Role, Competence and Career Tools

All courses / Tools / Module 7 / Chapter 21

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

Write a role charter with decision rights, time limits and a list of what is never delegated.
Explain the four design decisions that distinguish a competence record from a training log or a score.
Draft a competence condition that ties an agent's ceiling to evidenced human competence.
Assess a competence by practical demonstration with and without the assistant.

Key concepts

Role charter: A machine-readable statement, family ROLE, of what a role is for, what it decides, what it only recommends and what it never does. The Transformed Security Architect uses the verbs decide, veto, recommend and escalate, each with a time limit.
Competence framework: A statement of what the people of a function must be able to do, at which level and by what evidence. The framework of The Transformed Security Architect has six domains by four levels and the rule: lower of unassisted and AI-assisted demonstrated level.
Competence record: A personal record, family CMP, of assessed levels with references to evidence, a closed list of purposes, a list of prohibited uses agreed with employee representatives before the first assessment, named readers and a development plan.
Competence conditions on autonomy: A file of AI Blue that makes an agent's autonomy ceiling depend on evidenced human competence. Each condition names a manifest and a ceiling; the check reads only levels and validity and lowers the ceiling when too few evidenced holders remain.
On-call charter: An artefact of AI Operations, family ONC, that sets coverage, response targets, noise budget, rest after call-out, escalation, handover and attribution of agent actions, agreed with employee representatives before a rota or an AI operations tool changes.

Interactive exercises

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

Interactive exercise 1 · Put in order

Writing a role charter in five steps

Put the five steps of the method of The Transformed Security Architect, Chapter 4, in order.

Interactive exercise 2 · Match

External frameworks and what the series uses them for

Match each third-party framework or certification with the use the chapter records for it.

Teaching plan

15 min	Present Figure 21.1, the chain from role charter to competence record to conditions. Note that a competence record is personal data and that representatives agree its uses first.
20 min	Read the charter ROLE-HM-OPS-001 of the operations conductor: the right to stop any operations agent with no approval, and what is never delegated. Compare with the line manager's charter.
15 min	Teach frameworks, records and conditions: the record CMP-HM-OPS-007, the competence conditions file, and the method of assessing with and without the assistant.
30 min	Exercise: participants write a role charter from recent decisions and one competence condition for an agent the role supervises.
10 min	Debrief: what each group listed as prohibited uses of the competence record, and why.

Discussion

A skill that exists only beside the assistant is a skill of the pair. What follows for how your organisation assesses people who now work with assistants every day?
The series treats certificates as a floor, not as evidence of judgement. What kinds of evidence would you accept for judgement in your own function?
The validity of a competence record is 24 months in one volume, twelve in another and 90 days in a third. How should an organisation choose, and what should drive the difference?

Written exercise

Exercise · 30 minutes

A role charter and a competence condition

Choose a role in your organisation that supervises or approves the work of an AI system, or the operations conductor of Hansa Mutual. From ten real decisions of the past year, class each by who actually decided and how long it took. Write a role charter: mandate, accountabilities, decision rights with a verb (decide, veto, recommend, escalate) and a time limit each, the agents overseen, the stop right, and what is never delegated. Then write one competence condition in the manner of AI Blue: the agent's manifest and ceiling it applies to, the competence and level required, the minimum number of evidenced holders, and what happens to the ceiling when the condition fails. List three prohibited uses of the underlying competence records.

Deliverable: A role charter with timed decision rights and a never-delegated list, one competence condition with its consequence, and three prohibited uses of the record.

Your work

Self-test

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

Which level does the series count when a competence has been demonstrated both unassisted and with an AI assistant?
Show the answer
C. The lower of the two
The framework records the rule lower of unassisted and AI-assisted demonstrated level, and the Summary repeats that a framework counts the lower of the unassisted and assisted forms.
What do competence conditions on autonomy read from the competence records?
Show the answer
A. Levels and validity only, never the content of the evidence
The conditions read levels and validity only. Figure 21.1 states that the conditions read levels, never content, which is what lets the record condition an agent's ceiling without exposing personal assessments.
What does the chapter call the series' most reusable rule about competence records?
Show the answer
B. A record that cannot be used for ranking, pay or discipline can be shared widely enough to be useful
The chapter's conclusion is that a record that cannot be used for ranking, pay or discipline can be shared widely enough to be useful, and that the first thing to agree with representatives is what it may not be used for.