In this lesson, we will discuss:

• The challenges of Intelligence Collection Management.

• The importance of developing Intelligence Collection Management strategies and processes to optimize
the Intelligence Cycle.

Key Learning Concept 1

• Intelligence Collection Management is a relatively new as a functional discipline within the wider
scope of intelligence activities. While there has always been a need for managing collected
information and data, the traditional approaches at managing collection largely centered on
managing the collection platform itself. While this approach was well suited in an age of nascent
collection capabilities, the need developing a viable Intelligence Collection Management functional
discipline grew as collection systems became more complex.

Key Learning Concept 2

• The need for developing a viable Intelligence Collection Management discipline increased as a result
of advances in technology, the integration of systems, and the complexity of the collection enterprise
within the U.S. Intelligence Community. Additionally, within the framework of the global threat
environment, the need for leveraging finite collection resources against multiple threat streams has
highlighted the need for efficiently and effectively linking collection requirements to collection
platforms to gain insight into these threat streams. At the center of this process lies the Intelligence
Collection Management function.

# Lahneman, William J. “Knowledge Sharing in the Intelligence Community After 9/11.” International Journal
of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, 17 (2004): 614–633.
+ OPFOR counterintel
+ information overload
+ Stovepiping, or knowledge ‘‘siloing,

“)Knowledge Management is clearly on the slippery slope of beingintuitively

important but intellectually elusive.1...Knowledge Management involves such a
mixture of technology,corporate culture and general management practices that
a goodknowledge management strategy is inextricably tied up with managingthe
organization itself”

“a good working definition of KM would be ‘‘the ability to bringthe right

people together at the right time, and provide them with the
rightinformation that, when combined with their collective experience
andexpertise, greatly improves their chances of solving particular
problems.’’ “

“IT solutions, though a necessary ingredient for any successful KM

program,are still only tools. Accordingly, while using the wrong tool will
result infailure, merely having the correct tool doesn’t guarantee
success. “

# Joint Chiefs Of Staff Washington Dc. (2004). Joint and National Intelligence
Support to Military Operations: https://doi.org/10.21236/ADA508665
Collection management has two distinct functions: CRM—defining what
intelligence systems must collect—and collection operations management (COM)
—specifying how to satisfy the requirement. CRM focuses on the requirements of
the customer, is all-source oriented, and advocates what information is necessary
for collection. COM focuses on the selection of the specific intelligence
discipline(s) and specific systems within a discipline to collect information to
satisfy the customer’s request. COM is conducted by organizations to determine
which collection assets can best satisfy the customers’ requests

The joint force commander’s collection manager prioritizes collection requirements, defines
the required collection parameters, and recommends the appropriate asset to be assigned to
collect against a particular target. The collection manager, in coordination with the operations
directorate, forwards collection requirements to the component commander exercising
operational and/or tactical control over the theater reconnaissance and surveillance assets. A
mission tasking order goes to the unit selected to be responsible for the accomplishment of
the collection operations. The selected unit makes the final choice of specific platforms that
can satisfy the collection parameters, equipment, and personnel based on such operational
consideration as maintenance schedules, training, and experience.

# Wippl, Joseph W. and Donna D'Andrea. “The Qualities That Make a Great Collection Management Officer.”
International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 27 (2014), pp. 806-814

“Someone who can be classified as a great CMO knows that his=her job
is atthe core of the intelligence collection process. “

+CMO is often pressured to take a particular action that may

runcounter to NCS standards.
-Consumers who see it in draftform may wish to have it prematurely
released to fill a gap in a report, toadd credibility to an analytic thesis,
or even to avoid having to askanother collector to obtain it outside
clandestine channels.

+ attempted politicization of intelligence

+ There’s no playbook for intelligence operations. It’s not as simple as

‘‘InsertTab A into Slot B.’’ So the CMO has to be reasonably comfortable
withuncertainty and ambiguity.

# Wirtz, James J. “Indications and Warning in an Age of Uncertainty.” International Journal of Intelligence
and Counterintelligence 26 (2013), pp. 550–562. Click here.

+ specific event prediction isextraordinarily difficult to achieve in

practice
“That ‘‘bureaucratic politics’’ was a major area of practical and
theoreticalinterest within the U.S. academic and policymaking
communities during the1960s and 1970s was no coincidence because it
did much to explainoperational, procurement, and doctrinal forces that
shaped the activitiesand initiatives of military
organizations.2Organizational behavior was thedominant explanation
used to account for ‘‘irrational consistency’’ on thepart of Soviet
military organizationsin the face of a changing political,strategic and
technological environment. “

+ “The perceptions of analysts and policymakers alike are often shaped

by arationality bias when it comes to assessing the likelihood of some
potentialthreats. Often the actions of non-state actors or rogue regimes
appear‘‘hare-brained’’ or bizarreex antebecause they seem to lack
either strategicor political purpose, or appear extremely unlikely to
yield significanteffects, “

# Intelligence Collection: How to Plan and Execute Intelligence Collection in

Complex Environments
Manyx, Todd
Joint Force Quarterly : JFQ, Second Quarter 2014, Issue 73, pp.120-121
https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/jfq/jfq-73/jfq-73.pdf?ver=2014-
04-01-223847-610

# Butler, C. W., & Schultz, N. O. (1993). Devising an intelligence collection plan.

Security Management; Arlington, 37(3), 66.
“. The critical elements of the typical military intelligence effort include strong
central direction of the effort, an explicit list of management's information needs,
a detailed plan for collecting the data, multiple data collection resources, a
competent and professional data analysis staff, and an intelligence information
distribution network. “

“By identifying its own information needs and priorities, “

# Bundy, W. (1995). The Guiding of Intelligence Collection—Central Intelligence

Agency. Retrieved October 22, 2019, from Central Intelligence Agency Library
website: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-
csi/vol3no1/html/v03i1a04p_0001.htm

+ The essential problem is of course simply one of communication between

human beings.

+The complexity of the problem of guidance is indicated by the variety of

consumers and of collection mechanisms
1. Defining the requirement, or locating intelligence gaps.
2. Stating the requirement for the collector.
3. Selecting the appropriate collection system.
4. Servicing the return, including supplemental requirements.
5. Making specific evaluations and appraising the collector's reporting.

“Of all human activities, I suppose intelligence may be about the least
susceptible to accounting methods or to attempts, at any given moment, to figure
out just how well or badly you may be doing relative to the possible. “

-Bundy, (1959). “The Guiding of Intelligence Collection. Studies in Intelligence,

Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 37-52.