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(U//FOUO) Requirements Analysis Center (RAC) Update
FROM:
Deputy Chief, Requirements Analysis Center
Run Date: 10/28/2003
(U//FOUO) The Customer Relationships Directorate's Requirements Analysis Center (RAC), S16,
has progressed substantially since we last reported its establishment this past February. It has
developed analytic methodologies and processes to underpin its mission and has begun creating
products and services that convey the meaning of customer information needs and NSA's ability
to meet them.
(S) The RAC is now growing into two divisions - one aimed at analyzing customer needs and the
other at assessing NSA's effectiveness in responding to them. The work of the first division has
grown out of the work done for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and subsequent lessons learned.
In continued support to this mission, the RAC provides a customer information web page
(updated daily) that conveys the customer needs through themes that resonate with analysts. It
identifies on a weekly - or as needed - basis customer "Key Reads" that establish what issues
are a top priority at the present time. It identifies and coordinates "Core Needs" which are
strategic, enduring topics of emphasis that can provide a context for NSA support both to
customers and among SIGINT producers. These services provide analysts different perspectives
into customer needs, keeping them abreast of the fluid situation in Iraq and providing them
insights into the customer's decision space in order that they can optimally focus their
production efforts.
(S) As a result of this work, the RAC is now partnering with the Customer Relationships
Directorate's Customer Gateway office and SIGINT Planning's Operation, Research, Modeling and
Simulation office to quickly develop a capability that will enable the automatic generation of
information needs web pages and reports for all Issue Management Teams (IMTs), thus changing
a manually intensive operation into a greatly expanded, technologically-driven capability. This
new capability will also satisfy the first of SID's six operating principles - "Determine Information
Needs" - by enabling RAC analysts to identify and track relevant information needs in support of
the IMTs and Product Lines. We also see this capability as the genesis for an end-to-end SIGINT
thread from Customer Information Need through the entire SIGINT production cycle to the
delivery of information.
(U//FOUO) In many ways, pursuing the meaning of INs and customer requirements is like
studying a target - learning what baseline activity resembles and detecting significant changes.
Our customers have submitted literally thousands of questions through the National SIGINT
Requirements Process (NSRP), and we now have an additional challenge of assessing these
questions and producing RAC reports that convey their meaning and impact on the SIGINT
system. This past July, the RAC began issuing reports examining customer needs in specific
areas . Once the RAC is fully staffed, it will routinely analyze and report needs against key
customer interest areas. Most significantly, the RAC will be able to identify gaps, either in needs
that the customers did not submit officially, or in SID's ability to respond to them - data that can
feed into SID's decision cycle as it adjusts resources in concert with customer requirements.
(S) The Center's second division is charged with what has traditionally been a tough nut to
crack: evaluating NSA's effectiveness in responding to customer information needs. This means
getting beyond counting beans to a methodology that will assess the value of our products and
services. The RAC undertook its initial research and testing in this arena against a few key issues
that arose during the first three phases of the Iraq Campaign. The RAC first did an independent
evaluation and then worked with production offices and the GRSOC to ensure it captured all
relevant products and services. The RAC is now coordinating this evaluation with those who have
the only vote and final say - the customers. The assessment report is posted on WebWorld and
also on Intelink (for customer coordination).
(U//FOUO) MG Quirk recently praised the RAC and its efforts and noted to the Executive
Leadership Board that the RAC must be a top priority organization to fully resource. Essentially,
that is what the RAC's foremost mission is at the moment - finding a few more good analysts to
join its ranks! It is an excellent organization to broaden one's horizons through a number of
means: a better understanding of NSA's customers and their information needs, a deeper
understanding of how NSA engages its various customer sets and uses this information to
engage the rest of the enterprise, an in-depth look at how SID's directorates partner to respond
to customer requests, and a close relationship with the IMTs as this fairly new leadership role
progresses. Please check out the RAC's latest ad for intelligence analysts. We'd love to hear
from you!
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108