This document discusses competency and the stages of learning. It defines competence and confidence, and outlines the four stages of learning: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence. For each stage, it provides signs that someone is at that stage as well as suggestions for how to help them progress to the next stage through gaining knowledge, experience, and continued practice of skills. The goal is to help people develop skills and move from being unaware of what they don't know to having skills become second nature.
3. Erroneous Beliefs
Anyone off the street
can be trained to do
testing…
Enough unskilled
people can do the
same job as skilled
people…
4. One Attempt to Eradicate Bad Beliefs
The person’s experience and abilities is not trusted!
You attempted to have testing performed by someone, but the person presented
experience without a trusted certificate issued by an entity that is trusted to evaluate
the ability of the person to follow the prescribe body of knowledge as demonstrated by
a knowledge recall test.
You should not proceed unless you are actually sure of this persons ability to truly do
the job you are requesting.
Proceed Anyways Back to Safety
9. What Are the Stages of Learning?
Reflective Competency
Unconscious competence
Conscious Competence
Conscious incompetence
Unconscious Incompetence
10. Definition Time
Competence
Competence is the belief in ourselves that we are capable of taking on any
challenge, any task, confident in our ability to succeed and willing to learn
what is needed to achieve.
Brendan Burchard, bestselling author and performance expert, defines
competence as “our ability to understand, successfully perform in, and
master our world.”
Confidence
Confidence is a state of mind, a feeling inside that you are ready to
perform, no matter what you encounter. It is a feeling of certainty, of
control, and provides you with a positive outlook regardless of the situation
Competency is driven by knowledge and confidence!
It is difficult to be competent and lack self-confidence at the same time.
11. Unconscious Incompetence
Signs Someone Is Here
• Unaware of the existence that a skill is needed
(Boundary Testing)
• Unaware they possess a deficiency (Automation
Record and Playback)
• Deny relevance of the skill (Anyone can do this –
it’s simple)
To Move Past This Stage
• Provided Knowledge and Experience (Training
and Application)
• Awareness of value of skill (You’ll find more
things)
• Provide constant affirmation of application of
skill, even if result is sub-optimal, reinforce value
of skill (reinforce behavior)
“I don’t know that I don’t know how to do this”
12. Conscious Incompetence
Signs Someone Is Here
• Aware of the existence that a skill is needed (How
do I do Pairwise Testing)
• Aware they possess a deficiency (Automation
Coding)
• Believe mastery of skill will positively impact them (I
can have more responsibility)
To Move Past This Stage
• Self-sought after Knowledge and Experience
• Proactive application of limited knowledge (Try
things, repeatedly)
• Provide time to master and apply
• Provide opportunity and goals to apply (within
reason)
• Avoid statements/judgements of poor results. Self-
confidence is fragile and must be nurtured, not
trampled. This is the stage where most people give
up and form negative attitudes towards skills!
I know I don’t know how to do something, yet.
13. Conscious Competence
Signs Someone Is Here
• Can perform a skill at will (Write a test case)
• Requires concentration (early automation)
• Can mostly do skill on their own
• Can demonstrate, but not teach skill to others
• Skill is not automatic or second nature
To Move Past This Stage
• Continued exercising of skill
• Continued review and self-learning (read blogs!)
• Encourage them to continue practicing (repetition
is key at this stage)
• Encourage them to explore ways to expand this
skill (refactor automation, move from
combinatorial testing to pairwise testing)
I know that I know how to do this
14. Unconscious Competence
Signs Someone Is Here
• Skill is 2nd nature (Find bugs in the wild)
• Requires no concentration (identify test cases
with no thought)
• Can teach skill to others
• Skill is automatic or second nature
To Move Past This Stage
• Understand skill may change standards over
time, ensure always up to date (ET)
• Continued review and self-learning through
teaching (write blogs!)
• Avoid complacency
• Failure to use will cause skills to regress
• Most think they are here. They are not.
What, you say I did something well?
15. Reflective Competence
Signs Someone Is Here
• Teaches skill regularly
• Understand theories and models behind skill
• Polymorphic application of cross knowledge
areas
To Move Past This Stage
• Understand skill may change standards over
time, ensure always up to date – maybe even
challenge the standard
• Continued review and self-learning through
teaching and sharing
• Avoid complacency
• Failure to use will cause skills to regress
• Very few ever get here
What, you say I did something well?
16. Testing is a Series of Skills
Unconscious
Incompetence
Conscious
incompetence
Conscious
Competence
Unconscious
competence
Reflective
Competency
Speaking
Automation (QTP,
Ruby)
Testing AI Testing Big Data
Most Manual
Testing Techniques
Automation
(CodedUI, Java)
You cannot train someone to achieve more than you have!
Organizational
Psychology
Performance Testing
Security Testing
Failure to use skills will cause them to regress