When developing a training curriculum for a new military platform, training analysts and instructional systems designers can use two basic approaches for content analysis: One, a top-down functional analysis of missions and the tasks which support them; or, two, a bottom-up approach of identifying the knowledge and skills required based on the platform systems and tasks. Each approach has different uses and outcomes. Applying both methods, though, has its merits for developing a complete and effective curriculum design.

Since 2004, the training systems support team at Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and The Boeing Company has been performing front-end analysis for the new P-8A Poseidon, a multi-mission maritime aircraft. This effort began with a top-down functional analysis of all aircraft roles and identifying associated mission tasks. The approach was intended to produce a purely task-based curriculum for pilot and mission crews. However, during the process, the team also applied a bottom-up analysis of the curriculum design to verify adequate coverage of content. Similarly a top-down, bottom-up approach was also applied to the instructional strategies to ensure instructional fidelity.

This paper presents a brief overview of the completed front-end analysis process and discusses some of the many lessons learned about the strengths and limitations of a large scale front-end analysis. Also discussed are the roles of instructional strategies in effectively sequencing tasks during design.