Skills & Capabilities Assessments are screened against a broad range of learning, decision making and related cognitive skills, disciplines and models to ensure that the measurements are both valid and appropriate.

A number of techniques are used to differentiate between levels of competency on the entry-level-to-expert spectrum. Complex situations present a series of alternative responses which may have no correct answer, a single correct answer, several answers which are correct to differing levels or several answers that are equally correct. In addition, over half the questions have been developed in a way that allows us to assess several skills in combination, modeled on the fact that customer needs and decisions are complex and interdependent, not discrete and independent. This means that an individual question can drive several measurements. In fact, it is not unusual to find that there is almost a 2:1 ratio of measurements to questions.

Skills & Capabilities Assessments do not merely test for knowledge, but rather for an individual's ability to apply their knowledge and skills in the types of situations that are most common to the role. Individuals first rate themselves on specific skills and capabilities. Their perceptions are then tested against situational responses to validate their strengths and uncover areas where overconfidence could place them, their organization or their customers at risk.

Skills & Capabilities Assessments results, like those in this "2002 Sample Report" (PDF) help individuals and organizations to compare their performance to other professionals across industries, and to identify the most valuable and effective areas of competency development to concentrate their time and learning budgets on.