Analysis resides within the larger intelligence cycle. The intelligence cycle determines the daily activities of the Intelligence Community. It starts with the needs of the intelligence "consumers' such as policymakers, military officials, and other decision makers who need intelligence for their activities. These requirements are sorted and prioritized within the Intelligence Community and are used to drive the collection activities of the Intelligence Community. The cycle, as depicted in the figure below, is repeated until an intelligence requirement has been satisfied.
The Intelligence Cycle is a concept that describes the general intelligence process in both a civilian or military intelligence agency or in law enforcement. The cycle is typically represented as a closed path of activities. Problems with a closed loop include an overall process that is no better than its weakest component and stove piping. In the traditional intelligence use of the term, stove piping keeps the output of different collection systems separated from one another. Stove piping prevents one discipline from cross-checking another and bypassing the regular analysis of raw intelligence by sending only raw intelligence that supports a particular position to the leadership.
Analysis is using information about the context of a situation, characterizing the known observables, and applying the appropriate statements of probability to anticipate future situations. Descriptions of the anticipated situations are developed from what may be inaccurate or deliberately deceptive information; therefore, the analyst must correlate the similarities among observations and develop a common "truth." A set of repeatable and useful problem-solving approaches is helpful and essential for analysts. Because of the nature of the intelligence problem and work, an analytic approach must be tolerant of deceptive information far more than the scientist performing an experiment. According to Richards Heuer [2], intelligence analysis involves incremental, iterative, refinement.
The term "intelligence process" refers to the steps of the cycle. Intelligence, as practiced in the United States, is commonly thought of as having five steps. Lowenthal (2006, p 55) added two phases for seven phases of the intelligence process as (1) requirements, (2) collection, (3) processing and exploitation, (4) analysis and production, (5) dissemination, (6) consumption, and (7) feedback. The following paraphrases Lowenthal (p 55):
Significantly, according to Lowenthal, most discussions of the intelligence process end with the dissemination and the intelligence having reached the policy makers. However, Lowenthal bundles dissemination with consumption and adds feedback: