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