New Test Title - Newforma Fundamentals

KnowledgeSmart's skills assessment library helps AEC businesses capture evidence of individual and corporate skills capability, across a wide variety of essential technical software titles.

This includes popular software products from major vendors, including Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Graphisoft, Oracle, Adobe and Microsoft.

One of the most popular requests in recent months has been to create assessment content for Project Information Management tool, Newforma.

This assessment looks at knowledge of using Newforma, across a range of core functions, and is written primarily with novice users in mind.

Modules covered include:

User Interface
My Projects
Email Management
Info Exchange
Transmittals

We will also be adding content for intermediate and advanced users, in the coming months.

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KS Value Proposition - an Explanation

A KS software subscription price is determined by two factors: number of users to be tested (in a year) and number of required library topics to be included in the assessment mix.

There are 4 KS license types:
KS Pro1 - 1 primary library topic, i.e. Revit Architecture
KS Pro2 - 2 primary topics, i.e. Revit Architecture, Revit MEP
KS Pro3 - 3 primary topics, i.e. Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure
KS Enterprise - 4 or more primary topics

We also have different user number bands, to help identify firm size, i.e. 1-25, 26-50, 51-100, 101-250, 251-500, 501-1,000, etc.

For firms who only need to perform a small number of assessments each year, the 'pay-as-you-go' cost is $50/£50/E50 per test.

Before deciding on the best type of KS license, an AEC business should give due consideration to both of these factors.

It is important to establish precisely how many primary test topics they plan to use. If it is 4 (or greater), then KS Enterprise is the best fit. If they want to focus on fewer titles, then perhaps a KS Pro1, Pro2 or Pro3 would be more appropriate. 

Also, we do not monetise 'secondary' library titles, if a customer has invested in one or more 'primary' titles.

Here are some examples:

Primary:

Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, AutoCAD, Civil 3D, InfraWorks, Plant 3D, Inventor, AECOsim, MicroStation, GEOPAK, InRoads, ProjectWise, ARCHICAD, MS Office, BIM L2, Primavera P6, MS Project, Newforma.

Secondary:

Bluebeam, Design Review, Photoshop, InDesign, Rhino, SketchUp, Navisworks, Glue, Solibri, Vault, Revit Process, BIM Fundamentals, BIM Software Management, BIM Coordination, BIM Authoring, USACE BIM.

To further clarify, a 'test topic' refers to all related assessment titles under an 'umbrella' heading. For example, to assess Revit Architecture  skills for a company would require a KS Pro1 license, but might include the following titles:

Example:

Revit Architecture for occasional users

Revit Architecture fundamentals

Revit Architecture – Xpress 

Revit Architecture advanced

Revit Architecture - Extra questions

Revit Content Creation

Revit for Interiors

Revit Project Process

BIM Authoring with Revit

BIM Software Management (Revit)

BIM Coordination (Revit)

Practical BIM fundamentals

Navisworks

Glue

Solibri

Bluebeam

Vault

If a customer exceeds their user count by a small margin, we tend not to worry about it, and will review their future needs at the license anniversary. If they find their requirements go up by a bigger number (part-way through the license), then we typically have a conversation and sometimes upgrade to the next user band before the anniversary swings around. In this circumstance, they pay the difference between price bands, pro-rated to the license anniversary date. Customers are not blocked from using the tools at any time.

Here are links to the KS product and price pages.

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New Test Title - Oracle Primavera P6

KnowledgeSmart's extensive skills assessment library helps AEC businesses capture evidence of individual and corporate skills capability, across a wide variety of essential technical software titles.
This includes popular software products from major vendors, including Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Graphisoft and Adobe. And now, for the first time, we have added Oracle to our stable of vendors.

One of the most popular requests in recent months has been to create assessment content for Project Management software. Starting with Oracle's Primavera P6 tool.

This assessment looks at knowledge of using Primavera P6, across a range of core functions.

Modules covered include:

- Starting Up and Navigation
- Creating a New Project
- Calendars
- WBS Nodes
- Creating Activities
- Formatting
- Relationships
- Constraints
- Layouts
- Filters
- Scheduling/Setting a Baseline
- Updating an Unresourced Schedule
- User Preferences
- Creating Resources
- Assigning Resources
- Managing Resources
- Organising Project Data
- Security

This set of questions has been written by our friends at Prima Skills and goes live in April.

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KS API calls

A popular theme for our customers this year is to have closer integration between the KS system and other in-house IT systems. In particular, LMS, HR and E-Learning systems.

So, with this in mind, we have been working on creating a series of automated processes and API calls, which can simplify and speed up the exchange of key data across platforms.

Here is a brief summary of what we have created so far:

List assessments for logged in account:
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/assessments/getallassessments

Invite user to an assessment (replace the query string elements as required):
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/assessments/GetNewInvite?UserEmail=john@xyz.com&TestID=4841&FirstName=john&LastName=smith&Status=1

List users for account:
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/users/getallusers

Search users by name (change the name value to a name you want to search):
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/users/getusersbyname?name=john

Search users by id (change the userid value to an id you know):
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/users/getuserbyid?userid=xxxx

List results for account:
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/results/GetAllResults

List results for a user (change the userid value to an id you know):
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/results/GetResultsForUser?userid=xxxx

Show all results for a particular test id:
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/results/GetResultsForAssessment?testid=xxxx
It will return the results for a given test id for the logged in account.

Add a new user:
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/users/adduser?email=john@xyz.com&firstname=john&lastname=smith

Simply substitute the email/firstname/lastname to the user you would like to add. If a user already exists with that email address then that user is added to the account.

Get answers for a result:
https://online.knowledgesmart.net/api/api/results/getanswersforresult?resultid=xxxx

Pass in the resultid you would like to see the answers for. N.B. you would probably use the existing methods GetAllResults or GetResultsForUser first to get the list of results and their resultids which you could then pass in.


If you would like to schedule a call with our technical team, to discuss your own organisation's requirements for closer integration with KS user and results data, please do get in touch.

R

Assembling an “All-Star” Team

According to the Harvard Business Review, “…evidence from a variety of industries suggests that star employees outperform other employees by a country mile”.  Indeed in their 2013 article ‘Making Star Teams Out of Star Players’ the HBR wrote: “When it comes to an organization’s scarcest resource—talent—the difference between the best and the rest is enormous. In fields that involve repetitive, transactional tasks, top performers are typically two or three times as productive as others.”  KnowledgeSmart subscribers agree.

 “We know we’ve hired super stars when they score highly on KnowledgeSmart.  We also know that we can plug super stars into any team and they’ll increase team productivity.”

Peter Taylor, Engineering Systems Manager, Tata Steel Projects (TSP), Manchester, UK.

Taylor is responsible for reviewing emerging software offerings as he develops and maintains the strategy for best use of software on TSP projects. 

Being ‘KnowledgeSmart’ when resourcing Projects 

At Stantec – a multi-discipline AE firm with 15,000 employees – KnowledgeSmart skills analysis improves insight for management when comparing skills, knowledge, and performance across project teams.  Stantec also uses KnowledgeSmart to improve the productivity of teams and by balancing team skills.  

 “Where a team is already resourced, we use KnowledgeSmart scores to ‘Re-shuffle the deck’ so that we may better position people to maximise the effectiveness of their contributions.  For Stantec this ability to ‘course correct’ teams and individuals delivers increased efficiencies.”

 Jim Marchese, Corporate BIM Education Leader, Stantec, Philadelphia, USA.

It’s not just AEC firms who benefit by resourcing projects with the best talent.  HBR states that the best developer at Apple is at least nine times more productive than the average software engineer at other technology companies.

Daily Decisions Should be Data Driven

At A2K – one of the largest Autodesk channel partners globally with offices throughout Australia, New Zealand and China – they recognise that the world has changed.   They claim that with 20-20 insight into software skills, project team leaders can now resource projects with greater levels of certainty for higher quality outcomes.  

 “With customer loyalty programs gathering data about our every purchase and with Amazon predicting what we are ‘likely’ to ‘want’ to buy in future, BIG DATA has changed how we interact and behave.  In much the same way we can now use KnowledgeSmart BIM skills assessment results to remove emotion from the project team resourcing process, to guarantee the best outcomes.”

 Sean Twomey, ANZ Consulting Manager, A2K Technologies, Sydney, Australia.

Twomey is not alone; “Old school subjective assessments are unreliable.” explained Lonnie Cumpton, Senior Director of Professional Services at US CAD.  “Such assessments are mere opinions unsupported by facts.  And when the opinion is wrong it very often proves to be “an extraordinarily expensive way to do business.”  He concluded.

 Informed Inter-Team Mobility Delivers Productivity Gains

AT RTKL – a multi-discipline design practice with global presence – KnowledgeSmart is being used to make smarter, more well-informed data-driven decisions about people’s software skills when resourcing project teams.  

 “HR is involved in the process of project resourcing when new project teams are assembled.  HR knows ‘why’ people were hired and retains a high-level view of the firm’s talent base.  At RTKL, the nature of project-centric resourcing determines that individuals are moved from one project team to another as the workflow rises and falls across the project lifecycle.”

 Andrew Victory, Associate, RTKL, London, UK.

HOK agrees.  “HOK is committed to making sure every team member’s skills and knowledge are as deep and as broad as can be to streamline the project resourcing process.”

 Even Super Stars Need to Train

Back at Stantec, the HR department recognises that super stars are not ‘born’ they are ‘developed’.  From years of experience, Stantec knows that world-class talent of all kinds will multiply the productivity and performance advantages of an all-star team.

 “By providing JIT training we are making it easier to resource projects.  We can select the right people for a given project based on their domain skills and using KnowledgeSmart skills assessments we can identify and eliminate skills gaps by completing targeted ‘small sip’ training modules.”

Susan Clark-Serediuk, HR Leader, Stantec, Toronto, Canada.

In this way Stantec is gradually assembling a series of all-star teams.

HBR’s key takeaway

 “Companies that are good at managing “A” players keep comprehensive, granular data on where their people are currently deployed, what those people do, how good they are in their current roles, and how transferable their skills may be.”

KnowledgeSmart companies use that information to continually improve their staffing resources and to deploy them more effectively.

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KS Spring Release - Individual User Pages

The most popular KS wishlist request in recent months has been to make it easier for individuals and admins to view assessment history and results data on a per user basis.

This also ties in with our wider goal to make the KS assessment tools more integrated with other Learning and HR systems, where data is shared across two or more platforms.

So we have created a new personal dashboard for individual users to log in and monitor their personal KS history, within their current organisation.

This resource will make it easier for individuals to manage their KS user profile, invite history, learning evidence and assessment results, including benchmarking data. Annual appraisals and performance reviews will be enhanced by the ability to capture multiple HR, training and learning resources in a single place.

The dashboard login page now has a new option, called My KnowledgeSmart.

Here is the KS user homepage, split into 4 main areas: My Details, My Achievements, My Assessments and My Scores.

The My Details page allows users to set their own password, edit personal information and update the 5 datafields which KS admins use to filter wider user and results data. They can also add a picture, to personalise their KS page.

The My Achievements page offers an opportunity to upload any useful documents and records relating to their personal development and learning history. For example, training completion certificates, exam results, certification evidence, CPD records, resume or professional record of achievement data.

Users can make documents 'public' or 'private' and create an individual URL for sharing learning resources online:

The My Assessments page enables users to view KS assessments they have taken or have been invited to take. They can view summary reports for completed sessions by clicking on the assessment name and resume open sessions by clicking on the name of 'Not started' or 'In progress' sessions and entering their KS user name and password in the following login screen.

Clicking on the 'Rosette' icon displays a new certificate, which users can share using social media or via email.

The My Scores page is a place for users to view all KS scores in one place.

Available data includes: benchmark comparisons, performance charts and skills gap summaries.

KS admins can access individual user pages via their main KS dashboard > Users page. There is a new icon which opens up the user page in a separate window.

KS admins can control access to user pages on a per user basis:

KS admins can also control user page access on a per account basis:

KS admins can also disable the 'sharing' tool, which appears when the certificate is viewed:

If a user record is deleted or set to 'Ex-employee' status, their personal page will no longer be accessible. User data is not portable, from one company to another. KS data is account-specific and owned by the organisation, not the user.

We anticipate this area of the KS system developing further, as the year progresses. If you have any ideas for integration with other systems, or if you have suggestions for new tools, charts, reports, and so on, please let us know and we'll add them to the summer wishlist.

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KS Library Topics - Assessing Revit Architecture Skills

KnowledgeSmart skills assessment software helps firms of architects and engineers to measure software capability.

We have created an extensive range of assessments, covering the most popular design, engineering and BIM software titles, used by firms working in the global construction industry.

Assessments cover a range of popular vendors, including: Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Adobe, McNeel, Trimble and Graphisoft.

We work with a global network of world class authors. They are subject matter experts, published, thought leaders and working as consultants to industry, so they understand the practical application of the tools, as well as the menus and mouse-clicks. Popular KS authors include: CASE Inc, Chris Senior, Darryl McClelland, Eric Chappell, Envision CAD, Evolve, John Evans, Josh Modglin, Joel Harris, Paul Aubin, Paul Woddy, Revit Factory, Robert Manna, Scott Moyse, Scott Onstott, Tony Tedder, Thomas Weir and White Frog.

For our most popular assessments, we tend to create a variety of different modules, covering a range of different levels and abilities.

The current number one topic in our library is Autodesk Revit Architecture.  Here is a brief list of assessments available in our 'RAC Bundle'.  All of the following titles are available, as part of a KS Professional 1 license:

Revit Architecture for occasional users
Revit Architecture fundamentals
Revit Architecture – Xpress
Revit Architecture for Interiors
Revit Architecture advanced
Revit Content Creation
Revit Project Process
Revit Architecture – Extra qu's 1
Revit Architecture – Extra qu's 2
KS Community – Revit Architecture (White Frog)
KS Community – Revit Process & Workflow
KS Community – BIM Management (NB this one is software neutral, but included in the bundle)

So how does it all work?  In simple terms, it is a web based, practical test of knowledge and ability, so users will need access to a copy of the software, for which they are being assessed. They are presented with a series of task based and knowledge based questions, entering answers into the KS browser screen. At the end, a summary report with detailed feedback and coaching notes can be displayed to the user.  KS system administrators can access detailed reports, highlighting results, benchmark statistics and training recommendations.

Let's take a look at an actual example of our Revit Architecture fundamentals assessment, in this short video:

KS customers have full editorial control over all KS library material, so they are ultimately in the driving seat, as far as the material that is presented to their teams goes. And they have the option of writing custom question from scratch, using the KS authoring tools, if they want to capture knowledge on in-house work flows, standards and processes.

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Top DAUG 2014 - The Results

This year, KnowledgeSmart and AUGI again teamed up to provide an interactive skills assessment, across 10 popular Autodesk software tracks: 3ds Max, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Plant 3D, Inventor, Navisworks, Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure and Vault.

Once again, we had some great prizes up for grabs.  Track winners walked away with a $100 USD Amazon voucher (a combination of high scores and fastest times determined the winner of each track), a glass trophy and the overall winner won a HP laptop and free pass to AU2015.

We spent several hours on Tuesday, setting up 16 networked PC's in the exhibition hall, at the AUGI stand.

 Next, 144 copies of Autodesk software needed checking, then all the KS sample data sets had to be uploaded to each machine and checked again.  Big thanks to Tony Brown for his assistance in accomplishing this task.

Here's how we looked when everything was finished:

The main competition ran over 3 days (1 x 3 hour slot on day one, 2 x 3 hour slots on day two and a final 1 hour slot on day three). Contestants had to answer 8-10 questions, using the 2015 version of each software title. Each session was limited to just 12 minutes, so people had to work fast! Special thanks to awesome AUGI team members, Kristin, Bob, Michael, Donnia and Richard, for briefing users and making sure everything ran smoothly.

Here are the Top DAUG's in action:

By the end of the contest, we posted 215 results.

Throughout the competition, we displayed a rolling list of the top 10 contestants for each track, on the AUGI big screen.

The Results

Congratulations to the following contestants, who won their respective tracks:

And a special mention to the overall winner of AUGI Top DAUG 2014:

Tracy Chadwick

Analysis

So, let's take a detailed look at the results of this year's Top DAUG competition.

Overall

No. of Tests Completed:  215

Overall Average:  59% in 9 mins 14 secs

(NB the average score for 2013 was 48%).

Track 1 - 3ds Max

Track Winner: Herb Wagner

Winning Score: 55% in 11 mins 35 secs

Top 2 Contestants:

No. Completed: 2

Group Average: 35% in 11 mins 45 secs

Track 2 - AutoCAD

Track Winner: Tracy Chadwick

Winning Score: 100% in 3 mins 50 secs

Top 10 Contestants:

No. Completed: 68

Group Average: 63% in 8 mins 2 secs

Track 3 - AutoCAD Civil 3D

Track Winner: Christopher Fugitt

Winning Score: 88% in 5 mins 55 secs

Top 10 Contestants:

No. Completed: 21

Group Average: 66% in 9 mins 12 secs

Track 4 - AutoCAD Plant 3D

Track Winner: Patrick Alonzo

Winning Score: 72% in 11 mins 30 secs

Top 4 Contestants:

No. Completed: 4

Group Average: 52% in 10 mins 38 secs

Track 5 - Inventor

Track Winner: JD Mather

Winning Score: 81% in 11 mins 25 secs

Top 10 Contestants:

No. Completed: 21

Group Average: 41% in 11 mins 9 secs

Track 6 - Navisworks

Track Winner: Michael Doty

Winning Score: 60% in 6 mins 0 secs

Top 10 Contestants:

No. Completed: 13

Group Average: 49% in 9 mins 45 secs

Track 7 - Revit Architecture

Track Winner: Erik Eriksson

Winning Score: 99% in 10 mins 40 secs

Top 10 Contestants:

No. Completed: 47

Group Average: 57% in 10 mins 51 secs

Track 8 - Revit MEP

Track Winner: Ken Fields

Winning Score: 100% in 9 mins 15 secs

Top 10 Contestants:

No. Completed: 24

Group Average: 64% in 7 mins 32 secs

Track 9 - Revit Structure

Track Winner: Rebecca Frangipane

Winning Score: 85% in 8 mins 30 secs

Top 9 Contestants:

No. Completed: 9

Group Average: 70% in 9 mins 51 secs

Track 10 - Vault

Track Winner: Bryson Anderson

Winning Score: 60% in 6 mins 50 secs

Top 6 Contestants:

No. Completed: 6

Group Average: 53% in 6 mins 17 secs

Most Popular Tracks

The most popular tracks, in order of completed tests, were as follows:

AutoCAD - 68 results

Revit Architecture - 47 results

Revit MEP - 24 results

Inventor - 21 results

AutoCAD Civil 3D - 21 results

Navisworks - 13 results

Revit Structure - 9 results

Vault - 6 results

AutoCAD Plant 3D - 4 results

3ds Max - 2 results

Total = 215 results

Honourable Mentions

100% Club

The following people achieved a maximum score of 100% in their track:

Tracy Chadwick - AutoCAD

Glen Sullivan - AutoCAD

Christine Noble - AutoCAD

Ken Fields - Revit MEP

(Plus Erik Eriksson scored a tantalisingly close 99% in the Revit Architecture track!)

Top Performers

The following people demonstrated impressive versatility by achieving above average scores in multiple tracks:

Chris Brown - AutoCAD, Inventor and Navisworks

Tracy Chadwick - AutoCAD, Revit Architecture, Inventor and Vault

Seth Cohen - AutoCAD and Civil 3D

Jason Dupree - AutoCAD and Inventor

Ken Fields - AutoCAD and Revit MEP

John Fout - Navisworks, Revit Architecture and Revit Structure

Rebecca Frangipane - Navisworks, Revit Architecture and Revit Structure

Brent McAnney - AutoCAD, Civil 3D and Vault

Kate Morrical - AutoCAD and Revit Structure

Mohaimie Mosmin - AutoCAD and Inventor

David Rushforth - Navisworks, Revit Architecture and Revit MEP

Maxime Sanschagrin - Revit Architecture, Revit MEP and Revit Structure

Jim Swain - AutoCAD and Inventor

Nick Tanner - AutoCAD, Navisworks and Revit Architecture

Boys vs Girls

Finally, let's take a look at the demographic breakdown of the competition. Out of 215 contestants, 185 were male and 30 female. The average overall performance for each group breaks down like this:

Girls: 64% in 9 mins 25 secs

Boys: 58% in 9 mins 11 secs

So, that's Top DAUG finished for another year. A thoroughly enjoyable 3 days at AU2014. 215 completed tests, across 10 popular tracks. Once again, the overall standard was extremely high, with some outstanding individual performances from our track winners and top 10 contestants.

Congratulations to all our winners. Thanks to the AUGI team for their support. Lastly, a big thank you to everyone who took part in this year's contest.

See you all in 2015 at the Venetian for more fun & games!

R