Decision making on the London incident ground: an exploratory study

The critical decision method (CDM) is a technique for obtaining data on real decision making in natural settings. It has been applied in a number of civilian and military settings, and generates data that are rich in content (what happened?), context (when and where did it happen?) and process (why did it happen?). The application described is part of a larger research and development project concerned with developing and maintaining the competence of London Fire Brigade officers. Uses a case study of one recent incident to provide an example of the data generated by CDM, and discusses further steps in exploiting this data for the purpose of simulation‐based assessment.