Vaidyanathan Ramalingam (Vaidya)Director Engineering (Test)

Huawei Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, INDIA

Systematic Competency Development Approach

for IT Professionals An implementation experience sharing

Key Note Speech

Key Note Coverage

• Competency Development - Problems & Challenges

• Competency Development Model - Concept & Big Picture

• Implementation Experience Sharing

• Key Note Conclusion

Huawei is a global telecommunications solutions provider with long-term partnerships with operators around the world. Huawei actively participates in 91 international standardization organization including ITU, 3GPP, 3GPP2, ETSI, IETF, OMA and IEEE. Huawei holds the world’s #1 position in PCT Patent applications (WIPO 2008) and is ranked among the top 3 in LTE essential patents. Huawei’s products and solutions have been deployed in over 100 countries and have served 45 of the world's top 50 telecom operators, as well as one third of the world's population.

Mr. Vaidyanathan Ramalingam (Vaidya) has >20 Years of experience, primarily in Software Testing with Fortune 100 companies, such as Motorola, Nortel Networks ODC, Siemens, Indus EDC, Intel, HP and Huawei (Present).He is Director Engineering (Test) in Central Research & Development Business Line @ Huawei R&D. He is Honorary Member in Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FKCCI), established on 1916 by Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya, which has representation in several Boards & Advisory Committees in Government and Institutions. He is also a member of IEEE, USA; Holds honorary editorial position in ISQT Newsletter‏- Software Testing and Technical Committee Member in STEP-AUTO Y2011 International Conference on Software Testing. Vaidya is qualified with M.Tech - IT and B.S. - Information Systems. He is interested to write a software testing book and do research in Competency Development & Software Testing.

The content of this conference presentation is non commercial and based on self experience, interpretations/view points. The data provided may not be full, accurate and latest. The intention is knowledge sharing & to promote the software testing.

www.huawei.com

Competency Development - Problems & Challenges (1 of 2)

No Systematic Competency Development Model / Approach

No single & uniform/consistent approach (across teams/organization; Y-o-Y)

Often assessment score/methodology/scope leads to subjectivity / dis-agreement

Individual development plans are not dynamic, multi-dimensional

and has no support framework to achieve

Poor adoption of relevant industry standards & best practices benchmarking

Often considered as short term / tactical instead of long-term & strategic!

Not Standardized Competency Assessment & Individual Development Framework

Poorly defined individual competency assessment & individual development focus

Non availability of single employees repository (system / database): competency score

development plans

Knowledge management repository

Synchronization between individual career aspirations & Org. requirements

Missing hierarchical & secured employee data base for workflow approach

Competency Development – Problems & Challenges (2 of 2)

Comprehensive, Sustainable & Evolving Competency Development Eco System

Competency profile (show case your competencies, experience & domain)

Skill inventory, Certifications, Awards & Patents/Ideas (show case your achievements)

Functional groups / Professional internal networking

(connections, skill search, info. exchange, posting questions/resolutions)

Collaboration framework (web 2.0): Blogs, Forums/Threads

Wiki (internal – organization specific encyclopedia that anyone can edit with moderation)

Artifacts repository (documents, audio, video files, Ref URL, and books)

Communication channel (chat, files upload, integrated email framework)

Potential Implementation ChallengesManagement support

budget

formal organization development focus (business plan)

Long term (strategic) & continuous focus on employees development

Participation from engineers/internal professional communitySincere attempt

Real interest for their own development (not only the company wants it)

Partial automation & many manual / Ad-hoc processno end to end & conceptually integrated framework

External vendor’s solutions does not cover all aspects

Internal solutions not scalable, comprehensive & consistent

Competency Development Model – Concept & Big Picture

Competency

Assessment

Framework

Proof based objective

assessment questions

Individual Score

(role/designation & goal)

Theoretical (academic) &

Practical capabilities

(business scope/results)

Score by Self &

SME’s authentication

Individual

Development

Framework

Individual Development by: (I) Self: study, hands-on,

certification, higher studies

(II) Org: work assignments,

mentorship, training, research

(III) Industry: forums, conf,

standard bodies, university

Short/medium/long term

dev. plans & measurement

Training

Management

Framework

Training requirements

Training administration

Feedback and continuous

Improvement

Results Analysis &

Strategy refinement

Leadership

Development

Framework

Mentorship & Grooming

Co-ownership assignment

Career aspiration based

Succession plan

Target & Potential based

(leadership pipeline)

Retention Management

Recruitment (rare skills)

Knowledge

Management

Framework

Collaboration tools (web 2.0): - Blogs

- Forums/Threads,

- Artifacts

- WIKI

- Websites / KM Portals

Knowledge Management Office

Employee

Networking

Framework

Enable employee credibility

showcasing for Professional &

Authentic internal networking: •Profile, Skill Inventory

•Certification

•Awards, Patents, Ideas, Papers

•FPG Connections

•Recommendations/Appreciations

•Communication channel

Drive: Individual &

SME (Subject Matter Expert) / Reporting

Supervisor

Drive:

Individual &Organization

Drive: Individual &

Internal Community

Implementation Experience Sharing

Systematic Competency Development Model / Approach Idea demonstration with Excel (Macro) based PoC, Pilot.

Web based platform implementation

Research & Industry References/Benchmark Continuous research & conceptualization (self patent pending)

Ref: People CMM Level 3 Process Area Threads (Comp. Analysis & Comp. Dev), SEI, USA

Ref: Swedish Standard, SS 62 40 70 (Comp. Management & System Requirements), Swedish Standards Institute

>2.5 years of implementation exp. & For different teams (test, dev, quality, info. dev etc)

Individual Competency Assessment (example: software test engineers) Skill Areas: Domain, Test Techniques, Test Automation, Scripting/Programming, Process

Sample Skills -per- Skill Area (as per project need); Test Techniques: applicable test techniques (example: boundary value analysis)

Hypothesis Based Testing (HBT); (Ref: STAG software)

Test Automation: QTP (GUI automation, HP) / RFT (GUI automation, IBM)

Model Based Testing - MBT (Ref: Conformiq / Ideabytes)

Script-less automation (Ref: Qualitia from Zensoft)

Assessment Question Framing: Fixed Alternative Questions, fact/result based, answer to have less ambiguity

Individual Competency Development Plan Type: Self driven, Org. based & Industry based; Objective/fact based Measurement

Duration: Short term (6 months); Medium term (1 year) & long term (> 1year)

Recommended Cycle of Competency Assessment: every 6 months

* Note: Product names, logos, brands, standard body/institute’s names & other trademarks referred within the presentation are the property of their respective trademark holders.

Key Note Conclusion

Business Values: Strategic organization development

Individual competency development

Employee retention

Efficiency improvement (S/w saves time and helps with data)

Knowledge retention

Competency development is a long journey

It is complex. Proper plan & execution will fetch results in phases

Needs dedicated focus, management support & employees’ interest

Concept / approach is important, not only the tools / software Always stick to the core principles & never compromise

Start with simple approach (excel/macro)

The key is actual competency development

Every company do have one or other model

Learn industry practices from conferences like STEP-AUTO and contribute/share in your company – Thanks in advance for your Test Community Service!

Knowledge Is PowerThank You!

Share your feedback & suggestions to: rvaidya67@hotmail.com

http://in.linkedin.com/in/rvaidya67