Skills are abilities gained through deliberate effort. Categorizing and describing skills is the main focus of this project. Yet there may be blurry lines between the words skill, practice, tool, attribute, preference, and discipline.
Skills and Tools--If we were furniture builders, we could name wood planing as a skill that involves the use of various tools (e.g., a hand planer, a jointer, an electric planer, or a woodworking machine) to shape wood. The choice of tool, the choice to go against the grain or with the grain of the wood, the planing depth, etc., are all decisions that require skilland may affect the outcome.
Practices--Choices such as turning, carving, or steam bending affect not only the outcome, but also have an impact on how and when to apply the skill, so we'll call these practices. Incidentally, practices often result in products that can't directly be compared.
Preferences and Attributes--Choices that have little or no impact on the outcome can be considered individual preferences (like which side of the board to start at or the brand of tool) or attributes (like the speed at which one progresses or the grit of the sandpaper one uses to finish), and are not of particular interest for the Skills Inventory.
Discipline--is consistency in applying appropriate safety measures; it's following procedures to make sure we don't forget anything. Discipline, on average, makes us go faster, though for a person who is skilled at a task and lucky, skipping steps may make them go faster most of the time. The problem is that having good luck most of the time isn't enough to compensate for the expensive mistakes that happen every once in a while when we skip our mistake-proofing, methodical, disciplined process.
Skill Acquisition Is Hard
While a person can directly mimic someone else's use of a tool, this is not enough to produce smooth wood. Skill involves tacit knowledge that comes only from repeated experimentation and reflection on the outcome--deliberate effort. Also of note is that this wood planing skill is transferable outside the domain of furniture building, e.g., to wooden toy making or art work, as well as partially transferable to other tool sets, e.g., hand planing and electric planing.
Skills shape the outcome of work-in-progress, yet must be combined with other skills to create a finished product. They can be explained, demonstrated, and replicated--though it takes practice to execute a skill correctly. A skill has a clear goal, and is not considered to be executed correctly if that outcome is achieved. In other words, a skill is a proven, reproducible way of reaching a goal.
In summary:
Skills are learned behaviors used to produce a particular outcome. Since there is an expected outcome, we can compare expected and actual results to evaluate skill level.
Attributes/Qualities are traits that a person exhibits across a broad range of work and non-work activities. Some examples are empathy, assertiveness, flexibility.
Preferences are how people like to do things. Preference implies that while a person likes behave in a certain way, they can do things differently, depending on the situation. For example, some one may prefer to examine a wide range of options before choosing but can choose quickly based on available data if the circumstances demand it. A person might prefer to work solo, but can function as part of a team. Working against preference for long periods of time gets tiring for most people.
References:
Ivar Jacobsen http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/199204020
Jurgen Appelo http://www.noop.nl/2010/02/discipline-skill-craftsmanship.html