Who cares about skill and competency models?

Steven Forth is co-founder and managing partner at Ibbaka. See his skill profile here.

Work is moving forward on the IEEE 1484.20.2 competency model definitions. This new standard will provide important guidance for many people on how to define skill and competency models. You can follow work on this standard here.

This group is taking an open and collaborative approach to standard development. One thing we are doing is reaching out to interested parties to collect user stories and descriptions of actors (the different roles engaged with skill and competency models). This post is part of that reach out!

We are using a format based on Behavior Driven Development or BDD for these user stories. Why choose this format?

1. The format is nice and simple

2. It is designed to connect to testing frameworks (this will make it easier to test the final standard)

3. Adoption of BDD is growing quickly and using it to help develop this standard will encourage adoption

So what is the format for the user stories?

As a [role] … an open list of roles is provided, new roles can be added as necessary

At a [type of organization] … an open list of organizations is provided, new organizations can be added as necessary

I need to (describe what the individual needs to do)

In order to (describe why the individual needs to do it --- possibly for the organization)

That’s it. You can send me user stories in the above format and I will gather them for the group’s consideration. Please send them to info@ibbaka.com

We already have preliminary lists of actors (roles) and organization types. Here is the list of actors. Do you see anything missing?

Role Name (Use in User Story)

• Individual - who wants to understand the competencies needed for different jobs and roles and how to acquire and demonstrate those competencies

• Colleague - who wants to understand what competencies people she/he works with can be expected to have

• Coach - who needs to support an Individual in gaining and applying a competency

• Team Builder - who needs to identify and combines individuals into a team that will be able to apply one or more competencies

• Resource Manager - who is responsible for assigning people with the right competencies to roles (usually project roles) and for assigning people to roles where they can develop specific competencies

• HR Business Partner - who is responsible for supporting operations

• Succession Planner - who is responsible for making sure there is a pipeline of Individuals to fill key roles in an organization in the future

• Executive - who wants to understand the competencies needed for a function, domain, role, task

• Competency Model Designer - who wants to build a competency model

• Competency Model Manager - who needs to make sure a competency model is maintained and applied

• Learning & Development Expert - who who needs to develop learning to support competencies

• Talent Acquisition Expert - who needs to understand the competencies needed for roles being hired

• Curriculum Developer - who needs to develop a set or courses or a program that will help Individuals develop the competency

• Workforce Demand Expert - who is responsible for forecasting supply and demand for different jobs and roles

• Instructor - who is responsible for delivering the courses developed by the Curriculum Developer to Individuals

• Accreditation Expert - who is responsible for accrediting a curriculum

• Bot - an agent designed to perform a specific task, such as scheduling or information search

• AI - an artificial intelligence able to perform several different tasks

The last two roles are meant to be provocative. In the future skill and competency frameworks may help us integrate AIs and Bots into the workforce, and teams may be a combination of people and machines.

Just as there are different roles or actors, these people may work at different types of organizations, who think about skill and competency models quite differently. That is why we added the ‘At a’ line to the user story.

Here is the initial list of organization types we are working with.

• Operating Organizations - who provide work to people

• Education, Course and Training Providers - who train people

• Technology Vendors - who provide skill and competency platforms, learning platforms, talent management platforms, HRIS, project management, resource management, etc.

• Certifying Bodies - who certify the skills of people

• Staffing and Gig Economy Vendors - who provide temporary or on demand workers

• Governments - who provide public services to all of the other organizations and may act as certifying bodies for organizations, and in some cases individuals

Are there other types of organization you think should be called out to make the user stories more specific? If so, please send your ideas to info@ibbaka.com.

The Ibbaka Talent platform will support the IEEE 1484.20.1 data model and help to implement the work of the IEEE 1484.20.2 competency model definitions. We look forward to working with you to create the skill economy.

Ibbaka Posts on Competency Models and Competency Frameworks

• Competency models as learning plans

• From user experience to competency model design - Margherita Bacigalupo and EntreComp

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Jeff Griffiths on transversal and vertical skills

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: The chunkers and the slice and dicers

• Competency framework designers on competency framework design: Victoria Pazukha

• Two podcasts on competency model design from Vancouver

• The A in KSA is for Abilities or Attitudes or Attributes?

• Do competency frameworks need competency definitions?

• Should you have a personal competency model?

• Designing a skill competency model - the Ibbaka approach

• Design research - How do people approach the design of skill and competency models?

• Designing a blueprint for your competency model framework

• From competency model design to competency model generation

• The WEF on Building a Common Language for Skills at Work

• Aligning skill and competency models with microcredentials - a conversation between Don Presant and Kul Sharma

• Three Metaphors for Skills and Competencies

• The Skills for Career Mobility - Interview with Dennis Green

• Competencies or skills - what should you assess?

• Lessons Learned Launching and Scaling Capability Management Programs

• Designing a Competency Model for Innovation Coaches

• Talent Transformation - A Conversation with Eric Shepherd, Martin Belton and Steven Forth

• Who cares about skill and competency models (this post)

• Competency Model Definitions - the IEEE ups its game

• Simple (very simple) skill and competency models

• Individual - Team - Organizational use cases for skill and competency management

• Design decisions for developing a competency framework

• What is skill management?

• Competency models are living documents and need curation

• Some key use cases for competency model adoption

• Designing the Open Competency Model Architecture

• A third skillscape

• Building skill and competency models together

• Getting past competency model PTSD

• Co-creation of Competency Models for Customer Success and Pricing Excellence

• Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change – An Interview with Dr. Robin Cox

• Architecting the Competencies for Adaptation to Climate Change Open Competency Model

• Introducing open competency models

• Integrating Skills and Competencies in the Talent Management Ecosystem

• Organizational values and competency models – survey results

• Why your job architecture needs a competency model

• Are values part of your competency model?

• How to build competency models

• A skill name is just a word, isn’t it?

• Current trends in skill and competency management

• Enabling internal mobility - a design thinking approach