History of atCODAP & Sensible Systems (1982-2005)

Note: Do not use phone numbers or addresses shown in the historical information provided below. 
Use only the contact information shown on the atCODAP Home Page:

<atCODAP Home Page>

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To understand Sensible Systems, Inc. (SSI) service support policy, one must understand SSI's origin and commitments. All SSI principals are prior military whose job it was to "give away" the Comprehensive Occupational Data Analysis Programs (CODAP) system. Under the mandated, federal transfer-of-technology programs, CODAP was to be given to other branches of the service, other federal departments, and state & local governmental agencies. Many of these organizations did not have mainframe computers, let alone the esoteric mainframe (Univac/Sperry/Unisys) on which CODAP was programmed. The "give-away" program met with limited success.

When the give-away did succeed, the assistance needs levied by recipients were almost overwhelming. The reason for this were two-fold. One, the same two programmers who gave-away and supported the CODAP system were the ONLY two programmers the Air Force had assigned to support both their on-going operational and advanced research programs.

The second reason for limited success was a lack of experience by the project director in the CODAP methodology. While many qualified job analysts are competent in a number of OA methodologies, the CODAP OA methodology has become quite structured since inception in 1964 and operational deployment in 1967. Moreover, their is a mistaken perception that reading the PROGRAM manuals provides all specification required to use the CODAP system -- this is in error. There are PROCEDURAL manuals which cover "off-computer" practices and these manuals are not maintained by the programming staff as it does not affect their jobs and they have no way to audit these aspects of the data.

The PROCEDURAL manuals include standards for the construction of the text in task statements as well as how task statements should relate to each other. The software assumes all statements have been properly constituted so that assumptions have been met in order to produce a valid job structure diagram. These assumptions cover level of specificity, mutual exclusivity and exhaustiveness. Unfortunately, if the assumptions are not met, the software will still produce a job structure diagram, but it will be worse than wrong -- it will look impressive, it will come from a computer, and it will consume many workhours in a vain attempt to interpret a random number solution! For this reason, SSI strongly recommends that clients obtain outside consulting firm assistance at least through inventory development to ensure valid CODAP product.

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Sensible Systems, Inc. (SSI) was incorporated 6 April 1982 to provide a technology base which would assist organizations in establishing and maintaining an in-house, occupational analysis (OA) program. The two primary tools developed include a microcomputer based version of Comprehensive Occupational Data Analysis Programs (CODAP) system called atCODAP (1987) and an automated (1982) and disk-based (1990) job inventory administration system called atSURVEY.

SSI was incorporated in 1982 to create a commercial firm to carry out our "transfer-of-technology" mission. We wanted to keep the best of our historical experience, but yet be free enough to move in new directions for non-military environments. After unsuccessful trademark applications (like "Task Anchored Personnel Systems, or TAPS), the SSI product name of "atCODAP" was selected. "atCODAP" stands for anchored to CODAP, but not limited by it." The software is "anchored to CODAP" in the sense that all publicly documented algorithms reported as of 1982 are supported. While the original CODAP system in programmed primarily in FORTRAN, the prototype atCODAP system was programmed in C++ under Unix, and the current atCODAP system is programmed in Turbo Pascal under MS-DOS. Totally rewritten and redesigned, atCODAP bears little resemblance to other Mainframe/RISC CODAP systems other than in printed reports. Internal file structures are different and atCODAP spans farther into the OA life-cycle with inventory development tools and inventory administration tools up front, and KSA linkage and item analysis at the applications end.

As new programs have been announced since 1982, they have been incorporated. When programs have been announced and their algorithms withheld, internal, independent research is accomplished to produce a functionally equivalent product for the analyst though the number, size, and distribution of the target metrics may be different. Just one example of the "limited drift" of the anchor analogy comes from a suite of programs in atCODAP which do not exist in mainframe CODAP. This suite of programs is called Job Linkage Assessment Procedures (JLAP) and contains programs for capturing Master KSA Lists, linking KSA Lists to Task Modules, linking Task Modules to Training Paragraphs and linking Task Modules to Test Items, and reporting item level test statistics. These programs were used to help the Internal Revenue Service validate the training of people they hire to answer tax questions either over the phone or in person.

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Our clients include educational institutions, consulting firms, and end-user agencies. SSI's goal is to service as many clients as possible with the understanding that SSI's business hours are nights and week-ends. In other words, at the present time, Sensible Systems, Inc. (SSI) is a technology-base company, not a consulting firm.

If you are generating an inventory for the first time, you will probably require a consulting firm -- even if you don't think so! atCODAP comes with GENBOOK which prompts you for questions then formats it to JOBSUR standards, but there are a diverse number of issues which should be resolved BEFORE authoring a survey item. Our general observation is that responsible (and adequately funded) organizations should use a consulting firm for the first two projects. Watch the experts on the first project, and make them watch you do the second. Sensible can provide a list of consulting firms or other end-users in your field.

A good place to start in constructing an inventory is with a previous inventory. SSI has been collecting "public domain" job inventories and turning them over to the Institute for Job and Occupational Analysis (IJOA). IJOA is considering a project to master a CD-ROM with all public domain inventories. SSI has offered to work on semantic indexing and accessing software for that collection. IJOA may be reached at - Institute for Job and Occupational Analysis (IJOA), Attn: Mr. William J. Phalen, Director, 10010 San Pedro Ave, Suite 440, San Antonio, TX 78216-3856 (210) 349-8525 (www.ijoa.org).

Because SSI's business hours are nights and week-ends, technology-related questions and answers are handled via email. SSI principals work for other firms during the normal business day. For quick questions, you can be given a daytime number, but for anything else, email is actual a MUCH better way for us. We ask that you email a note describing the problem on your email proper and attach a file with a screen capture showing the error ([PrtScr], then Paste into Word), and a copy of the control file for us to review.

As noted above, if a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement is negotiated, we will distribute the "AUTHOR" system -- a windows based interface to master automated surveys using the new OASurv program.  The "AUTHOR" system can also aggregate completed floppies for direct input into atCODAP.  When this takes place, the 1989 "atSURVEY" program and "GENBOOK" will be retired and desupported. 

If we make available CODAP-related tutorials, what would you like to see? Send snail-mail and drop me a line at: Sensible Systems, Inc., Attn: Johnny J. Weissmuller, 10218 Lorene Lane, San Antonio, Texas 78216-4409 voice (210) 379-6570.

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