Most firefighting situations require a very diverse set of skills. For example, you may need Oracle diagnostic, SQL tuning, and operating system tuning skills. But I'm willing to bet you also need someone who is an expert on how to use the application. If your users are new to the application, it's a good bet they are trying to use the new application in the same way as they used the old application. While they may get the work done, it might not be the best way to use the new application's capabilities. This directly impacts the system, because the users may be requiring the system to do more work than necessary. The problem is that you and your management team won't know this, but a functional expert will. So consider investing in someone who can help your users. The reduction in system workload can have a dramatic impact on performance.

Consider at the outset of the crisis that this might be a long ordeal that continues through the day and night, and back into day again, for 16, 30, 40, or more hours. No one person, however heroic, should expect to endure, or be expected to endure, for the entire duration. One of my first considerations is who will be available within 8 to 10 hours to take over for me for 8 hours. If you are the most capable person to begin the firefighting effort, then find the next best person to take over from you, and plan on at least an hour of "handover" overlap as well.

Related to a well-defined objective is an actual sample of the key problem area response times. This will become your baseline. A baseline is used for comparison. For example, when someone says, "the query now runs 50% faster," you still want to know if the query runs in 2 seconds or 2 hours. It's similar to a commercial stating something contains "35% less fat!" A statement like that screams for a baseline, and is clearly intent on deceiving and manipulating. Don't fall into the same trap.