https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/national-preparedness/exercises/hseep

MEPP Resources & Exercise Documentation:

The following training presentations and exercise documents/templates come from FEMA’s Master Exercise Practitioner Program (MEPP). This comprehensive list provides useful guidance for HSEEP-compliant programs, including discussion-based and operations-based exercises.

Note: Exercise documents listed throughout this website may not represent the latest guidance from FEMA, so visitors to this sight are encouraged to verify the latest versions of all HSEEP documents and presentations.

MEPP Overview and Discussion-based Exercises

Operations-based Exercises and Evaluation Overview

Full-Scale Exercises & Resources

HSEEP Introduction:

Exercises are a key component of national preparedness — they provide the whole community with the opportunity to shape planning, assess and validate capabilities, and address areas for improvement. HSEEP provides a set of guiding principles for exercise and evaluation programs, as well as a common approach to exercise program management, design and development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning. Through the use of HSEEP, the whole community can develop, execute, and evaluate exercises that address the preparedness priorities. These priorities are informed by risk and capability assessments, findings, corrective actions from previous events, and external requirements. These priorities guide the direction of an exercise program and the development of individual exercises.

These priorities guide planners as they identify exercise objectives and align them to capabilities for evaluation during the exercise. Exercise evaluation assesses the ability to meet exercise objectives and capabilities by documenting strengths, areas for improvement, capability performance, and corrective actions in an After-Action Report/Improvement Plan (AAR/IP). Through improvement planning, organizations take the corrective actions needed to improve plans, build and sustain capabilities, and maintain readiness.

Purpose:

The Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) provides a set of fundamental principles for exercise programs, as well as a common approach to program management, design and development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning. Exercises are an important component of preparedness, by providing the whole community1 with the opportunity to shape planning, assess and validate capabilities, and address areas for improvement. An exercise is an event or activity, delivered through discussion or action, to develop, assess, or validate plans, policies, procedures, and capabilities that jurisdictions/organizations can use to achieve objectives.

Through HSEEP, exercise program managers can develop, execute, and evaluate exercises that address the priorities established by a jurisdiction’s/organization’s senior leaders. The National Preparedness Goal,3 strategy documents, Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) processes, capability assessments, and results from previous exercises and real-world incidents impact the priorities. These priorities guide the overall direction of an exercise program where individual exercises anchor to a common set of priorities or objectives, which increase in complexity over time. These priorities guide the design and development of individual exercises and allow planners to identify and align objectives to the capabilities being evaluated. Exercise evaluation assesses the ability to meet the objectives and capabilities by documenting strengths, areas for improvement, capability performance, and corrective actions in an After-Action Report (AAR)/Improvement Plan (IP).

Through Improvement Planning, jurisdictions/organizations take the corrective actions identified during exercises to improve plans, build and sustain capabilities, and maintain readiness. Stakeholders are reminded of the importance of implementing corrective actions. In this way, the use of HSEEP—in line with the National Preparedness Goal, the National Preparedness System (NPS), 4 and stakeholder preparedness priorities—supports efforts across the whole community that improve the nation’s capacity to build, sustain, and deliver capabilities to better respond to a real-world incident.

Fundamental Principles:

The HSEEP doctrine consists of fundamental principles that frame a common approach to exercises. The intent is to enhance consistency in exercise conduct and evaluation while ensuring exercises remain a flexible, accessible way to improve our nation’s preparedness. Applying the following principles is critical for exercise program management:

Senior Leader Guidance: The early and frequent engagement of senior leaders is the key to the success of any exercise program. Senior leaders provide the overarching guidance and direction for the exercise and evaluation program as well as specific intent for individual exercises.
Informed by Risk: Identifying and assessing risks and associated impacts helps jurisdictions/organizations identify and evaluate priorities, objectives, and capabilities through exercises.
Capability-Based, Objective-Driven: Jurisdictions/Organizations can use exercises to evaluate current capability levels/targets and identify gaps. Exercises focus on assessing performance against capability-based objectives.
Progressive Exercise Planning Approach: A progressive approach includes the use of various exercises aligned to a common set of program priorities and objectives with an increasing level of complexity over time. Progressive exercise planning does not always imply a linear progression of exercise types.
Whole Community Integration: The use of HSEEP encourages exercise planners, where appropriate, to engage the whole community throughout program management, design and development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning.
Common Methodology: HSEEP includes a common methodology for exercises across all mission areas. This enables jurisdictions/organizations a shared understanding of program management, design and development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning and fosters exercise-related interoperability and collaboration.

HSEEP Cycle:

The HSEEP uses a common approach for planning, conducting, and evaluating individual exercises. The following chapters contain more detailed descriptions of each phase.

Program Management:

Program management involves a collaborative approach that integrates resources, jurisdictions/organizations, and individuals to identify and achieve program priorities. An effective exercise program maximizes efficiency, resources, time, and funding by ensuring an integrated approach to building, sustaining, and delivering capabilities. Through the management of an exercise program, leaders provide oversight for preparedness activities sustained over time.

Exercise Design and Development:

During design and development, the exercise planning team members use the intent and guidance of senior leaders and the program priorities to shape the individual or series of exercises. Involving the risk and hazard assessments, plans, policies, and procedures, grant or cooperative agreements, and relevant After-Action Reports (AARs) and Improvement Plans (IPs), exercise planners ensure that exercises assess and validate a jurisdiction’s/organization’s capabilities.

Exercise Conduct:

Exercise conduct involves activities such as preparing for exercise play, managing exercise play, and conducting immediate exercise wrap-up activities. For a discussion-based exercise, conduct entails presentation, facilitation, and discussion. For an operations-based exercise, conduct, encompasses all operations occurring between the designated Start of the Exercise (StartEx) and End of the Exercise (EndEx).

Exercise Evaluation:

An effective evaluation assesses performance against exercise objectives and identifies and documents strengths and areas for improvement relative to capabilities. Evaluation is important and considered in all phases of the exercise planning cycle, beginning when the exercise planning team meets to establish objectives and initiate exercise design through improvement planning.

Improvement Planning:

Improvement Planning activities can help shape a jurisdiction’s/organization’s preparedness priorities and support continuous improvement. Actions identified during Improvement Planning help to strengthen elements of a jurisdiction’s/organization’s capability to plan, organize/equip, train, and exercise.

Program Management

Program management is the process of overseeing and integrating a variety of exercises over time. An effective exercise program helps jurisdictions/organizations maximize efficiency, resources, time, and funding by ensuring that exercises are part of a coordinated, integrated planning approach to building, sustaining, and delivering capabilities. This integrated planning approach begins when senior leaders, working with whole community stakeholders, identify and develop a set of multiyear preparedness priorities based on relevant threats, hazards, and risks.

Discussion-Based Exercises: Discussion-based exercises include seminars, workshops, tabletop exercises (TTXs), and games. These types of exercises familiarize players with or develop new plans, policies, procedures, and agreements. Discussion-based exercises focus on strategic, policy-oriented issues, and facilitators or presenters lead the discussion, keeping participants moving towards meeting the exercise objectives.
Operations-Based Exercises: Operations-based exercises include drills, functional exercises (FE), and full-scale exercises (FSE). These exercises validate plans, policies, procedures, and agreements; clarify roles and responsibilities; and identify resource gaps. Operations-based exercises include a real-time response such as initiating communications or mobilizing personnel and resources.
Conduct of the Integrated Preparedness Planning Workshop (IPPW): During conduct of the Integrated Preparedness Planning Workshop (IPPW), participants review and consider various factors to develop the preparedness priorities and the multi-year schedule. Guidance from senior leaders confirms whole community involvement in this process. At the end of the Integrated Preparedness Planning Workshop (IPPW), program managers will have a clear understanding of specific multi-year preparedness priorities and any available information on previously planned preparedness activities that align to those priorities. Once the preparedness priorities are outlined, stakeholders develop the multi-year Integrated Preparedness Plan (IPP).
Integrated Preparedness Plan (IPP): The IPP is a document for combining efforts across the elements of the Integrated Preparedness Cycle to make sure that a jurisdiction/organization has the capabilities to handle threats and hazards. Through effective program management, each planning, organizing/equipping, training, exercising, and evaluating/improving activity becomes a supporting component of the larger preparedness priorities. These priorities help exercise planners design and develop a multi-year exercise program of individual exercises that target resources to where they are most useful. Reference the National Preparedness Goal for information regarding how resources are critical for those responsible in delivering capabilities toward national preparedness
Progressive Approach: A progressive, multi-year exercise program enables jurisdictions/organizations to participate in a series of increasingly complex exercises, with each exercise building upon the previous one. Regardless of exercise type, each exercise is linked to a set of common program priorities and designed to test associated capabilities. By identifying other preparedness activities or requirements as part of the integrated preparedness planning process, jurisdictions/organizations address known shortfalls prior to exercising capabilities.

Program Management Planning Documentation