Software Engineering Institute

This material is based on work funded and supported by the Department of Homeland Security.

This report supports the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) program,
formerly known as the Commercial Mobile Alert Service Research, Development,
Testing, and Evaluation program, by identifying and analyzing key WEA adoption
issues. The study captures key challenges for WEA message originators and offers
recommendations to help the community avoid common pitfalls as it plans and
implements the WEA service. The report summarizes the current strengths and
challenges of WEA, how WEA fits into the alert originator's toolbox, and
overall considerations for integrating a new WEA tool or service into an
emergency management system as that system becomes ever more complex. The
report also covers key topics for adopting a WEA tool or service, including
requirements specification, cloud trends, cybersecurity, product selection,
testing, coordinating among tools and alerting organizations, operational
considerations, and alternatives to buying a WEA solution. For each of these
topics, recommendations offer guidance that emergency management agencies can
use to navigate the process of adopting and integrating WEA into their alerting
capabilities.