The National Incident Management System (NIMS) provides a systematic, proactive approach guiding departments and agencies at all levels of government, the private sector, & nongovernmental organizations to work seamlessly to prepare for, prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents. Beginning in FY 2010, federal departments and agencies can measure the progress of NIMS implementation through responses to performance-based “metrics.”
http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/FY2010_FederalNIMSImplementationObjectivesMetrics.pdf