The design of the Career Dimensions systems is based on the model created by a team of nationally prominent educators, and psychologists from Columbia University Teachers College, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. The system model was first implemented in the design of the Education & Career Exploration System (ECES) for use by students and the Employee Development Planning System (EDPS) for workers in career transition. The development of these early pioneering systems was sponsored by the IBM Corporation.

The chief architect and team leader for these systems was Professor Donald E. Super, of Columbia University Teachers College, then President of the American Psychological Association Division of Counseling Psychology and internationally recognized for his theories and research that culminated in his "Career Life Span & Life Space" theory. Other team members were Professor Roger A. Myers of the Columbia University Teachers College, past president of the American Psychological Association Division of Counseling Psychology and co-developer of the Career Development Inventory, Professor David Tiedeman, then of Harvard University, best known for his theories in career decision making and the development of a pilot system named the "Information System for Vocational Decisions sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, and Professor David Campbell, then of the University of Minnesota and co-developer of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and developer of the Campbell Interest & Skill Inventory. Dr. Frank J. Minor, Senior Psychologist for the IBM Corporation was the overall IBM project director throughout the development and evaluation of these IBM sponsored systems.