What is the Getting Started Checklist?
The Getting Started Checklist is a short set of questions you answer before you begin an analysis project. It covers what prompted the request, why it matters, who it's for, what the real problem is as opposed to the symptom, what has been tried before and how you'll know the work succeeded. It appears in Heuer and Pherson's Structured Analytic Techniques for Intelligence Analysis as a way to start a project deliberately rather than diving straight into collection.
When to use it
Use it on day one of any analysis project, before you pick techniques or start researching. Then come back to it whenever the work feels stuck or off course. Projects drift: new reporting reframes the issue, the customer's need shifts, or the team ends up answering an easier question than the one asked. A written record of the original scope shows you exactly where the drift began.
How to use this tool
- Name the project.
- Answer the eight starter questions using what you know from the tasking. Short, candid answers beat polished ones.
- Edit the questions to fit your project. Add custom ones, such as "Has the customer's need changed since intake?" Remove the ones that don't apply, and reorder the rest.
- Track progress. Each question shows whether it's answered and when it was last updated.
- Save a version when you finish scoping, and again whenever new information reframes the problem. The version history shows how your understanding evolved.
How to scope an analysis project well
- Separate the problem from the symptom. "Delivery times are slipping" is a symptom. The problem might be a single-source supplier.
- Define success up front. If you can't say what a good answer looks like, you won't know when to stop.
- Name the customer. Analysis aimed at everyone usually serves no one.
Related
- Customer Checklist digs into exactly what your principal customer needs.
- Problem Statement condenses your scoping into one sentence.
- Starbursting turns the tasking into a full set of research questions.
- Mind Map breaks the problem into its parts once it's scoped.