A Description of policy analysis offered by the late E.S.Quade, former head of the Mathematics Department at the Rand Corporation, provides a convenient point of departure for defining policy analysis. Policy analysis is
Any type of analysis that generates and presents information in such a way as to improve the basis for policy-makers to exercise their judgment… In policy analysis, the word analysis is used in its most general sense; it implies the use of intuition and judgment and encompasses not only the examination of policy by decomposition into its components but also the design and synthesis of new alternatives. The activities involved may range from research to illuminate or provide insight into an anticipated issue or problem to evaluation of a completed program. Some policy analyses are informal, involving nothing more than hard and careful thinking whereas others require extensive data gathering and elaborate calculation employing sophisticated mathematical processes.