There used to be a different process called KSA (knowledge, skills and abilities) that was even worse (from what I hear). I think this application would approach hiring more progressively, but they still need to do things like create written evaluations of candidates explaining why they wanted to move forward (or reject) each candidate. A lot of laws were created to avoid any chance of discrimination (or unfair preference), which leads to a much longer and slower process.

This article might be of help, though I am not at all an expert in this area. http://www.fedsmith.com/2011/10/10/creating-federal-resume-p...