Creating and Publishing a Decision

Decisions can be created, edited and submitted for review/approval by users with the WFDSS user role of Author who are the incident owners. The incident owner(s) can grant other users edit, review or approve incident privileges. Edit privileges can contribute to the decision content. Review privileges can review decisions submitted for review/approval. Approve privileges can approve and publish decision.

You must create and publish a decision in the following circumstances:

• The incident has escaped initial attack and is escalating into extended attack or long-duration event.
• The situation requires a change in the level of oversight, significant changes to resource requirements, or increased costs require escalation to the next level of authority.
• The incident objectives include both protection and resource benefit elements consistent with land management planning documents.

Before publishing a decision, the following actions and information are required:

• Enter the Unique Fire Identifier for the incident. The Unique Fire Identifier is locked when the incident is published. (See Editing Incident Information.)
• Enter the Incident Size greater than 0 Acres. (See Editing Incident Information.)
• Draw a Planning Area. (See Creating Planning Areas.)
• Calculate relative risk assessment and Organization Needs. (See Calculating Relative Risk.)
• Designate at least one approver for the decision. (See Assigning Incident Privileges.)
• Include at least one FMU or SO from the list of FMUs/SOs for the incident. (See Manually Add FMU to Incident FMUs or Creating Planning Areas.)
• Include incident objectives and requirements(optional). (See Creating Incident Objectives and Requirements.)
• Identify and include at least one action item for the course of action. (See Completing a Course of Action.)
• Include the Estimated Final Cost on the Cost page. (See Estimating Final Cost for an Incident.)
• Create a Pending Decision from Objectives, Course of Action, or Decision page. (See To document a decision.)
• Use the Default Decision Editor or Advanced Decision Editor (available for selection on the Decisions page) to add content to the "Rationale" section of the decision (See Editing a Decision.)
• Publish a Pending Decision by review and approval of the decision by designated approver(s). (See To begin the review/approval process for a decision , Approving and Publishing a Decision, and Approval Process for your Line Officers.)

You can download a published decision or any part of a pending decision by clicking the radio button to the left of the decision or decision section and then clicking PDF. Seek Creating Draft Decisions and Reports for more information.

CAUTION: Do not embed external links into the decision or report. They will be stripped from the content when the information is copied into a rich text editor field.

To create a decision:

1. From the Incident list, select the incident > click View Information. The Edit Incident Information page appears.
2. Review the information under each tab (Information, Objectives, Course of Action, Cost) to ensure that all the information is complete and accurate.
3. Select the Decisions tab. The Decisions List appears.
4. If no pending decision exists, click Create. A pending decision and its sections appears in the list.
5. Requirements that must be met before the pending decision can be Reviewed / Approved will be listed atop the page and in the requirements fly-out menu on the right. Click an item listed to navigate directly to its location in the decision and make appropriate edits.  

   Note: This area will not show up on the Decision Information page if all requirements have been met.

6. When you are finished with edits and want to return to the decision list, click the Decision tab.

   Note: You need to access the pending decision and use the decision editor to add Rationale.

7. If you are adding additional content to a pending decision, such as text or images, select the pending decision (or section of it) from the decision list.
8. Click Edit. The Decision Editor page appears.
9. To edit a section of the document, click Check Out. This will lock this section of the document from other incident owners and editors until you have completed your edits.
10. Click Insert Section to Add or Edit Content.
    1. To add images from the incident folder; add a section title (identifies image in decision content) and opt to include the title in the decision if you wish. Click Select Image, and add any additional text you want to appear before and/or after the image in the decision.
    2. To add text directly into the decision document; add a section title (identifies image in decision content) and opt to include the title in the decision if you wish. Add text to the text before field and then click Save. (Text can not be formatted when using the Default Decision Editor; this option is only available when using the Advanced Decision Editor.) 
    3. Click Save when you are finished, and then click Check In. Checking in a section of a document signifies to other incident owners or editors that you are finished with edits.
11. Enter a Rationale for the decision.
    1. Click the Rationale vertical tab (far right), and then click Check Out.
    2. Click Insert Section to Add or Edit Rationale content.
    3. Enter/edit the content as needed. Rationale can be entered as one entry or as multiple entries, each with their own section or page headings. Both images and text can be added as well.
    4. Click Save after each edit, and then Check In when you are finished.
12. Ensure Decision Requirements have been met.
    1. Click the Decision Requirements vertical tab (all the way to the right).
    2. Review requirements in the list; requirements that have been met have a blue checkmark beside them whereas unfinished tasks do not. Clicking the links to unfinished tasks will navigate the application to the sections of the decision where those tasks need to be completed. When you are finished with each task, click Return to navigate back to the Requirements list.
13. Click the Decisions tab to return to the Decision List page.
14. When edits to the decision are complete and all sections of the pending decision are checked back in, the decision becomes available to Begin Review/Approval Process.

Once you are satisfied with the content of the decision document, you can send it for review and approval (See Beginning the Review/Approval Process, or Decision Review and Approval.)

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Last updated on 1/6/2022 2:46:50 PM.

In This Section WFDSS Decision To create a decision:

See Also Creating a Pending Decision About the Text Editor Editing a Decision Copy a Published Decision Creating Draft Decisions and Reports Adding Text to a Decision Copying/Pasting Text into a Decision Adding an Image to a Decision Adding Incident Content to a Decision Using the Advanced Decision Editor Adding FMUs manually to Incident FMUs Including Analysis Results in a Decision Including WFDSS-generated M.A.P. Images in a Decision Restoring Decision Content to a Previous Version Viewing Decision Information Downloading an Incident KMZ File for a Pending Decision Downloading an Incident KMZ File for a Published Decision Viewing KMZ Files Beginning the Review/Approval Process for an Incident Decision Publishing a Decision (for Incident Owners)

Reference Field Descriptions Glossary Resources Spatial Data Reference Landscape Data Source Reference Relative Risk Reference Organization Assessment Reference Fire Behavior Reference About the WFDSS Decision Editors