Designing a Competency Assessment Model for Information Technology Professionals Using the Fuzzy Expert System Approach

Possessing appropriate human resources is undoubtedly the most important organizational competitive advantage in today's state of flux governing the world. That’s why organizational success is reliant on human resource development which is viable in various companies and countries merely through identifying and understanding the capabilities and competencies of the enormous potential of human resources. Competency plays a key role in IT professionals’ performance as well as their success and efficiency. Thus, the present study aimed at designing a model for assessing the IT professionals’ competency based on the fuzzy expert system approach. This exploratory two-phase mixed-methods (qualitative-quantitative) research commenced with a qualitative analysis by reviewing the literature and interviewing experts to design the assessment model which was further subject to quantitative scrutiny in the second phase. The research sample comprised 15 hospital IT professionals who completed the questionnaire that was employed as the data collection instrument to glean the research data that were further analyzed through Excel, SPSS and Matlab software programs. The results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses pointed out four main indicators that were next prioritized with regard to their role in the degree of professionals’ competency using the process of fuzzy hierarchical analysis. The if-then database was completed and Mamdani Fuzzy Inference System was used to determine the exact competency level of IT professionals which was found to be high with an accurately equal to 0.712. Validation of the model verified compatibility of the results with the views of experts in the field.