Having been with a new company long enough to have completed architecting a few projects I've started to look around to see where I have a lack of knowledge of a domain or a technology base.

Rather than sticking to a single technology base or domain its important to stretch your knowledge into a wider arena.

Sticking to a single type of technology breeds complacency and over familiarity, also how interesting is it day to day just going over the same information?

With that in mind I've been looking for a suitable tool to enable me to map my current skills to technology domains. In this way I'll have a bit of a better view of where any skills gaps lay. Previously I've used tools like Excel and Word, I've even put together relational databases to catalogue this kind of data. What I am after is something a bit more visual, that will show a view of a domain or technology spectrum (for example networks, comms, VOIP, etc) alongside a grade of knowledge. This could be represented as a colour scale or something else.

My initial thoughts are to use a Mind Map to try and do this, as I can create a tree style diagram that branches out into different domains easily, and I know I can colour each branch differently. If it works for me I plan on trying to roll it out to the team, then we can create a collaborative map as well.

Is this something you've ever done? If so what tools did you use? Did you end out with something that highlighted potential directions for you to explore?