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There are steps that should be taken that can produce results with minimum errors. These steps, known as the intelligence cycle, include planning, collection, processing, analysis, and dissemination. The intelligence cycle is used to determine the activities of the intelligence community. First, planning (also called requirements) defines the questions that intelligence is expected to make a contribution. Intelligence is collected once the requirements have been determined. The intelligence that has been collected, is then put through a processing and exploitation process. Without this step, the information cannot be deemed as intelligence nor can it be given to an analyst. The analysis and production phase is the integration, evaluation and analysis of all data that is available. Dissemination involves the moving of intelligence from the producers, to the consumer.

There are two types of errors that are committed by policy makers that can adversely affect policy decisions. The first of these errors is when the intelligence analyst does not see something that is present. This involves a situation in where the information was there however, it was never presented by the intelligence analyst. The second is when the analyst sees things that are not there. In this particular situation, the intelligence analyst will focus on one thing when they more than likely should have had their focus elsewhere. For instance, if the analyst is focusing their attention on one particular group or person thinking that they are the threat, they could be missing the real threat altogether by not viewing the big picture.

Errors in both of these instances could be minimized by focusing on past events as well as having more than one person view a report.