes sure that an employee is skilful enough to handle a complicated
situation and make effective decisions at the same time.
Business Skills: This is a general skill that an employee required to thrive in the
business practises. The skills are varied, and all of them needs to establish the functions that
influence factors going on within a company. These skills include the financial management
skills, the marketing skills, the sales skills, the customer service skills, the communication

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and negotiation skills, the leadership skills, the project management and planning skills, the
delegation and time management skills, the problems solving skills and even the networking
skills. If an employee possesses all the relevant qualifications as mentioned above, it is quite
evident that the employee possesses all the relevant skills that are required for the profession
of the particular employee (Cornide et al. 2018). This is the skill level at which the executives
in the business can analyze and determine the skills of the employee and determine if the
employee possesses some of the skills or all of them.
Specialist assessment of the SFIA skills
The general SFIA skills that an employee possesses make sure that a piece of
circumstantial evidence against which the professional skills of a person can be adjudicated is
based upon the general SFIA skills as well. This is the way by which the employees can be
analyzed to find out the levels of the skills that an employee holds (Bardsley 2016). This is
how the Business Process Improvement or the BPRE of an organization depends upon. The
codes and the overall description of the interpretation of each of the skills recognize the skills
of an employee within the project team. The combination of the generic skills levels,
comprising of the professional skills, behavioural skills, knowledge and the experience and
qualification of the employees is what the manages the specific SFIA skills of an employee.
The professional skills that are identified by SFIA include the business process
improvement and database design amongst numerous others. The behavioural skills of the
employees have been specially recognized by various employees since these have been
considerably varying from one organization to the other. Therefore, the set skills to analyze
the employees may not match with any other organization. Technologies, products, internal
systems, services, processes, methods and all the legislation are the areas where it is required
that an IT Professional has their skills developed as per the SFIA framework (Kempegowda

7NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
and Chaczko 2018). Where, on the other hand, experience and qualifications are the skills
that validate the capability of an individual. Requirements confirm that a person is skilled or
knowledgeable, whereas experience provides the practical application of that skill and
knowledge. Proper exposure is also an impactful force for learning, which has the potential of
enhancing the capability of an individual.
Assessment of the skills used in the project
According to the plan that the organization of King Living ensures are the ones which
are required for setting up the necessary skill levels needed for the employees to enable a
capable team for handling the setting up of the new network connection (Bevinakoppa,
Alazab and Jan 2018). The technology required for this purpose needs to ensure that the
firmware of the routers is set, the Ethernet cables are placed, the new parabolic antennas for
boosting the network signal strengths, the power adapters that would ensure that the energy
demands are met, and the proper switch mode power supplies. This is the ways by which the
skills of the employees need to be justified to meet all the network demands that are ensured
within the project charter.
The proper endurance of the network would also include the testing criteria of the
system including the installation of the innovative firmware for the latest version of the
Meraki MX routers, the WAN port IP address needs to be established for all the routers, the
switching of the company LAN to the DMZ before setting up of the company IP address and
the switching off of the current running router systems of the network established within the
company. For this, the organization needs to make sure that the employees selected for the
project reject the old Cisco 880 routers and at the same time while deploying the new
systems, totally avoid disrupting the current business process (Brown and Parr 2018). This
entire project framework needs to replace the older network in a technological way, but at the

8NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
same time, it also needs to include several skills that would make sure that the people
selected for the process are capable and skilful at presenting to project at the most feasible
way possible. Following are the specific skills that are standardized by SFIA and would be
required to follow the entire process of the network replacement project:
 Information Management
 Innovation
 Consultation
 Project management
 Stakeholder relationship management
 Professional development
 Network planning
 IT management
Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion it can be said that the organization of King Living Furniture
needs to ensure that the current way in which the company has been experiencing some
issues with their network connection since the that the old Cisco routers that were initially
installed for the company are not capable of handling network connections are to be replaced
entirely by the project required to set up a secure network system with low latency using the
best technology. For this, they need to ensure that the people within the organization that are
required to handle the project have the best possible skills according to the SFIA framework.
The technical requirements of the task will include that the firmware would acquire the use of
the routers followed by the usability of the Ethernet cables, the routers, the newly
implemented parabolic antennas that would have the ability to boost the signal strength for
the networks. The implementation plan would also include power adapters that would meet

9NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
the demands for energy, and also the switch mode power suppliers. The completion of the
project would also include the seamless connectivity after the implementation is done for all
the branches or outlets that the company would have in Australia. It would enable the
headquarters in Sydney to have total control over the entire IT department whereas the other
branches would also have the ability for solving any technical issues that would arise. The
system is to be planned according to a total monitoring system as per the problems that are to
be detected to avoid all the business activities that have the potential to disrupt business
activities. The project team also agreed to include the previous routers; the Cisco 880 needs
to be replaced. The SFIA skills would ensure that the people within the organization
deployed for the project are abiding the skills required by SFIA and the requirements that the
employees need to fill are mentioned as above.

10NETWORK OPTIMIZATION PROJECT AND SFIA FRAMEWORK
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