Comment Period: November 7, 2023 – January 29, 2024

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Proposed NICE Framework Task Statement Updates

In November 2020, NICE, a program in the Na�onal Ins�tute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at the U.S. Department 

of Commerce, released the first revision of the Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework) (NIST SP 800-

181r1). This document updates the 2017 Cybersecurity Workforce Framework. A significant change in the 2020 revision 

was removing the NICE Framework data (Task, Knowledge, and Skill statements; Work Roles and Work Role Categories;

and Competency Areas) from the PDF document itself to be maintained separately. This separate maintenance provides 

greater flexibility and increased responsiveness to the evolving cybersecurity workforce needs. 

In early 2021, the Task, Knowledge, Skill (TKS) Statements Authoring Guide for Workforce Frameworks (TKS Authoring 

Guide) was developed through a collabora�ve NIST effort between NICE and the Privacy Engineering Program. This 

resource can be used in the development of new workforce framework statements and as a tool for the review of 

exis�ng NICE Framework statements. The NICE Program Office first used the Guide when reviewing and refactoring 

deprecated Ability statements into TKS statements for reten�on and inclusion as NICE Framework data (released for 

comment in December 2021). Subsequently, the program office used the Guide in its review of the NICE Framework Skill 

and Knowledge statements (released for comment April 2022). Comments received have been adjudicated and 

adjustments made to these statements as a result. 

We are happy to now release proposed updates to the NICE Framework Task statements that follow the principles set 

forth in the Guide. Once the Task statement comments are received and adjudicated, NICE intends to release a full, 

updated set of TKS statements for use with the NICE Framework, including a mapping of the 2017 statements to this 

updated data set. 

This review refines and clarifies the Task statements, thereby helping them be more measurable, meaningful, and useful. 

The proposed Task statement updates provided here address: 

• Consistency: Statements follow a common structure that begins with the ac�vity to be executed and focus on 

the work to be done (not the knowledge or skills needed to do that work)

• Clarity: Statements are clearly stated

• Redundancy: Statements are unique and do not duplicate or unnecessarily overlap with others

• Compound statements: Statements do not include more than one task

This review did not extend to the crea�on of statements that would introduce new concepts to the NICE Framework, nor 

to the removal of content that might eliminate requirements or capabili�es. At �mes new statements – including 

Knowledge and Skill statements – are proposed to fully reflect the content of the 2017 Task statements and in alignment 

with the TKS Authoring Guide, while others are proposed for removal either to eliminate redundancy or to address 

overly broad or vague statements. 

We an�cipate a need to develop addi�onal new statements or further adjust exis�ng statements in the future. NIST 

enjoys a long-standing tradi�on of transparency, and the NICE Program Office will work to ensure broad community 

engagement in those efforts, in addi�on to con�nued community engagement methods such as workshops, mee�ngs, 

focus groups, and comment periods. We welcome your feedback and look forward to con�nuing improvement of this 

resource.

Links:

• Dra� Refactored Task Statements November 2023

• NICE Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework) (NIST SP 800-181r1)

• Task, Knowledge, and Skill (TKS) Statements Authoring Guide for Workforce Frameworks (TKS Authoring Guide)

• NICE Framework Data Reference Spreadsheet (2017 Data)