Intelligence cycle (target-centric approach)

The traditional intelligence cycle separates collectors, processors, and analysts and too often results in "throwing information over the wall" to become the next person's responsibility.

Because this "compartmentalized process results in formalized and relatively inflexible requirements at each stage, it is more predictable and therefore more vulnerable to an opponent’s countermeasures.”[2] Kurt April and Julian Bessa examined weaknesses of the competitive intelligence community in their article "A Critique of the Strategic Competitive Intelligence Process within a Global Energy Multinational."

According to April and Bessa, CIAD is a linear process where the intelligence product moves upward through the layers of the organization.

They found that the organizational structure associated with CIAD prevents open-sharing of information and ideas, and is a stumbling block to intelligence analysis.”[6] Testifying to the House Committee on Homeland Security Mr. Eliot A. Jardines, President of Open Source Publishing, Incorporated, presented a statement and supported the target-centric approach to intelligence.

According to Mr. Jardines, Dr. Robert Clark "proposes a more target-centric, iterative and collaborative approach which would be far more effective than our current traditional intelligence cycle.

The target-centric model is a network process where the information flows unconstrained among all participants, who also focus on the objective to create a shared picture of the target.

A conceptual model is an abstract invention of the mind that best incorporates and takes advantage of an analyst's thought process.

The model allows the analyst to use a powerful descriptive tool to both estimate current situations and predict future circumstances.

For an analyst to successfully populate a model for a complex target, he or she must find information from a wide range of both classified and unclassified sources.

In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the 9/11 Commission declared that the US intelligence community needed improvements in gathering and sharing information.

General Stanley A. McChrystal wrote in 2014 about a targeting cycle called "F3EA" used in the Iraq War, which stands for: According to Heuer, analysts can always strive to improve estimates, and no method guarantees accurate conclusions every time.

[16] A target-centric model, by its very nature, is a network process that, in its ideal form, is more time-consuming than the traditional cycle.