Team and Partner Design

Effective implementation requires a multidisciplinary team.

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Deliberate team design ensures that the right mix of technical skills, change management experience, and interpersonal abilities are present to navigate the challenges that arise. Additionally, selecting the right partners who align with your organizational values and project goals enhances collaboration and synergy, leading to more efficient problem-solving and innovation and minimizing the risk of misunderstandings and project delays.

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Ultimately, a thoughtfully designed team and partnership framework is fundamental to driving successful adoption, user engagement, and overall project success.

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Implementation teams can develop and use a team and partner plan to:

Ensure the necessary skills, experience, and growth mindset on the team
Create opportunities for further development and pivoting as challenges arise
Co-design together as a team aligned with a clear scope and purpose

Team Plan

We have identified a list of key skills and experiences that are essential to include and/or develop on your core project team, advisory, and/or contractors for effective implementation over the project's lifetime.

To build your Team Plan, reflect on the table and complete the template.

Template

Experience	Description
Governance and Fiscal Management	Governance: Financial planning, budgeting, risk assessment, and compliance monitoring to ensure effective oversight and accountability throughout the project lifecycle.
Project Management	Management Approach: Experience in managing system change and technology implementation projects (e.g., Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Prince2, CPM, etc.). Project Planning: Experience in developing project planning, setting milestones, and managing resources effectively to ensure timely and successful implementation of LER VC projects.‍ Partner Engagement: Skills in engaging with internal and external partners, including education institutions, employers, government agencies, and credentialing bodies, to gather requirements and garner support for the project.
Change Management	Change Leadership: Ability to lead organizational change and adoption of LER VCs by facilitating training, communication, and stakeholder buy-in.‍ Risk Management: Skills in identifying and mitigating risks associated with digital credentialing projects, such as technology and regulatory risks, and resistance to change.
Skills-based Hiring and Advancement (SBHA)	Competency Frameworks: Knowledge of designing and implementing competency frameworks that outline the skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for different roles related to LERs used in the project. Skills Assessment and Mapping Tools: Familiarity with skills assessment tools and methodologies to evaluate candidates' and employees' skills and pathway mapping.‍ Career Development Planning: Ability to design career pathways, competency-based job frameworks, and personalized development plans aligned with skills-based progression.
LER and Credentialing Standards and Compliance	Open Standards: Familiarity with industry standards especially Open Standards, such as W3C Verifiable Credentials, Open Badges, and ISO/IEC 27001 for ensuring interoperability and compliance.‍ Regulatory Compliance: Knowledge of relevant regulations and standards for data privacy, security, and legal aspects of credentialing (e.g., understanding the types of organizations and data covered by governmental privacy regulations, including GDPR, HIPAA, and FERPA).
Experience Design	Community-Centric Inclusive Design: Skills in facilitating the co-design of intuitive and people-friendly interfaces for solutions across the LER lifecycle to enhance partner and participant adoption and satisfaction.‍ Accessibility: Consideration of accessibility principles to ensure that the LER issued as VC solutions are accessible to individuals with a variety of skills, experiences, and abilities.
Data and Technical Expertise	Solution components across the LER Lifecycle (e.g., Issuing, LER issued as VC storage, Digital Wallet, Trust Registers, and Verifier). Data Security: Skills in data encryption, secure storage, and protection against cyber threats to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of Verifiable Credentials. API Integration: Ability to integrate verifiable credentialing systems with other platforms and applications using APIs for seamless data exchange. Prepare for:‍ Public Key Infrastructure (PKI): Knowledge of PKI systems for managing cryptographic keys, digital signatures, and certificate authorities. Digital signatures are used for creating secure and tamper-proof Verifiable Credentials
Region, Sector, and/or Domain Expertise	Subject-matter experts: For the region, sector, or domain of focus for the project, ensure subject matter experts are included on your team to inform and guide solution implementation.

Partner Plan

Effective implementation of projects for the issuing and verification of LERs as VCs over the LER Lifecycle requires a broad and dynamic ecosystem of people, partners, and organizations. According to the LER Ecosystem Map (below), the ecosystem contains the learners and workers themselves, employers, both seeking skills in the workforce and recognizing them on the job, and education and training providers developing the skills through a diverse set of delivery models, amongst others.

Source: LER Ecosystem Map

Each group has a role in developing, issuing, using, verifying, and adopting LERs issued as VCs. An aligned, well-functioning LER ecosystem creates benefits for learners, earners, and employers. It offers opportunities to improve education outcomes and hiring processes, support meaningful careers, and promote economic and social mobility.

To build your partner plan, reflect on the table and complete the template

Template

Team Readiness

Identifying your team's strengths and readiness will help you determine where you might need to recruit as you build your team and where to seek help from partners or advisory members. Readiness refers to your team’s competencies and experience, as well as the general state of preparedness of project partners and the system ecosystem.

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People and organizations across the ecosystem will be in different stages of readiness for accepting and using LERs as VCs. It is essential to evaluate your team's readiness for things like data use and sharing, process change, open standards, skills mapping, credential issuing, and procurement, amongst others.

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Note that there are teams and individuals who can help you navigate risks and support you in achieving your project’s goals, no matter your level of readiness! To connect with others working in the LER Ecosystem, refer to the list of LER Communities and add the relevant ones to your partner plan.

Complete the template to document your project’s potential risks and levels of readiness within your context.

Template

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