Editing Incident Command System (section)

===Common terminology===
Individual response agencies previously developed their protocols separately, and subsequently developed their terminology separately. This can lead to confusion as a word may have a different meaning for each organization.

When different organizations are required to work together, the use of common [[terminology]] is an essential element in team cohesion and communications, both internally and with other organizations responding to the incident.

An incident command system promotes the use of a common terminology and has an associated glossary of terms that help bring consistency to position titles, the description of resources and how they can be organized, the type and names of incident facilities, and a host of other subjects. The use of common terminology is most evident in the titles of command roles, such as ''Incident Commander'', ''Safety Officer'' or ''Operations Section Chief''.<ref name="autogenerated2007"/>