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(U) Mission Assessment - Rating Our Performance
FROM: SIGINT Communications
Unknown
Run Date: 12/22/2005
(U//FOUO) In this series we've defined Governance and explained
SERIES:
that there now exists a process for discerning NSA's missions. Now
(U) Governance Topic-ofwe'll address another aspect of Governance -- the need to
the-Day
continually gauge our SIGINT performance and seek areas for
improvement. This step in the Governance process is called
Mission Assessment .
1. Bringing Governance
to the USSS
(U//FOUO) Mission Assessment is a look into the success and
2. Inquiring Minds ...
health of our efforts against targets within the Strategic Mission
What Does
List (SML)*. This process** is the responsibilty of the Issue
Governance Mean?
Management Teams (IMTs).
3. Mission Discernment
- What's Tops on Our
(U) How Will We Measure Our Success?
List?
4.
Mission Assessment (S//SI) The USSS will evaluate itself -- in accordance with
Rating Our
Governance Task #1, Responsibility #3 -- by assessing product
Performance
and redirecting efforts as needed in order to accomplish its
5. Apportionment of
missions.
Strategic Efforts -Our Plan of Attack
(S//SI) Our performance against each Focus Area target, within
6. Assigning USSS
each of the missions listed in the SML, is discussed at monthly
Resources
Mission Assessment meetings attended by SID Senior Leadership
and members of the IMTs. During these meetings, the
performance of each mission is evaluated in two categories:
Diagnosis -- How are we doing now compared to last
month? Has our performance improved? Stayed the same?
Declined?
Prognosis -- Do we believe that our performance for the
next 12-18 months will improve, stay the same, or decline?
(S//SI) Assessment results will be shared with the Extended
Enterprise via a Worldwide video teleconference. You can also view
the Latest Mission Assessment Briefing on the SID homepage , in
the Governance section.
(S//SI) Both the diagnosis and prognosis are assessed in
accordance with "SIGINT Readiness Definitions," which are based
on guidelines reflecting SIGINT Performance , rather than SIGINT
capability. Those definitions are as follows:
Level 1: Good performance - able to make critical
contributions to mission success consistently;
Level 2: Fair performance - able to contribute mission
success often;
Level 3: Limited performance - able to contribute only
occasionally, mission success possibly in jeopardy;
Level 4: Poor performance - not contributing to mission,
mission success probably in jeopardy.
(U//FOUO) How to Decipher Mission Assessment Results
(U//FOUO) Assessment levels 1-4 above are reflected in Mission
Performance charts by the colors green , yellow , orange , and red
, respectively. The markings on those Stoplight Charts reflect
changes in mission performance. An improvement in mission
diagnosis is noted by a plus sign; a decline, by a minus sign.
Arrows pointing up, down, or sideways suggest an upward,
downward, or stable mission prognosis .
(S//SI) There can be several reasons why a target's performance
becomes orange (limited) or red (poor) -- access, resources, etc.
As a part of the Mission Assessment process, IMTs brief senior
leadership on capability shortfalls for those orange and red targets
and are responsible for improving their performance -- hence, "The
Challenge of the Reds and Oranges ."
(U) Notes:
*(S//SI) Links to these lists, which are updated monthly, can be
found in the "Missions List," appearing at the end of the Mission
Discernment document .
** (U//FOUO) For slides and documentation on the Mission
Assessment process, see the Discerning, Assessing, and Directing
SIGINT Missions briefing.
(U//FOUO) There's more to come on Governance.......
"(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