Systems Engineering and the Homeland Security Enterprise

The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) identified 4 strategic aims and 18 objectives that support the goal of Maturing and Strengthening The Homeland Security Enterprise. The objectives deal with recognized challenges in planning, information sharing, resilience, professional development, risk assessment, and science and technology.

The key to achieving this ambitious goal is applying systems engineering approaches to the objectives in order to create the enterprise changes that are envisoned.

The private sector and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers provide opportunities to address this systems engineering need. I want to address this issue in my next several posts.

Today I want to address the Resilience mission area.

The reason I got involved with the ASCE Committee on Critical Infrastructure (CCI) and The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP) and am intrigued by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE); http://www.incose.org/, is that heretofore resilience has been described at a strategic level by macroeconomic thinking.

For example, Scott Jackson recently wrote a very fine review of Steve Flynn's book, Edge of Disaster. http://drs-international.com/index.php?page=publication-library.

The book continues to discuss the macroeconomic challenge. I believe that systems engineering is where the difficult work lies ahead to convert resilience theory to reality.

The reality is that engineers working in the microeconomic sphere have to develop cost effective systems solutions and then sell them to investors and owners of infrastructure who make microeconomic investment decisions.

The Obama Administration's willingness to embrace Resilience is exciting and the recent effort by the TISP partners to develop and submit a white paper to the White House is the kind of "grunt work" that is required.

The ASCE CCI Guiding Principles project that focuses on project level tactics is another good effort.

It remains to be seen if practical resilience solutions can be engineered into our systems.

Thanks for checking in.

Dennis

http://www.drs-international.com/

QHSR and the National Homeland Security Enterprise

Rich Cooper from Catalyst Partners wrote a very interesting post about the recent National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) mid year meeting that I want to pass along.

I attended two of the meetings on Sunday and witnessed the same tone that Rich writes about.

http://securitydebrief.adfero.com/2010/03/09/the-comforting-feeling-at-nema/

This is very encouraging. In my last post, I discussed my optimism about the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) mission areas. I am also delighted by the focus on Maturing and Strengthening the Homeland Security Enterprise. As Rich points out; now that the debate over the structure has been decided, the nation can turn its attention to maturing the enterprise.

We should savor these occasional moments in what will be a long hard road to securing the nation.

Thanks for checking in.

Dennis

http://www.drs-international.com/

New Homeland Security Strategic Framework - A Reason for Optimism

I've been digesting the February 2010 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) and believe it offers an opportunity to move the National Hoemland Security enterprise to another level over the next decade. http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/gc_1208534155450.shtm

The underlying premise is that the Homeland Security mission areas will migrate from a focus on Prevention, Protection, Response, and Recovery to that of Preventing Terrorism, Borders, Immigration, Cyber Security, and Disaster Resilience.

To accomplish this transformation will require significant change leadership. This change will come about from the design of people, processes, and rewards that create the kind of national enterprise envisoned in the QHSR. I learned over a decade ago from my two former colleagues Brad Schoener and Betsy Hostetler about Jay Galbraith's star model of organization design. The model differentiates typical organization design efforts that primarily rely on structure to create change. http://www.jaygalbraith.com/services/starmodel.html

I have practiced this approach many times over the years and know it works, but it requires incredibly hard work and dedicated leadership over extended periods.

The good news is that the change required to create the mission area focus across the Department of Homeland Security will drive the kind of change that might not otherwise occur with the Prevent, Protect, Respond, and Recover paradigm.

The change will also require a commitment to career development and systems engineering as tools to drive the enterprise in the direction to support the defined missions areas.

Since 2002 we have had the first national strategy, the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Post Katrina Act of 2006, and the 9/11 Act in 2007.

The QHSR has the potential to set a course to make the changes necessary to move the National Homeland Security enterprise to a mission focused one that overcomes the stovepipes of the current previous mission areas.

Thanks for checking in,

Dennis

www.drs-international.com

National Disaster Recovery Framework

The draft National Disaster Recovery Framework has been released for public comment last week.

The three links below can take you to the FEMA announcement, the draft document, and the comment venue.

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=50366

http://disasterrecoveryworkinggroup.gov/

http://globalmessaging1.prnewswire.com/clickthrough/servlet/clickthrough?msg_id=6500773&adr_order=112&url=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5yZWd1bGF0aW9ucy5nb3Y%3D in Docket FEMA-2010-0004

The document is groundbreaking doctrine and should be reviewed by those in the engineering and development communities. In particular, local elected officials should have their staffs analyze the doctrine.

The deadline is February 26, 2010 for comment.

Resilience, Protection, Mitigation, and Engineers

Last May, I gave a lecture at the Heritage Foundation about Unfinished Business at FEMA.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandSecurity/hl1125.cfm

I made the point that there should be better coordination between Preparedness, Mitigation, and by inference Critical Infrastructure.

Now that there is growing recognition that resilience is a key strategy for a safer homeland, the time has come to better involve engineers in the process.

For example, FEMA Mitigation has a strong engineering orientation and done some excellent work in creating many publications in their Building Sciences Division. Those pubs should be a foundation for the work of Preparedness and Infrastructure Protection.

The organization structure potentially creates barriers to collaboration. What is needed is leadership and processes that facilitate it. Hiring more engineers into Infrastructure Protection and creating working groups composed of Mitigation, Preparedness, and the Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP) would be a good first step.

In the private sector, The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has been producing a report card for several years that could be an input to the resilience measurement process. I'll have more to say on this next week.

Thanks for checking in,

Dennis

http://www.drs-international.com/

Creating a Roadmap for ASCE National Infrastructure Guiding Principles

I wrote a few weeks ago about the recently developed National Infrastructure Guiding Principles by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). http://ciasce.asce.org/


The four guidelines are supported by 15 recommendations.


1. Quantify, communicate, and manage risk


2. Employ an integrated systems approach


3. Exercise sound leadership, management, and stewardship in decision-making processes


4. Adapt critical infrastructure in response to dynamic conditions and practice

An initial effort to introduce the guidelines to students will take place at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in April. The call for papers describes the symposium and can be found on the home page of my website. http://www.drs-international.com/

Lieutenant Colonel Steven D. Hart, Ph.D., P.E., US Army Corps of Engineers has organized the symposium. He is also a corresponding member of the ASCE Committee on Critical Infrastructure.

Joe Manous, the Chair of the Task Group that developed the Guidelines has been making presentations around the country to communicate the guidelines. His briefing can be found on my website.

http://drs-international.com/index.php?page=articles

The implementation roadmap will be developed over the next year to implement the guidelines.

Thanks for checking in.

Dennis

National Preparedness System: PNSR studies pathway to the future

The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) has published a new report that outlines the root cause problems with improving National Preparedness and suggests some possible solutions. The report called Recalibrating the System: Toward an Efficient and Effective Resourcing of National Preparedness is available at the PNSR website http://www.pnsr.org/ or my website below.



The report was facilitated by John Morton for PNSR and I was pleased to lead the issue team that included former senior representatives from DHS and FEMA, state and local government officials and the private sector.



The report outlines two key problems: (1) Unresolved Conflict over All-Hazards Risk and (2) Inadequate Capabilities for Catastrophic Operational Planning to include the issue of grants as the primary tool for resourcing national preparedness.



The solutions focus on assumptions that are built on the continued implementation of the Post Katrina Emergency Reform Act (PKEMRA).



The report is well worth reading.



Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terror (MIPT), Executive Director David Cid commented this week in an Oklahoman –MIPT opinion piece- “Is the Shark Moving?” (12/30/09). He provides an interesting perspective on the Flight 253 incident.



http://newsok.com/is-the-shark-moving/article/3428317?custom_click=headlines_widget



Thanks for checking in.



Dennis

http://www.drs-international.com/