Adaptive Case Management Framework to Develop Case-based Emergency Response System

Abstract

—Emergency response to crisis, disaster, or catastrophe incidents is a clear example of knowledge-intensive and collaboration-heavy process facing all public safety-related organizations. Software systems to support emergency response have existed for decades. However, the limitations of these systems and their development approaches are still significant in terms of flexibility and dynamicity. With the emergence of Adaptive Case Management (ACM) as a new software development approach to support knowledge work and the empower knowledge worker, the authors found that ACM is a promising approach that can be extended to support emergency response especially in large-scale situations. This research aims to study how ACM can be leveraged to design and implement case-based emergency response systems (ERSs). In particular, the authors propose a domain-specific and vendor-neutral Case Management Framework (CMF) that incorporates the essential capabilities to support the ERSs. As a proof-of-concept, the authors support the proposed CMF by a case-based ERS prototype. Finally, the authors conclude that ACM has a great potential to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of ERSs. This work can be considered as an attempt to advocate the adaptation of ACM in such context.