Conducting a comprehensive context analysis (CCA)

This chapter demonstrates the application of the security studies- based approach to context analysis. This approach results in what we call a Comprehensive Context Analysis (CCA). It gives a picture of the level of security of the various context dimensions at a given time in a decomposed way ready for interpretation. This chapter presents visualization and interpretation strategies for the CCA. Visualization is an important part of context analysis for several reasons. First, good visual aids allow reducing large amounts of data, thereby facilitating interpretation. Second, figures and graphs can have much value added for effective communication, because they structure the available information. Third, though any data- reduction step always bears the risk of oversimplification, graphical representations force the analyst to explicate the assumptions underlying the analysis, thereby facilitating a critical dialogue with the audience. For that purpose we have developed a set of tools for visualization and analysis. The chapter first presents the main tool, the radar graphs. The second section expands on how to interpret radar charts.