Business change projects are often driven by the need for organisations to grasp opportunities from technology developments, improve competitiveness or handle threats from the external environment. To be successful, such projects have to make sure they balance four critical areas – process, technology, organisational and people changes. However, in recent years, those working within the business change area have been the subject of change initiatives themselves as organisations strive to improve the capability of their internal consultants. Such change initiatives typically employ formal frameworks and an integrated approach to ensure that the capability improvements are based upon the development of key competencies used to evaluate performance, define career development paths and assess individuals for promotion.

The Performance Development Model™

At AssistKD we use a formal model for identifying areas for competency definition; the Performance Development Model™. This model is adopted for categorising and identifying key areas of competency and provides a three-view approach as shown in figure 1.

The model reflects the importance of developing competency in three key areas:

Professional – the specific areas of competency, the tools and techniques, required for the relevant discipline.

Personal – the qualities and attributes that should be demonstrated by practitioners of the discipline.

Business – the skills and knowledge particularly relevant to the business domain within which the individual is employed.

The model also emphasises the need for all three areas of competence to be present. A highly knowledgeable and skilled professional cannot succeed in today’s business world without corresponding personal skills such as effective communication and negotiation; organisations are also recognising that a lack of knowledge of the business within which the professional works can diminish the value that professional and personal skills can bring.

However, to be successful, organisations need the performance development process to encompass more than just the job role/competency definitions; these have to be extended to use language that will enable the effective assessment of performance and the definition of learning mechanisms. AssistKD has developed a generic performance development process, a summary of which is shown in Figure 2.

This process shows how any competency definition exercise has to be linked into competency assessment and learning. It is vital that organisations understand this when developing competency frameworks as failure to do so will lead to an unwieldy set of definitions that are unsuitable for practical use. Further, use of an integrated approach can yield significant benefits when evaluating performance.

The Skills Framework for the Information Age

There is a range of professional specialisms within the field of information systems, many of which lack a formal definition of the role and the competencies required to perform the role effectively. In recent years, many organisations have invested in building in-house role definitions, and specifying the competencies associated with each role. This can be a time-consuming exercise but can be assisted by the use of standard competency frameworks.

In the IS area, the most recognized framework is the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). This framework is owned by the SFIA foundation and is non-proprietary so is open for use by any organisation wishing to adopt this approach. The framework can be accessed at www.sfia.org.uk. SFIA provides two aspects of skill definition:

• Generic levels of responsibility that may be used for defining core competencies required of professionals within the organisation. There are seven levels of skill identified in the Framework and the generic descriptions cover four key areas:
  1. Autonomy
  2. Influence
  3. Complexity
  4. Business Skills
• Definitions for skills required of IS professionals. Each skill is described at the relevant levels of competency. For example, the Consultancy skill is described at levels 5, 6 and 7 – as would be expected from a skill typically possessed by more senior staff. Organisations can compile a skills profile for a job role by analyzing the skills and the levels of competency required to perform that job role effectively.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Having defined the required competencies, the next stage is to specify how professionals may be assessed as possessing the competency; what knowledge, behaviour or expertise should be demonstrated to confirm possession of a competency. Bloom’s Taxonomy for cognitive domains is one of the most commonly-used frameworks for defining competency assessments. The Taxonomy is organized in six knowledge levels as shown in figure 3.

Each of the levels specifies language that may be used to express a competency assessment. For example, knowledge level two would use verbs such as describe, explain or recognize, whereas knowledge level four would be more concerned with the verbs appraise, contrast and distinguish. Such standard terms support the evaluation of performance against the required competencies.

Qualifications

In recent years, qualifications have become increasingly important as a means of assessing competency. In the IT industry, BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, offers a range of industry-recognised qualifications that can support organisations in their performance development initiatives. Many of these qualifications are mapped to the SFIA levels and use Bloom’s Taxonomy knowledge levels, providing a seamless thread from competency to assessment. As a result, SFIA and BCS qualifications provide a tangible basis for the integrated approach to professional development within organisations.

As an accredited training and qualification organisation, AssistKD works with organisations to support their development of their staff competencies, linking the requirements of the organisation with the standards and qualifications available to support excellence in staff performance.

More about the writer:

Debra Paul – is the MD of AssistKD (www.assistkd.com). Debra is an accredited SFIA consultant and a Fellow of BCS.