MGT 7-1.indd - KMI Media Group

There are also important analytic challenges facing us in how
we plan for postcombat stability operations. These plans must be
focused around the people, taking into account culture, environment,
existing facilities and filling any gaps created during the
military conflict. This part of the mission must follow the guidance
laid out in the recently released Army Field Manual 3-07, Stability
Operations. We, in turn, must respond with systems that can sift
through vast amounts of data to yield information that is relevant to
the situation at hand. We also must put in place those informationsharing
processes that will help our warfighters leverage extant intelligence
and analysis.
Q: A while back the Missile and Space Intelligence Center [MSIC]
won an award for its innovative development and deployment of
GEOINT-enabled analysis architecture. Can you give us an update
of this effort?
A: Within the last few months, MSIC began an initiative to improve
and build upon the Foreign Missile Test Range Analysis architecture,
which is the program for which it won the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence
Foundation Intelligence Achievement Award. This follow-on
effort will include more extensive training for all-source analysts,
more interaction between all-source analysts and tool developers,
utilization of state-of-the-art analytical tools and network appliances,
ingestion and display of additional intelligence data sources
and improved modeling of geospatial scenes. All of these efforts are
expected to expand and improve this highly successful GEOINT-enabled
tool and increase its utilization by MSIC’s all-source analysts.
Q: How are analysts using collaboration tools to enhance information
sharing, and thus, all-source intelligence?
A: In an effort to broaden our information horizons, it’s important to
realize that not all of the perspectives we need for our analysis reside
in the intelligence community. We are continually looking for ways
to engage non-IC specialists to leverage their unique knowledge,
nontraditional views and the varied experience and contacts they can
bring to bear. The days in which the IC has a monopoly on information
are long since over. The challenge now is to access the abundance
of information, rationalize it and make a more informed future
projection. Thus, we need to engage much more broadly and apply
classified added value to provide decision advantage to our leaders.
The director of national intelligence issued Intelligence Community
Directive [ICD] 205 on Analytic Outreach, which directs us
to tap into outside expertise as part and parcel of how we do business.
With security concerns, access and funding issues and priorities,
however, this is easier said than done. In response to this need, we’ve
created an outreach-coordination function to help our analysts find
and engage subject-matter experts, whether it be attending a conference
or networking informally. We’ve also stood up an Open Source
Program Office to help analysts access and use information already
existing in the public domain that can be used to provide further
context to their analysis. We hope that as our analysts participate
more fully and systematically in these activities, they will begin to
take on leadership roles and organize outreach activities or special
events that they deem worthwhile.
In terms of technology or applications, we’ve found that in
today’s dynamic environment, where responses to emerging threats
are often time-critical, our traditional work practices and technol-
22 | MGT 7.1
ogy applications are not enough to create the collaborative analysis
required for continued success. In September 2007, the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence [ODNI] designated DIA as the
executive agent to develop and implement A-Space.
A-Space, enhanced by Web 2.0 technology, provides a completely
new classified environment for leveraging social networking capabilities
similar to those made widely available and popular by such
Websites as Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Docs. The essence of
A-Space is quite simple: It is a venue for all analysts to discover
one another and new information sources. That accomplished, new
teams will come into existence organically. These new teams are then
able to discuss, debate and produce analysis within a highly secure
online environment. When leveraged against larger mission challenges,
A-Space becomes more than just social software.
A-Space is just one initiative under the ODNI’s Analytic Transformation
[AT] program. AT works to shift longstanding agency-independent
intelligence operations and encourages greater
collaboration. Enabling analysts to collaborate early in the analytic
process, A-Space will provide the shortest, fastest path to IC expertise
and emerging intelligence insights. The accumulation of peer-reviewed
analysis will allow the IC to manage its collective knowledge
about key intelligence topics without constraints.
Q: The ODNI has made several issuances over the past few years,
including setting analytic and sourcing standards. How have you
implemented these standards, and are you seeing a benefit?
A: Yes, we are seeing a benefit. The quality of our analysis and
production has improved over the last year and a half. Our flagship
product, the Defense Intelligence Digest [DID], has been very well
received by the broader community, including recent kudos from
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. A little over a year
old, the DID has grown in both stature and breadth and now includes
collaboration not only beyond DIA to the service intelligence centers,
combatant commands and other combat support agencies, but further
still to include our Commonwealth partners. We have instituted
checks and balances to improve the quality of our analysis. All DID
articles are reviewed for strict adherence to Intelligence Community
Directive [ICD] 203: Analytic Standards. We’ve also instituted a highlevel
peer review process called the Product Evaluation Board. This
board consists of senior analysts who review and evaluate randomly
selected products totaling approximately 3 percent of our production.
Results from this process show significant improvement across
the tradecraft standards set forth in ICD 203 and ICD 206: Sourcing
Requirements for Disseminated Analytic Products.
Q: With a constant stream of current intelligence demands, such as
the events in Russia/Georgia and most recently the events in India,
how do you ensure your analysis is not getting entirely bogged
down by the daily customer requirements?
A: There is no doubt that we are filling an unprecedented number
of customer requirements for analytical products. But to effectively
meet our customers’ needs for predictive analysis, we absolutely
have to step back and take time to look at bigger regional
and functional pictures; we need to consistently raise our analytic
eyesight. In DI, we’ve embarked on an effort to develop strategic
research plans, looking out over the next two to seven years, which
will guide our long-term analytic efforts against the most impor-
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