System and method for performing skill set assessment using a hierarchical minimum skill set definition

• US 6,524,109 B1
• Filed: 08/02/1999
• Issued: 02/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Lautzenheiser, Ted G., Lacy, David R., Bucher, Mary A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rovnak, John Edmund
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sotomayor, John
• Application Number:
  US09/366,060
• Time in Patent Office: 1,303 Days
• Field of Search: 434/350, 434/322, 434/323, 434/219, 434/118, 434/119, 434/307.R, 434/359
• US Class Current: 434/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

An improved skill set assessment system and method is disclosed for allowing a user to assess the user'"'"'s proficiency at performing a predetermined set of skills related to the user'"'"'s employment position. A user may complete the skill assessment process by reviewing only a subset of skills relevant to the user'"'"'s current employment position, rather than the comprehensive list of skills provided by the assessment tool. This ability to review an abbreviated list of skills is obtained by using a minimum skill set definition. Minimum skill set definitions may be defined to reflect the hierarchical structure of the organization employing the assessment system.

Claims

1. A skill set assessment tool for allowing a user to rate the user'"'"'s proficiency in performing a comprehensive set of skills, comprising:

a storage device to store data signals indicative of the comprehensive set of skills;

skill set definition means coupled to said storage device for creating multiple Minimum Skill Set Definitions (MSSDs), each of said MSSDs including a subset of the skills included in the comprehensive set of skills; and

a user interface coupled to said storage device to allow the user to select one of said MSSDs for use in rating the user'"'"'s proficiency at each of the skills included in said MSSD after reviewing only said subset of skills included in said MSSD and without having to review all skills included in the comprehensive set of skills, said selected one of said MSSDs including only skills relevant to the user.

2. The skill set assessment tool of claim 1, wherein said storage device includes circuits to store data signals indicative of a Hierarchical Skill Structure (HSS), said HSS for organizing all of the skills in the comprehensive set of skills according to a multi-level hierarchical tree structure having a predetermined number of levels, wherein a root node of said HSS represents all skills in the comprehensive set of skills, and each of the other nodes of said HSS represents a subset of the set of skills represented by said each of the other node'"'"'s parent node.

3. The skill set assessment tool of claim 2, wherein each of the nodes in said hierarchical tree structure is associated with a name indicator, and wherein said user interface includes hierarchical traversal means for allowing a user to traverse said hierarchical tree structure, and for further allowing a user to view, at each of said nodes in said hierarchical tree structure that is not a leaf node, a list including any of said name indicators associated with any of the child nodes of said each node.

4. The skill set assessment tool of claim 3, wherein said hierarchical traversal means includes means for dividing said list including any of said name indicators into first and second portions, each of said name indicators in said first portion being indicative of a respective one of said subsets of skills that includes at least one skill that is also included in said selected MSSD, and each of said name indicators in said second portion being indicative of a respective one of said subsets of skills that does not include any skills that are also included in said selected MSSD.

5. The skill set assessment tool of claim 3, wherein said hierarchical traversal means includes means for allowing the user to view, at each of said nodes in said hierarchical tree structure that is a leaf node, a list of said subset of the comprehensive set of skills that is associated with said leaf node.

6. The skill set assessment tool of claim 5, wherein said hierarchical traversal means includes means for dividing each said list of said subset of the comprehensive set of skills that is associated with said leaf node into first and second portions, said first portion being a list of all skills that are included in said subset of the comprehensive set of skills associated with said leaf node and that are also included in said selected MSSD, and said second portion being a list of skills that are included in said subset of the comprehensive set of skills associated with said leaf node and that are not included in said selected MSSD.

7. The skill set assessment tool of claim 1, wherein said skill set definition means includes MSSD Skill Set definition means for defining MSSD Skill Sets, wherein each of said MSSD Skill Sets include a subset of the skills included in the comprehensive set of skills, and wherein multiple MSSD Skill Sets may be used to create an MSSD.

8. The skill set assessment tool of claim 7, wherein said MSSD Skill Set definition means includes means for defining a hierarchical tree structure by defining parent/child relationships between ones of said MSSD Skill Sets, said ones of said MSSD Skill Sets each representing a respective node in said hierarchical tree structure, and wherein said hierarchical tree structure may be defined to represent the hierarchical structure of an entity employing said skill set assessment tool.

9. The skill set assessment tool of claim 8, wherein said skill set definition means includes means for defining each of said MSSDs by including in said each of said MSSDs all skills in a respectively associated one of said MSSD Skill Sets, and by further including all skills in any of said MSSD Skill Sets that represents a node in said hierarchical tree structure that resides within the path between the node represented by said respectively associated one of said MSSD Skill Sets and the root node of said hierarchical tree structure.

10. The skill set assessment tool of claim 9, wherein said skill set definition means includes means for attaching a respective indicator to each of the skills included in each of said MSSDs, each said indicator indicating one or more of said MSSD Skill Sets that includes said each of the skills, said one or more of said MSSD also residing within said path between said node represented by said respectively associated one of said MSSD Skill Sets and said root node of said hierarchical tree structure, and wherein each of said indicators may be viewed by a user using said user interface.

11. The skill set assessment tool of claim 10, wherein said storage device includes circuits to store data signals indicative of a Hierarchical Skill Structure (HSS), said HSS for organizing all of the skills in the comprehensive set of skills according to a multi-level hierarchical tree structure having a predetermined number of levels, wherein a root node of said HSS represents all skills in the comprehensive set of skills, and each of the other nodes of said HSS represents a subset of skills included in the set of skills represented by said each of the other node'"'"'s parent node.

12. The skill set assessment tool of claim 11, wherein said user interface means includes means for traversing said HSS to view, for any subset of skills represented by any leaf node in said HSS, each skill included in said any subset of skills along with said each skill'"'"'s said respective indicator.

13. An automated method of obtaining data related to a user'"'"'s proficiency at performing skills included within a Comprehensive Skill Set (CSS) stored within a storage device of a data processing system, the method comprising the steps of:

a.) defining multiple Minimum Skill Set Definitions (MSSDs) to be stored in the storage device, each including a subset of the skills included in the CSS;

b.) selecting one of said MSSDs for use in assessing the user'"'"'s skill proficiency; and

c.) presenting a list of all skills included within a selected MSSD to the user for use in allowing the user to perform skills assessment, said list including only those skills that must be assessed by the user to complete said skills assessment.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said step (c) further includes the step of presenting an optional list of skills for optional review and assessment by the user, said optional list of skills including all skills in the CSS not included in said selected MSSD.

15. The method of claim 14, and further including the step of defining a Hierarchical Skill Structure (HSS) for the CSS, said HSS being a hierarchical tree structure, with the root node of the hierarchical tree structure representing all skills included in the CSS, and each of the other nodes of the hierarchical tree structure representing a group of skills that is a subset of the group of skills represented by said each of the other node'"'"'s parent node.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein step (c) includes the step of presenting said list of mandatory skills as organized into sub-groupings according to said groups of skills defined in said HSS.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein step (c) includes the step of allowing the user to obtain said list of mandatory skills organized into said sub-groupings by traversing said HSS, whereby a user may traverse to any node in said HSS if said group of skills represented by said any node includes at least one of the skills included in said selected MSSD.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein step (c) includes the step of presenting said list of optional skills as organized into sub-groupings according to said groups of skills defined in said HSS.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein step (b) is performed automatically by assigning a user one of said MSSDs according to the user'"'"'s employment position.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the CSS is defined to include skills relevant to the employment positions provided by a particular entity, and wherein step (a) includes the step of defining each of said multiple MSSDs to reflect a respective one of the employment positions.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the CSS is defined to include skills relevant to the employment positions provided by a particular entity, and further including the step of defining an Entity Hierarchical Structure (EHS) to represent the organization of the entity, wherein the root node of said EHS represents the entity, and wherein each of the other nodes represents a subset of the portion of the entity represented by said each of the other nodes'"'"' parent node, and wherein each of the nodes in said EHS is associated with a Skill Set which is a subset of the CSS.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein step (a) includes the steps of:

(a1) creating a new one of said MSSDs and associating said created MSSD with a leaf node in said EHS, wherein said associated leaf node becomes the current node;

(a2) adding to said created MSSD each of the skills included in the Skill Set associated with said current node;

(a3) traversing said EHS from the current node to said current node'"'"'s parent node which becomes the new current node; and

(a4) repeating steps a2 and a3 until said steps a2 and a3 are performed for the root node of said EHS.

23. The method of claim 22, and further including the step of associating each of the skills included within said MSSD with an indicator indicating which of the one or more Skill Sets was utilized during step a2 to add said each of the skills to said MSSD.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said step (c) includes the step of presenting each of the skills in said list of mandatory skills with said associated indicator, whereby a user is informed as to which of said one or more Skill Sets resulted in said each of the skills being added to said MSSD.

25. The method of claim 13, wherein step (a) includes the step of defining ones of said MSSDs to include data associated with mandatory licensing requirements.