Task Analysis Data Processing and Enhanced Representations (TAPER)

Task Analysis (TA) is a fundamental part of NASA system design and validation. TAs are used to produce Master Task Lists that support engineering teams and operations specialists during development and validation of system design and procedures. However, current tools make it difficult to share TA insights between collaborators and do not adequately manage, maintain, and visualize complex TA data sets, making it challenging to integrate new data to support an iterative design and procedure development process. Improved TA tools that can better manage and visualize TA results have the potential to mitigate these shortcomings. Charles River Analytics proposes to design and demonstrate a system for Task Analysis Data Processing and Enhanced Representations (TAPER). TAPER will: (1) manage TA data through a modern web service-based data management framework that enables scalable storage, querying, and access to TA data between teams; (2) enable import and export of TA data that supports multiple forms of model development, including cognitive simulation, through a model representation engine; and (3) provide visualizations of TA data models tailored to the unique information needs of different users. Meeting these requirements will dramatically improve TA-supported collaborative design and development in large-scale engineering efforts.