COA comparison evaluation criteria are created in which phase?

• A. Mission Analysis
• B. COA Dev
• C. IPOE
• D. Execution Planning

Answer: (A)

Defining how you will judge potential actions is established early because you need a clear yardstick that aligns with the commander's intent and the operational environment. In Mission Analysis you frame the problem, identify constraints, and translate those into measurable standards—the evaluation criteria—that will be used to compare each course of action. This ensures the criteria reflect what success looks like and what factors matter most (feasibility, suitability, acceptability, distinguishability, and completeness, for example). Once those criteria are set, the team can generate COAs with an eye toward how they will perform against that yardstick, and later steps can systematically evaluate and compare them. The COA development phase is where you craft the options themselves, IPOE focuses on intelligence for the environment, and execution planning deals with turning the chosen COA into orders.