The Operational Analysis cell at the Swedish Joint Forces Command, participated in exercises Kompass 04 as a part of the primary training audience. Kompass 04 was the most significant exercise during 2004 for the Joint Forces Command. Furthermore it was the first occasion since 1997 where the Swedish Armed Forces central command carried out a joint operations exercise. This report describes how the OA-cell worked before and during the exercise and gives guidelines for the continuing effort to further improve the front line OA-support. Based on the experiences gained during the exercise the report discusses two aspects of operational analysis, the tasks that the OA-team may face as well as the role of the OA-cell. Defining the role of an analyst is not easy, and the analysts had several different roles during exercise Kompass 04. The actions of the OA-team during the exercise can be described as operational analysis with action research contributions. The study concludes that an analysts should be able to choose their degree of participation in the military staff procedures so that they are able to produce analyses for the staff officers where the co-operation between the analyst and the decision-maker is a natural and integrated part of the staff work. This was achieved during the exercise and the study concluded that the method worked, even though knowledge in certain subjects could be improved.