TaskArchitect - Version 3

TaskArchitect is the task analysis tool relied upon by organizations around the world for their mission critical projects.

Whether using task analysis for complex system design or to create documentation or training materials, TaskArchitect enables users to work more efficiently and produce exceptional results.

New in Version 3

A picture is worth a thousand words. Now you can automatically generate a picture to show where tasks are conducted in the workplace, how workers move between tasks and display information about tasks at each location.

Discover the other new features now in TaskArchitect v3.

Pro, Standard, and Reviewer Editions

All of our new editions contain all of the new features - the difference is just in the size of applications that they support. TaskArchitect Pro Edition supports massive analyses of over 4000 tasks. For smaller analyses TaskArchitect Standard Edition covers all of the bases. TaskArchitect Reviewer allows your customers to read and comment on your analyses without needing to purchase TaskArchitect. It is also a trial of the full version and suitable for small, academic examples.

The Pro Edition supports up to 4000 tasks and 100 properties. Typical application: Large, complex analyses

The Standard Edition supports up to 200 tasks and 20 properties. If larger analyses are opened then the tasks will be displayed but they may not be edited. One property may be edited for supplying comments. This supports reviews of large analyses created using the Pro version. Typical application: Standard size analyses; parts of large, complex analyses.

The Reviewer Edition is intended as a trial of TaskArchitect and a free version to distribute to reviewers of your data. It supports up to 20 tasks and 10 properties. Larger analyses are opened then the tasks will be displayed but they may not be edited. One property may be edited for supplying comments. Typical application: Trial of TaskArchitect, review of files, educational use.

	Review	Standard	Pro
Maximum number of tasks	20	200	4000
Maximum number of properties	10	20	100
Opens all TaskArchitect 2 files
Always one property available for editing
Spell checker
Link analysis
Timeline analysis
Location map
Analysis checker
Attach/detach tasks

3 Languages

TaskArchitect is being used by companies around the world. It is available now in English, French and Japanese. Other languages are available on demand.

Standard Features

TaskArchitect delivers:

• Simplicity in recording and organizing tasks
• Point and click creation of plans, with logic clearly shown
• Automatic re-numbering of tasks and plans after each edit
• Automatic generation of a variety of clearly laid out task diagrams
• Flexibility in recording task details
• Support for any analysis goal
• Support for collaboration between analysts
• Rapid production of reports
• Easy export for re-use in other tools

TaskArchitect Professional Edition includes all of the tools necessary to carry out full-scale task analyses in many different domains. It currently supports models of up to 4000 nodes and with 40 properties on each task.

A free trial of TaskArchitect Professional is available for download. Please contact our sales department for further information about Task Architect products and solutions.

Learn more about TaskArchitect Academic Solutions for educational institutions.

Simplicity in recording and organizing tasks

It's critical that tasks can be entered quickly and re-arranged on the fly. TaskArchitect supports this through both the creation of indented lists of tasks and the moving of tasks around in a task diagram. Parent and sibling selection, cut-and-paste, drag and drop, and task references are supported all analysis diagrams in order to allow the user to reshape and duplicate areas of the analysis quickly and easily. It's so simple that analyses can be edited on the fly with subject matter experts.

Because TaskArchitect captures the relationships between tasks, and can redraw the analysis automatically after every edit, there is no need for the analyst to worry about redrawing task diagrams after each change is made. This provides you with task tables and task diagrams, linked together to allow you to quickly move between either format.

Tabular View

Left-right View

Back to top

Point-and-click task plan creation

In order to make task plan generation easier and more accurate, TaskArchitect includes a plan editor that makes entering and editing plans a point-and-click operation. The logical flow of the plan is illustrated both graphically and as simple statements.

By automatically generating a graphic flowchart of the plan, TaskArchitect ensures that the plan will be specified with precision and interpreted correctly by other users.

Plans can also be entered rapidly in plain English - more flexibility, more speed.


Plan Editor

Back to top

Automatic re-numbering of tasks and plans after edits

With TaskArchitect, there is no longer any need to re-enter task numbers and plans if a task is moved - this process is fully automated, removing one of the biggest inefficiencies of task analysis.

Back to top

Automatic generation of a variety of clearly laid out task diagrams

TaskArchitect has focused on the visual design of the task diagrams in order to maximize the ease of understanding the overall shape of the layout and the arrangement of groups of tasks. This makes it easy to understand large, complex hierarchies while allowing the analysis to focus on the detail of plans, tasks and task properties.

The automatic layout of the tasks after editing means that the display of the hierarchy does not have to be re-arranged every time changes are made. This saves an enormous amount of work and enables analysts to take on larger and more complex projects. It also makes communicating the results a snap.

Each branch of the hierarchy can be expanded and collapsed in every view, allowing you to decide what information is communicated by the task diagrams. The Vertical Slice View automatically contracts the hierarchy to just the tasks you want to display - the reviewer's focus is now clearly on the key tasks instead of spread across wide diagrams.

One of an analyst's key requirements is the ability to communicate the results of their work clearly. TaskArchitect provides multiple views of task hierarchy to meet this need.

In addition to the graphical forms supported in TaskArchitect, a tabular view enables task details to be quickly entered, edited and displayed. We've even combined the two types of view - allowing you to highlight tasks in a diagram automatically according to the values of selected task details e.g. type of tool being used, task frequency, task difficulty and other details can all be highlighted in task diagrams.

Page View now automatically splits the task diagram (Overview) elegantly across the printed page after each edit. Now tasks are grouped automatically into hierarchical chunks, including the use of task ladders (combs) and staggering of tasks within a level. No more shuffling of tasks around to make them fit on a page.

Additional features such as print registration marks and print preview and make life easier.

This means fast, fast, fast report production. And export of the Left-Right diagrams as well as Overview to Visio ^TM enable the analyst to add their final touches to their diagrams.

Tabular View	Left-right View
Overview	Vertical Slice View
Form View	Page View
Timeline	Link Analysis
Location map

Location Map

The ability to show where tasks are carried out in the workplace and how workers move between them will bring your task analysis to life. Whether you need to show movement around a factory, interactions on a screen or button presses on a product the diagrams will help communicate key information such as frequency and proportion of work at a particular area, flow between work locations and changes to these as work places are re-arranged. Any numeric information about a task can be displayed on a map of the workplace allowing the analyst the flexibility to decide what they need to communicate to their audience..

Location Map - transitions

Location Map - task count

Location Map - properties count

Back to top

Flexibility in recording task details

TaskArchitect allows users to capture detailed information about each task, in any form the user chooses.

Using multiple choice fields, pictures, text fields, numbers, rating scales, Boolean expressions, hyperlinks within analyses and between analyses, durations, calculated values, logical combinations of values (e.g. DIF calculations), and references to external documents users can capture a wide range of information about each task. This allows users to build their style of analysis into the tool. TaskArchitect now supports up to 100 property definitions in a single file (Pro Edition).

Cascading calculations across tasks as well as within tasks (e.g. highest rating in the analysis, total duration, total cost …) support the rapid combination of data in order to draw conclusions about the tasks.

Timeline analysis, Link analysis and Location Analysis take task analysis into new dimensions. By enabling the creation of timelines and analysis of task linkages within one package TaskArchitect becomes a workbench for human factors analysis.

Examples of task details include

• Task frequency
• Competencies
• Typical errors
• Need for training
• Example
• Picture of action
• Difficulty + Frequency + Importance

The new floating task details window and direct access to property values in the Tabular View mean that data entry just got faster. And the ability to scroll through the properties in the Tabular View allows you to have all of the data at your finger tips.

The Spell Checker keeps your content professionally finished. The Analysis Checker provides the flexibility to review each task against your in-house analysis rules.

Tabular View with task properties

Back to top

Design supports any analysis goal

TaskArchitect recognizes that there are as many ways to carry out task analysis as there are organizations using the technique. Successful task analysis is largely due to the ability of tools used to match the style of the analyst and the needs of their work. TaskArchitect was designed to allow analysts to use their preferred style of working as opposed to conforming to a single predetermined style.

By selecting the task details that you want to record and deciding on their definition and acceptable values, the analyst can configure TaskArchitect as an aid to collecting and analyzing exactly the information that is important to them.

Here are a few examples of analysis goals that have been achieved using TaskArchitect

• Human error analysis
• Comparison of software releases
• Training needs analysis
• Risk Analysis
• Systems Design

TaskArchitect simplifies the creation of analyses by supplying templates (Human Error Analysis - SHERPA, Training Needs Analysis - DIF, and Timeline Analysis). Previous analyses can be used as the foundation of the next piece of work, simply import the definitions that apply to the new situation.

Some TaskArchitect templates

Back to top

Support for collaboration between analysts

TaskArchitect helps the user to record the status of any and all tasks graphically - for example, tasks that are still in draft form or tasks where a decision has been made to stop further analysis. This clear indication of the state of the analysis is provided to both the original author and other analysts.

TaskArchitect automatically records the name of the person who last edited a task and when that edit was carried out. This makes it easier to track and review changes.

Tasks can be detached from the analysis, sent to other analysts for development, then re-attached at a later date. New hyperlinks between analysis files as well create live jumps between analyses.This helps collaboration and assists analysts in tackling larger projects.

Analysis templates encourage consistency between analysts by pre-defining the task details and acceptable values that can be recorded. Individual tasks and properties can be imported from other files, as can property definitions. Cut and paste across files, with multiple analyses open at once makes re-use of work even easier.

The re-designed import feature allows the quick matching of your columns of data to the data already defined in TaskArchitect. In many cases most items will be automatically matched for you. And with formatting removed in the exported TaskArchitect files it's now easier to round trip data - from TaskArchitect to Excel then back to TaskArchitect again.

Easier import and round tripping

Back to top

Rapid production of reports

Task Architect understands that the ability to export task diagrams, task lists and task tables for quick incorporation into documents and spreadsheets is a major requirement of ongoing use of task analysis tools.

• Pre-defined reports to quickly produce specifically defined compilations of their results.
• Export of the raw data to spreadsheets for further calculation of results.
• Export to Visio^TM for re-configuring diagrams to provide extra emphasis.

Templates for report output can be created using html so that the look of reports is tailored to the company needs, and data can be filtered on report production and export to provide the right focus in report content.

Task Highlighting automatically changes the appearance of tasks according to the data recorded about them. For instance, all critical tasks can be given a particular box shape or color, or all tasks at a given level can be highlighted in one color. Task Highlights can appear in the Tabular view and/or any of the diagram views.

Page View enabled fast, fast, fast report production: automatically have your analysis split across pages

Page View

Tabular Page Layout

Back to top

Easy export for re-use in other tools

TaskArchitect can be used as a front end to complex simulation and modeling tools. With XML, tab delimited text and comma-delimited text as standard export formats, transferring your data to and from other tools can be easy. TaskArchitect can also produce customized export modules to meet your needs.

TaskArchitect has been designed as a foundational tool for analysts to build their work on.

Back to top