Core Model
Overview
The core model defines how your engineering terrain is traversed. Every combination of discipline, track, and level produces a unique, consistent role profile -- with skill proficiencies, behaviour expectations, and responsibilities all derived from the same source data.
The Core Formula
Job Definition = Discipline x Track x Level
Agent Profile = Discipline x Track
| Input | Question |
|---|---|
| Discipline | What kind of engineer? |
| Track | Where and how do you work? |
| Level | What career level? |
Both jobs and agents use the same skill and behaviour derivation. The difference: jobs include all skills capped by level, while agents filter out human-only skills.
Entity Overview
erDiagram
DISCIPLINE ||--o{ JOB : "defines identity"
TRACK ||--o{ JOB : "provides context"
LEVEL ||--o{ JOB : "sets level"
DISCIPLINE ||--o{ SKILL : "references"
SKILL ||--|| CAPABILITY : "belongs to"
CAPABILITY ||--o{ RESPONSIBILITY : "defines per level"
TRACK ||--o{ CAPABILITY : "modifies via skillModifiers"
DISCIPLINE ||--o{ BEHAVIOUR : "modifies"
TRACK ||--o{ BEHAVIOUR : "modifies"
DRIVER ||--o{ SKILL : "links to"
DRIVER ||--o{ BEHAVIOUR : "links to"
| Entity | Purpose | Key Question |
|---|---|---|
| Discipline | Engineering specialty and T-shaped profile | What kind of engineer? |
| Track | Work context and capability-based modifiers | Where/how do you work? |
| Level | Career level with base skill/behaviour levels | What career level? |
| Skill | Technical or professional capability | What can you do? |
| Capability | Skill grouping for modifiers and responsibilities | What capability area? |
| Behaviour | Approach to work and mindset | How do you approach work? |
| Driver | Organizational outcome | What outcomes matter? |
Skills
Skills represent technical and professional capabilities. Each skill belongs to exactly one capability.
Skill Proficiencies (5 Levels)
flowchart LR
awareness --> foundational --> working --> practitioner --> expert
| Proficiency | Description |
|---|---|
awareness |
Learning fundamentals, needs guidance |
foundational |
Applies basics independently |
working |
Solid competence, handles ambiguity |
practitioner |
Deep expertise, leads and mentors |
expert |
Authority, shapes direction across org |
Human-Only Skills
Some skills require physical presence, emotional intelligence, or
relationship building that AI cannot replicate. These are marked
isHumanOnly: true in the YAML definition and are
excluded from agent profile derivation.
Capabilities
Capabilities group skills and define level-based responsibilities. Track modifiers apply to all skills in a capability at once.
Capabilities also define:
- professionalResponsibilities -- IC role expectations per skill proficiency
- managementResponsibilities -- Manager role expectations per skill proficiency
Per-skill checklists (readChecklist and
confirmChecklist) live on each skill's
agent section, not on the capability — see
Lifecycle.
Behaviours
Behaviours represent mindsets and approaches to work.
Behaviour Maturities (5 Levels)
flowchart LR
emerging --> developing --> practicing --> role_modeling --> exemplifying
| Maturity | Description |
|---|---|
emerging |
Shows interest, needs prompting |
developing |
Regular practice with guidance |
practicing |
Consistent application, proactive |
role_modeling |
Influences team culture |
exemplifying |
Shapes organizational culture |
Disciplines
Disciplines define engineering specialties with T-shaped skill profiles. Each discipline classifies every referenced skill into one of three tiers:
| Tier | Expected Level | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| coreSkills | Highest for level | Core expertise |
| supportingSkills | Mid-level | Supporting capabilities |
| broadSkills | Lower level | General awareness |
Discipline Properties
| Property | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
isProfessional |
boolean | Uses professionalResponsibilities (IC roles) |
isManagement |
boolean | Uses managementResponsibilities (manager roles) |
validTracks |
(string|null)[] | Valid track configurations |
minLevel |
string | Minimum level required for this discipline |
Tracks
Tracks define work context and modify the base profile through capability-based skill adjustments. Tracks are pure modifiers -- they do not define role types.
Tracks define two kinds of modifiers:
-
skillModifiers -- Shift skill proficiencies for
all skills in a capability (e.g.
delivery: +1) -
behaviourModifiers -- Shift behaviour maturity
expectations for specific behaviours (e.g.
systems_thinking: +1)
Levels
Levels define career levels with base expectations for skill proficiency and behaviour maturity:
The starter agent-aligned engineering standard ships with two levels. Your agent-aligned engineering standard may define more.
| Level | Core | Supporting | Broad | Base Behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| J040 | foundational | awareness | awareness | emerging |
| J060 | working | foundational | awareness | developing |
Job Derivation
Skill Derivation Steps
-
Determine skill tier -- Is this skill core, supporting, or broad for the discipline? Each discipline classifies every skill into one of three tiers: core, supporting, or broad.
-
Get base proficiency -- Look up the level's base proficiency for that skill tier. For example, J060 maps core skills to
working, supporting tofoundational, and broad toawareness. -
Apply track modifier -- Add the track's modifier for the skill's capability. Track modifiers apply at the capability level, affecting all skills in a capability equally.
-
Cap positive modifiers -- Positive modifiers cannot push the result above the level's maximum base proficiency. If a level peaks at
practitioner, a +1 modifier cannot produceexpert. -
Clamp to valid range -- Ensure the result falls between
awareness(0) andexpert(4).
Complete Derivation Example
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Discipline | Software Engineering |
| Level | J060 (core=working, supporting=foundational, broad=awareness) |
| Track | Platform (delivery: +1, reliability: +1) |
| Skill | Task Completion (capability: delivery, tier: supportingSkills) |
- Skill tier: supporting
- Base proficiency: foundational (index 1)
- Modifier: +1 (delivery capability)
- Cap check: working (index 2) <= max base working (index 2) -- OK
- Result: working
Behaviour Derivation
Final Maturity = Level Base + Discipline Modifier + Track Modifier
| Step | Source | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Level 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 proficiency for each capability. Higher skill proficiencies unlock additional responsibilities.
Driver Coverage
Drivers represent organizational outcomes. Coverage is calculated by checking which skills and behaviours meet specific thresholds:
| Threshold | Value |
|---|---|
| Skill proficiency | working or above |
| Behaviour maturity | practicing or above |
| Level | 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 level's maximum base skill proficiency. This prevents lower levels 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.
Key Capabilities
| Capability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Job derivation | Complete role definitions with skills and behaviours |
| Agent profiles | Agent instructions derived from discipline and track |
| Skill matrices | Derived skill proficiencies with track modifiers applied |
| Checklists | Phase transition criteria from capability definitions |
| Progression | Career path analysis and gap identification |
| Interviews | Role-specific question selection |
| Job matching | Gap analysis between current and target roles |