Competences and Developing the Developer

All courses / AI Developer / Module 6 / Chapter 27

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

• Explain the six competence groups and the developer functions each serves
• Compare kinds of evidence of competence by what each shows, what it cannot show and when it expires
• Apply the rule that the level is set from the lower of the assisted and the unaided evidence
• Draft a competence record and development plan with stated purposes, readers and a second assessor

Key concepts

Six competence groups

Frame and specify; design and system thinking; read, review and verify; delegate and bound; steward; and AI literacy for the role. They are the book's own synthesis, and no research-based taxonomy for a workplace that uses AI broadly has been tested against outcomes.

Attendance is not competence

Neither attendance at a course nor tool use shows competence, and confidence is not evidence. Self-assessment, acceptance rate and completion of a module are listed in the evidence table as not evidence.

The lower figure governs

Evidence must separate assisted from unaided performance, and where both figures exist the lower governs. A group whose evidence has lapsed is shown as lapsed, not as the last level reached.

Second assessor

A person outside the line who observes or checks the exercises and writes what was seen. A record assessed by the line manager alone is exposed to the pressures of appraisal, and one assessed by an assistant to the failure the record exists to detect.

Competence record

The artefact CMP: level per group with evidence date and expiry, the developer's own comment and a development plan with one or two gaps and protected time. It is personal data, limited by stated purpose and reader, and it does not rank the developer.

Interactive exercises

Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.

Teaching plan

Discussion

1. In the worked example the lower figure came with the assistant's comment in view. What does that say about the condition under which the developer usually works?
2. A common framework gives comparability and risks a form that does not fit a local post; a grade structure tied to a collective agreement fits and changes slowly. Which trade-off does your organisation face?
3. The panel does not use an AI system to filter, rank or evaluate candidates. How does that follow from the prohibitions of Chapter 4?

Written exercise

Self-test

Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.

1. Which expiry does the chapter use for competences that decay with disuse, such as reading and verification without the tool?

   1. 30 days
   2. 90 days
   3. One year
   4. Three years
   Show the answer

   B. 90 days
   The chapter uses 90 days for competences that decay with disuse and 180 days for the revert drill, because a record true in January says little about a developer in July who has not done the task since.

2. What does a seeded-defect review, done with and without the assistant's comment visible, show?

   1. Whether the developer attended the training on the tool
   2. How many suggestions the developer accepts in a week
   3. Whether the developer finds defects, and whether the assistant's comment changes that
   4. Whether the specification behind the change was a good one
   Show the answer

   C. Whether the developer finds defects, and whether the assistant's comment changes that
   The evidence table lists it as the check on verification: a change with a known number of defects reviewed in both conditions. It is also the first part of the interview the chapter proposes.

3. How is a competence group shown when its evidence has passed its expiry?

   1. As lapsed, not as the last level reached
   2. At the last level reached, with a note
   3. One level lower than the last level reached
   4. As Foundation, until the developer is reassessed
   Show the answer

   A. As lapsed, not as the last level reached
   Step seven of the practical guide: review at expiry, and show a group whose evidence has lapsed as lapsed. Evidence expires, and the record should not carry forward a level nobody has recently seen.