14 Facts About Intelligence analysis

Intelligence analysis is the application of individual and collective cognitive methods to weigh data and test hypotheses within a secret socio-cultural context.

Intelligence analysis is a way of reducing the ambiguity of highly ambiguous situations.

The analyst must avoid the special cognitive traps for intelligence analysis projecting what she or he wants the opponent to think, and using available information to justify that conclusion.

Writers on analysis have suggested reasons why analysts come to incorrect conclusions, by falling into cognitive traps for intelligence analysis.

Intelligence analysis stood his ground, however; the Agency supported him, and eventually he was proven right.

Intelligence analysis analysts are expected to give policymakers' opinions both support and reality checks.

Intelligence analysis consumers express great frustration with generic papers that waste their time by giving them context they already have internalized.

The US Intelligence analysis Community uses some formal definition of the kinds of information.

An Intelligence analysis should have a summary of the key characteristics of the topic, followed by the key variables and choices.

Increasingly deep Intelligence analysis can explain the internal dynamics of the matter being studied, and eventually to prediction, known as estimation.

Purpose of intelligence analysis is to reveal to a specific decision maker the underlying significance of selected target information.

Opportunity Intelligence analysis identifies for policy officials opportunities or vulnerabilities that the customer's organization can exploit to advance a policy, as well as dangers that could undermine a policy.

Intelligence analysis substituted linchpin analysis for the hypotheses driving key variables.

Intelligence analysis wanted better analysis to be applied to less information, rather than the reverse.