Handbook of exercises for transportation sector personnel

Initiating Process

The purpose of the Initiating Process is to identify the purpose of the exercise. While this may sound simple, when multiple stakeholders are involved there will be multiple objectives to consider. The core of this process is:

Identification of the desired exercise format based on the drivers

Identification of the stakeholders and their expectations

Creation of a charter to guide exercise implementation and resource allocation

The first question when putting together an exercise is: What is pushing, or driving it? Is it a superior who has suddenly become fixated on “the next big disaster,” a contractual/ mandated requirement to conduct an exercise as part of a grant, or is it a political issue, an attempt to address a gap, or an opportunity to evaluate training? In some cases it might be a combination of these factors and others. Identifying the driver(s) will enable the exercise staff to determine what options there are when putting the exercise together; and the sooner that is determined, the faster the other parts of the exercise model can be put into place.

Here are some issues to consider once you have identified the driver(s):

1.Common Issues

Has a particular exercise model already been identified? (Full Scale, Tabletop)

Did the party involved with identifying the exercise model understand what it entailed?

Has a specific scenario been identified?

How much time is there to put this exercise together?

Is there already an exercise being put together by a related entity that your agency could join?

Is there a mandate concerning how the exercise should be structured? (HSEEP, FEMA/DHS grant contract)

2.Superior Suddenly Interested in Disasters

Why the sudden interest?

How much of the department/agency should be involved in exercise development and execution?

How much funding is going to be allocated for the exercise?

Is this effort tied to another agency/department, such as the state highway

patrol, state wildland firefighting service or another transportation sector partner?

What does the superior consider to be the objectives?

Contractual/Grant/Mandated Requirement

What does the actual contract/grant/mandate state?

Who do you need to do the exercise with?

What documentation does the department/agency have from previous exercises?

Is there anyone who could be interviewed who participated in a previous exercise?

3.Political

What objectives need to be met? (Photo opportunity, public reassurance)

Who needs to be involved? (Professionals, politicians, community volunteers)

Has anyone publicly committed to a specific exercise type or scenario?

4.Needs Driven

Realization of emergencies not planned for (e.g., response to active shooter).

Reorganization of the agency requires changes in assignments.

New partners need to be integrated into the response - EOC or field (e.g., RACES, CERT).

5.Training Driven

Does the organization need to validate existing training levels?

Does the organization need to demonstrate gaps in existing training?

Has the organization recently enhanced training levels and needs to demonstrate the enhancements?

Has the organization trained its employees and their families on emergency response and the role of the employee in the agency’s response and recovery?

The underpinning concept is to identify what restrictions regarding the exercise design or implementation are present that cannot be modified or eliminated. Several of the issues identified above may provide for some flexibility once they are investigated. The important part is to be as thorough as possible during this stage, as failure to identify the driver(s) and map out the associated issues will result in having to redesign the exercise, costing time and the patience of those participating in the process.

Once the evaluation of the needs is complete, and the driver(s) and issues have been mapped, the second question is: What are the actual needs of the organization regarding the exercise? What plans, policies, training and/or processes or equipment need to be evaluated?

Some examples of typical needs that require evaluation are:

A new emergency plan annex that was recently published.

A plan for coordination with a mutual aid partner.

Communications protocols (internal and/or external).

A policy identifying the use of another organization’s resources for certain events.

Implementing an alternate procedure for how something is accomplished.

Evaluation of a piece of equipment for applicability to a new use or situation.

Only a specific portion or section of any of the suggested plans or procedures needs to be involved. Addressing question three will help narrow this area.

This subject matter selection should follow a simple-to-complex/small-to-large approach, as the organization is doing two things at once, initially: the exercise with its artificialities; and then: the testing of the plans, policies, procedures and/or equipment being used in the exercise to resolve the problems presented by the scenario. If an exercise has not been conducted in the past, participants may have trouble tracking the implementation of the plans and the artificial context of the exercise. If the exercise is too complex and involves too many problems to resolve, the participants may become overwhelmed, which could result in a breakdown of the exercise. Participants and observers may have a challenge differentiating between the artificialities of the exercise scenario and the real-world challenges of using the existing plans and equipment to resolve the scenario. Therefore, the less complex and more focused an exercise, the greater the likelihood that it will address the needs of the organization to evaluate the plans, equipment and training that are available.

The third question is: where is your organization in its training cycle? If your organization has never conducted any training on the policies, procedures or equipment use that needs to be evaluated (question two), then you would benefit by beginning with either an orientation seminar (to provide rapid training for staff on the issues), or engage mid-level personnel in scenario resolution through a tabletop exercise. The issue is reconciliation with the first question (understanding the drivers), that is, to prevent the development of a more advanced level exercise than the organization is ready for. If that is the situation, renegotiation of the exercise model is needed, or a narrowing of the exercise objective(s) may be necessary to ensure a successful outcome.

Establish the stakeholder registry early in the process, while drivers are being identified. The driver inquiries may reveal other persons and entities that can or should be incorporated in later steps of the project. Create a listing of the entities involved in the upcoming exercise and their relationships, which will be useful in developing later exercises, if an exercise program is established.

Once the drivers have been identified, and the questions of what should be exercised explored, generate a formal statement of work for the desired exercise. This will function as the guidance for subsequent planning, and enable the risk management component of your organization to assess the potential risks to exercise success due to the complexity of the exercise and the experience level of the leadership.

The final product of this process is a charter that identifies who is in charge, the resources allocated and which drivers have defined the desired exercise.

By the end of the Initiation Process a clear understanding of the type of exercise that needs to be conducted to fulfill the objectives of the exercise should emerge. It might not be any single exercise type represented in the Checklists for, but a combination of two or more. If that occurs, modify the exercise Checklists for most similar to the design, as appropriate. However, it is recommended that for the first exercise you should try to stay with one type, if possible.