![The Emergency Project
David Rudawitz PMP
[sound of Plectron1
signals coming over the intercom] [loud klaxon sound] “Stations 18, 21, 51, 116, Hazmat 10,
Deluge 127 and Battalion 7; explosion and fire at Circle X refinery 19600 nineteen thousand six hundred Carson
Blvd. Carson, time out 10:46”. Paramedics Gage and Desoto get into Rescue 51 and proceed out of the station ….
“LA, Battalion 7 at scene with a fully involved cracking tower, workers trapped on adjacent structures and several
gasoline storage tanks threatened. Request a second alarm, Battalion 7 is assuming command as Circle X
Command.”
So about now you are probably wondering what the start of the old TV show “Emergency” has to do with project
management. What this story line is portraying, if it were in real life, is the start of a project. Incident
Management, which is the overall term used to describe the management of emergency situations, is a very
specialized version of project management. The “incident” is the project whether it is putting out a fire, rescuing
occupants of a crashed aircraft, capturing a sniper, locating a missing hiker or cleaning up a hazardous material
spill.
Remember that the definition of a project is “a temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product,
service or result.” Putting out a fire, rescuing a hiker, capturing a sniper, cleaning up a hazardous material spill,
etc. all fit this definition. This is true even if the emergency is as small as burning dinner on the stove to the
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010.
There are standards and an entire body of knowledge that is the analogy to the PMBOKTM
. Called the Incident
Command System, or ICS, it provides a full range of guidance, job aids and best practice that is universally followed
within the emergency management community in the United States. In fact, the use of ICS is required2
if a
jurisdiction desires to be reimbursed by FEMA for extraordinary disaster expenses. Also, as an accepted best
practice, failure to use (or properly use) ICS during the management of an emergency, may expose the offending
agency (or company) to liability for injuries and other damages resulting from, or not mitigated by, their
emergency response.
ICS3
resulted from the obvious need for a new approach to the problem of managing rapidly moving wildfires in
the early 1970s. At that time, emergency managers faced a number of problems.
• Too many people reporting to one supervisor.
• Different emergency response organizational structures.
• Lack of reliable incident information.
• Inadequate and incompatible communications.
• Lack of a structure for coordinated planning between agencies.
• Unclear lines of authority.
• Terminology differences between agencies.
• Unclear or unspecified incident objectives.
1
A Plectron is a specialized VHF/UHF single-channel, emergency alerting radio receiver, used to activate emergency response
personnel, and disaster warning systems. The tones transmitted by this system are very distinctive and indicative of fire
dispatch systems.
2
National Incident Management System, December 2008, US Department of Homeland Security (see
http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/ for more details and information.
3
History of ICS, October 1994, Incident Command System National Training Curriculum
(http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/forms/compan/history.pdf)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/8b357115-ceaf-4e24-a7f9-c461a41fef46-151111194702-lva1-app6891/85/Project-Management-and-ICS-article-1-320.jpg)
Project Management and ICS article
- 1. The Emergency Project David Rudawitz PMP [sound of Plectron1 signals coming over the intercom] [loud klaxon sound] “Stations 18, 21, 51, 116, Hazmat 10, Deluge 127 and Battalion 7; explosion and fire at Circle X refinery 19600 nineteen thousand six hundred Carson Blvd. Carson, time out 10:46”. Paramedics Gage and Desoto get into Rescue 51 and proceed out of the station …. “LA, Battalion 7 at scene with a fully involved cracking tower, workers trapped on adjacent structures and several gasoline storage tanks threatened. Request a second alarm, Battalion 7 is assuming command as Circle X Command.” So about now you are probably wondering what the start of the old TV show “Emergency” has to do with project management. What this story line is portraying, if it were in real life, is the start of a project. Incident Management, which is the overall term used to describe the management of emergency situations, is a very specialized version of project management. The “incident” is the project whether it is putting out a fire, rescuing occupants of a crashed aircraft, capturing a sniper, locating a missing hiker or cleaning up a hazardous material spill. Remember that the definition of a project is “a temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or result.” Putting out a fire, rescuing a hiker, capturing a sniper, cleaning up a hazardous material spill, etc. all fit this definition. This is true even if the emergency is as small as burning dinner on the stove to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010. There are standards and an entire body of knowledge that is the analogy to the PMBOKTM . Called the Incident Command System, or ICS, it provides a full range of guidance, job aids and best practice that is universally followed within the emergency management community in the United States. In fact, the use of ICS is required2 if a jurisdiction desires to be reimbursed by FEMA for extraordinary disaster expenses. Also, as an accepted best practice, failure to use (or properly use) ICS during the management of an emergency, may expose the offending agency (or company) to liability for injuries and other damages resulting from, or not mitigated by, their emergency response. ICS3 resulted from the obvious need for a new approach to the problem of managing rapidly moving wildfires in the early 1970s. At that time, emergency managers faced a number of problems. • Too many people reporting to one supervisor. • Different emergency response organizational structures. • Lack of reliable incident information. • Inadequate and incompatible communications. • Lack of a structure for coordinated planning between agencies. • Unclear lines of authority. • Terminology differences between agencies. • Unclear or unspecified incident objectives. 1 A Plectron is a specialized VHF/UHF single-channel, emergency alerting radio receiver, used to activate emergency response personnel, and disaster warning systems. The tones transmitted by this system are very distinctive and indicative of fire dispatch systems. 2 National Incident Management System, December 2008, US Department of Homeland Security (see http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/ for more details and information. 3 History of ICS, October 1994, Incident Command System National Training Curriculum (http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/forms/compan/history.pdf)
- 2. The Emergency Project Designing a standardized emergency management system to remedy the challenges listed above took several years and extensive field testing. The Incident Command System was developed by an interagency task force working in a cooperative local, state, and federal interagency effort called FIRESCOPE (Firefighting Resources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies). Compare this list of challenges to those you may face as a project manager on a large complex project; look familiar? In ICS, the Incident Commander (in our example Battalion 7) is the project manager. He/she has a project team (call the Incident Management Team (IMT) that is organized functionally and hierarchically. A major tenant of ICS is span of control, something we often lose sight of in project management. Span of control is to be limited to five to seven direct reports. ICS also supports tailoring and scalability. So the Incident Commander (PM) tailors the project team organization to fit the incident (project) and arranges the team in a functional and hierarchical organization. The standardized organization includes a command staff (public affairs, safety and liaison) and a general staff (operations, planning, logistics and finance/administration). Within each of the general staff sections there are additional IMT (project team) members and the actual workers in the incident (fire fighters, paramedics, equipment operators, police officers, technical specialists, etc.). In the analogy with the kind of projects we typically think about for project management, these would be the various project teams and subteams as well as the programmers, engineers, construction workers, etc. depending on the type of project. Figure 1- ICS Basic Organization Chart Inter and intra project team and customer communications is a major concern for project managers and is often at the root cause of project issues and failures. ICS recognizes this as a critical issue and addresses it with the imposition of standardized terms, structured team meetings, common terminology and use of plain language. Just as a PM on a programming project would request three Java programmers and not just three programmers (assuming he needs Java programmers of course); if an IC wants three aerial water dropping tankers, he wants to be sure that he does not get three truck tankers. Just as PM’s use the project plan to manage their projects, in ICS, the project plan, known as the Incident Action Plan (IAP) is the analogy. However, here is where there is quite a difference with “mainstream” project management. A PM’s project plan usually cover time spans of weeks to months or years while the IAP covers a single operational period (work shift). For a two shift per day incident, this means that the IMT is turning out an IAP twice a day! And you thought you had it hard just getting one version done! Emergency incidents operate
- 3. The Emergency Project within a framework of significant changes of conditions, resources and situation necessitating the review and revision of the IAP every shift. In fact, there is provision to make “pen and ink” changes during the work shift if conditions warrant. The ICS methodology contains a very detailed and documented process for the development, approval and implementation of the IAP. There are a series of meetings with specific attendees from the IMT and specific deliverables from the meetings that all come together into the IAP. This includes a number of job aids and forms to both organize and facilitate this process. The IAP that the current shift of IMT personnel are preparing will be executed by the next shift, and so forth. And remember, that the IMT members are doing this planning all the while executing the IAP that was prepared the previous shift. Figure 2 - "Planning P" depicting the IAP development and execution process Use of the ICS methodology is not limited to emergencies. This methodology can and is used to manage public events from picnics to major sporting events including activities associated with the Winter Olympic games (in the US). Remember that the IC can tailor the organization of the IMT to manage the activity and supervise the resources performing the work effort. These can be car parking attendants, food service works and sanitation technicians just as well as fire fighters and police officers. So the next time your volunteer group turns to you and says, “Jim, you are a project manager, why don’t you be in charge of the annual festival?” you might want to look at ICS to help jumpstart your organization and management instead of having to start from scratch. Preparing for the Planning Meeting Planning Meeting IAP Prep & Approval Operations Briefing New Start Ops Period Begins Execute Plan & Assess Progress IC/UC Sets Objectives Tactics Meeting Initial IC/UC Meeting Incident Briefing ICS 201 Initial Response & Assessment Notification Incident/Threat InitialResponse Operational Period Planning Cycle