As an intelligence professional, you can use case studies to get training in analyzing complex problems, making decisions, and devising courses of action on the job. When you study cases from the Intelligence Community Case Method Program, you practice grappling with tough, real-life dilemmas in analyzing intelligence, conducting clandestine operations, managing security threats, and carrying out other business of an intelligence service. You learn in the process to come up with workable solutions in a classroom where you can get constructive criticism from your colleagues and an instructor. The program's cases are true accounts of problems that occurred as part of the Intelligence Community's operations and activities.
The method has proved highly useful in helping intelligence professionals get better at exercising sound judgment, making decisions, and explaining the reasoning behind their positions. It strengthens their ability to think critically, a skill that is especially needed when their work requires making decisions based on ambiguous or incomplete information.