ACH (Analysis of Competing Hypotheses)

 The ACH Program

In the context of a research contract for U.S. intelligence agencies, we wanted to develop a tool for managing the analysis of completing hypotheses based on the work of Richards Heuer. Working with Heuer, we designed a program, ACH,

ACH is a Java program that runs on most computers. The PARC page for downloading the ACH system can be reached on the link below:

http://www2.parc.com/istl/projects/ach/ach.html

ACH comes bundled with a tutorial accessible from within the program. Further information about the underlying concepts is available from Heuer’s book, which is available online on the link below:

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/psychology-of-intelligence-analysis/art11.html

 Collaborative ACH

After the project as a later thought experiment, we developed an approach for a supporting a multi-user version of ACH enabling team analysis. Subsequently we were awarded a patent for this work.

U.S. Patent 7,761,409