Writing to the Analytic Tradecraft Standards for Intelligence Analysis I

This course examines the first four Analytic Tradecraft Standards and how to apply them to written intelligence analysis products. Gaining a better understanding of the standards will help improve the quality of your written intelligence products.

Enroll in ICIC103

About This Intelligence Community Course

After the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, and the Director of National Intelligence signed Intelligence Community Directive 203—Analytic Standards— and ICD 206—Sourcing Requirements for Disseminated Analytic Products—the Intelligence Community has used the analytic tradecraft standards contained in these mandates to review all intelligence analytic products.

These standards mandate that intelligence analysts properly review areas—for example, quality and credibility of underlying sources, expressing analytic certainty and explicitly identifying assumptions. Fully understanding all the ATS is critical to ensuring the quality and efficacy of your intelligence products in support of your customers.

In this course, we will cover the first four standards:

  • ATS 1 – Sourcing Defense Intelligence Analysis
  • ATS 2 – Expressing Analytic Certainty
  • ATS 3 – Distinguishing Underlying Intelligence from Assumptions and Judgments
  • ATS 4 – Analysis of Alternatives

What You Will Learn

  • ATS 1 – Explain the importance of sourcing to production of analytic products
  • ATS 2 – Demonstrate the ability to express analytic certainty
  • ATS 3 – Demonstrate why distinguishing between underlying intelligence and analysts’ assumptions and judgments is important to analytic production
  • ATS 4 – Demonstrate why developing analytic alternatives and providing those to policymakers and warfighters is important to analytic product quality

This course is the second in a three-part FedLearn learning series.

Who Should Take This Course

Anyone interested in learning more (or gaining a refresher) about the Analytic Tradecraft Standards—particularly, intelligence analysts working in either Federal government agencies or government contractor companies.

Prerequisites

Analytic Tradecraft Writing for Intelligence (ICIC101) is the prerequisite for this course.

After finishing this course, it is highly recommended to take the third course in the series, Writing to the Analytic Tradecraft Standards for Intelligence II (ICIC104), to continue to advance your knowledge.

Course Certificate

To achieve a course certificate of completion, you must score 80 percent or higher on graded lesson quizzes and a final exam.

Course Format

Self-paced, online training course

Course Pricing

Individual courses are $124.99 (per person)

Seat licenses to access the entire FedLearn Intelligence Community catalog are also available. Click here to learn more and purchase

If you are interested in learning about special team rates for Federal government and government contractor organizations, email [email protected].

Continuing Education Unit Credits

This course provides .8 CEUs.