Hierarchical Aggregate Assessment of Multi-Level Teams Using Competency Ontologies

Abstract

It is complex to assess multi-level hierarchical teams, because the solution needs to organize their rapid dynamic adaptation to perform operational tasks, and train team members without sufficient competencies, skills and experience. Assessment also reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the whole team and each team member, which provides opportunities for their further growth in the future. Assessment of the work of teams needs external knowledge and processing methods. Therefore, this study proposed to use ontological approach to improve the assessment of multi-level hierarchical teams, because ontology integrated domain knowledge with relevant competencies of positions and levels in the hierarchical teams. Information on competencies of applicants was acquired in the portfolio analysis. After subdividing the hierarchical teams, appropriate ontologies and Web-services were used to obtain assessment results and competence improvement recommendations for the teams at various sublevels. The step-by-step team assessment method was described, which used elements of semantic similarity between different information objects to match applicants and equipment with team positions. This method could be used as a component of integrated multi-criteria decision-making and was targeted at specific cases of user tasks. The set of assessment criteria was pre-determined by tasks, and built based on domain knowledge. However, particular criterion were dynamic, and changed along with environmental at different time points.