Improving Resource Allocation Within the National Reconnaissance Office

Each year the Operational Support Office of the US National Reconnaissance Office searches for ways to provide better space-reconnaissance information to military and national leaders. We used future value analysis, a combination of three methods to assess future opportunities: (1) a strategic assessment of future opportunities and challenges, (2) a multiple-objective decision analysis using value-focused thinking, and (3) a portfolio analysis using optimization. We then developed a multiple-objective value model to communicate values, evaluate individual tasks, and develop higher value tasks. We used an optimization model to identify the best portfolio of tasks. The office used the models to identify the best tasks for its annual budget in 1998 and, with revisions, in the next two years.