Engineering Competency Matrix: A Full Guide

IT is an industry that is developing at an incredible pace. Accordingly, it just requires software development professionals to constantly learn and improve their skills (both soft and hard). Otherwise, they won’t be able to compete in the market and create top-tier products.

At the same time, competently organizing professional development in the field of IT on your own can be quite difficult. This is where the engineering competency matrix can come in handy. This tool (if created and used correctly) can help not only the industry professionals themselves but also the company they are working at.

Therefore, in this article, we will reveal a number of answers to important questions that will help to create and implement an engineering competency matrix for the further successful and productive growth of software developers.

What is the Engineering Competency Matrix?

An engineering competency matrix is ​​a structured set of professional competencies of an engineer. It’s a tool used for defining a specialist’s level of competence. Usually, it is a list divided into two categories (hard and soft skills) that details areas of expertise and skills (as well as the level of knowledge) necessary to reach a certain title. In essence, the matrix can be called ​​an image of the desired professional level of an employee with a certain title.

The main advantage of the matrix in comparison with other forms of describing the content of the professional activity is that it allows you to clearly structure it and makes it specific and understandable for any employee. It systematically presents the content of the work and at the same time the structural components of the competence itself. Therefore, the competency matrix has a wide range of applications in practical work in the field of personnel and corporate knowledge management.

Who Needs Engineering Competency Matrix?

An engineering competency matrix is one of those tools that affect each of the employees, managers, the company in general, and even customers. How and why? Let's discuss it in more detail in this subsection.

Employee

The benefits of an engineering competency matrix for employees are obvious. Thanks to the matrix, a person gets regular unbiased feedback. This way, they can see which skills they need to improve and are able to build a well-structured learning plan.

Following the engineering competency matrix also might help one to climb the career ladder as the person knows all the requirements and expectations for a certain position as well as the responsibilities one will have. Therefore, they can focus on working on improving specific skills necessary for career growth.

Company

Employee skills assessment with the help of an engineering competency matrix will help to adequately and objectively assess the available resources of the company and cover the gaps in them, wisely organize the training process for employees as well as allocate the budget more efficiently. Also, an engineering competency matrix is definitely useful for streamlining the salary review process and the onboarding process of new employees.

Moreover, if small companies can manage to successfully operate without an engineering competency matrix, with the increase in the number of employees, the need for the matrix specially tailored to the goals and values of the said company also increases.

Managers

Team leaders, project managers, recruiters, HRs, training and development specialists — these are exactly those managers for whom the engineering competency matrix can become one of the main and most useful tools.

Thanks to the matrix, managers will be oriented to the team's capabilities and potential, will be able to distribute tasks more efficiently, and organize a mentoring program and training if necessary. Also, thanks to the engineering competency matrix, it is much easier to identify skill gaps in the team and hire the necessary specialists faster.

Customer

Thanks to the engineering competency matrix, software development companies can hire engineers faster, in case the customer suddenly decides to expand the team. The engineering competency matrix can also serve as a confirmation of the expertise of the company's employees because it proves that their skills are regularly evaluated and they are motivated to learn and grow (while the company supports and accompanies them in their professional journey).

Reasons to Create an Engineering Competency Matrix

We will not embellish the cruel reality — creating an engineering competency matrix is a time-consuming and somewhat difficult process that requires the attention and inspired work of experienced HR managers and tech leads (or even CTOs in the case of smaller companies).

However, once you read the list of potential benefits of adopting an engineering competency matrix, you'll understand why it's worth all the effort and time spent.

Simplifying the hiring process

The hiring process is easier in companies that have approved and implemented engineering competency matrices. Recruiters and talent acquisition professionals can use the matrices to create better, more thorough job descriptions and to filter candidates faster, more efficiently, and with no bias. This is relevant for both larger companies and small companies that are ambitious to grow quickly and attract only the best specialists.

Increasing the level of competence

The most obvious reason that immediately comes to mind when engineering competency matrices are discussed in professional circles is the identification and elimination of gaps in employees’ knowledge and skills.

The existence of structured and clear matrices helps to quickly assess the level of knowledge of each individual employee and determine exactly which skills need to be improved both for work on a specific project and for growth in the company in general.

The matrix also helps companies to identify the levels of specialists who are not involved in existing projects and are available for work. Also, with the help of the engineering competency matrix, one can determine which of the more experienced employees can become a mentor for the newcomers in the team and help them integrate into the project and grow at an optimal pace.

Organizing better training

Continuing the topic of the previous point, understanding the general level of the company's specialists and having access to a file describing the skill level of each individual employee, it is much easier for HRs and corporate learning and development specialists to design and implement training courses for the company's employees. We are talking about internal company development programs, where more experienced and active seniors can train junior-level specialists, and about the organization of external training. Boosting both hard and soft skills has never been easier with engineering competency matrices.

Moreover, it can help employees reveal their potential, as the company can help them speak at external conferences and other professional events. This might not only be a good basis for building a network but also increases the visibility of the company and confirms the high level of expertise of their employees.

Boosting productivity and performance

Engineering competency matrices provide a clearer and more objective understanding of the skills and capabilities of each employee. It allows better distribution of tasks and delegation of responsibilities thus project managers or team leads can also optimize their work.

This way, each employee will receive tasks in accordance with the level of knowledge, and accordingly, the productivity of the team will increase. It will also help to integrate new members into the teams and onboard them on the projects so that the new employee can start directly performing the duties faster.

Reaching company goals

If you are the owner of an IT company, then the brains and minds of your employees are your main asset. Thus, the improvement of the qualifications of your employees is the way to the development and successful future of your business as a whole.

Of course, it is important to remember that for this you first need to write down your company's goals clearly and in detail. Then work through it together with HRs and corporate learning and development specialists, who will later develop personal development plans for employees that would align with the company's general goals.

Improving salary & performance review process

Talk to any HR manager or team lead — they will all tell you that organizing and conducting a performance review, as well as the subsequent salary review, is a time-consuming and at times stressful process. And if the company does not have an engineering competency matrix, then it is like moving through a dark room with only a lighted match — it is possible but not the best experience ever. A proper engineering competency matrix, in its turn, becomes not just a torch, but an ultra-bright flashlight with which one might successfully find a way out of the darkness.

The creation of an engineering competency matrix will help to better understand the requirements and expectations a company has, structure and organize a development plan for the future, and develop a corporate salary grid depending on professional levels. It will also help to eliminate possible biases in the assessment of various aspects of the employee's work. Not to mention that a well-organized performance review process simplifies the selection of candidates for promotion, transfer to managerial positions, etc.

Steps of Creating Engineering Competency Matrix

If you're reading this, then this article has convinced you that an engineering competency matrix is an important tool that brings any organization numerous benefits. It does not matter whether you will be directly involved in the development of the matrix, or whether you will delegate this task to subordinates, it is still important to understand exactly what steps are involved in creating a matrix and why working on it can take quite a lot of time.

Assign the responsible person

To begin with, it is necessary to determine the person (or a small team of people) who will be engaged in creating the matrix. This stage already has several critical moments that cannot be missed.

First of all, those responsible for creating the engineering competency matrix must be deeply immersed in the company's processes and understand them from the inside. They should as well be bearers of corporate culture, understand corporate values, deeply believe in them, and always keep them in mind when working on the engineering competency matrix.

Secondly, if possible, working on the matrix should be the number one priority for this team. Since this task requires concentration, attention, and thoroughness, performing it as a side task will be difficult and will only increase the time of creating an engineering competency matrix. The matrix created this way will also require a lot more tweaking and reworking in the future.

Thirdly, we recommend that both technical and non-technical specialists be involved in the creation of the matrix, first of all, HRs and training and development specialists — as you need both soft and hard skills covered.

Define clear goals (while keeping values in mind)

Before your team can get straight to work on the engineering competency matrix, they'll need to answer a few key questions. Those answers must be unambiguous and clear. The vaguer they are, the more complicated the process of creating an engineering competency matrix will be and the less benefit this matrix will bring you in use.

The first question is “What is the main goal of creating this matrix?” Of course, the answer to this question will vary depending on the size and stage of development of the company. You should decide what your goal here is right now — improving the performance evaluation process, simplifying the hiring process, or something else.

The second is “For whom is this matrix created?” Is it for employees of a separate project, for employees of a certain specialty, or for all employees of the company? The base of the corporate engineering competency matrix may be similar, but the competencies, for example, for QA engineers and front-end developers will naturally be completely different.

Third question — “What are our values and how are we going to reflect them in the matrix?” It primarily concerns the identification and prioritization of soft skills that you will later include in the matrix. Also, it is worth noting that the conclusions you will make during brainstorms and discussions about values can open you up to new perspectives on your corporate culture and be useful not only for working on the matrix.

Define the core competencies and competency levels

As we have already mentioned several times, competencies are divided into two categories: soft skills and hard skills. We talked about the definition of important soft skills in the previous paragraph; however, it should be added that the list of soft skills that can be found in almost every engineering competency matrix used in IT companies worldwide includes problem-solving, critical thinking, team working, communication, and conflict resolution.

When it comes to hard skills, they, obviously, will vary for front-end engineers, back-end engineers, and QA specialists. In general, this category includes such skills as proficiency with programming languages,  knowledge of certain frameworks, libraries, and tools, coding, database management, debugging & testing. This category of competencies will certainly change over time as you’ll have to replace outdated technologies with newer and more popular ones.

Speaking of the competency levels, it gets more interesting and a bit more complicated. While you probably already have a defined set of titles within a company with respective generalized responsibilities and expectations, at this step, you’ll have to define clearly how the responsibilities and expectations grow the higher the title an employee gets. Usually, software engineers have the following levels:

• Junior;
• Strong Junior;
• Middle;
• Strong Middle;
• Senior;
• Expert.

You can also determine the range of competency levels for each of the core skills. For instance, these levels might be Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. This will simplify the process of evaluating existing competencies and planning subsequent training and development.

Create descriptions

The first thing you should know is that this step will definitely take up most of your time. Start with a single position description, i.e. clearly define all the requirements and required levels of competencies, for example, for a junior developer.

In the process of doing so, you will see that some requirements can be merged into one (this is primarily about soft skills) so that your engineering competency matrix is as compact and clear as possible. When describing each level, try to write concisely, but in such a way that your opinion can be understood even by someone who has just joined the company and is not yet used to your manner of speaking. Don't forget about consistency. The engineering competency matrix is just the case when you should write more dryly and not try to turn the matrix into Booker-prize worthy composition.

Get feedback

Finally, you have completed work on an engineering competency matrix, and it seems that it is ready for use. But do not rush! A step that should not be neglected is collecting and processing feedback about the matrix, and making appropriate adjustments afterward.

You can collect feedback in any convenient format — both in face-to-face focus groups and through Google forms or whatever other way is usual in your company. However, it is very important to include employees of all levels and different specialties, and also to not forget to get the opinions of stakeholders.

After receiving feedback and analyzing it, make appropriate edits and changes to the matrix. The last step is to get approval from the CTO or Head of Engineering. Only after that, you will finally be ready to put the engineering competency matrix into practice.

NB Be ready for continuous improvement

It is a mistake to think that once you create an engineering competency matrix, you will use this exact tool forever. There are no perfect solutions, and the matrix that completely covers all your needs today may not perform its functions at all in a year. Also, your company's goals and team composition may change over time, and that is a call for change as well.

Let's be realistic, your corporate engineering competency matrix will definitely need revisions and adjustments according to the feedback that will inevitably come. It is best to choose a clear time frame for engineering competency matrix revisions and, for example, rethink your matrix once a year or every six months. The core of the matrix you’ve created will stay, but you will be able to improve it so that it remains relevant and performs all its functions effectively.

Engineering Competency Matrix Example

In this subsection, we will offer you a simplified example of an engineering competency matrix. So, the basic matrix can look like this:

You can see the names of the employees in the far left column and the skills in the top row. Instead of writing down the level, you can also use color coding or assign a number to a competence level if it's more convenient for you. You also can add a column where you would add the role\title if that's necessary.

Conclusion

We hope that reading this article gave you a general understanding of what the engineering competency matrix is and convinced you of the importance of this tool (especially for companies working in the IT industry). Creating and implementing an engineering competency matrix can be a time-consuming and resource-consuming process, but this tool will eventually become irreplaceable and irrevocably change some processes in your company for the better.

If you have further questions or are looking for a team of reliable and experienced software developers — message us, and we will contact you shortly.