Motivated, growth-oriented professionals often seek certifications and framework knowledge to meet employer needs and career goals. Every framework possesses common attributes such as purpose, principles, structure, contents, guidelines, depth, implementation methodology, stakeholders and more. Although professionals often implement frameworks for the benefit of enterprises, it is worth exploring how the same frameworks can be implemented by professionals to accelerate their own career growth. As knowledge workers, professionals can model a framework’s structure and apply their learnings to their own careers.
Frameworks and standards are primarily collections of best practices provided in specific structures with implementation methodologies. Just as enterprises utilize frameworks and models to meet business objectives, framework modeling (i.e., the processes involved in understanding and implementing frameworks) can be effectively applied to professional development and career growth.
Frameworks Enable Professional Transformation
Framework modeling fosters an understanding of the structure of a framework and the process for navigating, selecting, customizing and implementing the adapted best practices (i.e., framework contents) as applicable. Professionals can model the structure, guidelines and implementation methodology from a framework and adapt it as required to grow within their organization and in their career.
Achieving transformation in enterprises using frameworks, models, standards and technology is an accepted and time-tested strategy, but it is not as widely recognized that professionals can use frameworks for career growth. Professionals in the knowledge era must reengineer and reskill to meet the ever-changing needs of their employers or face the risk of being replaced by technology. This makes it imperative for professionals to effectively adapt and model the right framework. By following the path of continuous learning (and relearning), professionals are empowered to remain relevant and add value in a dynamic work environment. Using framework modeling for personal growth requires transformation in thought, words, and actions by upskilling with relevant skills, expertise and knowledge.
For example, consider a security manager who aspires to become chief information officer (CIO). He decides to supplement his knowledge of the International Organization for Standardization (IS) standard ISO 27001 with knowledge of COBIT®. The security manager, having studied ISO 27001 using framework modeling, applies it to learn and understand COBIT.
There are seven tips professionals may find useful when seeking to become adept at framework modeling:
- Combine a macro and micro perspective—Framework modeling enables the development of a macro perspective, which fosters an understanding of the framework’s structure that is helpful when applying the micro perspective. This requires horizontal exposure at the macro level combined with vertical expertise at the micro level.
- Develop an architect’s mindset—To rapidly move up the ranks in one’s professional career, it is critical to develop an architect’s mindset. This involves imagination first, followed by documentation, thereby translating one’s ideas into reality. To be most useful, frameworks must be understood in terms of their architecture before drilling down to their more detailed contents.
- Reference only relevant framework contents—Frameworks users may not need to reference every part of a framework as the contents are generally high-level and exhaustive. Just as someone eating at a buffet may not choose to eat every food, a framework user is offered many guidelines, but only a handful may be relevant to them. Professionals often apply relevant content from a framework only as required, not necessarily utilizing every part of the framework.
- Understand breadth and depth—Every framework has a certain structure and contents that are limited to a specific breadth and depth of coverage. The contents of each area of a framework are provided using the same standard structure. For example, the contents of each of the seven components of the COBIT Governance and Management Objectives are provided in the same structure. This makes the framework easier to understand and implement.
- Customize the framework—Frameworks are designed to be generic and must be customized for an enterprise depending on its technology, business processes, organizational structure, and regulatory and management requirements. For example, the COBIT framework has 11 design factors that may be considered when tailoring COBIT to meet the needs of a specific enterprise. Learning how to navigate, select and customize relevant content from a framework is enabled by framework modeling.
- Combine different frameworks—It is critical to link various frameworks and integrate their contents as needed. Frameworks are designed from a specific perspective and may not contain the depth of content that an organization requires.
- Supplement domain expertise with framework knowledge—Successful framework implementation requires professionals with specific domain knowledge and business process expertise to complement it by a required understanding of the framework.
Impact of New Technologies on Careers
Framework modeling can be a significant differentiator and can empower professionals with rich knowledge repositories of best practices derived from frameworks. The modeling of the framework offers a big-picture approach and life cycle perspective for achieving goals. This can aid professionals as existing and emerging technologies impact which professional skills are relevant and required in the market. Innovative technologies continue to emerge and create an impact on employment due to new services made possible through innovation and automation. For example, there is much speculation about how ChatGPT will impact employment opportunities in various lines of work. There is also widespread concern that management will prefer to harness technology rather than employees when considering value delivery in the future. Hence, professionals as knowledge workers can benefit by upgrading their skills by adapting the framework modeling approach.
Conclusion
A well-known sculptor, when asked about the secret of his success, replied, “The secret is quite simple. When I see a piece of stone, I see the statue in the stone, which others are not able to see. So, I use my skill and tools to carve the statue from the stone per my imagination, so that everyone is able to see the statue.” Framework modeling can be considered the skill of carving the required knowledge from the structure and contents of a framework per an enterprise’s needs.
Knowledge is a key differentiator in the digital age—for enterprises and individuals. Frameworks provides a goldmine of knowledge and a structured approach to achieving an objective. Learning how to navigate, select, customize and implement specific content from a framework as required is a great enabler of professional success. Modeling a framework can enable standardization of the approach for repeatable use. Framework modeling can be used to learn, understand and implement any framework. The ability to model frameworks as required empowers professionals to quickly upskill by using the contents of relevant frameworks to dynamically change career orbits as required. The bottom line is that framework modelling broadens the horizon of thinking, which propels dynamic transformation for achieving accelerated career growth.
Abdul Rafeq, CISA, FCA
Is the managing director of Wincer Infotech Limited. He specializes in IT governance and analytics.