Measuring professional development?

[TheSchoolofAthens]

Good day everyone. I am wondering, how can one effectively measure professional development? Professional development as in: the advancement of skills or expertise to succeed in a particular profession.

Speaking out of my own experience, I can measure development by setting goals, recording my progress towards those goals, and seeing where I've failed, succeeded, and can improve. This isn't a professional example but it does pertain to development: I have a spreadsheet for every day of the month showing what workout routines I've done and how many pushups or situps I've done for that day. I can clearly track my progress, set goals, and see if I've reached those goals or not, and perhaps adjust my goals if they are too high or too low.

In regards to professional development, I figure that it would be very similar to the spreadsheet for working out. But how does one measure the advancement of skill or expertise in regards to public speaking, or say writing? I want to say through tests about, perhaps, speaking and writing etiquette, as well as through assignments such as giving a speech or writing an essay, and then getting feedback in the form of grades and/or critiques. 

I am working on an educational program where we need to measure the professional development of our students/associates.  Whether you've worked on similar programs, have experience with them in any way, or you just have ideas, please tell me what your thoughts are! Thank you! 

edit: I can think of multiple choice tests, mock interviews, and speeches. I don't know why I've been assigned this task because I think that what I've just listed are examples of measurement. Maybe the real question is how to effectively measure assignments and projects.

[Sal9000]

We used Kanban boards at work. By doing so, we could see who was lagging behind and who did not want to take up big tasks. I highly recommend them when comparing people within a team.