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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.

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