Conducting Incident Post Mortems - Research Paper Example

Incidence post mortem An incidence post mortem is the process of assessing an occurrence of an incident after it happens. The incidence post mortem may vary from casual to very formal depending on the type and intensity of the occurred event. After incidence occur, a descriptive and detailed post mortem of incidence is important for various reasons. First, an incidence post mortem enables the public to acquire well detailed, reliable and true information about the cause and the intensity of the occurred event. Well determined and collected information ensures that the public has an account of the happening of an incident. Secondly, assessment of incidence enables the government and other concerned parties to act appropriately to the occurrence of the incidence. For incidence, in case of incidence like a terrorist attack, the government can deploy security personnel to the disaster scene after receiving information feedback in an incidence assessment process. Help groups and organization benefit with reliable information that enables them to determine the type and level of assistance to offer to the affected parties. Incidence post mortem process involves a number of steps. The first and fundamental step is preparation for the assessment process. Proper preparation for the incidence post mortem is crucial since it would determine the entire assessment process. To begin incidence post mortem process, a team of incidence assessment personnel must be developed. The team should include well-informed, qualified and experienced personnel in the field of incidence assessment. A manageable and controllable number of assessors are appropriate to carry out the assessment process of incidence. Task allocation of each member is vital after the formation of investigative and assessment team to carry out incidence post mortem. Each member of the assessment team should be actively involved in the post mortem process in order to achieve the objective of the assessment. Division of tasks is necessary for each member of the assessment team to concentrate on his or her area of specialization and competency. This will result to high quality and reliable information about the occurred incidence. For example in a road accident incidence, some members should be interviewing eye witnesses others should be taking measurement and analysis of the condition of vehicle damage and others should be assessing the health conditions of the drivers. One person should leader the entire team in order to ensure that the incidence post mortem process is well managed. A spokesperson should also be selected in order to ensure that information is released from a central and single person. The required number of an investigative team is between 10 members to 6 members. A large number investigative team would be incontrollable and expensive to pay. However, very small team is dangerous since inappropriate and inadequate information may be collected. The second step of incidence post mortem is the event or incidence identification. Identification process is an important step in incidence post mortem. The investigation team should identify the place of events occurrence and the nature of incidence. The investigating team must ensure that they clearly identify the nature of the incidence through evidences. For example, the incidence may be a road accident, food poisoning, robbery, or any other event. Witnesses and victims are important in providing information about the incidence. Investigators can also receive information from the media. Collection of information is the third step of carrying out an incidence post mortem. The team responsible for investigation should develop appropriate methods of collecting adequate information and reliable to the users. The data collection method depends on the nature and the nature of the occurred incident. The method used to collect incident evidences should be affordable, well applicable to the assessment process and easy to use. A sample population should be identified for the purpose of collecting appropriate incidence evidences. For instance, the investigation team can use interview method in collecting evidences from eye-witnesses and victims of the incident. This method of collecting information is reliable and easy to use because incidence victims and eye-witnesses provide first-hand information. Questionnaire method can be applicable where the respondents of the incidents are not available for interviews. Questionnaires comprise of incidence related questions only to accomplish various objectives and goals of the incident post mortem. If the incident is conspicuous, observation method is appropriate to acquire evidences. For example in road accident, presence of damaged road can be a cause of an accident. This can easily be determined by observation of the road. In health related incidents like food poisoning, testing method would be appropriate to collect sufficient information of the incident. Examination of the collected information is then done by the investigation team. Various activities take place during the examination process. First, the traceability process of incident’s causes begins during examination. Through careful examination of collected data, causes of incidents are easily determined by the investigative team. Examination of information identifies irrelevant information collected from the incident’s respondents. In addition, hidden information about the incidence is clearly revealed during the examination. For example, when examining data collected during fire break up incidence post mortem, there may be irrelevant data to the incidence. Filtration and separation of this data is done during the examination process. Valid and relevant information are analyzed after examination. Analysis involves systematic application of statistical technics in the evaluation of the data collection. Some analysis techniques include data mining, protocol analysis and link analysis. Well qualified and competent personnel in the analysis should analyze the data carefully in order to draw conclusions. The analysis should be accurate and honest. Analyzing the collected data eliminates biasness in drawing inferences during incidence post mortem. Analysis of incidence data ensures that there are sufficient evidences supporting the incidence post mortem findings. This gives findings basis and justification. Lastly, presentation of incidence post mortem findings is very important. The investigative team must submit their findings to the government office requiring the information. The leader of the group presents the incidence post mortem findings to the public through the media or presents the findings to the government. The team also highlights some recommendations for the purpose of improving incidence handling process in the future. For instance, in a robbery incidence, the team may recommend the government to increase the number of police officers in towns to enhance security. What are the key success factors in managing large, multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional response programs? An effective response team should be timely to deliver their service to the disaster victims. This will help to control the situation at the disaster scene. Early arrival at the disaster scene will save time and hence accuracy. Medical attention can be organized fast and also rescue operation can be established. The first moments of the disaster scene are very important because since the rescue team. The faster the rescue team takes to reach at the disaster scene the more it should be considered to effective. For example in case of a fire breakout, if the fire management team is able to reach in time, then the fire can be put off in time and hence prevent more loss from occurring. Innovativeness of the disaster management team is important to save lives. A temporary medical facility can be established. This will help to take care of the injured. Some victims may be physically injured while others traumatized by the disaster. All the victims need to pass through the medical checkup since some victims are seriously injured while others have minor injuries to ensure that everyone gets the required and deserved medical attention. The disaster management team should enquire for help from the government, donors, nongovernment organization and the general public for help. This will help to increase the supplies to the management team and hence they can offer quality and effective services to victims. The rescue team should have a competent team to carry out the rescue operation. The team should be headed by a responsible leader with the capability of managing all the evidence. The manager also acts as the team leader and is responsible for correlating the findings of the whole team. He also organizes and manages the whole team. Effective coordination within the rescue team results into accurate and comprehensive rescue mission. The rescue team needs to establish a good and effective communication channel between them, the victims and the outside world. Good communication will help the rescue team to enquire for more supplies from the well-wishers. Communication is vital since the victims can as well communicate with their relatives who can in turn come to their rescue. In some cases, the disaster is so severe such that only the rescue team can make it to the scene. In such cases, the victims require an effective means of communication to the outside world. This helps to pass the message to the outside world. The outside world in turn, will access situation at the scene and hence send the immediately required help. The response team should be all round. That is they should be prepared for any kind of disaster. In case of war or other disaster such as hurricanes, victims lose their homes. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the disaster management team to set up refugee camps for the victims that will act as temporary shelters. These refugee camps should be set on locations which are disaster free zone. The response team needs to plan appropriately to enhance efficiency in service delivery to the victims. The victims suffer from other problems such as lack of food and water. An effective response team should organize for appropriate delivery of the food stuffs to save victims from starvation. Food is a critical issue because lack of food would lead to diseases to malnutrition and later diseases to victims especially children among the group. Therefore, it is the initiative of the rescue team to manage this situation before it becomes severe to the group at large The response team needs to understand the composition of the group at large. Children are more sensitive to upcoming small problems than adults. Therefore, the response team needs to understand that and introduce basic needs such as mosquito nets especially in tropic countries that are invested by the killer disease called Malaria. How can we determine or measure “success” in response? The response team success in evacuating the victims and property is noted as success of the whole operation. This can be signified by fewer or no casualties from the disaster. This means that the response team carried out all the rescue operations well and according to the time schedule and hence success of the whole rescue operation. A successful rescue operation is characterized by accountability and transparency of the fund and other resources used in the operations. The rescue team should be accountable for all the fund and supplies it gets from donors, government well-wishers and so on. This helps the response team to create a good cooperate image and hence can acquire assistance in case of a future disaster. Time frame within which the operation is carried out is vital to judge the success of the process. The less the time taken to carry out the rescue activity the more effective it is considered to be and hence successful. Operations that take less duration to complete signify good planning and strategies of the rescue operations. Also, fewer or no casualties are encountered in an operation that takes less time. The basic reason of carrying out a rescue operation is to evacuate victims of the disaster and avoid casualties if possible. A successful operation should be cost efficiency. The response team should take care of the fund that has been provided. Minimizing on cost makes sure that there is enough funds to cater for future disasters. Some of the fund can also be used to compensate those families who lost their property colleagues and family. How can we design drills and tests that specifically evaluate the key success factors for response? Success of a rescue operation is the main reason of the activity. It is very easy to note which of the factors employed by the rescue team lead to success of the entire operation. Depending with the specific rescue operations, list the factors that were employed and then narrow down to the specific factor that was more preferred and employed by the rescue team. This will help to come up with the success factor in that specific operation. Depending with the number of donors and well-wisher in the operation, then it is possible to note that the flow of information was good hence many people were able to access it. Therefore, it is easy to ensure that when the communication is conducted well, it is followed by the success of the operation. A simple analysis can be used to determine the result of the success. Data collection such as observation, interviews and questionnaire can be used to both the rescue team and the victims. This will assist in the establishment of disaster cause, the methods used to evacuate people and property and also it help to take precautionary measures to future similar disaster. In conclusion, incidence post mortem and response evaluates the occurrence of incidence and the response of various parties. It gives a sufficient account of various actions that took place during incidence. It is greatly significant to the government authorities and organizations willing to assist the victims of adverse incidences. Incidence post mortem and response provide information about the reactions of the authority and public towards incidence. References Stephenson, P (2003). Conducting Incident Post Mortems. Computer Fraud and Security. Boca Raton, Fla. CRC Press. Stephenson, P CISSP, CISM, FICAF, CeRNS (2004). The Application of Formal Methods to Root Cause Analysis 0f Digital Incidents. The Center for Regional and National Security Eastern Michigan University. Retrieved from A0B62ABA-F4C9-CBCE-8B9812B4055CAC.pdf Rothman, M (2014). Incident response success in five quick steps. Search Security. Retrieved from http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/tip/Incident-response-success-in-five-quick-steps Read More