Activity Based Competency Management System
The central theme of the system was to
have the competencies captured while the person does a particular job or activity. Any job
can be divided into a number of activities, which are allotted to the persons who would do
the job. The person while performing the activities enters them into the system. This
ensures that the competencies developed as a result of doing the activities are captured
by the system.
The roadmap for system included: from
data capture to data usage and from reactive to proactive.
a. Optimise resources
b. Skill planning
c. Improving the IT estimation process
d. Input for uniform performance
management
a. Alerts
b. Escalation
The philosophy of the system was to
capture the data while the person in ITS is at work. Figure 1 depicts this. The system
will then enable the management to find the persons having certain competencies. So if a
new project needs to be implemented, then the positions are filled using the competency
requirements of the jobs that need to be done under the project. The system brings about
transparency in the form of fact based decision making for filling up of vacancies.
IT based management
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It also enables fact based appraisal of
the individuals. One can find from this system the kind of jobs and activities that a
person has performed which not only helps in monitoring of the various jobs, but also the
level of engagement of the persons with various jobs. It stores all the activities that an
individual has planned to perform. This helps in correct estimation of the dates for new
jobs.
The system helps in monitoring the jobs
upto the level of individual activities. The jobs can be planned and compliance to the
plan is captured after the jobs are done. Real time information on the job status and the
way the persons are engaged are visible in the system. Time taken for each activity is
captured and hence, the historical data of activities will help plan with greater accuracy
and higher compliance on committed dates for future request from customers.
The proposed design has the following
attributes :
Knowledge of projects - the skill
survey by Gartner was used
Codification of projects - there will
be a central repository for all projects
Linkage of activities, projects,
competency and KRA sub-groups
Linking of IT professionals to projects
Figure 2 shows the sources of initial
requirements for the system.
The documented requirements were converted into initial design of the system. Several
discussions were held among the members of the team to arrive at a consensus as to what
the system should offer, keeping in mind that too much functionality and complexity will
compromise the usability and user friendliness of the system. The aim was to keep the
transactional part of the system simple with all necessary details that have to be
captured. The opinion of the senior management was taken as to the MIS that needs to be
developed.
| Competencies
divided into Technical, Managerial and Behavioural skills. |
| Technical (T) |
Business (B) |
Behavioural (H) |
| T1
Understanding existing systems and technology |
B1
Understanding business practices and approaches |
H1 Leading,
inspiring and building trust |
| T2 Designing
and developing applications |
B2
Understanding business organisation, politics and culture |
H2 Thinking
creativity and innovating |
| T3 Applying
procedures, tools and methods |
B3 Behaving
commercially |
H3 Focusing
on results |
| T4
Integrating systems |
B4
Understanding and analysing the competitive situation |
H4 Thinking
strategically |
| T5 Designing
technical architecture |
B5 Managing
projects |
H5 Coaching,
delegating and developing |
| T6
Understanding emerging technologies |
B6 Managing
change in the business resulting from IT applications |
H6 Building
relationships and team-working |
|
B7 Planning,
prioritising and administering work |
H7
Influencing and persuading |
|
B8
Communicating/listening and gathering information |
H8 Principle
negotiating |
|
B9 Focusing
on customers |
H9 Resolving
conflicts and problems |
|
|
H10 Being
adaptable. |
The workflow was designed
keeping in mind that simplicity and usability is the key to the deployment of the system.
The flow of the system is shown
in Figure 3.
Benefits of the System
The benefits of the initiative included :
resource optimisation, better skill planning, improved estimation process, and inputs for
uniform performance management across the organisation.
This system enables systematic and fact
based analysis of competencies, which can be used to bring improvement in resource
allocation. The information can be collected with least effort; in process measures are
available real time along with analytical tools for decision support for controlling/
channelising the resources to create higher value and develop resources to enable higher
value creation capability.
Figure 4 shows how a typical person in
ITS spends time performing different activities. Based on this chart the competency can be
known and can be matched with the job profile, where that person can be placed in case of
a vacancy.
The MIS that was developed had:
Competency list of the resource
utilisation in ITS.
Activity-wise list of resource
utilisation in ITS.
Process-wise resource utilisation.
Manpower to be booked to cost centres.
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