Overview
Before you create your first Competency, decide how the whole set should be structured. A good competency framework maps to the real qualifications your operation tracks, scales as you add rides and staff, and makes the requirements on Schedules and RideOps easy to understand.
This article covers the design decisions. For the mechanics, see Utilizing Competencies, How to create a Competency and Create a Certification Process.
At a glance |
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Who can do this | Super Users, or a Role with Competencies › Administrate |
Where | Competencies, Competencies › Certification Processes, Schedules, and a Location's RideOps Settings |
Works on | Backend (web) to set up. The Mobile app and RideOps check requirements. |
Availability | All organizations |
💡 Why this matters: Competencies are referenced by Certifications, Certification Processes, Schedules, Checklist triggers and RideOps. Restructuring them later means editing all of those, and deleting a Competency deletes every Certification for it. A little design up front saves a painful migration.
How the pieces fit
Piece | Its job in your framework |
Competency | The qualification itself, such as Coaster Operator. One name, reused everywhere. |
Certification | One User holding one Competency, with an optional expiration and renewal date. |
Certification Process | Awards exactly one Competency when a User completes a training Checklist, after a Reviewer's approval if Require Validation is ticked. Its Required Competencies are prerequisites to start it. |
Requirement | Required Competencies on a Schedule, and on a Location's RideOps Operators, Attendants and Positions, decide who may do the work. A User needs every required Competency, not just one. |
Core principles
One Competency per real qualification. Create one for each distinct thing a person can be qualified to do, not per person or per shift. Coaster Operator is a qualification; Zone A Monday Crew isn't.
Reuse across requirements. The same Competency can be required on a Schedule and on a RideOps Position. One Loader Competency can gate both the pre-opening Loader inspection and the Loader Position, so one Certification covers both.
Match the grain of your sign-offs. Too broad and you can't tell who's qualified for what; too fine and you drown in near-identical Competencies.
Build tiers with prerequisites. A Process's Required Competencies make a User hold the lower tier before they can start the next.
Choose the right granularity
A useful test: create a separate Competency wherever a separate sign-off happens.
If every coaster needs the same operator training, one Coaster Operator Competency is enough. Don't make one per coaster.
If one ride has unique controls that are signed off separately, that sign-off justifies its own Competency.
If two Competencies would always be awarded together by the same training, make them one. A Certification Process awards only one Competency.
Start broader than you think you need. Adding a more specific Competency later is easy; merging a sprawl of Competencies that are already required on Schedules and RideOps is not, because Mobaro has no merge.
Build tiers with prerequisites
When a job has progression, such as trainee, operator and lead, model each level as its own Competency and chain them with prerequisites on each Certification Process:
The Operator Process lists Trainee under Required Competencies, so only Users who already hold Trainee can start it.
The Lead Process lists Operator, and so on up the chain.
A prerequisite only counts while the User's Certification for it hasn't expired. If a Process lists several, the User needs all of them.
ℹ️ Note: A Process's Required Competencies are prerequisites to start the training. A Schedule's or RideOps Required Competencies decide who can do the work. Same label, different layer.
Naming, versions and expiry
Name for the qualification, with a tier marker where relevant, such as Coaster Operator – Tier 2. Avoid abbreviations only insiders understand. Mobaro doesn't stop duplicate names, so check the list before you add one.
Rename freely. Renaming a Competency keeps its Certifications and requirements linked.
Version when the standard changes. If a training programme changes so much that old Certifications shouldn't count, create a new Competency and a new Process that awards it; a Process's awarded Competency can't be changed once saved. Then swap the new Competency into your Schedules and RideOps settings.
Prefer a relative expiration for recurring training. Relative to process completion with Mark as due for renewal gives each User their own renewal date. Use At an exact date only when everyone must renew by the same day.
⚠️ Heads-up: Changing a Certification Process's Competency Expiration or renewal settings re-dates every active Certification it has awarded. Shortening a relative expiration can make some expire straight away. See Create a Certification Process.
Restructure safely
To replace a Competency, create the new one and its Process first, award it, and switch your requirements over before you retire the old one. Deleting a Certification Process doesn't remove the Certifications it awarded; they stay until they expire. See Deleting Certifications.
🛑 Critical: Deleting a Competency can't be undone. It deletes every Certification for it and every Certification Process that awards it, and removes it as a requirement from other Processes, Schedules, Checklist triggers and RideOps. Schedules, Processes and RideOps settings that required it simply stop checking for it, and the record of who held it is gone.
Example: a three-tier operator path
Setup. A park wants ride staff to progress from Ride Trainee to Ride Operator to Lead Operator. It creates three Competencies and three Certification Processes, each awarding one of them. The Ride Operator Process requires Ride Trainee, and the Lead Operator Process requires Ride Operator. Each Process uses Relative to process completion with 365 days. On every ride, RideOps Operators require Ride Operator, and the shift-lead Position requires Lead Operator.
Result. A new hire can only start the Operator training once they hold Trainee, and Lead once they hold Operator, so the progression enforces itself. In RideOps, anyone missing a required Competency is greyed out and can't be signed in. Renewals come due on each person's own anniversary, not all at once.
Best practices
Avoid one Competency per ride when the training is identical: you end up with dozens that all mean "can operate a coaster".
Don't name Competencies after people, shifts or crews. They aren't qualifications and won't reuse.
Always add prerequisites on a tiered path, or anyone assigned can go straight to the top-tier Process.
For safety-critical Schedules, turn on Restrict access based on required competencies so people without the Competency can't start the Checklist. See Utilizing Competencies.
Review due-for-renewal and expired Certifications regularly. See Staying ahead of certification expiry.
Frequently asked questions
Can a certification process award more than one competency?
No. Each Certification Process awards exactly one Competency. If one training should qualify people for two things, ask whether they're really one Competency, or create a second Process.
Can a process require one competency or another, but not both?
No. A User must hold every Competency listed under a Process's Required Competencies. To accept either route, create one Process for each route that awards the same Competency.
If a ride requires two competencies in RideOps, does the operator need both?
Yes. RideOps checks every Required Competency for that role, so the User needs a current Certification for each one.
Can I make everyone's Level 1 certification expire on the same date?
Yes, for Certifications from a Process: set its Competency Expiration to At an exact date. This re-dates every active Certification it awarded. Manual Certifications keep their own dates, so edit those one by one.
Can I set a pass mark so a test below 100% doesn't award the competency?
No. A Process awards the Competency when the Checklist is completed. Turn on Require Validation so a Reviewer approves each Result first. See Create a Certification Process.
Can I link a competency to a role or user group?
No. Each User holds a Competency through their own Certification. You can add a User Group as Assignees on a Certification Process so each member can earn it.