Peer Assessment Interview Guidance

  
Interview Format
 
The interview will take place using an online meeting tool with live audio and video capabilities.
The interview will take up to an hour.
 
Your interview will be conducted by two BCS CITP assessors who will introduce themselves
before the interview begins and ask you for photographic ID to confirm your identity. The
assessors are selected based on knowledge and awareness of the specialism you have declared
and will be registered Chartered IT professionals.
 
During your interview, you will be assessed on:
 Your knowledge and understanding of your area of IT specialism
 Your competence in your area of IT specialism
 Your knowledge of the broad scope of IT
 Your communications skills 

The Skills Assessment interview is your chance to demonstrate to your peers that you have the
knowledge and skills to meet the assessment criteria set out in the CITP standard and that you
appreciate the scope of the profession and have sufficient knowledge to communicate and work
with specialists across the IT profession.
 
Your Presentation
Following the introductions, you will be asked to make your presentation. You will be expected
to deliver a clear and concise presentation referencing work for which you were personally
responsible and demonstrates your knowledge and competence in your area of specialism in
the IT profession. Your presentation may be based on one or more skills from a recognised skills
framework within your chosen specialism.  If your chosen area of specialism is broad you are not
expected to demonstrate deep knowledge and competence in all skill areas in the specialism.

Your Presentation should:

 Concentrate on tasks you have completed which show how you have exercised
competence in your specialism. 
 Summarise your experience relative to the assessment criteria set out in the CITP
standard 
 Use examples from projects you have contributed to that evidence your achievements.
The projects should normally have been undertaken in the preceding two or three years. 
Focus on what you: 
 Learnt
 Achieved
 How you worked with others and contributed to the project outcome/team objectives
 What you might do differently in similar circumstances next time
 What personal challenges you faced and how you overcame them  
 
 
You should:

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  Keep to the time limit of ten minutes. The assessors will curtail your presentation if it is
longer than 10 minutes. As a rough guide, a Power Point presentation should not exceed
8 pages.
 Not provide an overview of your career. The assessors will have seen your CV already
and don’t need to be reminded of your career or current job role or employer.
 Remember that your ability to understand and appreciate the relationship between your
area of specialism and wider customer/organisational requirements is also being
assessed. Demonstrating this ability alongside your breadth of knowledge relies on your
ability to communicate so avoid the common mistakes that make for bad presentations.
 Concentrate on YOU. This is not an assessment of a project, your team, your
organisation or your clients so avoid focussing on them as this will leave little time to talk
about what you personally did – focus on YOU. 

Important: You must submit a copy of your presentation in either Adobe Portable Document
Format or Microsoft Power point format, at least 7 days before the date of your interview. Failure
to do so could result in your interview being cancelled.
 
At the time of your interview the assessors will have already viewed your presentation together
with your personal statement, CV and any other relevant documentation e.g. your supporters’
reports.
  
The Rest of the Interview
Following your presentation, the assessors will need to verify your depth of knowledge and
competence within your chosen area of specialism as well as your breadth of knowledge.

The assessors will refer to the assessment criteria in the CITP standard to assess your specialist
knowledge and competence which is measured against the following categories:
 Autonomy
 Influence
 Complexity
 Business Skills

The assessors will assess to what degree you are accountable for your own work. They will look
for evidence of the level of your awareness of latest technologies, methods and tools. Your
contribution to strategic IT decisions and your competence in technical and/or project leadership.
How you manage customer relationships and deliver business advantage as well as evidence of
planning.   
 
To verify your breadth of knowledge the assessors will refer to the evidence you gave to in your
application. They will be checking your knowledge of the broad scope of IT beyond your area of
specialism to assess your broad understanding of the areas with which you work, interact, rely
upon, service, support etc.

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You may be expected to provide evidence of knowledge about:

Principles of information technology.

Your knowledge and understanding of essential facts, concepts, principles and theories relating
to information technology.

Do you have any qualifications, training or other experience where you have gained this
knowledge?

Provide essential facts, concepts principles and theories relating to information technology that
may include:
 Methods and issues.
 Methods, techniques and tools for information modelling, software development.
 Building information systems architecture.
 Statistical Principles

Exploitation of Information Technology

Your knowledge of the commercial, economic and process aspects of the development, use and
maintenance of information technology including management techniques and information
security. You need to show your knowledge of exploitation of IT including management
techniques and information security and how technology is used to achieve objectives.

Legal, social, and ethical factors relating to information technology

You need to show how you recognise all aspects of the environment in which information
technology resides, including regulatory frameworks, political influences and accountabilities.

Questions about your presentation

There will be questions about your presentation to determine exactly what your individual
contribution was to the work described; what was went well, what could have been improved,
what was learned, what you did (or you will do differently next time), and to what extent you
influenced the direction and outcome of the work. You may be asked to provide evidence of
strategic vision, leadership, collaborative working, analytical thinking and ethical thinking
alongside creativity and innovation, pragmatism, commitment and flexibility.
 
The areas below will also be covered and you may be asked to talk about the following:
 
Methods and tools used in the specialism
The relevant methods and tools you employ in the conduct of your chosen area of specialism.
 
Professional toolkit
Your approach to planning and monitoring and how you manage both your own work and the
work of others, risk management, prioritisation, quality assurance, people management, coping
with change, managing conflicting requirements, client relationship management, recognition
and communication of benefits.
 
Business orientation
How you develop and maintain client relations. Your experience of working in multi- functional
teams. The role you tend to adopt with specific examples.
 
Leadership
Your understanding of what you understand leadership to be with examples of where you have
displayed leadership and contributed to strategic IT decisions.
 
Performance management
How you manage, support, guide and motivate people to optimise performance.

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Resourcing
You’ll be required to demonstrate, where applicable, how you resource manage your workforce
e.g. employees, consultants and contractors to enable the operation to run effectively.

Continuous Professional Development

You will be expected to demonstrate your commitment to your own professional development.
 
Professional Conduct
Your understanding of professional responsibilities as laid out in the code of conduct.

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