INTELLIGENCE PRODUCTION CYCLE
[ENGAGEMENT NAME - ENGAGEMENT REF]
The INTELLIGENCE PRODUCTION CYCLE governs how the D-01 portfolio is planned, tasked, produced, and delivered: requirement intake, collection management, production tiers with service levels, quality gates, dissemination, and feedback. It is the process by which a requirement becomes a product; the products themselves are the 63 deliverable cells of this domain, each governed by its own template. This is a repeatable process standard. All engagement-specific values are bracketed placeholders. Do not assert fictional findings or invent data.
Document Control
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Report Reference | [REF-YYYY-###] |
| Date of Report | [YYYY-MM-DD] |
| Classification / Handling | [internal / CONFIDENTIAL] |
| Client | [CLIENT NAME] |
| Requesting Party | [REQUESTER NAME / ID] |
| Prepared By | [ANALYST NAME / ID] |
| Reviewed By | [REVIEWER NAME / ID] |
| Approving Officer | [APPROVER NAME / ID] |
| Version | [0.1.0] |
| Distribution | [NAMED RECIPIENTS] |
Handling & Legal Caveat
Handling: [internal / CONFIDENTIAL]. Access restricted to intelligence production and command roles.
Collection compliance: All collection under this cycle uses publicly available information and lawful open-source techniques only. Technical, human, or clandestine acquisition is outside the OSINT discipline and outside this cycle. Least-intrusive-means applies; copyright and terms-of-service constraints are respected.
Nature of this product: This is a production process standard. It does not deliver legal advice.
Production Snapshot
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Cycle Instance | [STANDING / ENGAGEMENT REF] |
| Active Requirements | [COUNT] |
| Standing Collection Posture | [Low / Moderate / Elevated / High / Critical] |
| Producing Analysts | [INITIALS] |
| Review Authority | [INITIALS] |
Table of Contents
- Purpose, Authority, and Doctrinal Basis
- The Cycle
- Requirement Intake and the Requirements Register
- Collection Management: PIR to Source
- Production Tiers and Service Levels
- Production Calendar and Battle Rhythm Synchronization
- Quality Gates
- Dissemination and Feedback
- Production Metrics
1. Purpose, Authority, and Doctrinal Basis
Instructional tradecraft: Fix ownership and the doctrine the process imports, with coverage bands declared.
- Ownership: the Protective Intelligence lead (CS) owns the cycle, the requirements register, and the collection plan. The Team Leader (RF) approves priority conflicts and posture changes.
- Doctrinal basis: process phasing per ATP 2-22.9 (Plan, Prepare, Collect, Produce) [FULL: OSINT-discipline process authority]. Analytic standards per ICD 203; source grading per the Admiralty system with the ATP 2-22.9 8-band credibility scale [FULL]. Collection management spine PIR to Indicator to SIR to source [PARTIAL: military collection-management method adapted to a civilian protective firm; collection authorities do not transfer].
- Scope: governs every D-01 product family, from flash alerts to twenty-day deep dives; the per-product analytic anatomy lives in each deliverable template.
2. The Cycle
Instructional tradecraft: Phases per ATP 2-22.9, run continuously for standing requirements and per instance for one-time products.
| Phase | Content | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Requirement validated, prioritized, and registered; product family selected; LTIOV set; collection plan drafted | PI lead |
| Prepare | Sources sequenced (tiered source order per the practitioner method); environment and legal constraints checked (region package); non-attribution posture set | Analyst |
| Collect | Collection executed against the plan; each datum graded at capture (A-F x 1-8); gaps logged as they appear | Analyst |
| Produce | Analysis and drafting against the matching deliverable template; SATs applied per template; QC gates (Section 7); release | Analyst + reviewer |
| Disseminate | Delivery per consumer register; readback confirmed for flash traffic | PI lead |
| Feedback | Consumer response, PIR answer status, and reuse recorded; register updated; re-tasking or retirement | PI lead |
3. Requirement Intake and the Requirements Register
Instructional tradecraft: Nothing is produced without a registered requirement. The register is the single queue from which all production is scheduled.
Intake channels:
| Channel | Source | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Detail PIRs | ART-pir-set (D-02, per EP-019) | POI activity, route threats, surveillance indicators |
| Client RFIs | Client or family office direct | Vetting requests, due diligence, travel assessments |
| Standing requirements | Engagement scope | Daily brief (OSINT-053), monitoring services, I&W program (OSINT-040) |
| Internal triggers | Analyst-initiated | Threshold breaches in monitoring streams, horizon-scan hits |
Register entry (per requirement): requirement ID, text as a single answerable question, origin channel, priority (Low / Moderate / Elevated / High / Critical), product family mapped, LTIOV, assigned analyst, status (Registered / Tasked / In Production / In Review / Delivered / Answered / Retired).
Prioritization rule: protective PIRs with imminent LTIOV outrank all other work; ties are broken by the Team Leader. A requirement that cannot be met by LTIOV is renegotiated at registration, never silently missed.
4. Collection Management: PIR to Source
Instructional tradecraft: The decomposition method is EP-019 Section 4, applied on the production side. Every registered requirement decomposes before collection starts.
- Decompose the requirement into 2-4 observable indicators.
- Map each indicator to a Specific Information Requirement (SIR): the exact fact that would confirm or deny it.
- Bind each SIR to open sources and techniques in the Collection Plan Matrix (Requirement, Type, Open Source, Technique).
- Set per-SIR thresholds: what confirms, what denies, what is inconclusive, and the LTIOV.
- Route confirmed indicators to production and, for protective PIRs, back to the detail per the dissemination rules of EP-019.
| Requirement | Indicator | SIR | Source / Technique | LTIOV | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [REQ-ID] | [OBSERVABLE] | [EXACT FACT SOUGHT] | [OPEN SOURCE / TECHNIQUE] | [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM] | [Active / Answered] |
5. Production Tiers and Service Levels
Instructional tradecraft: Every product family carries a tier; the tier fixes the clock. Timelines are business days from tasking unless stated; compression below tier floor requires Team Leader approval and a recorded quality caveat on the product.
| Tier | Clock | Product Families (representative) |
|---|---|---|
| T0 Flash | [⇐ 1 hour], any hour | Threat warning from monitoring streams (OSINT-047/OSINT-061 events; duty-to-warn items) |
| T1 Current | Same day / next brief | Daily protective intelligence brief (OSINT-053), spot updates to standing assessments |
| T2 Rapid | [2-3 days] | Pre-travel threat assessment (OSINT-042), locate/skip-trace (OSINT-003), event threat snapshot |
| T3 Standard | [5-10 days] | Standard dossiers, screening and vetting, standard due diligence, country risk baseline |
| T4 Deep | [15-20 days] | Enhanced deep-dives (OSINT-002), EDD (OSINT-014), asset investigations, intelligence estimates |
| Standing | Continuous per service cell | Monitoring services (OSINT-006/012/018/025/036/045/060), I&W (OSINT-040) |
Tier rules:
- T0 traffic interrupts all other production; the analyst on duty issues the warning, then backfills the register.
- A requirement’s tier is set at intake from the product family, not negotiated per product; exceptions are recorded.
- Standing services publish on their own cadence; their threshold breaches enter this cycle as T0/T1 requirements.
6. Production Calendar and Battle Rhythm Synchronization
Instructional tradecraft: Production is scheduled backward from consumer deadlines, primarily the detail battle rhythm (EP-021).
- Daily: OSINT-053 content complete no later than [M-2:00] against the detail’s movement day, so the brief per EP-016 is never waiting on production; delivery via the agentic pipeline where deployed (AGT-001).
- Daily: register review at [TIME]; LTIOV horizon check 48 hours out; re-prioritization as needed.
- Weekly: collection plan review synchronized with the detail’s weekly PIR review (EP-021 weekly cycle); stale SIRs retired with the PIRs they serve.
- Per advance cycle: EP-020 gate G2 sets a hard LTIOV for ART-protective-intel-assessment and ART-travel-risk-assessment; these enter the register at Elevated priority or above on cycle start.
- Monthly: production metrics review (Section 9); tier clocks recalibrated against actuals.
7. Quality Gates
Instructional tradecraft: Two gates, both pass/fail. A failed gate loops to rework; it never ships with silent defects.
QG1 Tradecraft (analyst self-check before review):
- Product complete against its deliverable template; no placeholder left unfilled or marked N/A without reason.
- Every sourced datum graded (A-F x 1-8); new sources default F/8 until evaluated.
- Likelihood terms are ICD 203; confidence stated separately; no combined sentence.
- SATs applied per the template (ACH and Key Assumptions Check where required); assumptions carry risk-if-wrong.
- Collection gaps stated as RFIs with routing.
QG2 Independent review (second set of eyes before release):
- Reviewer is not the drafting analyst; for T0 flash traffic a post-release review within [12] hours substitutes, and the warning itself carries its confidence grade.
- Reviewer checks: judgment-evidence linkage, alternative explanations honestly weighed, grading defensible, dissemination markings correct, duty-to-warn and ethics caveats present where the template mandates them.
- Release authority: PI lead for T1-T4; Team Leader informed on anything graded High or Critical relevance to the principal.
8. Dissemination and Feedback
- Consumer register: every product lists named recipients at registration; distribution beyond the register requires the requesting party’s consent and a handling check per CLASSIFICATION.md.
- Delivery paths: flash traffic to the detail net per EP-011 dissemination rules; briefs via the daily pipeline; documents per engagement file convention.
- Readback: T0 warnings are acknowledged by the receiving Shift Lead by name; unacknowledged warnings are re-sent and escalated.
- Feedback loop: PIR answers update ART-pir-set status; consumer feedback and product reuse are recorded on the register; unanswered or repeatedly re-issued requirements trigger a collection plan review, not more of the same collection.
9. Production Metrics
| Metric | Definition | Target |
|---|---|---|
| LTIOV compliance | Products delivered by their LTIOV | 100 percent; misses reviewed individually |
| Tier clock compliance | Products delivered inside tier clock | [>= 90 percent] |
| QG2 first-pass rate | Products through review without rework | [>= 80 percent] |
| PIR answer rate | Registered PIRs answered before retirement | Trend up |
| T0 latency | Event detection to warning issued | [⇐ 15 minutes] median |
| Register hygiene | Requirements past LTIOV with no disposition | Zero |
Metrics feed the monthly review; chronic misses trigger process change (staffing, tier recalibration, collection plan redesign) and version this document.
END OF REPORT
Model wiring
Generated from cell frontmatter at publish time.