FORM - 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE
Specification
(See section 10 and rule 13)
A TOOL FOR EVALUATION OF COMPETENCY
TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED
an Indian Company
of Bombay House, 24, Sir Homi Mody Street, Mumbai 400 001,
Maharashtra, India
THE FOLLOWING SPECIFICATION PARTICULARLY DESCRIBES THE INVENTION AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT IS TO BE PERFORMED.

Field of invention:
This invention relates to the knowledge industry.
In particular, this invention relates to competence evaluation in knowledge
industry.
Background of invention: Definitions:
As used in this specification the following words are generally intended to
have a meaning as set forth below, except to the extent that the context in
which they are used indicate otherwise.
'Competence' is defined as the ability of an individual to perform the
activities needed to deliver a specific task with a particular degree of
accuracy.
'Productivity' is defined as the rate at which an individual performs an activity/activities at a specified level of quality within specific time period.
'Competence Scale' is defined as a scale on which the competency is evaluated.
'Competence Band' is defined as the competency range within which the competency of an individual lies.
'Industry/Intra-organization Benchmark' is defined as the upper end of the competence scale.
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'Tested competence' is defined as the competence attribute which can be tested such as knowledge, process ability, skill and the like. 'Validated Competence' is defined as the competence attribute which depends on the ability of an individual to apply his knowledge while performing a job.
Introduction:
In knowledge industries competence of individuals working is an important factor. Competence decides the extent of growth of that individual as well as the industry. Hence it is very important to measure the competence of each individual from time to time.
Productivity of an organization depends on the competency of the individuals working in that organization. It is very essential to assess the competency of its employees at regular intervals. Measuring the rate of doing work at an agreed level of quality is fundamental to a knowledge industry based organization's capability to deliver work.
Conventional methods and method used in the prior art for determining competence are subjective and manual. In this manual process a senior officer ratifies the competence of a junior or a subordinate qualitatively. In such a manual process there are chances of non-uniformity and variation of evaluation of competency from person to person due to the changing perceptions of competence. Thus this method has limitations such as inaccuracy, variation in evaluation and low repeatability of measurement.
This invention seeks to overcome the limitations of the prior art.
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An object of this invention is to provide a simple, efficient, self-testing tool for evaluation of competency of an individual.
Summary of the invention:
In accordance with this invention there is provided a tool for evaluation of
competency of an individual, said tool comprising:
(i) a database means adapted to store competency information,
competency attributes, standard coefficients, competency scale,
competence bands and sets of questions;
(ii) defining means cooperating with said database means adapted
to define competency scale, competency attributes and standard
coefficients for said tool;
(iii) updating means cooperating with said defining means and said
database means for updating said competency scale, competency
attributes and standard coefficients;
(iv) assembling means cooperating with said database component
adapted to assemble said test component such as questions;
(v) prompting means cooperating with said assembling means
adapted to prompt an individual to input information;
(vi) inputting means cooperating with said prompting means
adapted to enable an individual to input information;
(vii) evaluation means cooperating with said inputting means and
said database means adapted to evaluate the competency, said
evaluation means comprising:
(viii) classification means cooperating with said evaluation means
and said database means adapted to classify the result obtained from
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said evaluation means into a number of competency bands and store result of evaluation in said database means; and (ix) display means cooperating with said evaluation means adapted to display the result of evaluation.
Brief description of the accompanying drawings:
The invention will be described in detail with reference to a preferred
embodiment. Reference to this embodiment does not limit the scope of the
invention.
In the accompanying drawings:
Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of the various components of said tool in
accordance with this invention.
Detailed description of the accompanying drawings:
The invention will now be explained with reference to Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.
The tool for evaluation of competency of an individual comprises:
(i) a database means (10) adapted to store competency information,
competency attributes, standard coefficients, competency scale and
sets of questions, (ii) defining means (12) cooperating with the database means (10)
adapted to define competency scale, competency attributes and
standard coefficients for said tool.
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(iii) updating means (14) cooperating with the defining means (12) and
the database component (10) for updating said competency scale,
competency attributes and standard coefficients, (iv) assembling means (16) cooperating with said database means (10)
adapted to assemble test components such as sets of questions; (v) prompting means (18) cooperating with said assembling means
(16) adapted prompt an individual to input information; (vi) inputting means (20) cooperating with said prompting means (18)
adapted to enable an individual to input information; (vii) evaluation means (22) cooperating with said inputting means (20)
and said database means (10) adapted to evaluate the competency; (viii) classification means (24) cooperating with said evaluation means
(24) and said database means (10) adapted to classify the result
obtained from said evaluation means (22) into a number of
competence bands and store result of evaluation is said database
means (10); and (ix) display means (26) cooperating with said evaluation means (22)
adapted to display the result of evaluation.
The database means (10) keeps record of all the individuals working in an organization including information related to the competency of the individuals. Further the database means (10) stores competency information, competency attributes, standard coefficients, competency scale and sets of questions which are necessary parameters while evaluating competency. The defining means (12) defines a competency scale, competency attributes and standard coefficients for the tool. The competency scale used for measuring the rate of knowledge work at an agreed level of quality expresses the
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productivity of an individual. The updating means (14) helps update the competency scale, competency attributes and standard coefficients which in turn helps better competency evaluation at various levels.
Depending of the level at which the competency is to be evaluated the assembling means (16) assembles a sets of questions for starting the process of evaluation. After assembling the prompting means (18) prompts an individual to input the information required for competency evaluation. Input means (20) enables the individual to provide the information necessary for competency evaluation. The evaluation means (24) then evaluates the competency of the depending on the information provided by the individual. The competency is evaluated based on two parameters namely (i) tested competence and (ii) validated competence. Tested competence relates to competence of an individual based on knowledge, process ability, skill, context and the like. Validated competence relates to competence of an individual based on his/her ability to apply his/her knowledge to perform a particular task.
The competency scale helps assess competency of individuals in specific areas of work. The scale uses productivity at a given level of quality as a measure. The competency scale has an upper limit and a lower limit. The upper limit of the scale is referred to as the industry/intra-organizational benchmark and the lower limit is a productivity level below which the competency is not evaluated. The range between the lower and upper limit of productivity are divided into a plurality of competency bands, where each band defines a particular value of competence. The information relating to the competency bands is also stored in the database means (10). The
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classification means (24) helps classify the result obtained from evaluation into a plurality of competency bands. Particularly in this case the competency bands have five groups namely E0, El, E2, E3 and E4. Each of the group indicates the following information:
Group EO indicates that an individual is trained and possesses recognized
certification and training but does not possess any hands on experience.
Group El indicates that an individual has limited experience in a particular
area of work but needs to improve knowledge in that area in order to be able
to increase competency.
Group E2 indicates that an individual is experienced and possesses good
knowledge of the subject and can effectively apply the knowledge in the
work performed and is a contributing member of the team on the subject
matter concerned.
Group E3 indicates that an individual is an expert at the subject conceptually
and in application and uses the same towards implementation process
improvements. Such an individual is able to trouble shoot problems arising
in the area of work and is recognized as an expert in the team.
Group E4 indicates that an individual is an expert in the particular field of
work and is an expert recognized in the industry and within the organization.
The display means (26) displays the results of the competence evaluation and the competence band into which an individual is classified. The competency band to which the individual belongs indicates his/her competency to perform a particular task in a given area of work.
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While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the various components of the preferred system, it will be appreciated that many alterations can be made and that many modifications can be made in the preferred system without departing from the principles of the invention. These and other changes in the preferred system as well as other systems of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation.
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We Claim:
1. A tool for evaluation of competency of an individual, said tool comprising:
(i) a database means adapted to store competency information,
competency attributes, standard coefficients, competency scale,
competence bands and sets of questions;
(ii) defining means cooperating with said database means adapted
to define competency scale, competency attributes and standard
coefficients for said tool;
(iii) updating means cooperating with said defining means and said
database means for updating said competency scale,
competency attributes and standard coefficients;
(iv) assembling means cooperating with said database component
adapted to assemble said test component such as questions;
(v) prompting means cooperating with said assembling means
adapted to prompt an individual to input information;
(vi) inputting means cooperating with said prompting means
adapted to enable an individual to input information;
(vii) evaluation means cooperating with said inputting means and
said database means adapted to evaluate the competency, said
evaluation means comprising:
(viii) classification means cooperating with said evaluation means
and said database means adapted to classify the result obtained
from said evaluation means into a number of competency bands
and store result of evaluation in said database means; and
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(ix) display means cooperating with said evaluation means adapted to display the result of evaluation.
2. A tool for evaluation of competency as claimed in claim 1, as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 7th day of August 2006.


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