http://www.homeland1.com/emergency-management-systems/articles/772511-5-key-qualities-of-good-emergency-planning/
Five key qualities
So what attributes give a plan extrinsic value?
Scope: Clearly define whether the plan stops at coordination or is focused on operations. Assess hazards non-ideologically and focus on how they can affect the organization's ability to carry out its critical functions, which themselves should be defined.
Realism: Describe relevant capabilities that actually exist and identify gaps. Make realistic assumptions based on as much evidence as possible. For example, don't assume that a major metro area can be evacuated based on daily commuting behavior, or that withholding information from the public will prevent panic and improve results. Solid assumptions do not in themselves make a plan, but crappy assumptions will absolutely break one -- more than any other single factor.
Flexibility: Don't try to list every capability or possible scenario (remember that Russian novel), but design the plan to provide a flexible, scalable response organization, identifying thresholds and mechanisms for activating or escalating the response.
Delineation: Clearly identify roles and responsibilities within the organization before, during and after major emergencies and disasters, including any special authorities requiring an internal or external declaration of emergency. Take the opportunity to lay out the organizational philosophy and priorities and ensure that the plan and associated procedures are consistent with them.
Maintenance: Keep the plan current and keep it relevant, which means testing and updating it based on exercise and actual incident results.
Committing to making the plan as useful as the planning is as much a statement of organizational values as it is prudent practice.
A good plan is really just another tool. It won't make a response work by itself and will never have all of the answers, nor should it be seen to do so. A bad (or absent) plan may indeed be overcome by luck, skill, and improvisation, all of which are always necessary to some degree.
Making a plan an end in itself, for example, solely to meet compliance, to be able to point to a document to assuage the public, or to create an organizational sense of completion, is a good recipe for a worthless document and an inferior response.
In seeming response to the sentiments expressed earlier, the quote gallery offers the perspective of former FEMA Director James Lee Witt: "In a crisis, you do what you have to do, but it's better to do what you planned to do."
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