Exercise Management Tool

XMT^© is an exercise design and planning tool that follows the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) processes for development of an exercise or exercise program. XMT^© can import the intended response plan from Sync Matrix©, which permits the exercise design team (user) to (1) modify expected actions on the basis of exercise design parameters, (2) generate implementing messages or injects, (3) project player responses, and (4) relate them to these pieces of information. XMT^© helps the user conform to the planning process identified, offering a calendar to help structure and facilitate management of personnel and major tasks in the entire planning cycle. XMT^© can hold all required documents for a given exercise program or cycle, which allows the user to have ready access to such documents and to distribute them to others as necessary. XMT^© also contains “wizards” for user assistance in conducting complex tasks and has a robust reports capability, with a “customize” function to permit users to design and define their own reports. The software uses a “data verifier” capability to enable the user to validate data entered into the system in terms of their completeness or status. XMT^© has built-in versioning control, which allows the user to capture the entire set of data at any point in time and/or revert back to that data set if necessary.

Capabilities:

Relationship-Driven Exercise Plans
Relationships among exercise events, injects, and incidents are specified. Facilitates cascading consequences when Master Scenario Events List (MSEL) item times are modified.

Geographic Information System (GIS)
View agencies, venues, incidents, events, and injects via space and time.

Integrated and Dynamic “Help”
Automatically indexes help to each component of the tool.

Document Management
Directories are created, check-in and check-out are recorded, history is tracked, and documents are stored.

Automatic Version Control
Data changes are tracked through versioning (documents and MSELs).

Automatic Verification
Missing data are identified.

“Snapshot” Capability
Current project status is captured as a whole, with the option for restoration to a previous date and time.

“Publish” Capability
E-mail capability for files and MSELs is provided.

Predefined Templates
Preliminary project plan and common tasks are available from a library of DHS and CSEPP exercise processes.

Visual Data Manipulation
Users interact with project plan and exercise plan graphically and via dialog boxes.

Exercise "Milestones"
Critical tasks are placed where they are to occur during exercise play.

Phases
Exercise phases can be generated.

Features:

Intuitive User Interface
Common Windows applications, such as Outlook and Word are used.

Wizards
Wizards are provided for complex tasks (for novice users).

"My Tasks" View
Current activities are available at-a-glance.

Role-Based Security
Authorization is required to modify data.

Report Customizer
Pre-generated reports, as well as reports based on need, are provided.

Integration with SyncMatrix
Sync Matrix emergency plans can be imported.

Architecture:

Stand-alone or Client Server
Remote and local access to data via replication.

Framework
Microsoft .NET.

Database
Microsoft SQL Server 2000.