The seven steps of the Military Decision Making Process for Veterans Day
Receipt of Mission: The process begins when all the free meals from restaurants are published and your friends tell you they want to eat at as many places as possible.
Mission Analysis: The staff (you and your veteran friends) analyze the menus to understand what’s free, identify constraints such as driving time, quality and length of wait times. You all then determine specified, implied, and essential tasks, such as filling the car with gas, pregaming etc. Then, develop a restated mission, such as how many places you plan on eating at.
Course of Action (COA) Development: arguably the most important step. fail to plan properly, eat less and wait in more lines. Do the work, get the free Bloomin' Onion (if you did proper MDMP you would already know that Outback Steakhouse isn't doing the free Bloomin' Onion this year).
COA Analysis: You and your buddies analyzes the COAs to identify strengths, weaknesses, and potential problems through a process often called "war-gaming". This involves making sure your spouse and kids are in the car in order to make all the hit times, Who is DD'ing, etc.
COA Comparison: The staff compares the different COAs against each other to determine the most viable one. Add in at least one "throw away" COA to satisfy your spouse. Then let them know the team didn't vote for it and that you are sorry...but it's your day.
COA Approval: The team approves one of the courses of action. Inevitably one person will be upset by the choice. They have no selected themselves as the designated driver.
Orders Production: The final plan is formalized via a text message to all your friends. Let them know that you are going to storm the Chili's down the road like our forefathers at Normandy.