Three Critical Factors in the Intelligence Activity: Product, Process and Personnel (the 3P Project)

Abstract

3P derives from the three very important categories / areas in defining a reform process of the national security intelligence analysis, namely: – Process (the analysis activity, with his entire set of methods or means, internal procedures and standards, but also, with its various types of organization); – Product (the results of the analysis activity, the products which are sent to beneficiaries / users and the feedback or the requests for information from the intelligence consumers); – Personnel (the intelligence analyst, as well as the process of its selection and training). Why these three P? I must confess that the idea of trying to define the analysis activity, and implicitly, the main parts of a reform in this important area for the activity of each intelligence service came following some discussions I had with colleagues, experts and intelligence analysts. I worked, as co-author, to a paper (presented within an international forum) concerning the evolution of intelligence analysis on these three categories: process, product and personnel. Afterward, I found there is a whole literature that defines the management processes (especially in corporations) or the performance in an organization / company in the 3P logic. So, I will briefly approach, from a theoretical point of view, the subject of intelligence analysis reform, and I will talk about practical component, starting from those three identified essential factors.