Project Management in Emergency Management | A Playbook
As an emergency manager, you already have a lot on your plate—planning initiatives underway, exercises in development, after-action reports to write, and improvement plans to complete. Learning how to manage projects well isn’t about adding another task—it’s about ensuring the work you’re already doing gets done.
Our step-by-step project management playbook is designed specifically for emergency managers, providing the structure and tools to keep preparedness projects on track and drive meaningful progress. With a clear roadmap tailored to your unique challenges, you can move from planning to execution with confidence—ensuring your efforts make the impact your community and organization need.
Take control of your projects, because better projects leads to better preparedness.
This Playbook is available to Academy section subscribers (unless noted as a public article), consider upgrading to a monthly or yearly subscription.
Table of Contents
Other Writing on Project Management in Emergency Management
PM in EM | A Career Accelerator (Public Article)
How the Shape of Your Preparedness Cycle Impacts Your Readiness (Public Article)
Section 1 | Laying the Foundation
Chapter 1: Let’s Get One Thing Clear (Public Article)
Chapter 2: Why PM in EM Matters | Part 1
Chapter 3: Why PM in EM Matters | Part 2
Chapter 4: The Project Manager | Defined
Chapter 5: The Project Executive is Not the PM
Chapter 6: How to Use This Playbook
Section 2 | Project Kickoff
Chapter 7: So It Begins | Project Kickoff (Public Article)
Chapter 8: The Project Management Plan
Chapter 9: Defining “Done” | Setting Your Project Goals
Chapter 10: Designing the Project | Phases and Schedules
Chapter 11: Stakeholder Identification and Mapping
Chapter 12: Should I learn agile or waterfall approaches? Both
Chapter 13: Project reporting, check-ins, and progress
Chapter 14: Setting a budget
Chapter 15: The Project Kickoff Meeting
Project Kickoff Extras
Selecting a Tech Platform (or not)
Forming (and Briefing) the Project Team
Debriefing the Kickoff Phase
Section 3 | Managing the Project
Topics and chapters to come
Section 4 | Closing out the Project
Topics and chapters to come
Section 5 | In Closing
Topics and chapters to come