The evidence guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the performance criteria, required skills and knowledge, range statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package.

Overview of assessment

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit

Evidence of the following is essential:

Competency must be demonstrated in the development of a variety of macros and templates using at least two industry-recognised application packages. Competency must be demonstrated in the development of a specification for macros and templates.

Context of and specific resources for assessment

The general environment for these types of operations is predominantly an office environment, in which documents play a major role in communication and business activity. Thus, macros and templates are designed to accelerate the process of document production by employing rapid, automated actions on documents that often would have been created from templates. Thus, a person would demonstrate their competency by using, adapting, creating, saving and troubleshooting macros and templates.

The breadth, depth and complexity of knowledge and skills in this competency would cover selecting, adapting and transferring skills and knowledge to new environments and providing technical advice and some leadership in resolution of specified problems. This would be applied across a range of roles in a variety of contexts with some complexity in the extent and choice of options available.

Assessment must ensure:

Performance of a defined range of skilled operations, usually within a range of broader related activities involving known routines, methods and procedures, where some discretion and judgement is required in the section of equipment, services or contingency measures and within known time constraints would be characteristic.

Applications may involve some responsibility for others. Participation in teams including group or team coordination may be involved.

Method of assessment

The purpose of this unit is to define the standard of performance to be achieved in the workplace. In undertaking training and assessment activities related to this unit, consideration should be given to the implementation of appropriate diversity and accessibility practices in order to accommodate people who may have special needs. Additional guidance on these and related matters is provided in ICA05 Section 1.

Competency in this unit should be assessed using summative assessment to ensure consistency of performance in a range of contexts. This unit can be assessed either in the workplace or in a simulated environment. However, simulated activities must closely reflect the workplace to enable full demonstration of competency.

Assessment will usually include observation of real or simulated work processes and procedures and/or performance in a project context as well as questioning on underpinning knowledge and skills. The questioning of team members, supervisors, subordinates, peers and clients where appropriate may provide valuable input to the assessment process. The interdependence of units for assessment purposes may vary with the particular project or scenario.

Guidance information for assessment

Holistic assessment with other units relevant to the industry sector, workplace and job role is recommended, for example:

ICAU3028B Customise packaged software applications for clients

An individual demonstrating this competency would be able to:

Demonstrate some relevant theoretical knowledge

Apply a range of well-developed skills

Apply known solutions to a variety of predictable problems

Perform processes that require a range of well-developed skills where some discretion and judgement is required

Interpret available information, using discretion and judgement

Take responsibility for own outputs in work and learning

Take limited responsibility for the output of others

Maintain knowledge of industry products and services

Required skills

Troubleshooting the operation of macros: for example, to trace which action of the macro may be malfunctioning, converting documents to templates and modifying templates

Ability to use various modes of employing macros, such as creating a particular keyboard key combination for each macro or by assigning it to a custom button on a toolbar

Ability to interpret software manual instructions generally, and in particular to follow instructions for creating and using macros and templates

Required knowledge

General knowledge of functions and features of the operating system

General knowledge of software and hardware supported by the organisation

General understanding of features and functions of particular categories of commercial computing packages, in particular, procedures for creating macros and using default templates (supplied by the software application package) and creating new ones

The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included.

Client may include but is not limited to:

internal departments

external organisations

clubs

individual people

internal employees

Organisationalguidelines may include but is not limited to:

personal use of email and internet access

content of emails

downloading information and accessing particular websites

opening mail with attachments

virus risk

Documentation may follow:

ISO/IEC/AS standards

audit trails

naming standards

version control

project management templates

report writing protocols

Software applications

May include but are not limited to commercial software applications; organisation-specific software; word processing, spreadsheet, database, graphic, communication packages and presentation functionalities

May include presentation applications contained in: Microsoft Office, Lotus Suite, Claris Works, Star Office or other similar applications