--- title: "Object-Based Intelligence: Enhancing Integrated Data Analysis" description: Discover how Object-Based Intelligence enhances data organisation for intelligence analysts, enabling better sense-making and operational efficiency. image: https://intelprofession.com/hubfs/20260930_IIP-Article-Image_OBI.png --- [Skip to content](https://intelprofession.com/institute-of-intelligence-professionalisation-blog/object-based-intelligence#main-content) [![](https://intelprofession.com/hs-fs/hubfs/IIP%20Logo%20-%20Portrait%20(Purple)%20-%20250x450.png?width=250&height=450&name=IIP%20Logo%20-%20Portrait%20(Purple)%20-%20250x450.png)Homepage](https://intelprofession.com) - [About](https://intelprofession.com/about-iip) - [Contact](https://intelprofession.com/contact) - [Training](https://intelprofession.com/training) - [Blog](https://intelprofession.com/institute-of-intelligence-professionalisation-blog) - [Training Needs Survey](https://intelprofession.com/intelligence-training-needs-survey) - [About](https://intelprofession.com/about-iip) - [Contact](https://intelprofession.com/contact) - [Training](https://intelprofession.com/training) - [Blog](https://intelprofession.com/institute-of-intelligence-professionalisation-blog) - [Training Needs Survey](https://intelprofession.com/intelligence-training-needs-survey) ![](https://intelprofession.com/hs-fs/hubfs/20260930_IIP-Article-Image_OBI.png?width=1200&height=628&name=20260930_IIP-Article-Image_OBI.png) Tradecraft # Object-Based Intelligence: Enhancing Integrated Data Analysis ![Vanessa Ganley](https://intelprofession.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Vanessa_Ganley.jpg?width=48&height=48&name=Vanessa_Ganley.jpg) Vanessa Ganley 30 September 2026 Object-Based Intelligence (OBI) helps analysts organise dispersed or disparate information around the specified people, places, organisations, platforms and events that the information describes or relates to. Its value increases when analytic techniques are applied to the information – it should not be considered a replacement for analysis. Our Capstone paper introduced you to a fundamental problem facing intelligence agencies and practitioners today: the volume and speed of data have grown faster than the ability to make sense of it. Reports, sensor feeds, imagery, messages and databases may all describe the same entity, but they are often collected, analysed, stored and searched separately. Intelligence analysts then need to spend valuable time finding, comparing and reconciling information before they can begin to understand and assess what it means. Australia’s Defence Intelligence Enterprise Data Strategy 2024–2027 identifies the problem and calls for an integrated intelligence data environment in place of fragmented holdings. Object-Based Intelligence (OBI) changes the organising parameters. Instead of starting with the question of “What reports do we hold?”, we can start with “What do we know about this entity (person, unit, vessel, facility, device or event)?” Information from different sources can then be associated with a single persistent object record. Object-Based Production (OBP) is the practical production approach that supports this object-centred way of working. ## What OBI is and what it is not An intelligence ‘object’ is a representation of something in the real world. It may contain names, identifiers, attributes, relationships, locations and observations. The ‘object’ is not the entity itself - it is a structured place to bring together what is known, what is disputed and what remains uncertain. That distinction is important. If observations and assessments are blended into one “record”, weak reporting can appear more certain than it is. A sound object model keeps source material, analytic judgements and confidence levels visible to all analysts. It preserves contradictions, maintains provenance, enables auditing over time, and allows conclusions about entities to change as new evidence arrives. OBI is not an end-to-end analytic method. It is a key organising ‘foundational’ function. It can show who or what is involved and connects relevant holdings, but analysts still need to apply tradecraft methods and techniques to understand context, behaviour, system relationships, intent and possible future outcomes. ## The main benefit Organised methodically, OBI reduces repeated discovery work, supports collaboration across intelligence collection disciplines and provides analysts with a common starting point. It also makes intelligence easily reusable within a system; for example, a new observation can update an existing object, which becomes available to other analysts without them having to wait for a finished or formal report. ## The integrated model The Integrated Intelligence Sense-Making Model we introduced in our Capstone paper treats OBI as one part of a wider, connected system. The system is deliberately not represented as a linear pipeline. Each lens can question, update and reshape the shared evidence and knowledge substrate.  ![Integrated-Intelligence-Sense-Making-Model\_IIP-Palette](https://intelprofession.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Integrated-Intelligence-Sense-Making-Model_IIP-Palette.png?width=2560&height=1440&name=Integrated-Intelligence-Sense-Making-Model_IIP-Palette.png) ## Four complementary lenses OBI and Object-Based Production (OBP) ask “Who or what is it?” They support entity resolution, persistent identity, attributes and relationships. The situation lens asks what holds in a particular time, place and context. Activity-Based Intelligence asks what is happening or changing by examining interactions, movement, transactions, patterns and anomalies. Target Systems Analysis looks outward to the larger system - its purpose, structure, dependencies, processes, vulnerabilities and capacity to adapt. These lenses overlap; we will describe each lens throughout this Series, but also stress how they should be used together. An example of usefulness in overlap could be when an activity reveals that two objects are related. A change in context may alter how an activity should be interpreted. A systems assessment may identify an important object or relationship that requires more collection. None of these perspectives has to wait for another to be “formally assessed” ## Judgement, decisions and feedback **A reminder for practitioners**: Analytic judgement must operate across the whole model. Analysts frame questions, test alternatives, estimate likelihood and assess implications. Decisions lead to operational activity, which then produces effects that must be observed. Those effects create new evidence, lead to new knowledge gaps and generate new collection requirements. The system works as a continuous feedback loop rather than a one-way ‘stepped’ intelligence cycle. ## Operational value for analysts and agencies The practical value of organising data along OBI lines enables the analyst to: - quickly determine what information is held on the entity from across multiple collection apertures; - reduce duplication by allowing others to build on persistent objects and shared relationships; - spot change earlier by connecting current observations with previous patterns and baselines; - move between tactical events and the wider system that gives those events meaning; and - turn uncertainty and knowledge gaps into focused collection questions. ## Epistemic control is not optional **A reminder for analysts**: This shared model can spread error as efficiently as it spreads insight. Provenance and uncertainty must be included in OBI/OBP holdings to let others see where information came from, when it was valid, how reliable the source was, how strongly the information supports the claim, and which analyst or process made the assessment. ## Limits and risks OBI and OPB are established ways of organising information relating to entities and are already practised by intellectual and professional communities of thought and practice. However, this lens is stronger when used as part of the overall Sense Making Model; each lens is part of a practical synthesis that demonstrates how their different questions can support one another. But there are also implementation risks: premature identity resolution, rigid taxonomies, automation bias, poor data governance, outdated objects and systems that encourage analysts to accept inherited relationships without rechecking them. Good tradecraft requires active challenge, alternative hypotheses and clear rules for ageing, correcting and retiring information. This is as important for the OBI/OBP lens as it is for any of the others. ## What it means OBI offers a way to make large intelligence holdings more coherent and operationally useful. OBI’s real importance, however, is not the object record itself. It is the ability to connect evidence, context, activity and systems understanding while maintaining oversight of judgement, uncertainty and provenance. That creates a stronger foundation for shared understanding, more focused collection and decisions that can be revisited as the situation changes. ## Selected references - RAND Corporation, Defining the Roles, Responsibilities, and Functions for Data Science Within the Defense Intelligence Agency (RR-1582). - RAND Corporation, Developing Taxonomies to Support Object-Based Production (RRA3152-1). - Jon Barwise and John Perry, Situations and Attitudes (1983). - [Australian Department of Defence, Defence Intelligence Enterprise Data Strategy 2024–2027.](https://www.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-03/Defence%20Intelligence%20Enterprise%20Data%20Strategy.pdf) - [Australian Department of Defence, Defence Data Strategy 2.0 — Decision Advantage in the Data Age.](https://www.defence.gov.au/about/strategic-planning/defence-data-strategy-20-decision-advantage-data-age) - [Australian Department of Defence, Defence Intelligence Organisation Mandate and Intelligence controls.](https://www.defence.gov.au/about/governance/intelligence-controls) - [Australian Government, Protective Security Policy Framework.](https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/) - [Australian Defence Force, ADDP 2.0 Intelligence, Australian Defence Doctrine Publication, Intelligence and Security Series.](https://www.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/foi/018_2122_Documents.pdf) ### Publication Statement *AI tools were used to assist with structuring and editing for clarity. All views expressed are those of the author(s) and are offered to support open, respectful discussion. The Institute for Intelligence Professionalisation values independent and alternative perspectives, provided safety, privacy, and dignity are upheld.*  ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fintelprofession.com%2Finstitute-of-intelligence-professionalisation-blog%2Fobject-based-intelligence](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fintelprofession.com%2Finstitute-of-intelligence-professionalisation-blog%2Fobject-based-intelligence) ## Keep reading ### [![](https://intelprofession.com/hs-fs/hubfs/20260914_IIP-Article-Image_Sense-Making.png?width=1200&height=672&name=20260914_IIP-Article-Image_Sense-Making.png) Tradecraft The Integrated Intelligence Sense-Making Model](https://intelprofession.com/institute-of-intelligence-professionalisation-blog/integrated-intelligence-sense-making) ### [![](https://intelprofession.com/hs-fs/hubfs/20260818_IIP%20Article_Adhesive-Intelligence.png?width=1200&height=630&name=20260818_IIP%20Article_Adhesive-Intelligence.png) Tradecraft Adhesive Intelligence: Building assessments that stick](https://intelprofession.com/institute-of-intelligence-professionalisation-blog/adhesive-intelligence-building-assessments-that-stick) [![IIP Logo - Landscape (White on Purple) - 1200x600](https://intelprofession.com/hs-fs/hubfs/IIP%20Logo%20-%20Landscape%20(White%20on%20Purple)%20-%201200x600.png?width=260&height=130&name=IIP%20Logo%20-%20Landscape%20(White%20on%20Purple)%20-%201200x600.png "IIP Logo - Landscape (White on Purple) - 1200x600")](https://intelprofession.com) - [About](https://intelprofession.com/about-iip) - [Contact](https://intelprofession.com/contact) - [Training](https://intelprofession.com/training) - [Blog](https://intelprofession.com/institute-of-intelligence-professionalisation-blog) - [Training Needs Survey](https://intelprofession.com/intelligence-training-needs-survey) --- [Privacy Policy](https://intelprofession.com/privacy-policy) · Legal · © 2025. 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