Your Competency Matrix May Not Match Reality

The Rob LambertCultivated Management, Process-Agile-Testing

I’ve just posted over on my LinkedIn profile about how a competency matrix may not be helpful in working out your teams competencies.

An example competency matrix
An example competency matrix

In the article I outline 4 problems with a competency matrix and a simple solution to all of them – focus on behaviours and results. Here are the four identified problems.

  1. The matrix is often put together based on opinion rather than observed behaviours and results.
  2. When asked how competent someone is they usually claim to be more or less competent than they are.
  3. The skills and experiences in a matrix tend to focus on technology and process skills and not soft skills or learning ethos.
  4. It’s common when compiling a competency matrix to focus on high level skills categories only – this misses some of the gaps within these high level competencies.

If you’re interested in reading more then check out the article on LinkedIn.