Predictable Practices
To achieve the Predictable Level, Maturity Level 4, the organization quantifies and manages the
capability of its workforce and their competency-based processes, in addition to exploiting the
opportunities afforded by defined workforce competencies. The organization creates a culture of
measurement and exploits shared experience. At Maturity Level 4, the organization has the
capability to predict its performance and capacity for work.
The process areas at Maturity Level 4 are Competency Integration, Empowered Workgroups,
Competency-Based Assets, Quantitative Performance Management, Organizational Capability
Management, and Mentoring. These six process areas are briefly described in the following
paragraphs. High-level relationships among these process areas are depicted below.
Competency Integration
The purpose of Competency Integration is to improve the efficiency and agility of interdependent
work by integrating the process abilities of different workforce competencies. Competency
Integration interweaves different competency-based processes to achieve a seamless processbased
interaction among individuals from different competency communities. These integrated
competency-based processes provide more tightly interlaced interactions to allow problems
among product, service, or work dependencies to be identified and corrected much earlier.
Competency Integration involves analyzing work to identify opportunities to integrate the
processes used by different workforce competencies. These integrated competency-based
processes are defined and work situations are tailored for their use. Workforce practices and
activities such as staffing, performance management, compensation, and the work environment
are adjusted to support multi-disciplinary work using integrated competency-based processes.
Empowered Workgroups
The purpose of Empowered Workgroups is to invest workgroups with the responsibility and
authority for determining how to conduct their business activities most effectively. Empowerment
involves delegating responsibility and authority for work results to a workgroup and training its
members in the skills and processes required for working in an empowered environment.
Empowered workgroups are managed as an entity, rather than as individuals. The work
environment is adjusted to support empowered performance by workgroups. Empowered
workgroup members accept increasing responsibility for the performance of workforce practices
such as recruiting, selection, performance management, reward, training, development, and
compensation activities that are appropriate to the structure and function of the empowered
workgroup. Workgroup performance and contributions to it are considered in making individual
compensation decisions, as well as in recognizing and rewarding outstanding performance.
Competency-Based Assets
The purpose of Competency-Based Assets is to capture the knowledge, experience, and artifacts
developed in performing competency-based processes for use in enhancing capability and
performance. A competency-based asset captures knowledge, experience, or artifacts developed in performing competency-based processes within an organization. A competency-based asset is
a bundle of information or an artifact that has been prepared in standard format and made
available for widespread use. As an organizational asset, it becomes a component of one or more
workforce competencies. Competency-Based Assets involves encouraging individuals and
workgroups to capture and share the information and artifacts developed from performing
competency-based processes. Selected bundles of information or artifacts are organized into
competency-based assets that can be reused in performing business activities. Workforce
practices and activities are adjusted to encourage the development and use of competency-based
assets.
Quantitative Performance Management
The purpose of Quantitative Performance Management is to predict and manage the capability
of competency-based processes for achieving measurable performance objectives. Individuals
and workgroups determine which competency-based processes contribute most to achieving unit
objectives and set measurable objectives for the performance of these processes. Committed
work is estimated and planned using process performance baselines developed from past
performance of the relevant competency-based processes. A quantitative performance
management strategy is developed for identifying, measuring, and analyzing the performance of
the competency-based processes that most contribute to achieving unit objectives. Performance
data are collected and analyzed according to the strategy. The performance of competency-based
processes are brought under quantitative control. Corrective actions are taken when the
performance of competency-based processes deviates significantly from performance objectives.
Organizational Capability Management
The purpose of Organizational Capability Management is to quantify and manage the capability
of the workforce and of the critical competency-based processes they perform. The
organization’s capability in a specific workforce competency is assessed from the number of
individuals in a competency community and the aggregated level of knowledge, skill, and
process ability that they possess. Data regarding competency development trends are defined and
collected, and trends are compared to objectives in the strategic workforce plan. The
organization evaluates the impact of its workforce practices on capability in each of its
workforce competencies. Organizational Capability Management also involves characterizing
the process capability of critical competency-based processes through process performance
baselines and quantitative performance models. These capability results are used in planning and
managing the performance of competency-based processes. The impact of workforce practices
on the capability and performance of competency-based processes is quantified and managed and
the results of these analyses are used in organizational decisions. The results of these analyses
are used in adjusting workforce practices to improve their impact on performance and results.
Mentoring
The purpose of Mentoring is to transfer the lessons of greater experience in a workforce
competency to improve the capability of other individuals or workgroups. Mentoring
relationships are designed for accomplishing specific objectives. At the Defined Level,
mentoring and coaching is informal, and the knowledge and skills imparted by the mentor are
defined more by their experience and judgement than by a documented combination of
knowledge, skills, and process abilities to be imparted. At Maturity Level 4, mentoring activities
are organized around the knowledge, skills, and process abilities to be imparted. Mentoring
activities are also used to deploy competency-based assets. Criteria are developed for selecting
mentors and those chosen are trained for their assignments.