Structured Analysis for Security Professionals

Techniques to structure thinking and analysis.

Course Description:

This course offers intelligence professionals insight into how the mind intuitively compiles information, and how to add structure to this process to generate better assessments. In it, we will explore structured techniques designed to generate creativity, increase problem-solving potential, and project forward into prediction and forecasting analysis. Participants should have already attended our Introduction to Critical Thinking course, and be familiar with cognitive biases and logical fallacies.

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Describe structured analytic techniques and the benefit they can bring to analysis
Identify structured analytic techniques appropriate to their analytic requirements
Perform structured analysis to generate more objective assessments

Course Outline:

Day 1:

Introduction to Structured Analysis
Creativity and Idea Generation Techniques

Day 2:

Structuring and Organisation Techniques

Day 3:

Scenario Generation, Evaluation, and Exploration Techniques

Day 4:

Diagnostic and Problem Solving Techniques

Day 5:

Challenge and Contrarian Techniques

Who this course is for:

This course is ideal for analysts of all experience levels as an introduction or refresher to structured analysis and analytic techniques.

Course Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites for this course, but we strongly recommend taking our Introduction to Critical Thinking course first. Participants should be familiar with cognition and logic, cognitive bias, logical fallacy, and critical thinking before attending this course.

Duration:

In-Person Classroom Training: 5 Days, 7 hours of instruction per day*

Virtual/Remote Training: 5 days, 3.5 hours of instruction per day*

* We offer this class both as an in-person classroom event and as online, remote instruction. While the material and instruction is consistent between the two, we are able to offer practical exercises and personal instructor support to the training in-person that we are not able to offer remotely.