Process structures in crises management

Research project InfoStrom strives to foster the communication and collaboration among crisis management actors in case of a severe power blackout (Schwarzfall). Specific attention is devoted to the transparency of procedures amid counter measures that are initiated by different rescue organizations, e.g. fire brigades and maintenance teams of utility providers. Although a crisis squad coordinates procedures at a strategic level, procedures at the operational level of individual organizations are not always transparent to potentially affected organizations, e.g., once police forces close regional roads this information can affect maintenance troops in their approach, but they are not aware of this decision. Hence, better coordination of procedures with a cross-organizational impact is required. This calls for a process management methodology that supports the modeling of procedures for synchronization. To start with, our first task has been a thorough survey of the legal framework presented in crises management literature and regulations in order to identify process structures. Surprisingly, only rudimental process structures have been unveiled. Check lists or task skeletons that are even sometimes distributed across organizations prevail. This paper will present our findings and reasons for this.