Incident Command System Workflow Modeling and Analysis: A Case Study

The dynamics and volunteer-based workforce characteristics of incident command systems have raised significant challenges to workflow management systems. Incident command systems must be able to adapt to ever changing surroundings and tasks during an incident. These changes need to be known by all responsible parties, since people work in shifts, get tired or sick during the management of an incident. In order to create this awareness, job action sheets and forms have been created. We propose a paperless system that can dynamically take care of these aspects, and formally verify the correctness of the workflows. Furthermore, during an incident, the majority of workers are volunteers that vary in their knowledge of computers, or workflows. To address these challenges, we developed an intuitive, yet formal approach to workflow modeling, modification, enactment and validation. In this paper, we show how to apply this approach to address the needs of a typical incident command system workflow.