Designing Support for Intelligence Analysts

Abstract

Intelligence analysis is a prototypical example of a situation that can be described by the phrase “coping with complexity,” given a variety of complicating factors including (but certainly not limited to) massive amounts of data, inherent uncertainty in the data, dynamism in the underlying world, and the risks associated with the conclusions drawn from the data. Given this complex nature of intelligence analysis, a wide variety of advanced visualization tools are continually being developed in hopes of designing support for the analysis process. In addition, a number of different cognitive analysis activities are ongoing in hopes of deriving requirements for future support tools. The goal of this panel is to present a sample from both areas in hopes of providing an integration of efforts and thus more effective support tools for intelligence analysts. We have four speakers presenting an analytic perspective, one from a tool development perspective, and one from a support function (the medium between analysis and design) perspective. This should provide an interesting set of complementary discussions into this topic area.