Forward Impact Team

Overview

Derivation is the process of transforming raw entity definitions into concrete role expectations. Given a discipline, track, and grade, the engine produces exact skill levels, behaviour maturities, and responsibilities.

See Core Model for the entity overview and formula.

Skill Derivation

Every skill goes through a four-step derivation pipeline.

Step 1: Determine Skill Type

Each discipline classifies every skill into one of three tiers:

Tier Constant Purpose
coreSkills PRIMARY Deepest expertise for the role
supportingSkills SECONDARY Supporting capability
broadSkills BROAD General awareness

A lookup map is built once per discipline via buildSkillTypeMap() for O(1) access during derivation.

Step 2: Get Base Level from Grade

Each grade defines base skill levels per tier:

# Example grade definition
baseSkillLevels:
  primary: practitioner
  secondary: working
  broad: foundational

The grade's baseSkillLevels maps the skill type to a starting level.

Step 3: Apply Track Modifier

Tracks define capability-based skill modifiers. The modifier for a skill's capability is added to the base level: 

# Example track definition
skillModifiers:
  delivery: 1      # +1 to ALL delivery skills
  scale: -1        # -1 to ALL scale skills

The modifier shifts the level index:

derivedIndex = baseLevelIndex + trackModifier

Step 4: Clamp to Valid Range

Two constraints are applied:

  1. Positive modifier cap — Positive modifiers cannot push the result above the grade's maximum base level. If the grade peaks at practitioner, a +1 modifier cannot produce expert.

  2. Range clamp — The final result must fall between awareness (0) and expert (4). 

Final Level = clamp(0, cappedIndex, 4)

Complete Derivation Example

Input Value
Discipline Software Engineering
Grade L3 (primary=practitioner, secondary=working, broad=foundational)
Track Platform (delivery: +1, scale: -1)
Skill CI/CD (capability: delivery, tier: supportingSkills)
  1. Skill type: SECONDARY (supporting skill)
  2. Base level: working (index 2)
  3. Modifier: +1 (delivery capability)
  4. Cap check: practitioner (index 3) ≤ max base practitioner (index 3) — OK
  5. Result: practitioner

Behaviour Derivation

Behaviours use a simpler derivation:

Final Maturity = Grade Base + Discipline Modifier + Track Modifier
Step Source Example
Grade base baseBehaviourMaturity developing (1)
Discipline modifier behaviourModifiers.{id} +1
Track modifier behaviourModifiers.{id} 0
Result Clamped to valid range practicing (2)

Maturities are clamped between emerging (0) and exemplifying (4).

Responsibility Derivation

Responsibilities come from capabilities and vary by role type:

Role Type Source
Professional (IC) capability.professionalResponsibilities
Management capability.managementResponsibilities

Responsibilities are selected by the derived skill level for each capability. Higher skill levels unlock additional responsibilities.

Driver Coverage

Drivers represent organizational outcomes. Coverage is calculated by checking which skills and behaviours meet specific thresholds:

Threshold Value
Skill level working or above
Behaviour maturity practicing or above
Grade Senior threshold and above

Each driver specifies related skills and behaviours. If the derived job meets the thresholds for a driver's dependencies, that driver is considered covered.

Modifier Policies

Positive Modifier Capping

When a track modifier is positive, the resulting level cannot exceed the grade's maximum base skill level. This prevents lower grades from gaining unrealistically high expertise just because a track emphasizes a particular area.

Negative Modifiers

Negative modifiers are not capped — they can freely reduce a level down to awareness. This models the reduced expectations in de-emphasized areas.

Capability-Level Modifiers

Track modifiers apply at the capability level, affecting all skills in that capability equally. This avoids per-skill configuration while still allowing meaningful differentiation between tracks.

Technical Reference

Key Functions

Function Module Purpose
buildSkillTypeMap() derivation.js O(1) skill type lookup
getSkillType() derivation.js Determine skill tier
deriveSkillLevel() derivation.js Full skill derivation pipeline
deriveSkillMatrix() derivation.js All skills for a job
deriveBehaviourProfile() derivation.js All behaviours for a job
deriveResponsibilities() derivation.js Role responsibilities
calculateDriverCoverage() derivation.js Driver coverage analysis
resolveSkillModifier() modifiers.js Resolve track modifier for a skill

Imports

import {
  deriveSkillMatrix,
  deriveBehaviourProfile,
  deriveResponsibilities,
  calculateDriverCoverage,
} from "@forwardimpact/libpathway/derivation";