Practice Drills can deliver an opportunity to discover an Office of Emergency Management preparedness, but the utility of these drills depends on having reliable measures to determine the effectiveness of the exercise.

Practice Drills can deliver an opportunity to discover an Office of Emergency Management preparedness, but the utility of these drills depends on having reliable measures to determine the effectiveness of the exercise.  The professionalism of the participants in the training and the facilitators who control activity are both factors in how much information can be developed.  What are the best ways to measure inter-agency communication and communication between the three levels of government, local state, and federal levels after the drill to improve on communication during an actual incident?

2. Tabletop exercises have five aspects of planning, design, conduct, follow-up, and continuous improvement.  What are the key elements to a continuous improvement plan?

3. What is the importance of drills and exercises for testing and validating the communication component of EOPs?  Describe an organization that engaged in testing their communications plans using a drill or exercise.  Or describe an organization that failed to drill and exercise and could have benefited from testing.

4. There are discussion and operational based exercises.  What are the different types of exercises, and how can communication systems be tested during the training?