Competency model of_software_developer_i

Chutchonook Charutwinyo, International Journal of Advanced Trends in Computer Science and Engineering, 10(3), May - June 2021, 1524 – 1532
ABSTRACT
This research study aims to investigate the competency model
of software developers in Thailand using the qualitative
research methodology. The findings reveal the following: 1)
There are two career paths for software developers, namely as
entrepreneurs and as employees in various organizations,
whose career development could lead to positions of
executives or experts; 2) There are four competency clusters
for software developers, namely Core Competency, Technical
Competency, Business Competency and Teamwork
Competency; 3) The assessment criteria set by workplaces for
software developers are three dimensional incorporating
software developers’ performance, teamwork behavior, and
learning and self-development; and 4) The main method for
software developers’ self-development is self-learning based
on hands-on practices and supported by training, knowledge
management and mentoring.
Key words: Competency model, Software developer,
Software market, Thailand 4.0
1. INTRODUCTION
“Thailand 4.0” is a national policy designed to reform
Thailand’s economic structure and turn it into a value-based
economy by such means as transforming traditional SMEs
that need constant assistance from the government into smart
enterprises and high-potential startups. Information
technology, consequently, becomes a key driving tool in the
reform’s infrastructure. This inevitably makes competent
human resource a vital factor for the development of new
innovations and technologies to support the creation of such
infrastructure and reform. However, Thailand is facing
drawbacks concerning the development of its human resource
to meet the goals of the “Thailand 4.0” policy. Technical staff
such as scientists, engineers and analysts who comprise the
most important labor group for innovation development are
found to constitute only 4 % of the labor market. In other
words, the country is having a serious shortage of technical
staff. The majority of Thai laborers lack skills related to
information technology, English language, mathematics and
creativity, all of which are essential for increasing
productivity in the industrial sector. Trainings provided by
the workplaces are relatively low in number as the
entrepreneurs’ readiness to embrace human resource
development in the industrial sector varies vastly; large
corporations with large resources are more ready to provide
staff trainings than smaller organizations are.
Nowadays information technology has a role in the operation
of nearly all work units in both public and private sectors and
from basic to advanced operations. As a result, businesses
related to information technology in Thailand have seen a
continuous growth. The results of surveys conducted by
Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) and
Software Industry Promotion Agency (Public Organization)
(SIPA) reveal that the growth rate of the overall software
market and services in Thailand in 2014 was at 12.6 % with
the approximate value of 44.026 billion baht, that in 2013 was
at 22.2 % with the approximate value of 39.096 billion baht,
and that in 2012 was at 24 % with the approximate value of
31.979 billion baht. In overall, the market is projected to
continue to see an annual growth in value, but not without
problems and obstacles that could prove to be the most
important hindrance for such growth. According to the survey
results report by TDRI [23], the problems and obstacles of
software industry and services in Thailand concerning the
lack of quality personnel, especially in UX (User Experience)
and mobile development, have stunted the growth of the
production base in the country.
It can, thus, be said that human resource and information
technology competency, particularly in software
development, are important for driving the economy in the
context of the “Thailand 4.0” policy, yet Thailand is still
faced with challenges concerning the production of software
developers and the development of their competency. In order
to overcome these challenges, a competency model of
software developers in Thailand is needed as a map for setting
and controlling software developer development strategies as
well as for connecting the demands of the labor market to
those of technology and competency development procedure,
the results of which will help sharpen Thailand’s competitive
edge in information technology.
Competency Model of Software Developer in Thailand
:AQualitative Exploration
Chutchonook Charutwinyo1
1
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business Economics and Communications, Naresuan University, Thailand,
chutchonookc@nu.ac.th
ISSN 2278-3091
Volume 10, No.3, May - June 2021
International Journal of Advanced Trends in Computer Science and Engineering
Available Online at http://www.warse.org/IJATCSE/static/pdf/file/ijatcse061032021.pdf
https://doi.org/10.30534/ijatcse/2021/061032021
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1. Research Questions
a. What is the situation of the labor market for software
developers in Thailand?
b. What are the components in the competency model of
software developers in Thailand?
c. How are the components in the competency model of
software developers in Thailand connected?
2. Objectives
a. To study the situation of the labor market for software
developers in Thailand.
b. To study the components in the competency model of
software developers in Thailand.
c. To study the connections of the components in the
competency model of software developers in Thailand.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Competency means desired characteristics including
knowledge, skills and attitudes required to perform duties
according to positions at work in order to make the work
successful [2],[10],[12],[13],[14],[17].
Competency can be grouped into three clusters: 1)
Knowledge, which refers to the body of knowledge required to
perform duties according to one’s position; 2) Skill, which
refers to the ability to perform duties as a result of practice and
the ability to apply one’s knowledge in hands-on operations
for a concrete output; and 3) Behavior, which refers to the
expression or behavior required to perform duties as a result
of attitudes – opinions or views – on various things affecting
the behavioral display and the success of the work [1],[3],[5],
[9],[16],[18],[19],[20],[22],[24]. Attitude is abstract and can
be difficult to measure and manage. Behavior, on the other
hand, is a concrete display of attitude and can thus be
measured and managed in a more concrete manner [11].
The competency model contains three components: 1) Core
Competency, which refers to the basic characteristics that a
worker must have in order to achieve the goals set for his work
position and that are also required for all in the same work
level; 2) Functional Competency, which refers to specific
characteristics that a worker must have in order to achieve the
goals set for his work position according to his professional
specialization and that are different from one work level to
another; and 3) Management Competency, which refers to the
administration and management characteristics that both
executives and practitioners must have and that are different
according to the roles, duties and responsibilities of the work
positions [4],[6],[8],[15],[21],[25].
There have been attempts to develop competency models in
information technology to serve the demands for human
resource management in information technology. One of the
models, namely the European Norm (EN) 16234-1 European
e-Competence Framework (e-CF) offers a presentation of
information technology and communication competency in
five work clusters (PLAN, BUILD, RUN, ENABLE, and
MANAGE), forty work competencies and five work levels.
Software development is Competency 1 in the work cluster
“BUILD” (B1). In B1 (Application Development), there are
three work levels: Level 1 comprises the development of
applications under guidance and the testing of applications
and making of documents; Level 2 comprises the systematic
development and checking of applications; and Level 3
comprises the creative development of applications based on
suitable technical options comprising two competency
groups, namely “Knowledge”[7].
Table 1: Knowledge and skills of application development in
European e-Competence Framework
Knowledge Skills
K1 appropriate software
programs/modules
S1 explain and communicate
the design/development to
the customer
K2 hardware components,
tools and hardware
architectures
S2 perform and evaluate test
results against product
specifications
K3 functional & technical
designing
S3 apply appropriate
software and/or hardware
architectures
K4 state of the art
technologies
S4 develop user interfaces,
business software
components and embedded
software components
K5 programming languages S5 manage and guarantee
high levels of cohesion and
quality
K6 power consumption
models of software and/or
hardware
S6 use data models
K7 DBMS S7 perform and evaluate test
in the customer or target
environment
K8 operating systems and
software platforms
S8 cooperate with
development team and with
application designer
K9 integrated development
environment (IDE)
K10 rapid application
development (RAD)
K11 IPR issues
K12 modeling technology
and languages
K13 interface definition
languages (IDL)
K14 security

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3.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study employed the qualitative research methodology
based on Grounded Theory and undertook First Cycle Coding
and Second Cycle Coding to analyze relations and explain
their meanings. First, codes were set according to the research
objectives. Then, data were analyzed by assigning codes to the
data units, the process of which is called First Cycle Coding,
according to the designed structure. Next, the First Cycle
Codes were condensed into the Second Cycle Codes, and
concepts were developed simultaneously. In this step, the
Second Cycle Codes and the concepts were added to and
improved upon in order to attempt to explain the data and all
the phenomena. After that, the relations among the concepts
were organized with the aim to explain both old and new data
and phenomena. Finally, a model was presented.
The population in this study comprised business owners,
executives and experts in software development in Thailand
(from both Thai and foreign organizations). The sample
group was derived by means of purposive sampling and
snowball sampling. The data were collected by means of
in-depth interviews using semi-structured interview
questions. The data were simultaneously analyzed using a
software program during the process of the data collection
based on Grounded Theory until theoretical saturation was
determined. The data collection and analysis finished after
twelve informants from the sample group had been
interviewed.
4.RESULTS
4.1 The situation of the software market, labor market
and career paths of software developers in Thailand
At present, the software market in Thailand can be divided
into two main areas, namely software development and
distribution and software development and services. The
software development and distribution by Thai companies are
faced with numerous limitations such as a low rate of
consumer acceptance compared to that of foreign software
and limited software contents designed for a small-scale
market in Thailand. These limitations result in lower software
prices which affect the software quality. The software
development and services, on the other hand, are seeing an
increase in competition from foreign service providers. The
fact that Thai consumers are generally unwilling to pay high
prices for software and that the pressure to reduce costs to
maintain competitiveness is increasing have led the
entrepreneurs to adjust to the aspect concerning software
development and services rather than the traditional software
development and distribution, as evident in the following
interviews: (7 first cycle codes, 3 second cycle codes)
“A Thai software must be cheaper than a foreign software, not
by 20 % but by 5 times. And they won’t buy cheaper stuff; they
will buy more expensive stuff … The companies that produce
the software can’t make good products because that means
higher costs. They make things that are as good as their prices
so that they can keep their business running … I think that
Thailand should provide a common platform where people
can work together and share resources.”
(Interviewee 1)
“SMEs in our country don’t have enough money for
employment … Some companies do offer software
development positions, but those are few and far between.”
(Interviewee 4)
There is still a high demand for software developers in the
labor market in Thailand even though there is competition
from foreign workforce. Foreign entrepreneurs can offer
software developers higher remunerations than Thai
entrepreneurs can because they are able to provide software
services to a larger market. Some organizations take
advantage of the lower labor cost in Thailand and make it
their base for software development and services provided to
customers in other countries, as evident from the following
interviews:(16 first cycle codes, 5 second cycle codes)
“The trends now are still upward because many work sectors
want to switch from human labor to software and hardware,
especially AI, as in image processing and smart farming.”
(Interviewee 3)
“Foreign companies employ Thai people for two reasons.
They make Thailand a production base for exporting goods
because Thailand is a good place to visit and the labor is cheap.
Foreigners have cheap products in a good place. Advantages
in all aspects. And then they export the products.”
(Interviewee 4)
Thailand lacks competent software developers. Although
educational institutes have produced many information
technology graduates, most are not sufficiently competent to
handle jobs in software development. These challenges are
the result of the production process – upstream, midstream
and downstream – of software development personnel in
educational institutes that are facing numerous problems
themselves such as learners who are uninterested in a career
in software development since they regard it as a difficult job
that requires a high level of effort, program contents that do
not meet the demands of modern workplaces and technologies
since it is a field of work that constantly experiences rapid
technological changes, and graduates who switch to other
fields of work since they perceive the work of software
development as stressful and see opportunities to earn equal
or more money doing other jobs that are less stressful, as

Competency, and Teamwork Competency. Each group For example, a finished project that is in the process of system
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evident in the following interviews:(31 first cycle codes, 4
second cycle codes)
“I don’t have enough developers. This is a big problem for me.
The ones I have are not sufficiently competent. Another
problem I have is with freelancers who drop the jobs
midway.”
(Interviewee 5)
“Large companies are invariably short of software developers.
For some programs, my boss actually asked Human Resource
Division to help recruit qualified personnel. It was quite
difficult to get someone with the right qualifications. It took
us over a year to find the person.”
(Interviewee 6)
There are two career paths for software developers in
Thailand: 1) as entrepreneurs; and 2) as employees in various
organizations in which the mid-career development offers
two career tracks: 2.1) as executives; and 2.2) as experts. To
be an expert requires specialized professional skills including
software development skills. However, positions for software
development experts are generally available only in large
organizations whose core business is software development.
The three stages of career development: Entry-Level
(Inventor/Junior–Senior Developer), Mid-Level
(Entrepreneur/Senior Developer, System Analyst/Specialist)
and High-Level (CEO/Project Manager/Expert) are shown in
Figure 2 and in the following interviews:(9 first cycle codes, 3
second cycle codes)
“An employee starts as a junior programmer. When he
matures into more responsibilities, he will become a senior
programmer who can now mentor the juniors. After that, he
will become a team leader who supervises both the juniors and
the seniors. Eventually, he will get to the position of Solution
Architecture who designs all sorts of platforms.”
(Interviewee 9)
“An employee starts as a junior developer. It takes around
four years to become a senior developer. Many organizations
provide options for career development. One of them is to be
an IT executive. If you follow this track, you can become an
assistant manager and a manager. Another track is to be a
specialist and then become an expert.”
(Interviewee 11)
4.2 The components in the competency model of software
developers in Thailand
The components in the competency model of software
developers in Thailand can be categorized into four groups:
Core Competency, Technical Competency, Business
contains three forms of competency: Knowledge, Skill and
Behavior.
Core Competency comprises seven areas of competency: 1)
Communication (Skill) is vital for the work of software
development that requires teamwork and coordination among
team members and with clients/service receivers. Software
developers, therefore, must have communication skills to
work with their team members and their clients/service
receivers. 2) English Language (Skill) must be cultivated by
software developers for learning, problem-solving and
professional communication as learning resources and
knowledge required to solve problems are mostly available in
English. In addition, software developers nowadays are often
required to work with foreign team members and
clients/service receivers. 3) Learning (Skill) is essential for
software developers as they work in a field that requires
constant learning to keep pace with technological changes.
This inevitably affects their career advancement. 4) Thinking
(Skill) is required in the work of software development that
involves problems related to coding. The process of analyzing
and solving problems, therefore, is important for achieving
fast and efficient solutions, and analytical thinking is likewise
an important skill for software developers. 5) Problem
Solving (Skill) is important for software developers who must
deal with problems of coding, teamworking and coordinating
with clients/service receivers. 6) Activeness (Behavior) is an
important quality of software developers since they generally
meet constant challenges and are, therefore, required to learn
new things constantly. 7) Responsibility (Behavior) is
required since software developers must work as a team with
their team members and with their clients/service receivers.
To be responsible for their assignments and for their
commitment to clients/service receivers is essential and will
affect both the software developers’ professional success and
advancement and the team’s achievement, as shown in Figure
1 and in the following interviews:(126 first cycle codes, 7
second cycle codes)
“Software developers must have presentation skills so that
they can communicate with customers. It won’t do to always
say no to customers … Now software developers with over 10
years of work experience can’t even communicate with
salespeople because they never have to do it. All they do is
work at their desks … Another big problem that I have is the
lack of communication among team members. How can a
team work together without talking to one another? The team
leader loses control over individuals. The developers’ ego is
also a problem. If they are about the same age, they won’t
acknowledge that the others are better. That can also affect
work.”
(Interviewee 5)
“No matter how much they studied in college, they still have
to learn more after graduation … They have to learn
constantly because their work requires constant adjustments.

(Interviewee 11) coordinating with them as a team is inevitable. Teamwork
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testing may present a problem that they’ve never known of
before. Then they’ll have to study it and find a solution.”
(Interviewee 2)
“In addition, the work requires responsibility, punctuality, the
ability to learn new things and activeness.”
(Interviewee 1)
Technical Competency comprises four areas of competency,
namely 1) Programming Languages and Platforms
(Knowledge and Skill): Software developers are required to
possess skills to operate both Object Oriented Programming
(OOP) languages and software development platforms.
Initially, a software developer must be skilled in one
programming language which will enable him to learn other
programming languages. Developers must not bind
themselves to only one programming language but should
learn and adjust to different languages as required by the
limitations and contexts of their work and the changes of the
technology. Popular languages and platforms are, for instance,
Java Script, Python, Agular and Laravel. 2) Database and
Data Usage (Knowledge and Skill): Software developers must
be able to use both SQL databases (for jobs that employ old
technologies or small-sized data) and No-SQL databases (for
jobs that employ new technologies or large-sized data) for
different types of work. Developers are also required to be
skilled in data usage such as data analysis, data mining, data
science and machine learning. 3) Security (Knowledge and
Skill): The increase in both transaction data and IT criminal
activities results in the increase in users’ concerns regarding
digital security. Software development, therefore, must pay
special attention to the aspect of security in order to boost
clients/service receivers’ confidence. 4) Software
Development Process (Knowledge and Skill): The software
development process now functions as a continual cycle
aiming to enhance efficiency, meet users’ needs and compete
better in the market. This emphasizes the software
development process and methods that can create endless
streams of new software. Software developers must,
consequently, have the knowledge and skills to work
efficiently as a team, as shown in Figure 1 and in the
following interviews:(134 first cycle codes, 31 second cycle
codes)
“There are many hackers now. Programming and databases
are the basic elements. Security is an add-on.”
(Interviewee 9)
“Now the data science track is on the rise. It requires skills in
several fields: mathematics, business and programming … If
you want to be a step ahead, you must also know about
performance, performance improvement and program
testing.”
Business Competency is essential to software developers as an
additional competency that provides the developers with a
value added from the very beginning of their career and that
will prove to be increasingly important when the developers’
career advances to the levels of executives and entrepreneurs.
Business Competency comprises three areas of competency,
namely 1) Business Strategies and Consumer Behavior
(Knowledge and Skill): Nowadays some software developers
are required to work with clients/service receivers from the
start of the software development process. The understanding
of business strategies and consumer behavior and the ability
to make analyses in these aspects, therefore, will help the
developers to better comprehend both the needs of their
clients/service receivers and the competition in the global
market. 2) Business Process (Knowledge and Skill): From the
mid-level operation onwards, the work of software developers
will involve more and more of the process of software quality
enhancement which includes analyzing, planning, improving
and assessing. The understanding of the business process will
enable the developers to improve the software quality more
effectively as well as to give better recommendations to
clients/service receivers. 3) Business Opportunity
(Knowledge and Skill): As executives and entrepreneurs, an
important skill lies in the ability to search for and make use of
business opportunities and to develop new software and
services to increase the organization’s competitiveness and
sustainability. Developers who aim to reach this high-level
operation – except those in the track of experts – must possess
this skill, as shown in Figure 1 and in the following
interviews:(27 first cycle codes, 7second cycle codes)
“Developers today and tomorrow must know about business.
Having knowledge of the technology but nothing at all of
business … will make it difficult to sell products. Although
we have the products and the ideas, we wouldn’t know who to
sell them to. If we have business knowledge as an add-on, we
will be able to go further.”
(Interviewee 2)
“Software developers must also take a moment for self-
reflection. If they continue to work only on software
development, their perspective regarding user-based
development will be narrow. Developers who have business
and research skills are paid more … These skills increase the
developers’ value, so business skills and programming skills
give them professional advantages.”
(Interviewee 10)
Teamwork Competency is important because software
developers in today’s context work in a team both as team
members and, as their career progresses, as team leaders.
Moreover, if their clients/users are presented as organizations,

Competency, therefore, is vital for software developers. It
comprises three areas of competency, namely 1) Team
Membership (Skill and Behavior): This is a competency
required of entry-level software developers who are expected
to operate as team members in activities such as giving
opinions, sharing information and listening to others’
opinions. 2) Team Leadership (Skill and Behavior): This is a
competency required of mid-level software developers who
are expected to operate as team leaders in activities such as
motivating, managing conflicts and rewarding. 3) Team
Management (Skill and Behavior): This is a competency
required of high-level software developers who are expected
to operate as team managers at both team and organization
levels in activities such as coordinating between different
teams, managing resources between different teams and
creating shared goals and concepts, as shown in Figure 1 and
in the following interviews:(11 first cycle codes, 7second
cycle codes)
“Mostly they need the teamwork skills because each project
will assign a team to work on it. If developers can’t work as a
team, they won’t be able to communicate with the other team
members and will be miserable at work … I would like the
universities to help develop students by adding
communication, teamwork and language skills.”
(Interviewee 3)
“A skill that must be instilled is the ability to be open to
others’ opinions. In our company, we work mostly in teams,
so it’s very important to listen to others and to think about
what they’ve said. When problems arise, they must be dealt
with. We must be alert while working.”
(Interviewee 10)
Figure 1: Competency model
when Core Competency is taken into consideration, the
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4.3 The connection between the components in the
competency model, performance evaluation and
competency development
Core Competency comprising 7 areas of competency, namely
1) Communication (Skill), 2) English Language (Skill), 3)
Learning (Skill), 4) Thinking (Skill), 5) Problem-Solving
(Skill), 6) Activeness (Behavior), and 7) Responsibility
(Behavior), will affect the other three competency clusters,
namely Technical Competency, Business Competency, and
Teamwork Competency in terms of software developers’
competency level, competency development and performance.
Furthermore, Technical Competency and Teamwork
Competency have direct effects on software developers’
output and performance. Business Competency, on the other
hand, gives a value-added to Technical Competency. This
relationship is significant in terms of both performance
evaluation and competency development of software
developers. At present, companies assess the performance of
their software developers based on their output mainly as a
resultof their technical and business competencies with
considerations regarding their teamwork behavior as well as
their learning and self-development, as shown in Figure 1 and
in the following interviews:(7 first cycle codes, 2second cycle
codes)
“I look at their output. Normally when we give assignments,
we’ll also give deadlines. If they meet the deadlines, they
fulfill 70 % of the total score. Another 30 % is for the soft
skills. If they are competent at work but unable to
communicate with their team members resulting in working
solo and not as a team, or they cause problems when they talk
to others, they are given the score accordingly in this 30 %
portion.”
(Interviewee 9)
“Software development is a kind of art. If the developers are
not in the right state of mind, they can’t be productive.
Therefore, I focus on the results … I mainly look at the output.
On the other hand, the developers must also be able to work in
a team.”
(Interviewee 1)
The development of software developers’ competency and
output cannot be achieved by looking at only Technical
Competency. Considerations must be made regarding
primary problematic areas in Core Competency. For example,
some developers are unable to produce good works because
they cannot finish the programing in a timely manner. If this
problem is handled superficially, the company might try to
solve the problem by sending the developers to a programing
camp. This will not necessarily solve the problem. However,

company might discover that the developers in fact lack
Learning Competency (Skill) as well as English Language
Competency (Skill), which make them unable to learn from
the abundant resources available on the Internet. The
company might discover further that the developers also lack
Responsibility (Behavior) to take charge of their own self-
development. Tackling these problems by developing
suitable competencies will bring about successful solutions.
At the present time, most organizations support the
development of their software developers’ Technical
Competency by various means such as providing trainings,
knowledge management, mentoring and hands-on practices.
Nevertheless, it must be said that the main approach for
competency development remains that of self-learning. This
means that software developers must rely on their activeness
and learning skills as tools to enhance their Technical
Competency with the help of hands-on practices, as evident in
the following interviews:(22 first cycle codes, 4second cycle
codes)
“The best approach is hands-on practice. I start with a lecture,
not a long one, just to instruct how to do something. What I
usually do is that I ask the software developer to have lunch
with me. I buy him lunch and teach him for 10 minutes each
day. Then I give a coding problem for him to solve. He must
write real codes … Real learning takes place with actual
practice. When he reaches a certain level of competency, I
will give him an easy project to do. It may not be a real
project … I use the mentoring system. He sits with his mentor
while programming whatever job that comes in at the time.”
(Interviewee 1)
“They must do real work. I’ve done it since the time I was
doing my first degree… Learning requires practicing.
Programing is like studying mathematics. It requires a lot of
practice.”
(Interviewee 11)
Figure 2: Competency model and career path
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5. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Conclusion
From the results of the study, it could be concluded that the
software market of Thai entrepreneurs in Thailand still
presents several limitations such as a low rate of consumer
acceptance as compared to that of foreign software and
limited software contents designed for a small-scale market in
Thailand. On the contrary, the labor market in Thailand
presents a continual high demand for software developers and
offers them higher renumerations than the average rate for
work in the field of information technology. Competent
software developers are still in short supplies due to the
inability of educational institutes to produce graduates that
meet the demands of the labor market. There are two career
paths for software developers: 1) as entrepreneurs; and 2) as
employees in various organizations in which the career
development offers two career tracks: 2.1) as executives; and
2.2) as experts, which are generally needed only in large
organizations whose core business is software development.
The career development can be divided into three stages:
Entry-Level (Inventor/Junior–Senior Developer), Mid-Level
(Entrepreneur/Senior Developer, System Analyst/Specialist)
and High-Level (CEO/Project Manager/Expert).
The competency model of software developers consists of four
related competency clusters, namely Core Competency,
Technical Competency, Business Competency and
Teamwork Competency. Core Competency affects the other
three competency clusters while Technical and Teamwork
Competencies have direct effects on software developers’
performance and Business Competency gives a value added to
Technical Competency.
5.2 Discussion
For the components of the competency model, this study’s
findings regarding the four competency clusters correspond to
those of previous literature and studies that classified the
competencies
Competency
into Core Competency, Managerial
and Functional Competency
[4],[6],[8],[15],[21],[25]. This study, nevertheless, further
divides Functional Competency into Technical Competency
and Business Competency in order to bring more clarity to the
analysis. In addition, this study adjusts Managerial
Competency into Teamwork Competence since teamwork
features significantly in the line of work of software
developers, and the adjustment is expected to give a clearer
picture to the evaluation of their performance and the
development of their competency.
In terms of the forms of competency, this study opts to replace
Attitude with Behavior and, consequently, to present

1531
literature and
[1],[3],[5],[9],[16],[18],[19],[20],[22],[24].
studies
Since
expressions and behaviors are concrete and can be measured
and managed more firmly than attitudes which are abstract
and difficult to measure and manage. This finding should
likewise enable organizations to evaluate and develop their
software developers in a more concrete manner.
competencies as Knowledge, Skill and Behavior, which are 2.
different from the forms of competency presented in previous
When the results of the present study are compared with the
European Norm (EN) 16234-1 European e-Competence
Framework (e-CF), it is found that this study presents
competency clusters (Core Competency, Technical
Competency) with more coverage than those of e-CF which
only focus on Technical Competency. Moreover, this study’s
findings present competency in the forms of Knowledge, Skill
and Behavior whereas those of e-CF only focus on Knowledge
and Skill. Furthermore, most competency models currently
available have been developed to serve the structures of large
organizations where work is clearly divided. Business
organizations in Thailand that deal with software
development, however, are mostly small companies with
relatively few employees who are required to work in more
than one field. The employees must, therefore, possess a
wider range of skills and offer competitiveness in terms of
work flexibility and adjustment.
5.3 Suggestions
The present study’s findings reveal the competency model of
software developers in terms of components and their
connection. These findings suggest opportunities for future
studies; for example, a study of the details of the components
in each competency cluster, a survey study to confirm the
structural relations among components in each competency
cluster, and a study of the details regarding the evaluation and
development of each competency cluster.
5.4 Limitations
The present study was conducted based only on the opinions
and experience of business owners, executives and experts in
the field of software development in Thailand. It did not
investigate the opinions of other stakeholders in the software
industry in Thailand such as personnel staff, employees and
educational institutes.
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CEN-CENELEC publications.
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organizations (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
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