Skip to main content

This is a redesigned guidance page - your feedback will help us to improve it.

Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

Learn about the digital, data and technology roles in government, and the skills you need to do them.


Last updated 28 February 2024 — See all updates

How to use this framework

The name of this guidance changed on 1 December 2023. Previously its name was ‘Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Profession Capability Framework’. This change reflects the launch of the new brand for Government Digital and Data.

Anyone can use this framework to:

  • learn what the different digital and data roles do in government
  • understand what skills are needed at each role level

Professionals in Government Digital and Data can use this framework to:

  • identify skills that they can develop
  • assess their current skill levels in preparation for performance and development conversations
  • learn about the typical responsibilities and skills of their colleagues

Line managers and team leaders in government can use this framework to:

  • identify skill gaps in their teams and opportunities for development
  • inform development goals and conversations
  • forecast their organisation workforce needs, to make sure they have the right skills to achieve objectives

Hiring managers in government can use this framework to:

  • create effective and consistent job adverts
  • assess the suitability of a candidate during interview

Skills in this framework

Each role level (such as junior business analyst or senior business analyst) in this framework includes a list of required skills. Each skill is assigned one of 4 skill levels, reflecting the required proficiency: awareness, working, practitioner or expert.

As you progress from one role level to the next, the proficiency required for each skill will typically increase (other than in instances where leadership positions no longer require day-to-day use of the skill).

You can see the full list of skills and their definitions in the Skills A to Z.

Skill level What the level means

Awareness

Awareness is the first of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • describe the fundamentals of the skill
  • demonstrate basic knowledge of some of the skill's tools and techniques

Working

Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • apply the skill with some support
  • adopt the most appropriate tools and techniques

Practitioner

Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • apply the skill without support
  • determine and use the most appropriate tools and techniques
  • share knowledge and experience of the skill

Expert

Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels

You can:

  • lead and guide a team or organisation in the skill's best practice
  • teach the skill's advanced tools and techniques

Support

The Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework is maintained by the Central Digital and Data Office.

If you have a question or need support you can:

Find out how to propose a change to the framework.


Updates

Published 23 March 2017

Last updated 28 February 2024 — + show all updates

28 February 2024

  • Digital portfolio manager added to the product and delivery role group.
  • Solution architect added to the architecture role group.
  • The skills 'architecture communication' and 'architect for the whole context' added to the 'Skills A to Z' page.

1 December 2023

  • Name of framework changed to ‘Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework’. References to ‘DDaT’ changed to ‘Government Digital and Data' across all pages. Name of skill 'DDaT perspective' changed to 'Government Digital and Data perspective'.

28 November 2023

  • Business architect was added to the architecture role group. The new skill 'business architecture' was added to the 'Skills A to Z' page.

31 July 2023

  • The technical role group was removed. The roles within it were moved into other role groups or removed from the DDaT Profession Capability Framework.
  • A new software development role group was added.
  • Development operations (DevOps) engineer was moved to the new software development role group.
  • Frontend developer was moved to the new software development role group.
  • Software developer was moved to the new software development role group.
  • Infrastructure engineer was moved to the IT operations role group.
  • Specialist infrastructure engineer was removed from the DDaT Profession Capability Framework.
  • Technical specialist architect was removed from the DDaT Profession Capability Framework.
  • A new architecture role group was added.
  • Data architect was moved to the new architecture role group.
  • Enterprise architect was moved to the new architecture role group.
  • Network architect was moved to the new architecture role group.
  • Security architect was moved to the new architecture role group.
  • Technical architect was moved to the new architecture role group.

31 March 2023

30 August 2022

3 December 2020

7 January 2020

  • The content in the Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework has been restructured to make it easier to access the role descriptions and the skills associated with individual roles. Each job role is now presented on one page, including all the levels and the skills.

28 December 2018

  • Removed information about Civil Service Competencies as these will no longer be used after 6 January 2019.

23 March 2017

  • The Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework was first published.