Assess, Distribute, and Sustain Planning Model

The asses, distribute, sustain planning model informs the lines of effort of the Federal Mission Resilience Strategy to drive a cultural shift from continuity as an additional mission to continuity as a key enabler to increase resilience and ensure prioritized essential functions are performed without interruption. This planning model presents an opportunity to fully implement continuity policy, risk management, and crisis management processes and procedures across essential function mission owners to ensure Federal missions are resilient. The strategy requires the Federal Executive Branch to logically distribute leadership authority and operations, where possible, to minimize risk to the performance of essential functions and services and ensure Presidential decision support in all conditions. In cases where distribution is not feasible, appropriate measures will be put in place to harden facilities, capabilities, and assets commensurate with threat, vulnerability, and anticipated impact. This distributed system demands targeted investment in the technology and communications infrastructure necessary to enable secure, robust, and reliable communications during daily operations and disruptive incidents.

• Assess. The act of routinely reviewing, validating, and prioritizing essential functions and services, and identifying the risk posed to them by current and emerging threats. This element depends on the collection and analysis of the data, quantitative and qualitative, required for mission owners to make risk-informed decisions on how to mitigate risks to the performance of their essential functions and services in order to achieve greater resilience. In the near-term, rapid assessment of the gaps between policy and implementation is a necessary step to implement the lines of effort. Mid/long-term analysis includes a holistic view of risks across the scope of a function, inclusive or operations performed outside the lead entity by public and private partners. This analysis would inform a comprehensive report on the state of Federal Executive Branch essential functions and services. The results of this assessment will shape recommendations on implementation of future operational. planning, programmatic, or policy changes within the Federal Executive Branch. This element requires the integration of the assessments processes across all areas of Department and Agency missions and interagency partners, and the collaborative identification, analysis, and communication of risks within and across designated critical functions. Executive Departments and Agencies must review and prioritize operations to support Presidential decision making, crisis management, and those activities that promote our American way of life. The National Essential Functions can drive a top-down review by including national defense; homeland security; diplomacy; economic security; public health and safety; and leadership of the Nation before; during, and after disruptive incidents.
• Distribute. The act of strategically locating where leadership, staff, and mission performance occurs to minimize single points of failure. Distribution is achieved through the building of capabilities to eliminate or mitigate points of vulnerability through the diversification of elements or mitigate points of vulnerability through the diversification of elements involved in a function's performance. These elements include people, processes, and systems. In the near-term, Executive Departments and Agencies should consider how to best leverage their existing distribution of facilities, locations, and personnel and/or work across the Federal Executive Branch to determine synergies to be gained to reduce risk by increasing the possible nodes available to perform and manage essential functions and services. Activities and reduce vulnerabilities to function's core components through, but not limited to, distribution of those functions, and implementation of effective mitigation strategies enable mission devolution without moving personnel. Distributing risk dictates the mixed use of physical and cyber capabilities to enhance the fidelity, integrity, security, and confidentiality of essential functions and services. This may include physical relocation outside the threat area and/or the distribution of capabilities to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure, vital supply chains, and secure and redundant equipment and systems.
• Sustain. While remaining location agnostic, the act of maintaining the capability to lead and perform essential functions and services, including the ability to shift operations under all conditions. Sustain refers to the ability to continue the direction and performance of essential functions and services to the required minimum performance levels throughout the course of realized impacts from one or more threats. In the near-term, sustainment is maximizing the routine use of facilities, locations, and personnel available to the Federal Executive Branch. Mid/long-term strategies to achieve sustained operations include utilizing distributed, scalable, flexible, and adaptable operations across geographic areas to mitigate impacts to overall performance of essential functions and services; devolution; and permanent relocation of personnel, equipment, systems, and supporting processes. Sustainment under realized impacts can be implemented at distributed operational locations, devolution locations, or through other mitigation efforts. Under day-to-day operations, sustainment could be carried out by the distributed locations, while other locations (e.g., relocation, devolution, etc.) and alternative processes are leveraged to support realized threat operations.