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Decision Stream
Decision streams utilize numerous components of business intelligence to aid business leaders and decision makers in analyzing data and ultimately making better operational decisions. The principles and practice of using decision streams adds a dynamic component to processes in crisis management that have been historically static. For crisis managers, decision streams’ greatest benefit is the integration of decision support, decision evaluation, and impact analysis to determine the full and total implications of every crisis and associated actions. The use of streams is unique because users are able to quantify data previously in a qualitative format and attach a fiscal component to actions previously perceived to be nonfiscal in nature.
Decision Evaluation
Crisis managers using business or operational intelligence tools to evaluate decisions and action interactions are presented with graphical and textual outputs through tools such as Sync Matrix and similar systems. Sync Matrix was originally pioneered by Argonne National Laboratory, in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Defense (DoD), to evaluate several complex emergency response programs, most notably the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. Tools, such as Sync Matrix, allow crisis managers to view the complex interactions between decisions, actions, and reactions from the operational environment in a variety of graphical and data forms. These outputs then drive a data-based after-action or performance review process that has historically been qualitative in nature. The data-based reviews also assist crisis managers with the process of separating perceived gaps in performance from actual gaps in performance. Furthermore, when decisions are charted in real time and compared with predetermined benchmarks, crisis managers have the ability to trend responses and actions over a period of years. Multiyear trending allows managers to separate effective and ineffective initiatives over a prolonged period of performance.
Integrated Data Flow
Data generated during a crisis and reviewed following a crisis response can also be channeled back into an integrated hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA) and associated business impact analysis components to challenge current ratings or profiles for specific hazards or threats. Although a single outlying data set is not sufficient to change all planning assumptions, it does, however, provide a point of reference for a response outside the assumed norm. These points of reference, over time, can be used to establish outer edges, or sigmas, of a response or action curve. In the case of crisis management and emergency response, these points represent the best- and worst-case scenarios. Periodic evaluations and statistical analysis are required of data sets to ensure the data inside these sigmas remain statistically significant and valid. As the results of an integrated HVA start to ebb and flow, so does the decision stream for certain hazards or risks. As a particular hazard increases or decreases in threat or impact, crisis managers can adjust the benchmarks accordingly.
Case Study: Decision Stream at the University of North Carolina Health Care System
In 2006, the University of North Carolina health care system started aggregating and trending threat data through a database with the intention of utilizing decision streams as a decision support and planning tool. In 2011, following the collection of five years of data, response benchmarks and profiles were compiled for six categories of frequently occurring emergencies. These profiles measured and benchmarked the following components: (1) productivity loss during emergency response; (2) time lapse between warning receipts and message dissemination; (3) time spent conducting pre-planning, response, and recovery operations; and (4) loss of revenue/increase in expenses during the crisis.
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- Agencies, United Nations
- Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, UN (UNDP/BCPR)
- Environment Programme, UN (UNEP)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
- International Children's Fund, UN (UNICEF)
- International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, UN (UNISDR)
- Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, UN (UNICRI)
- Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN
- World Health Organization (WHO), UN
- Agencies, U.S.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- Emergency Management Agencies, City and County
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- State Emergency Management Agencies
- U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
- Categories of Crises: Engineering and Technological
- Air Traffic Control
- Air Travel
- Biological Engineering Risk
- Bridges
- Buildings
- Chemical Risk
- Cyber Crime
- Cyber Security
- Cyber Warfare
- Dams, Levees, and Seawalls
- Electronics Waste
- Environmental Contamination
- Hazardous Materials
- Hazardous Waste Disposal
- Improvised Explosive Devices
- Manufacturing Risks
- Marine Shipping
- Marine Travel
- Mining
- Nanotechnology
- Nuclear Risks
- Ozone Layer Depletion
- Petrochemical Risk
- Sewage Spill
- Smog
- Spaceflight
- Transportation Systems, Vulnerability
- Y2K Bug
- Categories of Crises: Financial and Business
- Categories of Crises: Natural Disasters
- Categories of Crises: Politics, International Relations, and Civil Violence
- Arms Control
- Biological Weapons
- Border Disputes
- Cabinet Office, UK
- Chemical Weapons
- Civil War
- Ethnic Cleansing
- Failed States
- Foreign Policy Crises
- Hijackings
- Hostage Taking and Negotiation
- Human Trafficking
- Interstate War
- Land Mines
- Missiles
- Nuclear and Radiological Weapons
- Nuclear Proliferation
- Peacekeeping
- Protest
- Religious Violence
- Revolution
- Riots
- Suicide Bombings
- Terrorism
- Transportation Security
- War Crimes
- Weapons Trafficking
- Categories of Crises: Population and Demographics
- Disaster Information Databases
- Nongovernmental Organizations
- Risk Management Standards
- Theory, Issues, and Techniques: Civil
- Agency Notification and Mobilization
- Civil Protection
- Civilian Protection, Post-Conflict
- Contingency Planning
- Continuity of Government
- Crisis Information Management Systems
- Debris Management
- Decision Making
- Decision Support Tools
- Disaster Assessment
- Disaster Declaration
- Disaster Risk Reduction
- Documentation
- Emergency Alert Systems
- Emergency Management System
- Emergency Manager
- Emergency Support Functions
- Financial Risk Management in Higher Education
- Hazard Mitigation
- Incident Action Plans
- National Incident Management System (NIMS)
- National Preparedness Goal
- National Response Framework
- Operational Plans
- Operational Readiness
- Perimeter Control
- Policy Setting
- Political and Organizational Leadership
- Preparedness
- Prevention
- Protection
- Search and Rescue
- Situational Analysis
- Stafford Act
- Sustainability
- Threat Detection
- Theory, Issues, and Techniques: Corporate
- Alternate Site, Corporate
- Auditing
- Backup Facility
- Backup Media
- Backup Strategy
- Business Continuity Management
- Business Continuity Planning
- Business Continuity Planning Life Cycle
- Business Impact Analysis
- Business Resumption Planning
- Classification of Systems
- Cluster
- Cold Site
- Continual Improvement
- Critical Applications
- Critical Business Functions
- Criticality Assessment
- Data Mirroring
- Data Recovery
- Dedicated Site
- Disaster Declaration Officer
- Disaster Recovery
- Disaster Recovery Life Cycle
- Disaster Recovery Plan Test Cycle
- Downtime
- Electronic Vaulting
- Failover
- Fink's Crisis Life Cycle
- Impact Analysis
- Incident Management
- Incident Response
- Insurance
- Journaling
- Losses, Quantitative Versus Qualitative
- Maximum Acceptable Outage
- Minimum Business Continuity Objective
- Mirroring
- Mitroff's Five Stages of Crisis Management
- Mobile Recovery Site
- Reciprocal Agreement
- Reciprocal Site
- Recovery Time Objective
- Reinsurance
- Reputational Risk
- Response Team
- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threat (SWOT) Analysis
- Supply Chain
- Vital Records
- Warm Site
- Theory, Issues, and Techniques: General
- All-Hazards
- Cascading Crisis
- Catastrophe, Definition of
- Climate Change Adaptation
- Collaboration
- Command and Control
- Contingent Coordination
- Coordination
- Coping Capacity and Response Capability
- Credibility
- Crisis Communications
- Crisis Management, Emerging Trends in
- Crisis Simulations
- Crisis, Definition of
- Critical Infrastructure
- Damage Assessment
- Damage Containment
- Debriefing
- Decision Making Under Stress
- Disaster Drills
- Disaster, Definition of
- Disruption of Organizations
- Early Warning Systems
- Electronic Media
- Emergency Management, Principles of
- Emergency Medical Care
- Emergency Operations Center
- Emergency Public Information
- Emergency Responders
- Emergency, Definition of
- Evacuation
- Exercises
- Fusion Center
- Hazard Vulnerability Analysis
- Hazard, Definition of
- Historical Analogies, Use of
- Impact, Definition of
- Improvising
- Incidents Versus Crises
- Interdependence
- Interoperability
- Legal Liability
- Logistics
- Mass Care
- Mass Fatality Management
- Mass Media
- Mental Models
- Methods, Qualitative
- Methods, Quantitative
- Multiple Disaster Problem
- News Media
- Nongovernmental Organizations
- Nonlinearity
- Panic, Nature and Conditions of
- Pre-Crisis Training and Planning
- Pre-Impact Planning Process
- Public Awareness and Education
- Public Image
- Public Relations
- Recovery
- Residual Risk
- Resiliency
- Resource Management
- Response
- Risk Analysis
- Risk Assessment
- Risk Treatment
- Routine Emergencies Versus True Crises
- Safety Policies
- Scapegoating
- Scenario Planning
- Shelter-in-Place
- Simulations
- Social Media
- Spokesperson, Designating and Utilizing
- Stakeholders
- Strategic Plans
- Training
- Trauma
- Trigger Events
- Uncertainty
- Volunteer Coordination
- Vulnerability
- Warning
- Whistle Blowers
- Worker Error
- Theory, Issues, and Techniques: Public Health
- Cholera
- Drug Resistance
- Ebola Virus
- Emergency Medicine
- Epidemics
- Health and Medical Response Scenarios
- HIV/AIDS Epidemic
- Hospital Emergency Room
- Infectious Disease
- Infestations, Parasite
- Influenza
- Living Modified Organisms
- Malaria
- Measles
- Mental Illness
- Noncommunicable Diseases
- Pandemics
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Public Health Surveillance
- Public Safety Canada
- Quarantine
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
- Smallpox
- Social Distancing
- Surge Capacity, Hospitals
- Triage
- Tuberculosis
- Vaccinations
- Theory, Issues, and Techniques: Social Sciences
- Blame, Politics of
- Bounded Rationality
- Bureaucracy
- Chaos Theory
- Cognitive Novelty, Engaging in
- Cosmology Episode
- Coupling
- Decision Making, Theories of
- Decision Stream
- Groupthink
- High Reliability Organization Theory
- Information Asymmetry
- Information Vacuums
- Normal Accident Theory
- Normalization of Deviance
- Organizational Failure
- Paradigm Blindness
- Practical Drift
- Risk Society
- Structural Secrecy
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