FEMA’s Guidelines and
Standards Strategy
ASFPM Conference
May 23, 2012
Overview
 Current Condition
 Future Vision
 Strategic Plan Goals and Objectives
 Future State
 Results
 Participate!
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Drivers of the Program
Statutes
Regulations
Policy /
Directive
Programlevel
Standards
Working-Level
Standards
Guidance
Best Practices / Lessons
Learned
3
Current State of G&S
Container
Type of Information
• Mandatory
Elements
• Non-mandatory
Elements
4
Current Stats
Document
Pages
Potential Standards
Volume 1
170
333
Volume 2
136
499
Volume 3
110
110
App A
77
154
App B
14
50
App C
73
292
App D
178
694
App E
8
16
App F
16
32
App G
32
32
App H
55
115
App I
23
23
App J
60
177
App K
61
122
App L
141
282
App M
95
372
App N
80
80
App O
152
194
TOTAL
1481
5
3577
Future of G&S
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Goals
 Improve usability. Create a knowledge base of standards of practice that is intuitive
to navigate and use.
 Adopt a cost effective lifecycle. Develop processes and approaches that reduce the
cost of creating, updating and maintaining the knowledge base.
 Ensure credibility. Ensure that the standards of practice are understandable,
reasonable and widely accepted. Engage key stakeholders.
 Foster continuous improvement. Limit the standards to only what is necessary,
such that mapping partners can continuously find efficiencies and allow for a variety of
methods to meet the standards such that best practices easily emerge.
 Promote the exchange of knowledge. Ensure that the standards of practice
themselves are communicated effectively and well understood, as is the structure and
process for developing the standards of practice. Ensure there is a feedback loop for
the standards of practice such that input for the improvement is easy to harvest and
react to.
 Maximize technology. Maximize innovative, yet proven, technology.
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Objectives
1. Transform the large set of existing volumes and appendices into
stand-alone and distinct standards, guidance and best practices
2. Develop a mechanism to maintain and revise standards of practice in
a timely and cost-effective manner
3. Develop processes that are simple and streamlined for the
development and approval of new standards, guidance and best
practices
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Develop a
communication
plan to explain
new structure
and
transformation
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Finalize new
stds and
guidance
documents
Align
Develop clear
definitions for
stds, guidance
and best
practices –
identify
dependencies
Publish
Define
Perform
assessment on
usage of
existing
documents and
challenges
Finalize
Evaluate
completeness
and
functionality of
new
documents
Assessment
Develop
comprehensive
inventory of
existing stds
and guidance
that has been
produced for
flood risk
analysis and
mapping
Communicate
Evaluate & Test
Inventory
Objectives 1: Transform into standalone documents
Align all
material within
existing
documents to
defined
categories /
definitions
Publish and
communicate
new
documents
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Determine best
knowledge
management/IT
solution to
support
maintenance &
support
requirements
Roadmap
Obtain
leadership buyin to
maintenance
strategy and
governance
System
Establish roles,
responsibilities
and authorities
to facilitate
maintenance
strategy
Buy-in
Develop an
annual
maintenance
strategy
Governance
Develop
Objectives 2: Develop maintenance
strategy
Develop routine
roadmap for
maintenance
Develop
process for
new efforts
Governance
Create
templates,
schedules and
overall process
document
Communicate
Obtain
leadership
buy-in to
process and
governance
New Efforts
Develop
process for
capturing best
practices
Output
Buy-in
Best Practices
Objectives 3: Develop process for
new efforts
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Establish roles,
responsibilities
and authorities
to facilitate
new process
Develop a
communication
plan to explain
new structure
and
transformation
Future State
Container
Type of Information
Program
Standards
Working Level
Standards
Knowledge
Sharing Site
Guidance
Best Practices
Feedback loop / routine maintenance
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Knowledge Sharing Site
Vision & Expectations
 The Knowledge Sharing Site (KSS) will serve as the central location
for Risk MAP project delivery methods and information.
 The KSS will provide a graphical interface to content and will be
keyword searchable based on tagging
 Users/Risk MAP study practitioners will be able to contribute content
and share relevant information with colleagues across the Program
interactively
Expectations:
 Release 1.0 of the KSS will provide a base level of functionality; the
full vision will be built over time, through multiple releases.
 The KSS will be set up to accept information as it becomes available
(e.g., parsed or re-written standards/guidance, best practices).
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Knowledge Sharing Site
(Artist’s Conception)
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G&S Annual Roadmap
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
JAN
FEB
MAR
New updates released
in early April
ASFPM: Discuss significant changes in
the recent release; elicit feedback for
next release cycle
Prioritize items and work on next release
New updates released
in late Oct
Risk Analysis Workshop: Discuss
significant changes in the recent
release; elicit feedback for next
release cycle
Prioritize items and work on next release
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Results so far
G&S
Appendix I - Discovery
Appendix C – Riverine
Engineering
Appendix N – Risk
Assessment
Appendix O – Flood Risk
Products
Appendix K – FIRM
Format
Appendix L – FIRM
Database
Appendix J - FIS
Initial Estimate of
Standards in Original
Documents
Initial Consolidation
and Compilation of
Standards
Analysis and SME
Review of Standards
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31
21
296
85
39
80
46
10
194
118
20
124
113
75
282
96
28
185
(in process)
(in process)
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Want to participate?
 If you want to be involved in any of the following, please talk to me after
the session or contact me:
• Review of Transformed guidance content
• Maintenance of content
• Education and Training on the new content or KSS
Contact:
Mary Jo Mullen
MaryJo.Mullen@fema.dhs.gov
Or
Anna Lee
Anna.a.lee@accenture.com
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