Understanding Rigor in Information Analysis

Across information analysis domains, it is often difficult to recognize when analysis is inadequate for a given context. A better understanding of rigor is an analytic broadening check to be leveraged against this uncertainty. The purpose of this research is to refine the understanding of rigor, exploring the concept within the domain of intelligence analysis. Nine professional intelligence analysts participated in a study of how analytic rigor is judged. The results suggest a revised definition of rigor, reframing it as an emergent multi-attribute measure of sufficiency rather than as a measure of process deviation. Based on this insight, a metric for assessing rigor was developed, identifying eight attributes of rigorous analysis. Finally, an alternative model of briefing interactions is proposed that integrates this framing of rigor into an applied context. This research, although specific in focus to intelligence analysis, shows the potential to generalize across forms of information analysis.