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AdaptIQ | A shared foundation across products

The cyber
skills ontology

Make skills data meaningful across the workforce lifecycle. The cyber skills ontology connects skills, roles, and relationships in one structured model: the shared foundation behind AdaptIQ intelligence, SkillsIQ development, and HiringIQ hiring. Give security and talent teams a common language for decisions.

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Map

Shared skills model

Skills and roles, with meaningful relationships

One foundation for three workforce decisions

Illustrative concept • not a product screen

  • Skills context
  • Role relationships

A common skills foundation

  • Plan
  • Learn
  • Hire
Model

Common skills language

AdaptIQ. SkillsIQ. HiringIQ.

Cyber skills ontology mapping skills, roles and relationships.

Skills data with meaning and context

What is a cyber skills ontology?

A cyber skills ontology is a structured model of skills, roles, and the relationships between them. It explains how capabilities connect with work. QuickStart’s shared model gives intelligence, development, and hiring a consistent foundation for interpreting skills data and framing workforce decisions.

Explore Workforce Intelligence

  • A common skills language

    Give security, HR, and learning teams consistent terms for discussing capability, roles, and workforce needs.

  • Context for the work

    Relate skills to responsibilities and tasks. Keep the meaning of a capability connected with its use.

  • A shared decision foundation

    Connect planning, development, and hiring around the same model, while keeping each workforce decision and its evidence clear.

Skills. Roles. Relationships.

How the skills model is structured

A skills ontology connects concepts through defined relationships. Skills describe capabilities; roles describe work responsibilities. The relationships explain how they connect. This illustrative graph shows why a structured model offers more context than a skills list alone.

Explore Skills Gap Analysis

  • Skills and competencies

    Name the capability clearly and retain its context. Triage, for example, describes a skill used in response work.

  • Roles and responsibilities

    Describe the work the role performs. A work role represents responsibilities; it need not match an organization’s job title.

  • Explicit relationships

    Describe connections, such as a role requiring a skill or a task drawing on it. Make the meaning of each link clear.

Related models. Distinct purposes.

Taxonomy, ontology, and framework mapping

A security skills taxonomy organizes concepts. An ontology explains their connections. Framework mapping relates the model to an external reference. Each has a role in making cybersecurity skills data easier to interpret.

  • Skills taxonomy

    Organize skills into named categories, often with a hierarchy.

    • Consistent terms and category definitions
    • Broader, narrower, and related concepts
    • A structure for finding and grouping skills

  • Skills ontology

    Make relationships between skills, roles, and work explicit.

    • Concepts connected by defined relationships
    • Role and task context for skills data
    • A model that can include a taxonomy

  • Framework mapping

    NICE offers a reference language for cybersecurity work and capabilities.

    • Tasks, knowledge, skills, and work roles
    • Mapping scope, version, and meaning matter
    Explore Cyber Research

One foundation. Different workforce decisions.

How the ontology powers the products

The cyber skills ontology is the shared foundation across QuickStart’s workforce products. Use AdaptIQ for intelligence and organizational planning, SkillsIQ for development, and HiringIQ for hiring. Follow the route that fits the decision you need to make.

  • Skills gap analysis

    Connect current capability with target needs through an organizational comparison grounded in a shared skills model.

    Explore skills gap analysis

  • Personalized learning

    Explore SkillsIQ learning paths to connect development needs with skills and role-aligned learning priorities.

    Explore learning paths

AdaptIQ informs intelligence and planning. SkillsIQ supports development. HiringIQ supports hiring.

For technical and strategic buyers

A common model for shared decisions

Security, workforce, and HR systems leaders need to interpret skills consistently. Start with the decision the model must support, then agree the relevant roles, terms, and evidence. A shared language keeps capability discussions connected across the organization.

Explore For Organizations

  • CISOs and security teams

    Relate cyber capabilities to the work and responsibilities that matter. Keep workforce discussions grounded in security context.

  • Workforce strategists

    Connect skills language across planning, development, and hiring. Define the organizational priority before choosing a workforce response.

  • HR systems owners

    Clarify skills definitions and relationships across talent workflows. Discuss data scope and system requirements before planning an implementation.

Coming soon

Discuss scope and access

Understand the shared ontology here, then explore the relevant product. AdaptIQ’s planned general availability is coming soon. Request early access to discuss your workforce needs and confirmed access options.

  • Define the use case

    Share the intelligence, development, or hiring decision your organization needs the skills model to support.

  • Discuss the relevant scope

    Ask about supported concepts, framework mappings, and product access in the context of your requirements.

  • Receive access information

    Register your organization’s interest for relevant updates. An early-access request does not guarantee immediate access.

Request Early Access

Explore the model in context

Connect the foundation with the next step

Explore how the shared model relates to intelligence, gap analysis, learning, and hiring. Use the planning hub for the wider AdaptIQ cluster, or visit the resources for skills and research context.

Plan Your Cyber Workforce

Explore the AdaptIQ planning hub and choose the route that fits your organization’s workforce question.

Explore the planning hub

  • Workforce intelligence

    Understand the wider data and insight context for organizational workforce decisions.

  • Skills gap analysis

    Compare current workforce capability with the skills and roles a defined need requires.

  • Personalized learning paths

    Connect SkillsIQ development with skills needs and role-aligned learning priorities.

  • Hiring intelligence

    Explore the HiringIQ platform and the skills context behind talent matching and hiring decisions.

  • Cybersecurity skills

    Explore the broader skills topic through the editorial resource, alongside this technical model explainer.

  • Cybersecurity research

    Explore research for wider cybersecurity and workforce context. Keep sources, scope, and dates clear.

A common language across the lifecycle

Standardize meaning. Keep the context.

A shared cyber skills framework helps teams interpret capability consistently across planning, development, and hiring. Clear terms and defined relationships support semantic interoperability. Technical connections between systems depend on their interfaces, data formats, and requirements.

Plan

Workforce priorities

Use the shared language to frame skills and role needs within a wider cyber and IT workforce plan.

Develop

Learning priorities

Keep development goals connected with the same skills and role context used to define the workforce need.

Hire

Talent requirements

Describe hiring requirements in a consistent skills language. Keep role responsibilities and relevant evidence visible in the decision.

A cyber skills ontology is a structured model of cybersecurity skills, roles, and the relationships between them. It adds context to skills data by describing how capabilities connect with the work people do. QuickStart uses the ontology as a shared foundation across AdaptIQ, SkillsIQ, and HiringIQ. Its purpose is to give intelligence, development, and hiring a common skills language, while keeping each product focused on its own workforce decision.
A cybersecurity skills taxonomy organizes skills into named categories, often in a hierarchy. It can also describe related concepts. A skills ontology makes a wider set of relationships explicit, such as which skills support a role or task. The distinction is about the model’s purpose and detail. A taxonomy can form part of an ontology; consistent categories and meaningful relationships both help people interpret workforce skills data.
Framework mapping relates an ontology’s concepts to a reference model using defined correspondences. NICE is one recognized reference for cybersecurity work, using Task, Knowledge, and Skill statements, Work Roles, and Competency Areas. Specific QuickStart mappings depend on the supported scope. Discuss the frameworks, versions, and role coverage relevant to your organization with the team. A framework reference alone does not establish complete coverage or equivalence between every concept.
Workforce planning needs more than a list of skills. Leaders need to connect capability with the work, roles, and priorities they are planning for. A cyber skills framework provides useful reference context; an ontology makes relationships in the skills model explicit. That shared structure supports interpretation across workforce intelligence and skills gap analysis. Use the findings within a defined planning process, with clear requirements, relevant evidence, and ownership of the response.
The ontology provides shared skills-and-roles context for AdaptIQ, SkillsIQ, and HiringIQ. AdaptIQ uses that foundation for workforce intelligence and organizational planning. SkillsIQ connects development with role-aligned learning needs. HiringIQ brings skills context to hiring decisions. The common model helps connect the language across these activities, while each product serves a different purpose. Explore the relevant product page for its scope and access information. A shared foundation does not mean every product offers the same features, outputs, or data access.
A shared ontology supports semantic interoperability: a clearer understanding of what skills terms and relationships mean across workforce activities. That is different from a technical connection between systems. Integration also depends on supported interfaces, data formats, permissions, and the requirements of the systems involved. Discuss your HR or security systems context with the team before planning an implementation. Common terminology is a useful foundation for consistent interpretation, but it does not establish that a particular connector or integration is available.
Use this page to understand the shared model and follow the product links for the workforce question you need to address. AdaptIQ’s planned general availability date is November 19, 2026. Explore AdaptIQ leads to the platform entry for current access information. Request Early Access registers your organization’s interest so the team can discuss requirements and confirmed access options. It does not guarantee immediate access. Discuss any need for ontology data, exports, or interfaces directly with the team rather than assuming a standalone service is available.

Frequently asked questions

Cyber skills ontology
FAQs

Answers about the model, cybersecurity skills taxonomy, framework mapping, and how skills ontologies support workforce planning.

A shared foundation for workforce decisions

Make skills data mean more.

Explore AdaptIQ, or request early access to discuss your organization’s skills-model requirements. AdaptIQ general availability is coming soon.

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