Roadmap

We are always working to improve the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. Read about what’s been recently delivered, what we’re currently working on and what’s coming up next.

We update this roadmap at least every 3 months and some items may change. The last update was 2 December 2025.

The Capability Framework's roadmap is currently focused on work in 4 areas that contribute towards these high-level objectives:

Improve recruitment and development outcomes for the profession

Support users to recruit and develop the digital, data and technology professionals their teams and organisations need, for example by:

• regularly updating descriptions of digital, data and technology roles and skills to align with government needs and industry trends
• defining the capabilities required by digital, data and technology leaders
• helping organisations make decisions on which roles and skills they need
• connecting with related workforce planning and organisational design resources, such as functional standards
• helping people discover potential digital, data and technology roles their skills are suitable for

Enable efficiencies and reduce burden in capability processes

Free up time for public sector capability teams and reduce administrative overheads, for example by:

• making it simpler to integrate the latest framework content into internal systems, such as resource planning, recruitment and learning and development systems
• making it easier for departments to accurately map their job descriptions to role levels in the framework
• enabling standardised capability assessment and workforce planning tools for use across government

Area 1: profession role and skill descriptions

We publish updates to role and skill descriptions every 3 months. You can get an overview of what’s in development in our content delivery board.

Recently completed

• published updates to framework content on 28 November, including new descriptions for the ‘test engineer’ and ‘test manager’ roles, and new skill descriptions for ‘business analyst’ and 'data engineer' - summary of all updates
• reviewed and updated the ‘most common job grades’ included with each role level, based on latest government workforce data

Working on now

• transitioning descriptions of cyber security roles to a new profession site, ensuring they meet content standards
• working with profession subject matter experts to draft updated descriptions for data ethicist, business analyst and content designer
• continuing to support groups proposing changes to the framework

Working on next

• planning content updates in 2026
• adding either general or level descriptions to skills that are missing them
• exploring how to increase the responsiveness of the framework’s governance and operations

Area 2: digital and data leadership

Recently completed

• published a new role description, chief digital and information officer
• research on digital leadership models across public sector and industry

Working on now

• establishing governance for current and future SCS role descriptions within the new GDS leadership model

Working on next

• drafting more prototype roles at Senior Civil Service (SCS) level to test with the profession
• exploring how to better support organisations to make use of the descriptions of SCS digital, data and technology roles
• contributing to updates of relevant functional standards

Area 3: experience and navigation

Recently completed

• published this roadmap page to help users understand our objectives and what we’re working on
• completed research with users to help us better understand how well the framework is performing
• enabled users to download framework content, such as role and skill descriptions
• published new guidance helping users to understand and make use of the Civil Service job grades in this framework

Working on now

• designing and testing potential new ways to help users find roles and skill descriptions, especially when they are not sure what they need
• auditing the accessibility of the framework website
• changing the website domain to better reflect the official name of the profession
• giving clearer information on ‘support’ channels related to the framework

Working on next

• implementing accessibility improvements to the website
• testing new interface functionality

Area 4: service integration and connected user journeys

Recently completed

• worked with Government People Group to review and recommend job role data structure for the profession in enterprise resource planning systems
• supported GDS Pay and Reward team to rework Digital, Data and Cyber Pay Framework guidance so it is easier to use and better aligned with this framework
• made previous versions of framework content accessible to government organisations through the profession’s Knowledge Hub group

Working on now

• reviewing user data and feedback to establish how well the framework is performing as part of common user journeys
• determining which user journeys to prioritise improving
• exploring potential for API development

Working on next

• exploring how to connect users to valuable next steps, for example, finding open job vacancies for each role
• reviewing the taxonomy, ontology and metadata of role and skill descriptions to better support interoperability

Latest release

For detailed information on our latest releases, see our release notes.

Help improve the framework

To help us improve the framework you can:

• register your interest in taking part in user research by emailing digitaldatacapabilityframework@dsit.gov.uk
• tell us what you think using our feedback survey

Further information

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

If you have a question about the framework’s roadmap, you can:

• email the Capability Framework team at digitaldatacapabilityframework@dsit.gov.uk
• get in touch on the Government Digital and Data profession Slack channel