Analysis

The second step in the exercise management model is Analysis, and we undertake analysis with seven major tasks in mind. These are the outputs or products derived from the analysis. The first of these tasks is to establish whose authority you need to seek in order to conduct the exercises. Your next task will then be to organise a meeting of the key players and determine the remaining ‘policy’ issues identified in the following table.

Authority

Now that you have identified some needs, your next step is to have them accepted by somebody or some organisation that has the power through appointment or legislation to authorise the Exercise. This is what we call Authority. You will need to identify the organisation that has the lead combat role under your plan and an individual within it who can authorise the activity. In some cases the authority will be contained in legislation, perhaps an Emergency Services Act in your area. For SO, which are tactical documents that involve only one organisation or agency, obtaining authority to conduct exercises to validate them will be less complicated. A head of agency or even department will have the ability to do this.

Aim and objectives

Your exercise aim is a general statement of intent which provides direction as to what is to be achieved in the exercise. It should be a broad rather than a specific statement. The exercise objectives, on the other hand, are more precise of what is to be tested, validated, and proved. They are specific, unambiguous, measurable, capable of being achieved, and directly reflect the tasks required to achieve the aim.

For instance, the aim of xxxxxx exercise might be to:

  • to test agency procedures in response to an xxxxxxx emergency.

Your objectives for that aim might be to:

  • test the initiation procedures of emergency services; or to
  • test the inter-agency communication systems.

As a general rule you should not seek to achieve more than four or five objectives in any one exercise - if you find yourself exceeding that number then your aim may be too broad or all encompassing. If this is the case, you may need to review your aim!

Agencies involved

To a large extent your aim and objectives will determine which agencies should participate in your exercise. Exercises designed to test plans are more likely to involve a number of agencies than exercises which are organised to test SOP within a single organisation.

Agencies that you intend to involve should be invited to participate, early in the planning phase. Remember that you may need to have them involved in the preparation of the exercise itself, perhaps as part of the writing team. We will come to this later and discuss a way of obtaining their participation.

Resources/budget

In an ideal situation, resources, including time and money, will be available to conduct whatever level or type of exercise is needed to meet the requirement. In reality there will generally always be some resource constraints. These will need to be balanced against the importance of conducting the exercise. The identification of resources and budget needs becomes especially important when we start to consider what type of exercise we should conduct. This is because certain types of exercise are ‘cheaper’ to run than others.

Whatever the result it will be necessary to determine any restrictions early in the planning phase so that time and effort is not wasted designing an exercise that cannot be run due to a lack of time or other resources.

Exercise type

Now the policy meeting needs to decide which type of exercise will best achieve the aims and objectives, given any resource limitations

Exercise writing team

Now that you have determined your aims and objectives and the type of exercise, you will need to identify the composition of your Exercise Writing Team to prepare the Exercise in detail.

As you would no doubt gather, selecting the right members for your writing team is crucial to the success of your exercise. Ideally, at least one member of the team should have some training and experience in exercise writing. There are a number of other considerations when selecting people for the writing team:

  • if a number of agencies are participating, each of the major players should be represented;
  • members of the team should ideally have experience in the areas to be tested/validated;
  • the chair of the writing team should preferably be from the major player organisation.

Exercise proposal

Now that you have made these decision you will need to approach those who you would like to take part either as exercise players or as members of your writing team and gain their agreement to participate.

One way of achieving this is to send a letter, signed by the person authorising the exercise, to the heads of other agencies outlining:

  • the background to the need for an exercise;
  • the need for the exercise;
  • the benefit to be derived from participating in the exercise;
  • in what areas you would like them to participate i.e. as part of the exercise writing team, as exercise players etc;
  • general outline of the exercise including type, dates, possible resource implications etc.

 

Activity 5.2

Putting your analysis together

Now that you have an idea of what the analysis part of this process looks like it is time for you to start putting it into practice. This rather lengthy activity will help you to gain a deeper understanding of these issues. At the same time you will also begin to work through the analysis section of your second assignment. At this stage I would suggest that you start to put together a draft set of information relevant to your own exercise development and that you will include within the exercise development section of Assignment 2.

Authority

  1. What is the difference between a Plan and a SOP and how will these differences impact on obtaining authority to conduct the Exercise? Take a few minutes to consider this question and write down your thoughts before reading on.

Consider your own plan and SOP and see if you can determine who might give you the authority to conduct your exercise.

  1. Who might give you the authority to conduct your exercise?
  2. In what ways can you obtain authority for your exercise?

Aim and objectives

Consider your own identified needs and see if you can encapsulate some of them in an exercise aim.

  1. What is the aim of your exercise?

The aim of exercise xxxxxxxx is to .....................................

  1. Consider the aim of your own proposed exercise and see if you can prepare no more than four related, unambiguous, specific, and achievable objectives.

You will probably have noticed that some of the objectives you identified above are the same as some of the needs you listed previously. This is as it should be, for after all, you are trying to satisfy the needs you identified earlier with a suitable exercise.

Agencies Involved

  1. For the time being, consider who you might like to see participate in your own exercise. Depending on your Aim and objectives, your participants may include external agencies or they may be from within one agency only. Make a list of these participants.

Resources and Budget

  1. Make a list of the resources and budget that you will require to conduct your exercise. This list will not be definitive at this stage and as you work through later sections you will be able to refine and add to this list as you go. For now a Resources/Budget heading with a couple of possible general resources is likely all that you can envisage.

Exercise Type

In the following reading pay particular attention to which exercises best meet certain needs or aims and objectives.

Reading 14: Extracts from Australian emergency manual: Training management, Chapter 9, paragraphs 9.03–9.07.

  1. See if you can determine which type of exercise would be the most appropriate in the following circumstances and why:
  • Resources are limited and you need to test a knowledge of SOP?
  • Some restriction on resources and you want to test individuals understanding of their and other agencies‘ roles and responsibilities under a specific plan?
  • You want to test personnel in problem-solving and decision-making but cannot ‘afford‘ to deploy major resources?
  • You want to test EOC staff work, problem-solving and decision-making, but cannot ‘afford‘ to deploy resources?
  • Resources are ‘unlimited‘ and you want to validate the staff work in an EOC, communications, decision-making and the reaction time and co-ordination of agencies at an incident site?
  1. Consider your own aim and objectives and see if you can identify an appropriate type of exercise to achieve them. Explain the type of exercise that you are choosing to undertake and your reasons for that choice.

Exercise writing team

  1. What are some of the factors you might consider in deciding who should be on your writing team?
  2. List who you would like to have on the exercise writing team for your own exercise and explain why you have included them and what their role on the writing team might be.

Exercise Proposal

Examples of a letter sent to the authorising officer and a draft letter for his signature to agencies in relation to an exercise are contained in the following reading.

Reading 17: Draft exercise proposal letters.

You will note that the draft letter to agencies was sent after the exercise writing team had been formed. You might decide to write your letter earlier if you are seeking a nomination for your writing team.

Writing your own letter

  1. Consider how you might start to frame your own letter. Do not try and draft your letter at this point - this is part of the work specified in the Assignment Guide. But consider drawing up a tentative plan or ‘map’ for your proposed letter in which you begin to record the major points that should be made. You can add to, or modify, your letter plan as you progress through the rest of the topic. Thinking about the letter in this way will make the actual drafting of the letter later on that much easier, and more likely to meet all your required needs. Save your thoughts for future reference and review.

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