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.

When your preparedness projects are managed effectively, your team can respond faster, recover more quickly, and protect your community more effectively when disaster strikes.

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. Better projects lead to better preparedness.

This Playbook is available to Academy subscribers.

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Table of Contents


Section 1 | Laying the Foundation


Prequel Section | Project Selection


Section 2 | Project Kickoff


This Playbook is a living resource, built from our client work and updated routinely with new lessons. It evolves as we concentrate on the areas most important to advancing emergency management readiness.

Right now, we’re finalizing the “Project Kickoff” articles and adding articles to the sections below as those topics come up on our projects.


Section 3 | Managing the Project

  • Chapter 1 | Getting The Job Done (Public Article)

  • Chapter 2 | Learning, Discovery, and Analysis

  • Chapter 3 | Leading the Project Team

  • Chapter 4 | Surging Resources to the Project

  • Chapter 5 | On-Going Project Management


Section 4 | Preparedness Projects


Section 5 | Closing out the Project

  • Chapter 1 | From a Project to Operations - The Transition

  • Chapter 2 | What Comes Next: Recommendations and Lessons Learned

  • Chapter 3 | The Project Closeout Meeting


Section 6 | What Comes Next

  • Chapter 1 | Repetitions and Experience

  • Chapter 2 | From Preparedness to Response and Recovery