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The research group aims at constructing a test setting for the performance-based assessment of students´ communication skills - more specifically of students of economics and teacher-training. Using Habermas’ (1984) theory of communicative action and the distinction between strategic and communicative action, conceptual elements were extracted that correspond with the respective communication types, i.e. strategic and understanding-oriented communication. These elements were incorporated in simulated communication situations (role play), which correspond with either a strategic or with an understanding-oriented communication type. The complex situations are tightly coupled to the respective demands of the professional field, as obtained from a German nationwide survey of graduates. A total of 20 role plays were constructed: 10 for each group, 5 with a strategic and 5 with an understanding-oriented layout. The role play scenarios have been currently piloted in two courses at the University of Kassel. Video-recordings thereof served as training material for confederates (i.e. standardized interlocutors) and raters assigned with the task of the observation-based assessment. The role plays were tested and standardized to the respective populations (500 students) in autumn 2016 in 11 randomly selected German higher education institutions.