Intelligence-led project management introduces methods from the intelligence profession into project management. It focusses on research, analysis and dissemination of unknowns.

The technique helps with high-risk high-stake projects, in the same way that intelligence helps fend of national threats.

Where did the method come from?

The principles of intelligence processes are well documented, by ex CIA officers and others.

My work has been to find a subset that can be applied to project management in a commercial context. I changed the language and approach to match with project management techniques. And I’ve been building experience of the things that need special attention, to make it a success.

How to get started?

Intelligence-led project management began by accident. I’d been working on espionage novels and stories, and as part of this I’d been studying intelligence methods. (There’s a lot written in the public domain.) As part of getting into the head of my fictional heroine, I’d been imagining myself as an intelligence analyst.

My own projects tend to be ambitious. I tried using intelligence methods to tackle “unknowns” that agile project management can’t handle. It worked, mostly. I worked to improve it, for an industrial context. I then built it into a repeatable method and started documenting it on this website.

So my fictional stories and characters have influenced the real world.

Articles and stories on intelligence-led project management

(Also includes category of “unknown-unknowns”)

On this website

All categories