Incident Position Performance Cycle

The NWCG provides national leadership to enable interoperable wildland fire operations among federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial partners. The primary way this is accomplished is by establishing national interagency wildland fire position performance requirements, position-specific standards, and associated support materials.

NWCG standards establish common practices that enable efficient and coordinated national interagency wildland fire operations. These standards may be comprised of requirements, guidelines, procedures, processes, best practices, specifications, techniques, and methods. NWCG standards are interagency by design; however, the decision to adopt and utilize them is made independently by the individual member agencies and communicated through their respective directives systems. NWCG standards are developed by the NWCG committees and their subgroups and NWCG publications and web portals are the primary vehicles by which NWCG standards are transmitted.

NWCG standards are the key component of the Incident Position Performance Cycle. They inform the development of position-specific standards and associated performance support capabilities. And ultimately, they guide operations.

The position analysis process is intended to:

• Systematically identify training and performance support needs for each incident position.
• Identify areas across multiple positions where knowledge, skills, and abilities overlap.
• Create position-specific plans that identify performance support needs such as job aids, amount and type of training, position task books (PTBs), and other support materials.
• Enable training and performance support content to be developed and/or revised at the same pace as evolving operational and position-specific standards.

The position analysis process evaluates each duty and responsibility of the IPD for the following:

• Frequency performed.
• Difficulty/complexity of performance.
• Consequence of error if performed below standard.
• Prior knowledge/experience of performance element.

This information is used to establish a position-specific Performance Plan. The plan will recommend the type and amount of performance support needs such as job aids, training, and other capabilities necessary to develop and support individuals in each position.

The position analysis process will be initiated by the NWCG Training Development Program. The resulting Performance Plan will be finalized by position steward and/or parent committee.

Position qualification requirements are a component of NWCG standards. They enable consistent and uniform performance by personnel mobilized by position under NIMS-ICS principles. Position qualification requirements include training, experience, physical fitness, position currency and IPDs.

Position-specific standards are derived from the IPDs and are a component of NWCG standards. Position-specific standards specify the tasks and behaviors that make up the incident position’s duties and responsibilities.

The Training and Performance Support phase is to create the incident position performance support tools identified in the previous phases. These can be job aids, PTBs, training, and other tools to support individuals in each position.

NWCG training supports position performance for personnel mobilized by NWCG position under NIMS-ICS principles. Training and performance support capabilities enable consistent and uniform position performance in support of nationally interoperable wildland fire operations.

The Course Steward Training Revision Process allows courses to be updated prior to the scheduled position analysis. Stewards should contact their NWCG Coordinator if interested in pursuing this option.

Virtually all wildland fire operations in the United States are conducted according to NWCG standards adopted by the member agencies through their respective directives systems. Individual training, qualification, mobilization, equipment standardization, operational practices, business management – all are impacted by NWCG standards.

Post-operation evaluations, ranging from daily, crew-level after action reviews to comprehensive large-incident analyses, inform the evolution of NWCG standards and generate changes to the Incident Position Performance Cycle components.