Administrator Checklist: After a Communication Exercise
Review message delivery logs, identify coverage gaps, gather participant feedback, and decide on equipment changes after your Allo exercise.
The value of a communication exercise is not just in the running of it — it is in what you learn and act on afterwards. Allo gives administrators access to message delivery logs and device activity data that would be difficult or impossible to reconstruct from memory. Use the post-exercise process described here to turn raw data and participant observations into concrete improvements for your next deployment.
Complete your post-exercise review within 48 hours of the exercise ending, while participant recollections are still fresh and the dashboard data is most readily available.
Post-exercise checklist
- Export or screenshot the delivery logs from the dashboard before they are archived
- Identify any messages that were not delivered or were significantly delayed
- Map undelivered messages to specific geographic locations or participant groups
- Collect written or verbal feedback from all participants
- Document your findings in a structured report
- Decide on any changes to repeater placement, group structure, or operational procedures
- Share findings with relevant stakeholders (team leads, management, safety region coordinators)
Step-by-step post-exercise process
Review message delivery logs in the dashboard
Log in to the Allo dashboard and open Reports and Logs. Review the delivery records for the exercise period. Look for:
- Messages that were sent but show no delivery confirmation
- Messages with unusually long delivery delays
- Participants who sent no messages at all during the exercise (possible device or pairing issue)
- Clusters of delivery failures concentrated in a specific time window (possible repeater outage)
Export the log data or take screenshots for your records before the exercise session ages out of the active view.
Identify coverage gaps
Cross-reference undelivered or delayed messages with the locations where the sending or receiving participants were operating. A pattern of failures in a specific area — for example a basement, a remote field location, or the far edge of your operational zone — points to a coverage gap.
Common causes of coverage gaps include:
- No repeater within range of that location
- A repeater placed too low or obstructed by walls, terrain, or vegetation
- A device that was powered off or had a dead battery during the exercise
- Bluetooth disconnection between a participant's phone and their Allo device
Note each gap on a map or in a written log so you can address it before the next exercise or operational deployment.
Gather participant feedback
Contact all exercise participants and collect structured feedback. A short survey or debrief conversation works well. Key questions to ask:
- Did you receive all messages you expected to receive?
- Were there moments when you could not send or receive messages? Where were you at the time?
- How easy was the app to use under exercise conditions?
- Did you experience any Bluetooth disconnection issues?
- What would have made Allo more useful during this exercise?
Document the responses in writing. Look for patterns across multiple participants — a problem mentioned by several people is more likely to be a systemic issue than an individual one.
Document your findings
Compile the log review, coverage map, and participant feedback into a short post-exercise report. The report does not need to be long, but it should include:
- Date and scenario of the exercise
- Participants and devices involved
- Delivery performance: total messages, delivery successes, failures, and delays
- Coverage gaps identified: locations and probable causes
- User feedback summary: key themes and individual observations
- Recommended actions: specific changes with an owner and target date for each
Store the report where relevant stakeholders can access it — for example a shared drive or your organisation's incident management system.
Decide on equipment adjustments
Based on the coverage gaps you have identified, decide whether any changes to hardware placement are needed before the next exercise or deployment.
Add a repeater
If a location consistently falls outside reliable coverage, adding a new repeater at an elevated or central point in that area is the most effective fix.
Reposition existing repeaters
If a repeater is already in place but coverage is still poor, try moving it to a higher elevation or a more central location, or adjusting its antenna orientation.
Also consider whether changes to group structure, device assignments, or operational procedures would improve performance — not all improvements require new hardware.
Share findings with stakeholders
Brief relevant stakeholders on the outcomes of the exercise and the planned actions. This might include team leads, municipal management, or safety region coordinators. Being transparent about both what worked well and what did not builds trust and supports the case for investing in improvements.
Common patterns and what they mean
Many messages undelivered in one specific area
This is the classic coverage gap signature. Check whether a repeater was meant to cover that area and whether it was powered on during the exercise. If no repeater was assigned, consider adding one. If a repeater was in place, review its placement and consider repositioning it higher or more centrally.
One participant could not send or receive any messages
This is usually a device or Bluetooth issue specific to that participant. Check whether their device appeared in the dashboard during the exercise. If it did not, the Bluetooth connection between their phone and device likely dropped. Review the Bluetooth Connection Problems guide for next steps.
Widespread delivery failures at a specific time
A sudden, widespread delivery failure affecting multiple participants simultaneously often indicates that a key repeater went offline — for example due to battery depletion or a power interruption. Check the device activity log for the repeater(s) in the affected area. Ensure repeaters are fully charged or connected to a reliable power source before the next exercise.
Participants report the app was confusing or hard to use
Usability feedback is as important as coverage data. If multiple participants struggled with the same part of the app — for example finding the right group, or not understanding delivery status indicators — consider running a brief refresher training session before the next exercise.
Planning the next exercise
Use your post-exercise findings to set the agenda for the next exercise. If you added repeaters or changed group structure based on this review, the next exercise should specifically test whether those changes resolved the identified gaps. Tracking improvement over successive exercises is the clearest way to demonstrate that your Allo deployment is maturing and reliable.