Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
programming. IBM itself created several modifi cations to its original
PAT, including the Revised Programmer Aptitude Test (1959) and the
Data Processing Aptitude Test (1964), although neither successfully
replaced the popular PAT.
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The Computer Usage Company's version of
a programmer aptitude test required examinees to solve logical problems
using the console lights on an IBM 1401 computer.
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The Aptitude
Assessment Battery: Programming, developed in 1967 by Jack Wolfe, a
prominent critic of IBM PAT, eliminated mathematics and concentrated
on an applicant's ability to focus intensively on complex, multiple-step
problems.
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The Programmer Aptitude and Competence System required
examinees to develop actual programs using a simplifi ed programming
language.
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The Basic Programmer Knowledge Test (1966) tested every-
thing from design and coding to testing and documentation.
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Personality Profi les
Since even their most enthusiastic advocates recognized the limitations
of aptitude testing, most particularly their narrow focus on mathematics
and logic, many employers also developed personality profi les that they
hoped would help isolate the less tangible characteristics that made for
a good programmer trainee. Some of these characteristics, such as being
task oriented or detail minded, overlapped with the skills measured by
more conventional aptitude tests. Many simply reinforced the conven-
tional wisdom captured by the “Talk of the Town” column almost a
decade earlier. “Creativity is a major attribute of technically oriented
people,” suggested one representative profi le. “Look for those who like
intellectual challenge rather than interpersonal relations or managerial
decision-making. Look for the chess player, the solver of mathematical
puzzles.”
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But other profi les emphasized different, less obvious personal-
ity traits such as imagination, ingenuity, strong verbal abilities, and a
desire to express oneself.
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Still others tested for even more elusive quali-
ties, such as emotional stability.
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Such traits were obviously diffi cult to
capture in a standard, skills-oriented aptitude test. Personality profi les
relied instead on a combination of psychological testing, vocational inter-
est surveys, and personal histories to provide a richer, more nuanced set
of criteria on which to evaluate programmers.
The idea that particular personality traits might be useful indicators
of programming ability was clearly a legacy of the origins of program-
ming in the early 1950s. The central assumption was that programming
ability was an innate rather than a learned ability, something to be
