Plan a SkillCred¶
You will complete two approved planning Google Docs for a new SkillCred: one for the job tasks, scope, and audience, and one for the weighted competency blueprint.
About this guide¶
This page teaches you how to complete the planning Google Docs. Read it before your first planning session, and keep it open while you write.
About these examples
The examples on this page come from a fictional SkillCred, Job Scheduling with cron (SC999). The shared Drive folder contains completed planning documents from released SkillCreds; study them as worked examples.
What a SkillCred plan is¶
A SkillCred plan is two approved Google Docs. The first defines the job tasks, the scope, and the audience. The second defines the weighted competency blueprint. Global Skills transfers the approved blueprint into the Skills Platform, where every exam item is written against it.
Global Skills provides a shared Google Drive folder for each new SkillCred. The folder contains the product code and the two planning Google Docs. Each Doc carries its guidance as bracketed placeholder text: writing your decision over a bracket erases the guidance, so a finished Doc has no brackets left.
How this guide is organized¶
The sections follow the order you work in, and each maps to a section of the planning Google Docs:
| Google Doc | Sections |
|---|---|
| JTA, Scope, and Audience | Job Task Analysis, Scope Statement, Audience Definition |
| Blueprint | One code block: the blueprint contract |
Before you start, collect the working title, the target candidate roles, and source material that shows real tasks. Study published SkillCreds and their blueprints in the SkillCred catalog. Subject-matter experts supply the real job tasks; a curriculum owner in Global Skills approves the plan.
The job task analysis¶
List real tasks as verb phrases¶
Open the first Doc by listing the real job tasks of the target role. Write each task as a verb phrase that names observable work: what a practitioner does, not what they know. The scope and the competencies come from this list, so a thin task list produces a thin exam.
SC999 job tasks
- Schedule recurring jobs with crontab
- Run jobs at boot and on calendar events with systemd timers
- Troubleshoot jobs that fail, misfire, or never run
The scope statement¶
Write three short paragraphs¶
A scope statement has three paragraphs: the abilities the badge holder has demonstrated, the objects and technologies they work with, and the exam environment with its explicit out-of-scope topics.
SC999 scope statement
The Linux Foundation Job Scheduling with cron SkillCred badge holder has demonstrated the ability to create, schedule, inspect, and troubleshoot recurring and one-shot jobs using cron (
crontab,/etc/cron.d) and systemd timers (.timerand.serviceunits) on a single Linux host.They can work with crontab syntax, calendar expressions, per-user and system-wide entries, job environment variables, output redirection, and logs to support common operational workflows.
The badge holder can use shell commands and a provided editor-based environment to complete routine scheduling tasks in a sandbox without requiring internet access. Distributed schedulers and orchestrators (Airflow, Kubernetes CronJobs), CI pipeline schedules, and monitoring products are out of scope.
Use verbs that name observable work¶
Write abilities with verbs the sandbox can score: build, configure, inspect, enforce, troubleshoot. Do not use understands or knows. The sandbox scores observable results and cannot score recall.
Close with the environment and the exclusions¶
The third paragraph states the tools, the environment, the constraints, and the explicit out-of-scope topics. Exclusions block wrong but reasonable readings of the title: SC999 excludes Kubernetes CronJobs and CI pipeline schedules because "job scheduling" invites both assumptions.
The audience definition¶
Name one primary audience¶
Name one primary audience with a shared reason to earn the SkillCred. Do not make every technical role primary. Describe the shared characteristics first, then break the audience into segments.
Give each segment concrete use cases¶
Item authors design tasks from the use cases, so a role name without use cases gives them nothing. Name the role, then list the work it performs.
SC999 audience segment
2. Linux and Systems Administrators:
Typical use cases: Maintenance windows: log rotation, backup jobs, cleanup of temporary files, staggering schedules to avoid load spikes on shared hosts.
State who the exam is not for¶
Excluded audiences protect the credential from wrong expectations. Name the people who need a broader, deeper, or different credential.
SC999 excluded audiences
- Platform engineers seeking distributed-scheduler architecture validation.
- Kubernetes administrators seeking CronJob-at-scale assessment.
The competencies¶
A competency is a durable, observable capability¶
A competency groups related job tasks. It is larger than one command and smaller than the domain. Write each competency as a verb phrase, in the same shape as the job tasks it groups.
Test every competency¶
Each competency must pass five tests:
- The sandbox can show evidence of it.
- It is work rather than recall.
- It does not overlap a neighbor competency.
- Authors can write several different tasks in it.
- It fits the scope statement.
Merge competencies that overlap.
Give each competency a permanent ID¶
Give each competency a kebab-case ID. A released ID is permanent because exam items reference it. Do not put a tool name in an ID when other tools can also show the capability: SC999 uses schedule-recurring-jobs because either a crontab entry or a systemd timer demonstrates the competency.
The weights¶
Weights are positive and total 100¶
Give each competency a positive weight for its importance and expected time on task. The weights must total 100. Do not give equal weights by default.
Convert each weight into minutes¶
A SkillCred targets 45 minutes of time on task. Check each weight against that time:
competency minutes ≈ 45 × weight / 100
Example: a weight of 20 gives 9 minutes.
Plan at least two items for each competency¶
An easy item takes about 2 minutes, a medium item about 4 minutes, and a hard item about 6.5 minutes. If a weight cannot hold two items, widen the competency or merge it. Sketch one item idea for each competency: the starting state, the end state that shows the capability, the tools, and the time. Keep candidate prompts and scoring steps out of the planning documents.
Approve and hand off¶
Confirm before approval:
- The purpose, scope, and audience describe the same SkillCred.
- The competencies cover the scope and do not overlap.
- Each competency has a unique ID and one feasible item idea.
- The weights are positive and total 100.
- No bracketed placeholder text remains in either document.
- The curriculum owner approved both documents.
Global Skills transfers the approved blueprint into the Skills Platform.
Common pitfalls¶
Use this as your pre-approval checklist. Each item is a pattern reviewers push back on, shown as the rejected form and its fix.
Knowledge verbs in the credential purpose
Rejected: The badge holder understands cron syntax.
Fix: The badge holder can schedule recurring jobs with crontab.
The sandbox scores what the candidate does. Understands, knows, and is familiar with cannot be scored.
Competencies that are one command
Rejected: Use crontab -l
Fix: Inspect schedules, jobs, and run history
A one-command competency cannot support several different tasks.
Overlapping competencies distinguished only by wording
Rejected: Schedule jobs with cron / Create crontab entries
Fix: One competency: Schedule recurring jobs with crontab
If two competencies would score the same candidate work, merge them.
A tool name in a competency ID
Rejected: use-crontab
Fix: schedule-recurring-jobs
Released IDs are permanent. An ID that names one tool breaks when an equivalent tool joins the exam.
Equal weights by default
Rejected: 5 competencies × 20
Fix: Weight by importance and time on task.
Equal weights usually mean the allocation was never decided. Run the minutes math for each weight.
A weight too small to hold two items
Rejected: weight 5 (≈ 2.25 minutes)
Fix: Widen the competency or merge it into a neighbor.
Two easy items need about 4 minutes.
Candidate prompts in the planning document
Rejected: Task 1: Create a job named backup that runs every day at 02:00...
Fix: One item idea per competency: starting state, end state, tools, time.
Item ideas prove feasibility. Exam content is written later, against the blueprint.
Bracketed placeholder text in an approved document
Rejected: They can work with [objects and technologies] to support...
Fix: Replace every bracket before approval; the checklist enforces it.
Related pages¶
Published SkillCreds with public blueprints to study before you plan.