How to Create a Skills Matrix - dummies

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dummies.com

Author: Stanley E. Portny

1.
2. Careers
3. Project Management
4. How to Create a Skills Matrix
Use a Skills Matrix to confirm the skills, knowledge, and interest of
your team members. A Skills Matrix is a table that displays peoples
proficiency in specified skills and knowledge, as well as their
interest in working on assignments using these skills and
knowledge. Whether youre able to influence the people assigned to
your project team, people are assigned to your team without your
input, or you assume the role of project manager of an existing
team, you need to know what each team member can handle.
If you have a team that was assembled without considering your
opinion on the capabilities needed to perform your projects work,
its essential that you find out team members skills, knowledge, and
interests so you can make the most appropriate task assignments. If
some or all of your team has been chosen in response to the specific
skills and knowledge needs that you discussed with the
organizations management, you should document peoples skills
and knowledge and verify their interests, in case you need to assign
people to unanticipated tasks that crop up or if you have to replace
a team member unexpectedly.

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The left-hand column of this Skills Matrix identifies skill and

knowledge areas, and the top row lists peoples names. At the
intersection of the rows and columns, you identify the level of each
persons particular skills, knowledge, and interests.

Display peoples skills, knowledge, and interests in a Skills Matrix.

Take the following steps to prepare a Skills Matrix for your team:
1. Discuss with each team member his or her skills, knowledge, and
interests related to the activities that your project entails.
Explain that you seek this information so you can assign people to
the tasks that theyre most interested in and qualified to perform.

2. Determine each persons level of interest in working on the tasks

for which he or she has been proposed.
At a minimum, ask people whether theyre interested in the tasks
for which theyve been proposed. If a person isnt interested in a
task, try to find out why and whether there is anything you can do

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to modify the assignment to make it more interesting to him or

her.
If a person isnt interested in a task, you can either not ask and not
know the reason, or ask and (if you get an honest response) know
the reason. Knowing that a person isnt interested is better than
not knowing, because you can consider the possibility of
rearranging assignments or modifying the assignment to address
those aspects of it that the person doesnt find appealing.

3. Consult with team members functional managers and/or the

people who assigned them to your project to determine their
opinions of the levels of each team members skills, knowledge,
and interests.
You want to understand the reasons why these managers assigned
the people they did to your project.

4. Check to see whether any areas of your organization have already

prepared Skills Matrices.
Find out whether they reflect any information about the extent to
which team members have skills and knowledge that you feel are
required for your projects activities.

5. Incorporate all the information you gather in a Skills Matrix, and

review with each team member the portion of the matrix that
contains his or her information.
This review gives you the opportunity to verify that you correctly
recorded the information you found and the team member a
chance to comment on or add to any of the information.

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1.
2. Careers
3. Project Management
4. Project Management For Dummies, 4th Edition

ISBN: 978-1-118-49723-4 or 9781118497234

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