SPeK PSM - Competency Assessment System for Malaysian Public Sector Information System Officers

Abstract

One of the challenges faced by IT professionals is to keep abreast with current technologies that are evolving continuously. It is a pressing requirement that IT personnel particularly in the public agencies, to update their knowledge in order to improve their skills and upgrade their competencies. This requirement is given emphasis in the Ninth Malaysia Plan. As public agencies are urged to shoulder the responsibility in ascertaining their IT professional remain competent, these authors studied the requirement of developing a system that could help public agencies in taking this endeavor. The motivation to develop such a system was identified from a survey carried out among public agencies in Putrajaya, the center for public administration for Malaysia and also as the result of Competency Assessment Level examination monitored by the Public Services Department of Malaysia. The method employed for deriving the IS skills set is by using the Modified Delphi Technique with a panel of 18 IT experts. In this paper we would like to share the experience on setting up a web-based system that could assist IT personnel to self assess their competencies.