After-Action Reports—the story of an exercise and its response—Part III

Excerpt from U.S. Coast Guard "Proceedings of the Marine Safety & Security Council" magazine. Click here for Part I and Part II.
　

Tips
Reports are only as good as the input received. For a successful evaluation process:

• Identify the correct people to fill the evaluator roles. Each person should be a subject matter expert or have a good working knowledge in the area of the objective that will be tested.
• Ensure that exercise evaluation guides are clear, concise, and contain sufficient information.
• Provide evaluator training prior to the event.
• Review the particulars of the exercise (scenario, location, etc.) with the evaluation team and provide an evaluator handbook.
• Articulate what is expected of an evaluator.
• Conduct data collection immediately or shortly after the event.

By following these basic steps, the evaluation teams will have the necessary tools to accurately capture what happened during the event and be able to provide substantial, quality feedback for the after-action report.

　
For more information:
The Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program toolkit is available at http://hseep.dhs.gov/.

The Department of Homeland Security Lessons Learned Information Sharing site is available at http://www.llis.gov/.

Full article is available at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/fall2009.

Subscribe online at http://www.uscg.mil/proceedings/subscribe.asp.