I__. - International Military Testing Association

are reviewed by the Priorities Working Group (PWG). In addition to USAFOMS
personnel, the PWG consists of representatives from the Air Force Deputy
Chief of Staff for Personnel, the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory
(AFHRL), the Air Force Military Personnel Center (AFMPC), and the ATC technical
and medical training staffs. The PWG selects those specialties which
will be surveyed and assigns relative priorities.
The next step is the development of a job inventory. The job inventory
consists of a comprehensive listing of tasks which may be performed in a
particular occupational field. Inventory developers travel to operational
bases as well as ATC technical training centers for exhaustive interviews
with subject-matter experts. From these interviews, they compile the task
listing and publish it along with background questions as the USAF Job Inventory
for the occupational field under study.
The job inventory is then administered to job incumbents, usually through the
personnel office at each installation. The returned job inventory booklets
undergo a quality control review to correct or eliminate those which have
been improperly completed. Each booklet is reviewed for accuracy and com-
pleteness. This careful quality control of the returned booklets ensures
that the data received are accurate.
Once the booklets are quality controlled, data processing personnel use an
optical scanner to input task responses and background data from returned
inventories into the computer. Computer programming personnel then apply
CODAP programs to create job descriptions and other related products to aid
in data analysis.
Occupational analysts then spend considerable time analyzing the data and
reporting significant trends and implications. USAFOMS publishes the find-
ings and results of the analysis in the form of an Occupational Survey Report
(OSR). The OSR and related data packages are made available to Air Staff,
major commands (MAJCOMs), classification and training personnel, and other
interested Air Force agencies.
The critical final step in the occupational survey process involves working
with the users to apply the data to their particular situation. During this
step, the analyst introduces the user to the data products and gives specific
guidance on how to use the data printouts in making decisions. Once the data
have been analyzed and the OSR has been written and released, the data are
used in a variety of ways. Classification personnel look at career field
structuring, to validate the present structure or recommend restructuring.
USAFOMS psychologists rely heavily on the data to establish the content
validity of enlisted promotion tests. USAFOMS training analysts also use the
data for systems analyses, task analyses, and assessment of education and
training requirements. But, perhaps the most visible use of the OSR data to
date is in determining training requirements. In today’s environment, where
the training dollar is tight, training must be geared only to what the person
will need to do the job effectively. In this regard, the emphasis today is
placed on determining how job incumbents will be used in the first job assignment,
identifying those tasks for which the probability of performance by
airmen in their first assignment is high, and providing initial training on
these tasks. OSR data are the key to designing initial courses that train
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