IS-2002, Introduction to FEMA Operational Planning, teaches local, state, and Federal government planners the fundamentals of conducting FEMA operational planning activities as described in the FEMA Operational Planning Manual (FOPM). The course emphasizes that the successful development and implementation of emergency operations plans depends on learning these skills. The goal of this training is to maximize planning interoperability within FEMA and the national and regional interagency and to ensure proper coordination with state, local, tribal, and territorial planners.

Completion of this course will provide you with the skills and understanding to conduct FEMA operational planning activities with key stakeholders and partners in accordance with the FEMA Operational Planning Manual (FOPM). You will understand that a standardized approach to operational planning maximizes interoperability and promotes efficiency. 

You will be able to:

• Define common types of planning.
• Describe the operational planning method.
• Explain how to use the planning process for deliberate and crisis action planning.
• Discuss how to transition plans from the planners to those who execute plans.

This course contains nine chapters and a course summary.

• Chapter 1, FOPM Introduction and Course Overview, provides an overview of the course and an introduction to the FEMA Operational Planning Manual (FOPM)
• Chapter 2, Operational Planning Definitions, defines key planning terminology
• Chapter 3, Step 1: Form a Collaborative Planning Team, describes the first step in the deliberate planning process
• Chapter 4, Step 2: Understand the Situation, describes the second step in the deliberate planning process
• Chapter 5, Step 3: Determine Goals and Objectives, describes the third step in the deliberate planning process
• Chapter 6, Step 4: Plan Development, describes the fourth step in the deliberate planning process
• Chapter 7, Step 5: Plan Preparation, Review, and Approval, describes the fifth step in the deliberate planning process
• Chapter 8, Step 6: Plan Implementation and Maintenance, describes the sixth and final step in the deliberate planning process
• Chapter 9, Using Deliberate Plans in Crisis Action Planning, explains how to use deliberate plans while conducting crisis action planning
• Course Summary

The structure of the course mirrors the structure of the FOPM.

This course is designed to:

• Standardize the operational planning process.
• Maximize interoperability between the entities involved in the response and recovery operations.

The course will cover:

• Operational planning definitions
• Planning team formation
• Situational understanding
• Goals and objectives
• Plan development
• Plan preparation
• Plan implementation and maintenance
• Deliberate plans in crisis action planning

By the end of this course, you will be able to use the FEMA Operational Planning Manual (FOPM). You should download the FOPM now and reference it often as you complete the course.

Download the FOPM

• The FOPM contains best practices and techniques to help planners identify and describe certain elements necessary to execute a plan during a crisis.
• The manual relies on informed planners with good judgment and is intended to standardize the way planning is done.
• Planners use the FEMA Operational Planning Manual to guide their deliberate planning and their adaptation of deliberate plans to meet crisis action planning needs.
• For this manual to be effective, all planners must understand and implement the operational planning method described in the FOPM.

Planning is a risk management activity.

• Risk management planning allows FEMA to better understand scenarios, consequences, and risks.
• Planning helps to identify operational gaps, resource shortfalls, and any risks that may adversely impact operations.

Objective: At the end of this chapter, you will be able to explain that crisis action planning does not differ from deliberate planning in any way except for the environment in which it occurs.

Operational planning is typically done with other partners and organizations to inform efforts that address current and potential incidents.

There are two different types of operational plans, deliberate plans and crisis action plans. Both types are created using the same six steps of the planning process. The defining difference between these operational plans is time constraint.

Deliberate plans prepare for potential future incidents and events.

• Planning takes place in normal (steady state) circumstances.
• Planners develop concepts of operations and of support for mitigating, handling, and recovering from hazards.
• Deliberate plans also include information on:
• Resources (personnel and commodities) and capabilities
• Projected timelines
• Critical considerations
• Assumptions
• Key tasks
• Risk analysis

Crisis action plans are developed during time-sensitive situations in response to a current or imminent incident.

• Planners modify deliberate plans to create crisis action plans.
• Crisis action plans are developed based on the situation and the risks that exist as planning occurs.
• These plans must be able to adapt to an incident’s changing conditions.

Although most of the chapters in this course focus on deliberate planning, notes throughout the course will urge you to consider how each step of the operational planning process applies to crisis action planning. Chapter 9 discusses how to use deliberate plans during crisis action planning in more detail.

Objective: At the end of this chapter, you will be able to identify and engage all appropriate entities that can contribute to the plan, will be affected by the plan, or will use the finished plan.

The deliberate planning process begins when a supervisor gives the planning team leader an assignment based on an identified problem. The team leader is then responsible for forming the planning team.

Forming a planning team is an integral part of the planning process. A successful team will ensure that the finished plans are comprehensive, applicable, and executable.

How does the team leader know who should be on the team?

• To select the necessary personnel for the planning team, the planning team leader must first define the problem clearly and develop the scope for the planning effort.
• To scope a planning effort, the planning team leader needs to receive the senior leader’s intent, create a work plan, and send out the planning notification.

The senior leader’s intent is a statement providing guidance for the planners, including:

• The purpose of the plan
• Specified tasks
• Desired end state

The planning team leader usually refines and interprets the planning assignment into the senior leader’s intent before submitting it back to leadership for approval.

After receiving approval, the planning team leader uses the senior leader’s intent to create an outline of specified and implied tasks.

Senior Leader’s Intent Example

• Specified tasks are tasks explicitly stated by senior leadership that must be completed to reach the desired end state.
• Implied tasks are tasks not explicitly stated by senior leadership that must be completed to accomplish a specified task.

The planning team leader infers the implied tasks using the specified tasks.

It is the senior leader’s intent to have SLTT and Federal efforts help save lives, alleviate human suffering, ensure the continuity of critical government functions, maintain and/or restore services, and ensure that essential infrastructure is stabilized and repaired. In addition, State and Federal efforts will help create an operational environment conducive to short-term and long-term recovery and future hazard mitigation in the incident area.

This will be accomplished by:

• Stabilizing response operations within 72 hours through the rapid deployment of pre-identified resources to the incident area
• Establishing a joint State/Federal Unified Coordination Group to unify actions across the “Whole Community”
• Coordinating disaster response and recovery activities that are consistent with the priorities set by the Governor

The scope is developed by combining the approved intent with the outline of tasks.

This is sent to leadership for approval.

Approval of the scope signifies that leadership understands the risks, responsibilities, and scope of the plan.

After leadership approves the scope, the planning team leader develops the work plan, which lays out the process by which the planning effort will be accomplished by identifying an outline of the approach and a set of deliverables along a timeline.

The work plan helps to justify and organize work on the plan and to keep plan development on schedule. The senior leadership’s deadline for plan completion determines the timeline.

Once the previous steps have been completed and accepted, the planning team leader develops and sends out a planning notification summarizing the plan and requesting personnel.

Based on the planning notification, divisions, branches, stakeholders, and partners assign personnel to meet the requirements specified in the plan.

Keep in mind that the planning notification cannot be sent out until the planning team leader knows who needs to receive it.

The planning team is led by the lead planner who selects the other members and guides the entire planning process. There are three other parts of a deliberate planning team. 

Click on the links below to read the descriptions of each part:

• Senior Leadership Steering Committee (SLSC)
• Core planning team
• Collaborative planning team

Additionally, the community of interest includes all others involved or invested in the plan.

Objective: At the end of this chapter, you will be able to conduct research and informational analysis and identify critical facts and assumptions to gain and maintain a common situational understanding.

Planners use information analysis, a collaborative process involving all planning team members, partners, and stakeholders, to:

• To understand the situation (i.e., frame the problem) and inform operational decisions
• To ensure that planners will not lack necessary information later in the planning process

Parts of the Process

• Research
• Analysis
• Identify Threat/Hazard and Develop Planning Scenario
• Determine Physical Effects and Operational Impacts
• Identify Facts and Assumptions

Most information collected can be grouped into one of three categories of research.

1. Operational environment: Information about the environment in which the plan will be designed and implemented, including:
• Relevant geography and meteorological data
• Demographic, historical, political, cultural, and socioeconomic factors
2. Capabilities: The available means to accomplish the plan or parts of the plan


3. Resource limitations and shortfalls:
• Limitations: Innate characteristics that constrain a resource’s ability to support an incident
• Shortfalls: Happen when the resources available are inadequate for the mission

Analysis connects the information gathered during research and puts it into operational context, allowing planners to:

1. Identify threat/hazard and develop planning scenario
• E.g., analysis shows the worst threat, and planners make a plan for worst case scenario
2. Determine physical effects and operational impacts
• Physical effects: Incident characteristics, including scope, severity, and magnitude
• Operational impacts: The damages and outcomes of the incident
3. Identify critical facts and assumptions
• Facts: Known information about the situation, including laws, maps, population statistics, and resource inventories
• Assumptions: Statements accepted as true in the absence of fact
• Not used as predictions
• Only used when facts are unavailable

Planners compile the results of analysis into a set of planning factors, quantitative and/or qualitative descriptions of problems.

Example planning factors:

• “All transportation modes hampered by debris.”
• “156,000 buildings at least moderately damaged.”
• “Economic losses greater than $50 billion.”
• “Households without electricity and water.”

Planning factors are used to develop objectives during Step 3 and courses of action (COAs) in the context of core capabilities during Step 4.

The planning team analyzes the planning factors to identify how the core capabilities in the mission areas of Mitigation, Response, and Recovery will be impacted.

The team establishes objectives based on this analysis and calculates the level of support needed to meet the objectives.

• Capability analysis involves assessing Federal, SLTT, and community resources.
• Refer to Figure 13: Core Capability Analysis and Planning Factors on page 42 of the FOPM.

Objective: At the end of this chapter, you will be able to use your common situational understanding to envision a desired end state and identify operational approaches to realize that end state.

During this step of the planning process, planners develop more precise information using the situational analysis that began in the previous chapter.

Remember that if the situation is insufficiently understood, no amount of planning can solve the problem. Therefore, it is critical that the situation be understood before planners being writing goals and objectives for the plan.

The end state is the desired situation after execution of the plan.

• Senior leadership defines the end state.
• The planning team leader refines it.

The mission statement defines the purpose and primary objectives of the plan. It also serves as the key measure of the plan’s success.

• The core planning team derives the mission statement from the end state.
• The statement should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-oriented (SMART).

The mission statement should answer these questions:

1. What does FEMA intend to accomplish as a result of this plan (i.e., end state)?
2. What goals or objectives will the FEMA plan accomplish?
3. Who is responsible for executing the mission?

At the end of Step 3, the mission statement is included in the Information Analysis Briefing (IAB) delivered to the SLSC for approval.

Operational phases are a system to help planners organize activities over time. This approach helps to synchronize response and recovery activities.

• Phases are distinct and distinguished by the type of activity performed
• Each phase has an end state which must be achieved for the phase to end

Click on each of the three main phases in the image below to view descriptions of FEMA’s standard operational phases.

Phase 1a, 1b, and 1c consist of pre-incident actions. The intent during these phases is to reduce the requirements of later phases and promote their success.

• Phase 1a: Normal operations
• Phase 1b: Increased likelihood or elevated threat
• Phase 1c: Near certainty or credible threat

Phase 2a, 2b, and 2c occur when the incident develops or occurs.

• Phase 2a: Activation, situational assessment, movement of resources, and life-saving and rescue operations
• Phase 2b: Deployment of teams, providing for health and safety needs, sheltering, restoring critical systems, and establishing structures for long-term recovery
• Phase 2c: Sustained response, including provision of accessible interim housing solutions, planning of immediate infrastructure repair and restoration, and supporting reestablishment of businesses

Phase 3 occurs after the incident. Phase 3 is not subdivided, but is called 3a for consistency with the other phases.

• Phase 3a: Long-term, sustained recovery operations, including permanent housing solutions, mitigation strategies, and economic revitalization

Developing Criteria By Phase

The planning team determines criteria to define when each phase begins and ends.

Example Phase Start Conditions and End States

There are two types of incidents and phases.

• Notice incident: Notice incident phases include pre-incident actions to improve readiness.
• No-notice incident: No-notice incidents do not include notice phases.

Response, Recovery, and Mitigation Relationships

Correlations between the core capabilities must be identified, and tasks must be created to ensure seamless transitions.

• Response and Recovery planners should be part of each other’s planning teams because aspects of both mission areas happen during response operations.
• Response, Recovery, and Mitigation operational planning should take place simultaneously in coordination with one another.

The components to be included during the IAB depend on the direction received from the SLSC and the type of plan. Below are examples of data that may be included in an IAB:

• List of SLSC members, whole community partners and stakeholders, and core planning team members 
• Senior leader’s intent
• Detailed information reflecting the research/analysis, including:
• Situation
• Geography
• Capabilities
• Risks
• Facts and assumptions
• Resources
• Modeling
• Simulations 
• Detailed information on applicable jurisdictions, including:
• Tribes and territories
• Demographic and socioeconomic factors, risks, and capabilities
• Planning factors, including data such as:
• Population demographics (e.g., affected population, number of casualties and fatalities)
• Structural impact to the affected area
• Known critical information requirements (CIRs) (CIRs require immediate leadership notification and involvement)
• Potential assets and capabilities by core capability (where applicable)
• Mission statement
• Desired end state
• Graphic of phases of operation
• Quantifiable draft incident objectives and mission-essential tasks
• The way forward (approach for COA development)

Objective: At the end of this chapter, you will be able to develop and compare solutions in the form of Courses of Action (COAs).

Once the SLSC approves the mission statement and objectives at the IAB, the planning team works with partners and stakeholders to develop ways to accomplish those objectives. The options developed during Step 4 are called Courses of Action.

A course of action is a strategy explaining how a mission can be accomplished and what resources may be needed.

The planning team develops COAs to provide the SLSC with viable options.

• Concept of operations (CONOPS): A statement expressing what will be accomplished and how it will be done
• Concept of support: A statement establishing how the CONOPS will be achieved through COAs for each core capability

Forming a COA workgroup

1. The COA workgroup creates, evaluates, and recommends COAs.
2. The planning team leader guides the process, beginning by choosing the workgroup participants.
3. The members of a COA workgroup should review the IAB and the 5 minimum characteristics of viable COAs:
• Suitability: Accomplishes the objective and complies with senior leader’s intent
• Feasibility: Works within known limitations
• Acceptability: Solution justifies cost
• Distinguishability: Distinct from other options
• Completeness: Includes objectives/tasks and resource requirements

The FOPM provides example COAs on pages 56-57.

With the assistance of the COA workgroup, the planning team leader writes a description of each COA, identifying:

• What is the strategy to achieve the objective?
• Does the strategy address significant aspects of the mission statement?
• What capabilities and resources are required?
• When, where, and how are capabilities applied?
• What are the logistics/support requirements?
• What has been requested?
• How does this help the SLTT and survivors of the incident?

Example Draft Mitigation/Recovery COA

• Develop assessment criteria
• The workgroup evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of each COA using a list of criteria developed from the:
• Senior leader’s intent
• Scope
• Information Analysis Briefing
• Other planning products
• Criteria may include characteristics such as:
• Timeliness
• Simplicity
• Acceptability
• Efficiency
• Social responsibility
• Define criteria ratings
• Each criterion is broken down further into measurable ratings

COAs are evaluated to determine which would be the most effective. Each COA is independently compared to evaluation criteria – not to each other.

The planning team leader selects which of many methods to use for COA comparison.

Common methods include:

1. Weighted numerical comparison technique
2. Non-weighted numerical comparison technique
3. Qualitative narrative technique
4. Plus/minus/neutral comparison

Read pages 60-62 of the FOPM to learn about each of these methods.

During the Course of Action Decision Brief, the planning team recommends COAs to the SLSC. The decision brief includes the benefits, risks, and operational impacts of recommended COAs because these factors define the operation.

The COA Decision Brief includes:

• Review of the situation, mission statement, senior leader’s intent, objectives, phasing, and each COA
• The risks and benefits of the COAs
• Recommended COAs
• Operational impacts of the recommended COAs

During the brief, the SLSC selects and/or modifies COAs that will be included in the plan.

Planners must know what resources are available to determine if a plan is executable.

• Resource alignment is a continuous process ensuring that all available resources are identified and preventing duplication of tasks for resources.
• Resource alignment desired outcomes: 
1. Common understanding of the CONOPS and the resources required for a successful operation
2. A catalogue of all identified resources available
3. Documentation of resource limitations and shortfalls

Objective: At the end of this chapter, you will be able to write a deliberate plan using a FEMA standard format and use the FEMA criteria for assessing the quality of a draft plan in order to get a FEMA operational plan approved and to disseminate a FEMA operational plan.

This chapter describes techniques for organizing a plan and outlines the process for gaining final plan approval by the SLSC.

The chapter includes a description of how to write a deliberate plan using a FEMA standard format, FEMA criteria for assessing the quality of a draft plan, how to get a FEMA operational plan approved, and how to disseminate a FEMA operational plan.

Organize and Use Planning Products

The standard format of the FEMA operational plan is designed to allow deliverables, management tools, analytic products, and decision support tools to be transitioned into the written plan. To facilitate this transitioning, all documents and products developed during the planning process should be easily accessible and organized clearly.

Use the Standard Format

• FEMA operational plans must be recognizable and accessible sources for various users.
• The standard format outlines in the FOPM facilitates interoperability.

Use Clear and Concise Language

Guidelines for writing the plan:

• Use plain language the intended audience will understand.
• Use active voice.
• Be direct and to the point.
• Do not assume acronyms and abbreviation are universally used (minimize their use when possible).
• Avoid or clearly define the intent of terms that have multiple meanings.

Objective: At the end of this chapter, you will be able to conduct a training and exercise schedule, an implementation schedule, and a maintenance schedule to inform the response community of how to use the plan.

During Step 6, planners transition the plan to users who will train on the plan, exercise the plan, and execute the plan.

In addition, planners need to obtain feedback on the plan from various sources, and maintain awareness of changing requirements, to ensure the plan is revised, reviewed, and maintained on both a regular and an as-needed basis.

Personnel responsible for plan execution use training and exercises to ensure they are able to understand and follow the plan.

Because training and exercising are important parts of plan refinement, the planning team should be involved during this process.

1. Annual training: Plans should be included in relevant multi-year training schedules.
2. Ad hoc training: Plans that do not fit into scheduled training may require ad hoc training.
3. After-action report, corrective action plan, and training synchronization: The organization may need to provide refresher training.
4. Communicating the training aspect of the plan: Managers within the organization must discuss how to implement training of the plan.

Refining the Documents

Planners use lessons learned from training, exercises, and real incidents to make changes to plans.

Revised plans should be checked to ensure they are still relevant and accurate.

Substantive changes should be approved by senior leaders.

Objective: At the end of this chapter, you will be able to adapt deliberate plans to meet crisis action planning needs.

Crisis action planning follows the same 6 steps as deliberate planning. However, the actions taken during each step are often abbreviated.

Because crisis action planning takes place under a time constraint, the team is often unable to perform a wide review of information, develop many different options, or receive feedback on the plan before implementation.

For a detailed list of Crisis Action Planning actions that take place during each step, review Table 6: Crisis Action Plans and the 6 Step Process on page 87 of the FOPM.

Incident Action Plan (IAP)

• The IAP is a written plan containing the objectives and work assignments for a specific operational period.
• Deliberate plans should be used to choose incident response priorities and to serve as guides for initial incident objectives and tactics.

Incident Strategic Plan (ISP)

• The ISP is a written document that provides overall direction for incident management.
• It also defines specific milestones that must be accomplished to achieve the desired end state.

Recovery Support Strategy (RSS)

• The RSS details the strategy the Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator and Recovery Support Function agencies will take to support the SLTT.
• It is developed by the RSFs with the support of the FDRC staff.
• The RSS is not a recovery plan for SLTT governments.

Regional Support Plan (RSP)

• The RSP is a description of the incident priorities, objectives, and tasks in the context of the Regional Response Coordination Staff initial response support activities.
• It provides decision-makers and RRCS members with a snapshot of the coming operational period, including a summary of the objectives for the RRCS and the incident or incidents being supported.

National Support Plan (NSP)

• The NSP is a concise description of non-routine (i.e., “by exception”) tasks that the National Response Coordination Staff should accomplish over the following operational period.
• In addition, it provides the daily tempo for the NRCS, including the regular NRCC meeting schedule and other high-level meetings of which the NRCS needs to be aware.

Functional Plans

• Functional plans focus on one particular function or programmatic issue.
• Functional plans typically support or complement the other incident plans (e.g., IAP, RSP, NSP).

Objective: During this chapter, you will review the course and complete the evaluation.

This chapter includes the following:

• Review of Course Goal
• Review of Course Objectives
• Final Test

This course provides training in the fundamentals of conducting FEMA operational planning activities.

The goal of this training is to maximize planning interoperability within FEMA and the national and regional interagency and to ensure proper coordination with state, local, tribal, and territorial planners.

You should now have the skills and understanding to conduct FEMA operational planning activities with key stakeholders and partners in accordance with the FEMA Operational Planning Manual (FOPM). You should understand that a standardized approach to operational planning maximizes interoperability and promotes efficiency.

You should be able to:

• Define common types of planning.
• Describe the operational planning method.
• Explain how to use the planning process for deliberate and crisis action planning.
• Discuss how to transition plans from the planners to those who execute plans.