Elements and Performance Criteria

RANGE STATEMENT
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.
Documentation may follow:
ISO/IEC/AS standards
audit trails
naming standards
version control
project management templates
report writing principles
On-line project may be:
private website
commercial hosting facility hosting community code
ftp site
CVS site
other type of group repository
On-line community
May include but is not limited to local communities, on-line virtual communities of interest and organisational communities
The main tools for on-line communities are mailing lists, web conferencing and newsgroups.
On-line resources may be:
websites
news groups
CVS trees
gopher sites
ftp sites
community sites
on-line communities
Communityparticipationstandards may be:
verbal or written policies
procedures or guidelines
may be informal or formal rules and regulations used by groups to manage their on-line projects.
Software may include but is not limited to:
commercial software applications; organisation-specific software, packaged software, in-house or customised software
Sociallyacceptable messages should be:
designed and sent with regard to recipient's location
culture
ethnicity
race
social sensitivities
Softwaredevelopmenttools may include:
operating systems
target environments
development tools
computer language
version control systems
development methodology
Licensingmodels may include but are not limited to:
GPL
LGPL
BSD
Mozilla
Apache licences

EVIDENCE GUIDE
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:
Assessment must confirm that a significant contribution to an open source project has occurred. Contributions will be in the form of:
Program source code changes and/or additions
Documentation changes and/or additions
On-line participation in the project direction
Local proof of building of snapshots, code modifications and testing

To demonstrate competency in this unit the person will require access to:
Software development environment
Access to the internet
Technical requirements
CVS databases
Information repositories
Programming languages
Group facilitation software
Context of and specific resources for assessment
The breadth, depth and complexity of knowledge and skills in this competency would cover a broad range of varied activities or application in a wider variety of contexts most of which are complex and non-routine. Leadership and guidance would be involved when organising activities of self and others as well as contributing to technical solutions of a non-routine or contingency nature.

Assessment must ensure:
Performance of a broad range of skilled applications including the requirement to evaluate and analyse current practices, develop new criteria and procedures for performing current practices and provision of some leadership and guidance to others in the application and planning of the skills would be characteristic.

Applications may involve responsibility for, and limited organisation of, others.
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 must confirm competency in all areas of the software development cycle. Code-only solutions are not acceptable.

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.

An individual demonstrating this competency would be able to:
Demonstrate understanding of a broad knowledge base incorporating some theoretical concepts
Apply solutions to a defined range of unpredictable problems
Identify and apply skill and knowledge areas to a wide variety of contexts, with depth in some areas
Identify, analyse and evaluate information from a variety of sources
Take responsibility for own outputs in relation to specified quality standards
Take limited responsibility for the quantity and quality of the output of others
Maintain knowledge of industry products and services

Additionally, an individual demonstrating this competency would be able to:
Contribute to and understand a range of development methodologies and their application to a project or scenario
Demonstrate theoretical knowledge of open source practices
Produce documentation