Incident action planning is a step-by-step progressive procedure to develop an Incident Action Plan (IAP) at the incident level. This process requires collaboration and participation among all incident management leaders and their staffs from across the whole community.

The IAP contains general objectives reflecting the strategy for managing an incident, which may include the identification of operational resources and assignments, attachments that provide direction, and important information for management of the incident for the operational period.

The incident action planning process is often depicted as the "Planning P" which is depicted here. Note at the center of the process is ongoing situational awareness. You will learn more about the Planning P on the next screen.