The monthly meeting of the OA Users Group was held 7 December 1995, in the Rm 249 conference room of the Armstrong Laboratory, Human Resources Directorate building, Brooks AFB, Texas. Squadron Leader Herlihy, AL/HRMJ (RAAF Exchange), opened the meeting at about 1410 hours; those in attendance included:

SqLdr John Herlihy   AL/HRMJ         536-3222 Herlihy@alhrm.brooks.af.mil
Johnny Weissmuller   Metrica & IJOA  340-8211 MPT@metricanet.com 
Janice Buchhorn      AL/HRTD         536-2932 Buchhorn@alhrt.brooks.af.mil
Timothy O'Neil       AFOMS/OMYX      652-5811 ONealT@mail.omsq.af.mil
Elena Weber          AFOMS/OMYX      652-5811 Weber@mail.omsq.af.mil
Joe Bergman          AFOMS/OMYA      653-3696 Bergman@mail.omsq.af.mil
David Tucker         IJOA & Metrica  536-3957 Tucker@cobra.brooks.af.mil
Darryl Hand          Metrica         340-8211 codap@metricanet.com
Ian Mitchell         IJOA & Metrica  340-8211 IanM@metricanet.com
Jimmy Mitchell       IJOA            349-8525 IJOAJLM@AOL.COM
J. S. Tartell        AFOMS/OMY       652-6623 Tartell@mail.omsq.af.mil
Walter Albert        AL/HRMJ         536-3222 Albert@alhrm.brooks.af.mil

1. Darryl Hand, Metrica, Inc., reported there has been little recent activity in terms of changes to the CODAP software. The government shutdown in November precluded any major activity. Darryl indicated he is still working on a internet CODAP user interface. The system can be addressed via the CODAP homepage:[http://metricanet.com/groups/codap/index.html]. Messages, etc. can be send via CODAP@metricanet.com. The information can also be accessed through the Metrica home page: [http:://metricanet.com].

2. David Tucker discussed the status of AUTHOR. He indicated he had reloaded the AUTHOR software on Janice Buchhornžs 386 without difficulty and uploaded QAF cases with no problem; this is the same experience he had with loading the software to his notebook computer. The continuing problems with attempting to load case data on Tim O'Neil's machine at AFOMS were discussed, and Tucker agreed to visit OMS on Tuesday, 12 December, to try to troubleshoot the problem.

3. Mr. Tartell indicated that he had to make a decision within the next couple of days on using computer-based surveys versus printing paper-and-pencil surveys. He expressed his concern that if data cannot be uploaded or computer surveys mastered, then he has no option but to revert to OMS standard operations. He asked the status of the Behavioral Scientist survey, and Dr. Mitchell provided two diskettes with an operational version of this survey. Mitchell also requested that the survey be thoroughly quality controlled, since the draft task list contained several misspelled words, before a final master disk was generated for reproduction. Mr. Bergman agreed that this would be done as soon as possible.

4. Mr. Tartell said he had six surveys waiting, including Medical Administration, the Enlisted PME survey, and the Officer PME. Dr. Mitchell indicated that whatever surveys Mr. Tartell wanted done could be accomplished, but that the PME projects for January administration were particularly promising. These surveys are approximately 10,000 cases each and thus computer-bases surveys would maximize savings in survey costs. They would also be the best test of computer availability and yield comprehensive data in terms of the exit survey (availability of equipment and attitudes of respondents).

5. Mr. Weissmuller indicated that each master disk needs to include Metrica-developed virus checking software, which would detect any boot virus by comparing the size of the boot sector. This would not catch Trojan Horse viruses, but these are typically in executable program files rather than in case data files and would not impact uploading case data. The new virus program can also be set to halt survey administration and alert respondents that the equipment they are using needs to be checked. The consensus of the group was that such virus checking would be very worthwhile, and the new programs should be added to master disks.

6. Ms. Weber indicated that she had some problems with the format of case data uploaded via AUTHOR, in that the present configuration generates the questions themselves rather than their titles, and normal CODAP variable listings are limited in size so that the questions are truncated. Another issue involves Task Inventory Analysis Requirements Application (TIARA) files and how they have to be processed before they can be entered directly into AUTHOR as a basis for editing an old task list. If the old CODAP file is used, there is no problem, and task lists can be used with little translation (Ian Mitchell indicated a program to transform such files could be written very easily). Apparently the biggest problem for OMYV involves having to enter all the background questions into AUTHOR; there should be a way to have the standard background items available as a selectable option. Lists of equipment, etc., which are unique to an AFS would still require manual entry. Ms. Weber indicated that she would work out the various standard background options (i.e., enlisted, enlisted/officer, enlisted/officer/civilian, etc.); she will provide IJOA with information to examine how to have these as selectable background options.

7. Tim O'Neil also asked the status of the next HAILS upload; he is leaving to attend the NCO Academy for a couple of months, and would like to distribute an updated HAILS to normal FIDO users in early January. Mr. Weissmuller indicated that the AL staff would be finished with the updated AFS change file within the next week or so, and we would then just be waiting for updated AFOMS/OMY Occupational Analysis (OA) status to build an update disk. Ms Weber indicated that the OA status file would be built in a data base system (such as MS Access) in the future, to permit easy updating and use. O'Neil indicated that he would distribute FIDO and HAILS in January but would only provide a HAILS update release in the future, thus eliminating the voluminous FIDO paper files. So far, all FIDO users he has contacted have been agreeable to convert to a computer-file system.

8. Mr. Weissmuller indicated that in addition to HAILS, the Task 12 project produced a comprehensive library of all current task lists in a single data base, which could possibly be included in HAILS at some future date. For the present the task list library will serve as an OA snapshot of specialties, which will be useful to a number of potential users. It is a critical requirement for several on-going R&D projects, and an analysis of the task modules (particularly the Mission Essential Modules or MEMs) will serve as a basis for starting comparisons of specialties for possible mergers in the Job Structuring project.

9. SqLdr Herlihy briefly discussed his experience using OMS task lists; he noted that OMYV has recently updated the Task List Developer's Guide which is the standard operating procedure for task developers. He observed that some of the task lists he is working with evidenced a number of tasks which do not meet the criteria outlined in the Guide. This makes it difficult to use such tasks in collecting Absolute Time data from AFS incumbents. Thus, he has found it necessary to edit and revise some of the OMS tasks. This led to some discussion of the various attributes of a "good" task in terms of being non-overlapping, time ratable, etc.

10. The next meeting is scheduled for 1400 hours, 11 January 1996, at the Air Force Occupational Measurement Squadron conference room, Hanger 13, Randolph AFB, Texas.