ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the efforts by the Intelligence Community to implement analytical standards and tradecraft. The purpose of analytical tradecraft improves the quality of the product and adds value for the intelligence product consumer. Evaluating information and determining the meaning of information has always been an integral part of the practice of data and intelligence analysis. The chapter discusses the role of structured analytic methods or techniques (SATs) in understanding information to include the functions and types of thinking that occur in the cognitive domain, as well as cognitive factors that impact the quality of thinking during analysis. It explores four analytical tradecraft groupings of SATs : pattern recognition, diagnostic, contrarian, and imaginative. Social network analysis is an analytical technique which describes and maps relationships between individuals, groups, organizations, or resources. Trend analysis, like all analysis, is susceptible to erroneous inputs and subsequent erroneous outputs.
