9-43. Having assumptions requires commanders and staffs to continually attempt to replace those assumptions with facts. The commander and staff should list and review the key assumptions on which fundamental judgments rest throughout the MDMP. Rechecking assumptions is valuable at any time during the operations process prior to rendering judgments and making decisions.

9-10. The chief of staff (COS) (executive officer [XO]) is a key participant in the MDMP. The COS (XO) manages and coordinates the staff’s work and provides quality control during the MDMP. To effectively supervise the entire process, this officer has to clearly understand the commander’s intent and guidance. The COS (XO) provides timelines to the staff, establishes briefing times and locations, and provides any instructions necessary to complete the plan.

11-29. The basic steps of military deception planning come together during COA analysis, comparison, and approval and are overseen by the military deception officer. (These are MDMP steps 2, 3, and 4. See chapter 9 for a detailed discussion of the MDMP.) The G-5 (S-5)-developed COAs provide the basis for military deception COAs. The military deception officer develops military deception COAs in conjunction with the G-5 (S-5). Basing the military deception COAs on the operational COAs ensures deception COAs are feasible, practical, and nested and effectively support the operational COAs.

military decision-making process – An iterative planning methodology to understand the situation and mission, develop a courses of action, and produce an operation plan or order. Also called MDMP. (ADP 5-0) See also operation order, operation plan.

9-22. Based on the commander’s initial allocation of time, the COS (XO) develops a staff planning timeline that outlines how long the headquarters can spend on each step of the MDMP. The staff planning timeline indicates what products are due, who is responsible for them, and who receives them. It includes times and locations for meetings and briefings. It serves as a benchmark for the commander and staff throughout the MDMP.

12-5. The rehearsal is a coordination event, not an analysis. It does not replace war-gaming. Commanders war-game during the military decisionmaking process (MDMP) to analyze different courses of action to determine the optimal one. Rehearsals practice that selected course of action. Commanders avoid making major changes to operation orders (OPORDs) during rehearsals. They make only those changes essential to mission success and risk mitigation.

2-98. The rapid decision-making and synchronization process (RDSP) is a decision-making and planning technique that commanders and staffs commonly use during execution when available planning time is limited. While the MDMP seeks an optimal solution, the RDSP seeks a timely and effective solution within the commander’s intent. Using the RDSP lets leaders avoid the time-consuming requirements of developing decision criteria and multiple COAs. Under the RDSP, leaders combine their experiences and intuition to quickly understand the situation and develop a COA. The RDSP is based on an existing order and the commander’s priorities as expressed in the order. The RDSP includes five steps:

9-3. During planning, assessment focuses on developing an understanding of the current situation and determining what to assess and how to assess progress using measures of effectiveness and measures of performance. Developing the unit’s assessment plan occurs during the MDMP—not after developing the plan or order. (See chapter 15 for details on assessment plans.)

14-24. Commanders normally direct the future operations cell or the current operations integration cell to prepare a fragmentary order (FRAGORD) setting conditions for executing a new COA. When lacking time to perform the MDMP, or quickness of action is desirable, commanders make an immediate adjustment decision—using intuitive decisionmaking—in the form of a focused COA. Developing the focused COA often follows mental war-gaming by commanders until they reach an acceptable COA. If time is available, commanders may direct the plans cell to develop a new COA using the MDMP, and the considerations for planning become operative. (See table 14-3.)

9-45. The chief of protection (or operations staff officer [S-3] in units without a protection cell) in coordination with the safety officer integrates risk management into the MDMP. All staff sections integrate risk management for hazards within their functional areas. Units conduct the first four steps of risk management in the MDMP. ATP 5-19 addresses the details for conducting risk management, including products of each step.

10-4. The type, amount, and timeliness of information passed from higher to lower headquarters directly impact the lower unit leader’s TLP. Figure 10-1 on page 10-2 illustrates the parallel sequences of the MDMP of a battalion with the TLP of a company and a platoon. The solid arrows depict when a higher headquarters’ planning event could start the TLP of a subordinate unit. However, events do not always occur in the order shown. For example, TLP may start with receipt of a warning order (WARNORD), or they may not start until the higher headquarters has completed the MDMP and issued an operation order (OPORD). WARNORDs from higher headquarters may arrive at any time during TLP. Leaders remain flexible. They adapt TLP to fit the situation rather than try to alter the situation to fit a preconceived idea of how events should flow.

5-34. PIRs and the most important intelligence requirements and targeting requirements form the basis of an integrated information collection plan. Through analysis, the staff determines the best way to satisfy each requirement. Based on the MDMP, including a thorough war game, the commander and staff develop a detailed and realistic information collection plan to answer as many requirements as possible.

15-22. Fundamentally, assessment is about measuring progress toward the desired end state. To do this, commanders and staffs compare current conditions in the area of operations against desired conditions. Army design methodology and the MDMP help commanders and staffs develop an understanding of the current situation. As planning continues, the commander identifies desired conditions that represent the operation’s end state.

9-198. Quality staffs produce simple, flexible, and tactically sound plans in time-constrained environments. Any METT-TC factor, but especially limited time, may make it difficult to complete every step of the MDMP in detail. Applying an inflexible process to all situations does not work. Anticipation, organization, and prior preparation are the keys to successful planning under time-constrained conditions.

2-99. The ability to recognize and effectively solve problems is an essential skill for Army leaders. Where the previous methodologies are designed for planning operations, Army problem solving is a methodology available for leaders in identifying and solving a variety of problems. Similar in logic to the MDMP, Army problem solving is an analytical approach to defining a problem, developing possible solutions to solve the problem, arriving at the best solution, developing a plan, and implementing that plan to solve the problem. The steps to Army problem solving are—

9-1. The military decisionmaking process is an iterative planning methodology to understand the situation and mission, develop a course of action, and produce an operation plan or order (ADP 5-0). The military decisionmaking process (MDMP) helps leaders apply thoroughness, clarity, sound judgment, logic, and professional knowledge to understand situations, develop options to solve problems, and reach decisions. This process helps commanders, staffs, and others think critically and creatively while planning.

2-89. Army design methodology is a methodology for applying critical and creative thinking to understand, visualize, and describe problems and approaches to solving them. ADM is particularly useful as an aid to conceptual planning, but it must be integrated with the detailed planning typically associated with the MDMP to produce executable plans and orders. There is no one way or prescribed set of steps to employ the ADM. There are, however, several activities associated with ADM including framing an OE, framing problems, developing an operational approach, and reframing when necessary as shown in figure 2-4. While planners complete some activities before others, the understanding and learning within one activity may require revisiting the learning from another activity. Thus, ADM is iterative in nature.

2-5. Army surface-to-surface fires are applied to deliver effects in concert with all other fires capabilities. Fires are integrated through the targeting process, fire support planning, unit airspace plan (UAP), and military decision making process (MDMP). Surface-to-surface fires are integrated with other airspace users to facilitate massing of effects.

5-30. The intelligence staff leads the rest of the staff in a careful analysis of the terrain, including ground and air avenues of approach, and other significant factors of the operational environment. Then the staff identifies a broad range of enemy COAs with emphasis on the enemy's most likely and most dangerous COAs in the war-gaming portion of the MDMP. Because of the inherent vulnerability of friendly forces during a movement to contact, the intelligence staff must not underestimate the enemy and complexities of the mission. Predictions of enemy COAs should be thorough; at a minimum, they should account for enemy maneuver units (two echelons below) and all key enemy capabilities and enablers. A thorough IPB and war- gaming effort indicates areas where contact with the enemy is likely, as well as friendly and enemy vulnerabilities by phase of the operation. The intelligence staff leads the rest of the staff in determining-

3-31. Commanders and staffs integrate the warfighting functions and synchronize the force to adapt to changing circumstances throughout the operations process. They use several integrating processes to do this. An integrating process consists of a series of steps that incorporate multiple disciplines to achieve a specific end. For example, during planning, the MDMP integrates the commander and staff in a series of steps to produce a plan or order. Key integrating processes that occur throughout the operations process include: