Staying updated about analysis methods for CI?

[Henrik Sköld]

Hi,

 

I would like some ideas on how to stay updated about the development of new methods for CI analysis.

 

I've been a CI practitioner since 1996 and have taken most of the relevant courses at least in Sweden, where I'm based (and given several of them as well) and I have read many of the "must-reads" in the field. Hence, I have a substantial toolbox at my disposal, to use in different cases that I encounter in my job as CI manager (and as CI consultant before that).

 

However, I wouldn't be doing my job if I settled with this, especially not in a field such as CI - fast evolving, pragmatic, and focusing on change as it's very core... Instead I'm left with the all-to-familiar unsettling feeling that I might be missing something here :-) So I would appreciate some ideas from other practitioners - how do you make sure that you stay updated about the latest developments in analysis?

 

Looking forward to your insights!

 

Kind regards,

 

Henrik

 

 

 

[Henrik Sköld]

Babette,

Thanks for your response. I absolutely agree with you concerning the science and art issue, and that understanding the limitations and/or strengths of a tool enables one to tweak it, and come a bit further. Also, complicated techniques definitely raise a barrier between the client and his/her insight about the issue at hand.

As to the CI project being similar, I have the same experience. However, one thing that I try to stay aware of is my tendency to believe that they are indeed similar - and that the same tools are the best ones to solve them. As we all know, sometimes (often) the client doesn't have a well-articulated view of the problem, so there is the dialogue between the consultant and the client to reach a valid starting point for the project. In doing so, a larger toolbox might enable me to be less prone to "classify" the client's issue to early, I guess, whereas "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to se every problem as a nail" (Abraham Maslow).

Maybe I'm over-analyzing here - people usually say that I seem to have a profession that fits my personality... But it feels good to do a reality check and get all these great responses from the community!

[Eric Garland]

Wait, a CI analyst actually analyzing...CI? How ironic and useful.

[Anna F. Shallenberger]

If you do start a CI2020 sub-group for this -- I know many who would be interested in joining.

I concur with Arik & Babette's points -- and highly recommend her books as well. I've personally found them very helpful, something I keep right next to my desk.

My concern with latest/greatest is that I've found management sometime enamored with the fad of the moment. Net Promoter Score is one that comes to mind. More an approach than an analytical tool, but it describes the sentiment. Said tool may or may not be relevant to the issue they are looking at, nor without limitations.

[Arik Johnson]

Great example with NPS - I've seen whole businesses structured around that quant - Charles Schwab actually reorganized around the "10s and 9s" from website to physical stores.

[Anna F. Shallenberger]

Yes -- it's not so much that something new like NPS is all bad. It has value.

But when one over-weights a concept [although weighting / relative importance is always subjective] one can lose perspective.

It sort circles around to comments I made today around experts. Finding that balance between leveraging what one understands or [theoretically] knows already and being open to and/or proactively conceptualizes very alternate possibilities / processes is really one our greatest challenges.

The whole, "How do you know what you don't know" thing...

[Henrik Sköld]

I've decided to follow your and others' advice - there is now a subgroup called http://www.ci2020.com/group/cianalysis. I hope you would all like to join it!

Thank you for valuable input so far; looking forward to a continued discussion.

Henrik

[Mikael Vingaard]

Dear all,

Thanks for creating such interesting topic.

My background is in a (somewhat) similar field, IT-Security (aka. Ethical Hacker)
I think that CI is a very interesting field and I am eager to learn more.

This is my very first post, but I hope I can bring some insight from a related
field, in obtaining, analysing and using freely available on-line information

In my personal opinion, one of the biggest security risks to large companies today,
are the lack of information awareness.

I have many times seen an employee posting sensitive information on public fora, like
the type of security devices they use to keep strangers away from the internet gateway, with
all the configuration information, so anyone could breach the security, if they want to do so.
(and that is from the people who get paid for keeping the company secured!).

Imagined that you could get a 'early warning' alert every time your client's named
competitor e.g. registers a new internet domain, not putting it on-line, but just buying a domain.

By having this info, you can search for this reference and will often find that a person is
describing the actual projects in details (some People tents to brag/share openly on social
networks like face book /Twitter etc.) 'couse only they friends would be 'interested' in the information.
- Nothing could be further from the true about the internet.

Have you ever read a PDF document and wished that you could know who the author was?
Actual you can gain a lot of inside information from something as boring as a PDF file, Picture or similar files. On most documents you can extract the author name and many other things that can outline a competitor’s setup - and potential show any future product roadmap to you.

In the information field there are a huge collaboration in creating tools and giving input/improvements back and I think topics like this one, can do the same for CI.

My bottom line for this long reply are, that I can use tools/ methods found in the CI Community to assist me in my work and often CI professional may benefit from public available tools from the Security Community.

I am looking much forward to spend more time on learning CI tools and methods,
Thanks for your time reading this,

Mikael