Understanding How Incident Planning Connects in PRATUS
Incident planning in PRATUS uses several ICS forms and Planning P activities together to move from defining incident objectives to creating actionable work assignments.
Overview
Incident planning in PRATUS uses several ICS forms and Planning P activities together to move from defining incident objectives to creating actionable work assignments.
Understanding how these pieces connect can make it easier to know where to enter information and how decisions made earlier in the planning process affect later steps.
At a glance
A simplified PRATUS planning workflow looks like this:
Initial Incident Planning
↓
ICS-201 / Initial Incident Plan
↓
Escalate the Incident
↓
ICS-202 / Define Incident Objectives
↓
Planning P – Tactics Meeting
↓
ICS-234 / Develop Strategies and Tactics
↓
ICS-215 / Plan Work and Resource Requirements
↓
ICS-204 / Work Assignments
These forms are connected, but they are not simply completed in numerical order.
Initial Incident Planning and the ICS-201
When an incident is initially created, PRATUS collects information used to build the initial incident plan and ICS-201.
This includes information such as the current situation, incident overview, objectives, roster information, and other initial incident details.
Once the initial information is complete and the incident is ready to move into the formal planning process, the incident can be escalated into the Planning P workflow.
Define objectives
Incident objectives are established early in the process and become an important foundation for downstream planning.
In PRATUS, objectives can be categorized as:
- Operational (O)
- Managerial (M)
- Operational & Managerial (O&M)
Operational and O&M objectives can continue into the operational planning workflow. Managerial objectives do not populate into the ICS-234 Work Analysis Matrix for development into work assignments.
Develop strategies and tactics
During the Tactics Meeting, the ICS-234 Work Analysis Matrix is used to develop the approach for accomplishing operational objectives.
The basic relationship is:
Objective → Strategy → Tactic
For example:
Objective: Protect wildlife and ensure clean habitats
Strategy: Clean impacted wildlife
Tactic: [Example tactic]
PRATUS uses this information as the foundation for operational work planning.
Plan the work and required resources
After strategies and tactics have been developed, the ICS-215 supports planning the work and determining what resources are required.
Create work assignments
The planning performed through the ICS-234 and ICS-215 ultimately supports the creation of work assignments represented by the ICS-204.