Confidence levels
Another way to help control and manage the message that the team presents to the client is by adopting an intelligence community's common vernacular. For years, that community has conveyed information in degrees of confidence based on the source, how trustworthy the source was, and the age of the information. With a little time investment, we can use the same template when presenting pieces of information. A detailed directive that's been published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence can be found on their website at https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICD/ICD%20203%20Analytic%20Standards.pdf:
- Low level of confidence: This is for data that has been fragmented, poorly corroborated, source data that can easily be modified/removed, or where large gaps in analysis or evidence exist.
- Medium level of confidence: This is for data that has been retrieved from a source that can be corroborated, or only has minor gaps in analysis and...