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(U//FOUO) What's the CINR and What Does It Mean for Our
Customers and NSA Analysts? (Part 1)
FROM:
Chief, Reporting Board (S12A)
Run Date: 03/09/2004
FROM:
Chief, Reporting Board (S12A)
(U//FOUO) Over the last year, through feedback from analysts and customers, we learned that
the current processes for gathering and responding to customer requests for SIGINT products
and services are not meeting their needs. They can be difficult to use and are inadequate to
handle the workload and workflow. These findings were confirmed by outside consultants. Some
initial approaches to remedy the situation were undertaken but did not really address the
fundamental issue - NSA does not have an integrated process to gather, track and respond to
customer requests .
(U//FOUO) This showed itself in many ways. For example, customer requests for information
coming through NSA's front door are often divorced from the production cycle. Further, there is
no common language within NSA or externally to refer to customers, countries, subjects, etc. As
cottage industry solutions became as numerous as the symptoms, we recognized the need for
an overall solution.
(U//FOUO) In late summer 2003, the Chief of the Customer Relationships Directorate
established the Customer Information Needs Response Integrated Process Team (CINR
IPT). The CINR was charged with developing and implementing a streamlined and seamless
process whereby the customer can submit requests for SIGINT products and services and SID
can effectively and efficiently respond. The CINR IPT comprises representatives from Customer
Relationships, Analysis and Production, Data Acquisition, SIRVES and IAD. The team's Concept
of Operation describes the goals, objectives, and the "to-be" state. See also the CINR
Storyboard .
(U//FOUO) The overall objectives are to enable our external customers to enter their requests in
a logical, categorized fashion and allow tracking of the request throughout the process - from
submission, through processing, to delivery and feedback. We also want to ensure that our
internal workforce can easily view relevant requests, respond quickly, collaborate easily, and
accurately assess our response to the customer. We envision a process similar to that used by
any number of commercial organizations whereby a customer can submit an order for goods or
services, track the status of their order, and provide feedback. In turn, the organization can
manage its inventory and adjust processes to ensure customer satisfaction. Our goal is to
provide NSA customers visibility into our products and services with the ability to:
browse, much like our current Intelink capability
see the status of their requests and currently available products
submit requests and/or subscribe to products and services
update their profiles and
request help
Internally, NSA analysts and managers will have a standard workflow to view and track the
actions and data flows in response to requests from the customer order entry through the
SIGINT production cycle using a common structure. The new process will facilitate automating
distributions, TAGs, and INs, relieving analysts from manually inputting these items. The end-toend tracking will provide improved collection and analysis of metrics to help steer production
and manage critical resources.
(U//FOUO) Watch for part 2 of this article to find out what the CINR IPT is doing to achieve
these goals.
"(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