Managing Skills, Certifications, and Experience for Resources

The PSA Manage Skills and Certifications Lightning component is available on the Services Delivery workspace. Your administrator can also place the component on Lightning app pages and Lightning home pages.

The component contains the following:

  • The Manage button, to access the Manage Skills and Certifications window. This window enables you to view and manage your own skill, certification, and experience records and, if you have the required permissions, records belonging to other resources.
  • The Last Evaluated date is displayed above the tabs, to show when the resources last updated their skills.
  • The following tabs:
    • My Skills: a list of the five most recently updated skill / certification rating records that relate to skills.
    • My Certifications: a list of the five most recently updated skill / certification rating records that relate to certifications.
    • My Aspirations: a list of the five most recently updated skill / certification rating records that have the Aspiration checkbox selected. This enables you to see at a glance the skills you want to learn or improve and the certifications you want to update or acquire.
Tip:

To mark a skill or certification as being aspirational, click Manage and select the Aspiration checkbox for the relevant entry on the Manage Skills and Certifications window.

For administrator information on configuring the component and assigning the permissions required, see Setting up the Manage Skills and Certifications Lightning Component.

Managing the Columns Displayed

To view a sub-menu with options to sort, hide, and group columns, right-click a column heading in the grid.

Note:

You cannot group by checkbox type fields.

To change the default columns that are displayed to suit your own working practices, right-click any column heading and select the columns you want and deselect the columns you don't want in the Columns sub-menu.

Your selections are retained whenever you use the same browser on the same computer.

Filtering Data

To filter data:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the relevant Lightning page or on the Services Delivery workspace.
  2. On any tab, click Filter button to open and close the Filters.
  3. Select the filters to filter the skills, certifications and experience and click Apply.
  4. Click Clear to remove the filters.
  5. Click Save.

Skills and Certifications

To view details of skills or certifications:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the relevant Lightning page or on the Services Delivery workspace.
  2. Select the Skills tab or the Certifications tab as required. Details of your own skills or certifications are displayed by default.
  3. [Optional] Select Other and search for the resource whose records you want to view. To view records for someone else, you must have a permission control with Skills And Certifications View or Skills And Certifications Entry selected.
Tip:

If information you want to view is not visible, right-click any column heading and check the Columns sub-menu to see if the information you want is in a hidden column. You can then select it from the Columns sub-menu to show the column.

If a listed skill or certification has a related experience record, this is indicated in the Experience column.

To view the hierarchy path for a skill or certification, hover over Hierarchy Path icon in the Hierarchy Path column. Details of the hierarchy path are displayed in the form of a tooltip. If the Hierarchy Path column is not displayed, right-click a column heading and select it from the Columns sub-menu. For more information on skills hierarchies, see Creating Categories, Skills, and Certifications.

To manage files attached to a certification:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the relevant Lightning page or on the Services Delivery workspace.
  2. Select the Certifications tab. Details of your own certifications are displayed by default.
  3. [Optional] Select Other and search for the resource. To attach files to someone else's records, you must have a permission control with Skills And Certifications Entry selected.
  4. Click Attach File icon in the Attachments column for the relevant certification record.
    Note:

    The value in the Attachments column indicates the number of files currently attached. If the Attachments column is not displayed, right-click a column heading and select it from the Columns sub-menu.

    5. The Manage Attachments window is displayed. Files that are already attached are listed.

  5. [Optional] Click Upload Files or drag and drop files you want to attach. The image formats supported are JPEG, PNG, and PDF.
  6. [Optional] Click Preview button next to an attachment to see a preview.
  7. [Optional] Click Delete button next to an attachment to delete it.
  8. Click Close.

To add skills or certifications:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the relevant Lightning page or on the Services Delivery workspace. Details of your own skills are displayed by default.
  2. [Optional] Select Other, then search for and select a resource. To add records for someone else, you must have a permission control with Skills And Certifications Entry selected.
  3. Click Add | Skill or Certification. The Add to Profile window opens.
  4. In the Skills section, select the relevant skills for your profile using the following views from the drop-down:
    1. Add from Hierarchy: Select skills, certifications, or categories. Your selections are added to the Selected Skills and Certifications grid.
    2. Add from Skill Set: Select the skill sets or individual skill set skills from the skill set view. The selected skill sets and skills set skills are added to the grid in the Selected Skills and Certifications section.
    3. Add from Filters: Select the skills and certifications using the filters view. Click to identify and select the right skills for your profile. Select the filters to filter the skills, certifications, and categories and click Apply. Click Clear to remove the applied filters.
Tips:
All the views have a Record Type Name column for better understanding.
Switching the views automatically closes the Filters.
  1. In the Selected Skills and Certifications section:
    1. In the Rating column, click and select a desired rating for the skill.
    2. In the Expiration Date column, click and select an expiration date.
    3. In the Evaluation Date column, click and select an evaluation date.
  2. [Optional] To update the expiration date for multiple skills, select the skills and click in the Expiration Date column. A popup opens. Select the date and the Update (0) selected items checkbox, where (0) represents the number of skills to be updated. Click Apply.
  3. [Optional] To update the evaluation date for multiple skills, select the skills and click in the Evaluation Date column. A popup opens. Select the date and the Update (0) selected items checkbox, where (0) represents the number of skills to be updated. Click Apply.
  4. [Optional] Select the skills and click Delete button to remove multiple skills from the Selected Skills and Certifications section. These skills are also deselected from the skills hierarchy.
  5. To remove individual skills, click |Remove. The skill is also deselected from the skills hierarchy.
  6. Click Add.
Notes:
The skills already added to a profile are not available for selection in the skills hierarchy view and skill set view in the Skills section. The checkboxes for these skills are grayed out and therefore cannot be selected.
The selections and deselections are retained when you switch from Add from Hierarchy view to Add from Skill Set view and vice-versa.
If you select two skill sets that contain the same skill, that skill is displayed only once in the Selected Skills and Certification grid.

Skill / Certification, Record Type, and Rating fields are always displayed in the Selected Skills and Certifications grid. You can add additional fields that you would like to display while adding skills to your profile using the default Additional Fields field set on the Skill / Certification Rating object. By default, Expiration Date and Evaluation Date are present in the field set. For help, contact your administrator.

You can create your own field set using the Skills Management > Additional Add Skills Fields custom setting options.

Note:

If you select more than two fields, the fields are displayed in the order they are listed.

Tips:

If Restrict Skills and Skill Sets by Role in the Skills Management custom setting is selected, only the skills and skill sets that relate to your role or the role of the resource you are adding records for are displayed. Skills and skill sets without an associated role are also displayed.
If the disregard-skill-zones configuration option is set to false, skill zones are applied and only skills associated with your region, practice, and group are available for selection. For more information, see disregard-skill-zones and Adding a Skill or Certification Zone.

Note:

To enable Filters in the Add from Filters view on the Add to Profile window, create a field set for the Skill / Certification object and add the field set API name to the Add Skills - Filter Field Set option in the Skills Management custom setting. For help, contact your administrator.

You can search for the skills, certifications, and categories relevant to your profile using the Search field in the Skills section:

  • If you search for a skill, the skill and the direct path to that skill are displayed which helps define where the skill sits, its level, and similar skills within the hierarchy.
  • Skills that are in the same category as the skill in the search field are also displayed.
  • You can search for certifications by entering the relevant search term in the search field.
  • You can also search for categories as defined in your org, and expand a category to see any child skills and certifications. When you select a category, the category and the skills under the selected category are added to the Selected Skills and Certifications grid.
  • If the search term matches multiple skills, categories, and certifications, all of the matches are displayed.
  • Your selections are retained when you have cleared the search field.
  • If you search skills and then switch views, the search is cleared and the skills in the grid are reset.

To rate yourself or someone else against one of the skills, categories, or certifications in your organization:

  1. Do one of the following depending on the way in which your administrator has set up your organization:
    • Click the Contacts tab, select the resource that you are adding the rating for and then click New Skill / Certification Rating in the Skill and Certification Ratings related list.
    • Click the Skills and Certifications tab, select the skill or certification that you want to provide a rating for, then click New Skill / Certification Rating in the Resource Ratings related list.
  2. Complete the fields on the New Skill / Certification Rating dialog as described in Skill / Certification Rating Fields.
  3. Click Save.

To delete skills or certifications:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the relevant Lightning page or on the Services Delivery workspace. Details of your own skills are displayed by default.
  2. [Optional] Select Other, then search for and select the resource. To delete someone else's records, you must have a permission control with Skills And Certifications Entry selected.
  3. Select the Skills tab or the Certifications tab as required.
  4. Select one or more records.
  5. Click Delete button.

To edit a skill or certification:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the relevant Lightning page or on the Services Delivery workspace. Details of your own skills are displayed by default.
  2. [Optional] Select Other, then search for and select the resource whose records you want to edit. To edit someone else's skills and certifications, you must have a permission control with Skills And Certifications Entry selected.
  3. Select the Skills tab or the Certifications tab as required.
  4. Double-click a cell to edit it.
    Note:

    Read-only fields are locked for editing and are shown by a visual indicator. If the length of a field name is longer than the column length, the visual indicator might be hidden. Increase the column length to display the visual indicator. Checkbox columns do not show the read-only visual indicator.

  5. Click Save.
Note:

Your administrator can implement an approval process using Salesforce Flow Builder. The approval process must be triggered when the Approval Status is set to "Submitted". You can also use the approval process to set the Approval Status to either "Accepted" or "Rejected". For more information on approvals and Flow Builder, see the Salesforce Help.

You can submit your own records for approval depending on your approval process. A message is displayed when records are successfully submitted for approval.

When records are submitted for approval, their status is displayed in the Approval Status column. Values in Approval Status are “Submitted”, “Saved”, “Accepted”, and “Rejected”.

The Approval Status field and Submit for Approval button are displayed when an approval process is active. If you do not have an approval process, Approval Status is not displayed but you can manually add this column. You cannot edit or resubmit records in the approval process with the Approval Status of "Submitted".

To submit skills and certifications for approval:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the relevant Lightning page or on the Services Delivery workspace.
  2. On the Skills or Certifications tab, select the records you want to submit for approval.
  3. Click Submit for Approval. The records are submitted to an approver.
Note:
To display the Evaluate Skills button, the Display Evaluate Skills button checkbox must be selected in the Skills Management custom setting. For help, contact your administrator.

 To evaluate skills and certifications:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the Services Delivery workspace or on the relevant Lightning page.
  2. On the Skills or Certifications tab, select the records that you want to evaluate.
  3. Click Evaluate Skills. The Last Evaluated date is updated.


Experience

Note:

If an administrator has deselected Enable Experience in the Skills Management custom setting, the Experience feature is disabled and any items relating to experience, such as the Experience tab, are no longer visible.

To view details of your own or another resource's experience:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the relevant Lightning page or on the Services Delivery workspace.
  2. Select the Experience tab. Your own experience records are displayed by default. Any of your closed assignments with an associated resource request that has related resource skill requests are also displayed.
  3. [Optional] Select Other and search for the resource whose records you want to view. To view records for someone else, you must have a permission control with Skills And Certifications View or Skills And Certifications Entry selected.

Tips

If information you want to view is not visible, right-click any column heading and check the Columns sub-menu to see if the information you want is in a hidden column. You can then select it from the Columns sub-menu to show the column.

To view the assignment or project task assignment that is related to an experience entry, click the link in the Related Record column.

You can check the Experience column on the Skills and Certifications tabs to find out whether a resource has experience recorded against a skill or certification that is listed.

When viewing the details of a selected resource on the Resource Requests Lightning page, you can click View Experience in the Skills section of the Resource Details tab to view details of the resource's experience. The Resource Details tab is available on the PSA Contact Card Lightning component. For more information, see Using the PSA Contact Card.

Note:

You must have the required permissions to view details of a resource's experience. For more information, see Permissions.

To manually add details of your own or another resource's experience in using a skill or certification:

  1. Click Skills and Certifications | Manage on the relevant Lightning page or on the Services Delivery workspace.
  2. [Optional] Select Other, then search for and select the resource you want to add experience details for. To add details for someone else, you must have a permission control with Skills And Certifications Entry selected.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • Click Add | Experience.
    • Navigate to the relevant row on the Skills or Certifications tab, click the arrow in the Actions column and click Add Experience. If you can't see the Actions column, see Managing the Columns Displayed.
  4. Select either the assignment or the project task assignment (PTA) on which the experience was gained. Only assignments and PTAs with a status of Closed are displayed. If an assignment has an associated resource request containing resource skill requests, relevant skills or certifications are displayed in the Add Skills Used section.
  5. [Optional] Complete the fields in the Add Skills Used section to add any skills and certifications used during the experience that are not already listed.
    Tip:

    If Restrict to Skills with Existing Rating in the Skills Management custom setting is selected, only those skills and certifications for which the related resource already has a corresponding skill / certification rating record are displayed.

  6. [Optional] Click Add More to add more rows to the Add Skills Used section.
  7. [Optional] Click Delete button to delete a row from the Add Skills Used section.
  8. Click Add. The experience record is displayed on the Experience tab of the Manage Skills and Certifications window. You can only create one experience record per assignment for a resource.
    Tip:

    The experience name is automatically populated with the name of the relevant assignment or PTA with an "Exp -" prefix. If the experience name exceeds the character limitation after adding the prefix, the relevant assignment or PTA name is truncated.

    To change the automatically created experience name, click the experience name in the Experience Name column of the grid and overtype it on the experience record.