New technologies and processes for the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program toolkit

Abstract

The Department of Homeland Security — Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has partnered with FEMA to investigate and assess new technologies and processes for an updated Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) Enterprise Platform (EP) for operational use. HSEEP is a capabilities and performance-based exercise program which provides a standardized policy, methodology, and terminology for exercise design, development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning. An integral part of HSEEP was the development of the HSEEP Toolkit, a web-based collection of tools for exercise scheduling, design, development, evaluation and improvement planning. The current HSEEP toolkit does not facilitate information sharing or provide a seamlessly integrated exercise support system. In order to effectively update the capabilities of this HSEEP toolkit, an exhaustive assessment was performed that focused on: new system requirements; translation of the new system requirements and the results of an initial operations analysis into an improved HSEEP toolkit prototype aimed at exercise support; and the incorporation of science-based information and data via modeling and simulation (M&S) capabilities into the HSEEP exercise cycle.