DERMIS Paper Design Premise Critique

By Steven Paz
 TOPIC 2 DERMIS Paper Design Premise Critique

A. Create a taxonomy of the 9 design premises by rank ordering them from most
important to least important. Explain the process or rubric you used to develop the
taxonomy.

Before I begin, I must say I used the guidelines put in place by the DERMIS
article. The rearranged them in an order I think would best suit todays emergency
situations. Since the information was time tested, OEP philosophy followed a set
of premises established over many years emergency situations. I also went
through the Turoff audios to further back up my points and cement the
requirements.

1. Premise 1 - Crisis Memory: Learning and understanding what actually

happened before, during, and after the crisis is extremely important
for the improvement of the response process.

This is one of the most important premises in any emergency management

system. The reason this is so important, without this premise one would not know
how to create the system. What needs to happen when, who is involved, who will
commend, what people and groups need to be involved. The list can go on and on,
the point is to understand the underlining issues and how to address them in the
best manner. This also goes further, during an emergency or crisis the people
involved are so focus on their tasks that they lose sight of everything else around
them, and one must also take this into account.
The Turoff recording speaks about OEP had trained observers who only
mission was to carefully observe what was happening, and provide feedback
higher up on how the situation was developing and if the situation needed more
resources. Generally these people would have been through so many disasters
they could make a clear assessment of the situation. It
proves that a fresh pair of train eyes can do in an emergency situation, what a first
responder would not be able to. This is an important role that cannot be done by
 one of the emergency responders. An emergency responder is so focus at the task
at hand, it is almost impossible for them to take a step back and clearly take an
assessment of the situation. Having a dedicated person for this role can make a
big difference getting need resource at the right time to the right people.

2. Premise 2 - System Training and Simulation: An emergency system that is

not used on a regular basis before an emergency will never be of use in an
actual emergency.

This is another important premise in any emergency management system.

A system can be described as the sum of its parts, and the human element is part
of the system. Training and constant use of a system is the only way to have a
system that will work when the time comes.
One of the best examples of this is the emergency phone system New
York state had develop during the black outs of the 80s. This system was
forgotten about during the last black outs a decade ago. The system could have
aided during the black out. The main problem was, it was never really used and
over time it slowly became forgotten.
Systems that are not used are often forgotten. During an emergency they
might as well not even exist since they will be of little use. One could have the
best system ever invented, but if no one knows about it or understands how to use
it, then it will never be effective during a time of crisis. While the concept of
using a system might sound like common since this can be equated to not
programming for a long time. If you do not use it, you will lose it.

3. Premise 3 - Information Focus: People responding to an emergency are

working 14-18 hour days and have no tolerance or time for things unrelated
to dealing with the crisis.

This is another important premise in any emergency management system.

People tend to lose track of what is going on around them during a crisis. They
 are so involved they cannot see past their duties at hand. Issues, news, or other
events outside the crisis are completely blocked out. All that they know or see is
the job that needs to be done.
The Turoff recording speaks about lead managers at every field office, it
also was mentioned when the Head of the teachers union came to visited one of
the managers, and the manager told him that he has been working 12-14 hour a
day on a crisis. He has no idea what it is about. He cannot refuse to see the Head
of the union, and the manager is unaware as to the reason for the visit. He goes to
a news file and finds an article from a teacher issue in Illinois, and then he
realized this is why the Head of the union has traveled to California to see him.
This goes to show when people are working on emergency situation they
get almost a form of tunnel vision; they are so focus on the task at hand that they
lose sight of everything else around them. They are so busy, so focus, that they
simply do not have the time or the energy to be distracted with things outside of
the emergency.

4. Premise 4 - Scope and Nature of Crisis: The critical problem of the moment
is the nature of the crisis, a primary factor requiring people, authority, and
resources to be brought together at a specific period of time for a specific
purpose.

This is one of the most important premises in any emergency management

system.
The Turoff recording speaks about The critical problem of the moment
collects attention and resources.(Turoff) This entails a group coming together
under a common concern. If its a big disaster it might be happing in more than
one town. The system has to allow the team or virtual team to dynamically form
for the duration of the problem, once the job is done the team/group disintegrates.
Any disaster can be a dynamic environment and the system has to allow
for this to happen. Disasters can happen at any time, be anything; this in itself
 brings together many people who must work together and do what it takes to get
the job done.

5. Premise 5 - Coordination: The crux of the coordination problem for large

crisis response groups is that the exact actions and responsibilities of the
individuals cannot be pre-determined.

This is one of the most important premises in any emergency management

system.
The Turoff recording speaks about the crux of the coordination problem
for large crisis response groups is that the exact actions and responsibilities of
each individual cannot be pre-determined.(Turoff)
Part of coordination problem is even if we have the events templets, the
people need the capability on the fly, to make events or decisions not talked about
before. This is not to say that people should go on their own and start changing
plans, but simply be able to adapt to unforeseen issues or problems that arise as
the crisis goes on. The nature of an emergency or crisis is unforeseeable to begin
with; OEP would best describe this as coordination by feedback not by plan.

6. Premise 6 - Role Transferability: It is impossible to predict who will

undertake what specific role in a crisis situation. The actions and privileges
of the role need to be well defined in the software of the system and people
must be trained for the possibility of assuming multiple or changing roles.

This is one of the most important premises in any emergency management

system.
The Turoff recording speaks about roles as the only constant not the
people, and a role must be handled by more than one person.
Another big part about roles is when one is transfer to a new person. That
person must be brought up to date and properly informed as to what is going on.
The person leaving must trust that the person coming in will be capable of
 handling the role. The Turoff power point says, Training people in multiple roles
is very desirable. Thus the more people that now the role and understand it, the
better the odds of the job getting done right with out to many issues that could
slow it down.

7. Premise 7 - Information Validity and Timeliness: Establishing and

supporting confidence in a decision by supplying the best possible up-to-date
information is critical to those whose actions may risk lives and resources.

This is one of the most important premises in any emergency management

system.
The Turoff recording speaks about delaying important decisions based on
available information. If the information is not reality available at the right time
people may lose their lives.
Having up-to-date legitimate information is critical in an emergency
situation. Everyone involved are completely dedicated to the cause but without
proper information people may lose their lives, resources might be wasted or not
distributed accordingly. This is one area where technology has helped
tremendously, GPS, satellites, and computers have made necessary information
easier to get sooner.

8. Premise 8 - Free Exchange of Information: Crises involve the necessity for

many hundreds of individuals from different organizations to be able to
freely exchange information, delegate authority, and conduct oversight,
without the side effect of information overload.

This is one of the most important premises in any emergency management

system.
The Turoff recording speaks about free exchange of information,
delegation of authority, decision accountability, decision oversight, information
source identification, and information overload reduction.
 All of these points are basically one and the same. There are so many
people, groups, and entities during a crisis that the information must be exchanged
freely. Without this free exchange of information there cannot be proper
collaboration between everyone. Information is the bases for most of the
important decisions that must be made. This information is key since with will
help place people, groups, and resources where they are need the most.

9. Premise 9 Exceptions as Norms: Almost everything in a crisis is an

exception to the norm.

This is one of the most important premises in any emergency management

system.
The Turoff recording speaks about crisis exceptions and variations to the
norm are common. (Turoff)
The reason this is a crisis is not the typical norm even for the most
season of emergency management personal. In these situations exceptions become
the norm, since there is no norm, in the usual sense. Personal must adopt and
make exceptions where they need to, in order to get the job done.

B. For your top selection (the premise you feel most important) develop a convincing
argument why you ranked it as the highest.
Answer:
Scope and Nature of Crisis is the most important premise because of some reason:
1. Depending on the scope and nature of the crisis, severeal response teams may
have to be assembled with members providing the necessary knowledge and
experience for the teams tasks. A primary responsibility of the team is to make
recommendations for the president and senior staff so that they may
successfully lead the university through the crisis. The crisis management
team will manage the crisis from beginning to end, making determinations
about the scope and nature of the response, as well as coordinating
 communication of information about the crisis to all internal and external
audiences.
2. Special care should also be given to the fact that teams may operate only for a
limited amount of a time and then transfer their tasks to the other teams or
actors. The same goes for individual team members who may, for example,
become ex-hausted after an amount of time.
3. There is common agreement in the literature that a crisis response system
requires communication of initial events as early as possible. A function of the
dual structure was that regular communication between site and corporation
operations was the norm. Consequently, communication of an extraordinary
nature was facilitated and the operational crises received the early
communication that was desired. It was the cumulative or creeping crises that
were insidious in this respect. Because everyone knew of their existence, it
was easy for them to receive the deaf ears treatment described by Reid
Both formally and informally developed teams were used to handle
situations. If an organisation is to run a variety of projects, it is likely to
experience a variety of crises. The response should fit the situation. In those
situations where a crisis became suddenly apparent, a group would be formed
to specifically handle the situation. On the other hand, crises that crept into
operations were handled informally within the framework of ongoing
activities. Once the crisis became critical, the project team involved sales,
legal services and other project members in coming to terms with the
situation. There are situations that need immediate responses from all
necessary and available resources. On the other hand, there are situations
where a more measured approach seems to work.
4. The crisis response team is a real and virtual community of specialists and
experts that must have unrestricted access to one another and is able to act as a
collective .
5. For specific problems, subgroups with the appropriate talent and backgrounds
need to be able to form and function. The system also has to allow for
continuity and immediate substitution of individuals when members are lost to
 the process, forced to reposition their attention, or when they are just plain
exhausted. This also speaks to the necessity of training people to undertake
multiple roles in a crisis situation and having enough people who can be
brought in large scale or prolonged crisis situations.

C. For your lowest ranking premise develop a convincing argument why you feel it
was so ranked.
Answer:
Exceptions as Norms: Almost everything in a crisis is an exception to the norm.
This is the lowest premise that i think. The reason are:
1. There is no way to predict exactly who is going to be doing what, when, why
and/or how at the command and control level in a crisis environment. The
crisis forces increased decision making by those having to take immediate
actions on site. This authority is granted from those above who expect
accountability in return so that they can carry out oversight with respect to
conflicts for resources and other factors that need to be integrated. Problem
solutions and the reallocation of resources go on as a continuous unpredictable
process. When a paramedic remains at a site rather than returning with the
ambulance it creates a limitation on the use of that ambulance as a fully
staffed medical unit to be directed to other sites. What specific data and
information is of concern and interest to a given individual is changing
rapidly. Exceptions to the planned response are the critical factors in
determining the minute to minute operations. Anything that no one thought of,
but which occurs, in the response for a given crisis situation becomes the
critical factor in generating problems to be dealt with at all levels in the
process. A crisis response system is an information system that has to be an
integrated communication and data system where the people involved, their
talents, concerns, immediate problems, actions taken, actions planned,
situation information, and consequences information are all part of the
underlying database and structure. One cannot separate the data processes
from the communication processes or from the human processes symbiotic to
 data and communication processes. This means the end user must be able
to reconfigure the system interaction in a dynamic manner and designate
changes in priorities, filtering and delivery options at any moment during the
emergency response process. It also means the system has to dynamically
observe these changes and keep others who need to know about them up to
date.
2. Although crises promise to disrupt memory to disturb the usual
programmability of our machines by indexing real time they reinforce
codes and coded logic: both codes and crises are central to the production of
mythical and mystical sovereign subjects who weld together norm with
reality, word with action. Codes and states of exception are complementary
functions, which render information and ourselves undead. Against this
fantasy and against the exhaustion that crisis as norm produces, the article
ends by arguing that we need a means to exhaust exhaustion, to recover the
undecidable potential of our decisions and our information through a practice
of constant care.
Crisis is new medias critical dierence: its norm and its exception. Crises cut
through the constant stream of information, dierentiating the temporally
valuable from the mundane, oering users a taste of real time responsibility
and empowerment. They also threaten to undermine this experience, however,
by catching and exhausting us in an endlessly repeating series of responses.
Therefore, to battle this twinning of crisis and codes, we need a means to
exhaust exhaustion, to recover the undead potential of our decisions and our
information through a practice of constant care.

D. Identify one or more premise conditions you feel should have been included but
were not.
Answer:
Coordination: The crux of the coordination problem for large crisis response
groups is that the exact actions and responsibilities of the individuals cannot
bepre-determined.
As we will see this is a result of the uniqueness of each crisis situation, the
resulting need for improvising based upon that uniqueness, the reliance on tacit
information,
and the time-critical nature of the decision process. Furthermore, governments
have certain disadvantages over commercial firms when responding to a crisis.
They cannot easily hide what is going on and this in turn results in four factors
unique to government agencies.
1. Crisis raises questions about the ineffectiveness of government.
2. Frequency of government (in-)action during crises certainly does not imply
that government action is always functional or beneficial.
3. Politics can turn crises from occasions for decisions into occasions for
restructuring of power relations.
4. Military and civilian organizations called upon in a crisis may show their
Achilles heel during acutely critical situation, e.g., situations they did not expect
or plan for.
In theory, government agencies are less likely to get trapped in deceit, as
corporations do precisely because they can more easily control and limit
information. New ways to deal with the unforeseen events evolve with the nature
of the crisis. The person needing to make a decision must be assured that anything
relevant for the decision can be found in a timely manner; but also understand that
precisely because its a crisis, what might be considered the most relevant
information may simply not exist. People can deal with a high degree of
uncertainty, e.g., extract cues, to make timely decisions as long as they know it
does not result from hidden information that will make their actions appear wrong
later. Providing access to all available relevant information at the lower levels is
not always the attitude within government organizations.
In a crisis situation authority flows down to where the action is. However,
status information and accountability data must equally flow both upward and
sideways. In fact, it is also important that teams have accountability as well. With
the role carrying with it the authority for action and the collection of roles making
up a momentary team for dealing with a particular set of related events, we have
 team accountability as well. This implies a great deal about the functionality
designed in an emergency response system. It infers, for example, that the data
and actions in such a system must clearly be identified by who is supplying an
idea, a plan, a viewpoint, data and/or taking an action.

E. Do you feel the paper could be used in the development of an emergency response
information system. This is to be a section that is a detailed critique of the paper
from the perspective of an eventual user.
Answer:
I feel this paper could be used in the development of an emergency
respone information system. This paper provides many benefits for emergency
respone information system. This paper opens your mind to use one of the
premise design. So many methods that coud be used emergency respone
information system but among the many methods that use only one of which
serves as a guide and ought to be applied. In this paper, the author considers that
the most important method here is Scope and Nature of Crisis. This method is
expected to be applied to the emergency respone information system. Using this
premise, in any case there are always, in just about any organization, mini-crises
which usually result in special teams or committees that have to work together to
find a decent resolution to the situation. But this design should be used to allow
evaluation and evolution of the system according to the feedback provided by the
users. If the users can use this design well, they are going to be more likely to
avoid the rigidity of response resulting from the threat and its contributing stress
factors.
Taking the above as the assumptions about the nature of a crisis it
becomes clear that an Emergency Response Information System must be viewed
as a structured group communication system where the protocols and
communication structures are provided, but there is little content about a
particular crisis except as an integrated electronic library of external databases
and information sources. Others have agreed that Group Communication via a
computer may be the most appropriate medium for a complex problem requiring
input from large numbers of people.
The resulting of this design model graphically indicates the heuristic taken
by this paper and suggests that the result will be an emergency responsesystem
flexible, robust, and dynamic enough to support the communication and
information needs of emergency and crisis personnel on all levels. In addition it
permits the development of dynamic emergency response information systems
with tailored flexibility to support and be integrated across different sizes and
types of organizations.