When Should You Exercise Your Incident Response, Business Continuity, or Disaster Recovery Plans?
- Scott Owens
- Mar 29
- 3 min read
Most organizations understand the importance of having Incident Response (IR), Business Continuity (BC), and Disaster Recovery (DR) plans in place. But having a plan is only half the battle. The true value comes from regularly exercising and validating those plans to ensure your team can execute them under pressure, and that the plans themselves remain relevant as your organization evolves. Whether you're preparing for a tabletop exercise or planning a full-scale simulation, it's important to recognize the key moments when exercising your response plans is not just helpful — it's essential. Below are the most common and critical triggers for conducting IR, BC, or DR plan exercises, along with explanations of why each one matters.
✅ Annually
What It Means: Organizations should formally test and validate their response plans at least once every 12 months.
Why It Matters: Even in the absence of major changes, people move roles, technology evolves, and threats shift. An annual cadence ensures your organization maintains readiness and continuously improves. Annual exercises also help meet industry best practices, audit expectations, and regulatory requirements (e.g., HIPAA, HITRUST, ISO 27001, SOC 2).
🆕 Upon Completion of New Plans or Major Revisions
What It Means:
Whenever a new IR, BC, or DR plan is created—or when a major update or overhaul is completed—you should schedule a walkthrough or simulation.
Why It Matters:
New or revised plans often introduce unfamiliar processes, tools, or roles. Testing soon after completion ensures everyone understands their responsibilities and that the plan works as intended before an actual incident occurs.
📄 After Creating Supplemental or Complementary Documentation
What It Means:
This includes new playbooks, communication protocols, downtime procedures, call trees, or recovery runbooks that support your core plans.
Why It Matters:
Supporting documentation can be critical during a response. If a new communications plan or clinical downtime procedure hasn’t been tested in context, it may fall short when needed. Integrating and exercising these materials ensures alignment and usability under pressure.
👥 Following Organizational Reorganization or Key Personnel Changes
What It Means:
If your organization undergoes a restructuring, merges departments, or has turnover in leadership or critical response roles, it’s time to exercise your plans.
Why It Matters:
People are the most important part of any response. If key team members change, your plan must reflect new responsibilities and contact paths. Exercises help new leaders and responders build muscle memory and confidence in their roles before a crisis hits.
📉 After a Major Change to the Business or Market
What It Means:
Expanding into new markets, launching major new services, or changing your operating model (e.g., remote work) introduces new risks.
Why It Matters:
Business changes often come with unseen implications for continuity and recovery. For example, opening a new data center or entering the healthcare sector may impact what threats you face and how you respond. Exercises help validate your plan against the current state of the business.
🖥️ Following Substantial Infrastructure or Equipment Changes
What It Means:
Significant changes to IT systems, facilities, cloud architecture, or security tools should trigger a reassessment and test of your response capabilities.
Why It Matters:
System recovery and threat containment plans are highly dependent on infrastructure. If your environment changes, your assumptions—and your plan’s effectiveness—might too. Regular testing ensures your team knows how to respond in the current landscape.
⚖️ In Response to Significant Statutory or Regulatory Changes
What It Means:
New or revised laws and regulations (e.g., HIPAA rule updates, GDPR enforcement changes, state breach notification laws) can impact your incident response obligations and timelines.
Why It Matters:
Failing to comply with new legal requirements during an incident can result in fines, investigations, and reputational damage. Exercises help you validate that your plans meet new legal expectations and prepare your team to respond accordingly.
💡 Additional Situations to Consider:
While the above are the most common triggers, there are a few more worth noting:
After an actual incident or near-miss: Use the momentum from real-world events to run a “hot wash” or full exercise to reinforce learning.
New vendor onboarding or offboarding: Especially when third parties are involved in key services like backup, security, or hosting.
Executive training needs: Running a tabletop with senior leadership helps improve crisis decision-making and communication strategies.
🔄 Keep It Continuous
Incident Response, Business Continuity, and Disaster Recovery are not “set it and forget it” disciplines. By building a culture of regular testing and continuous improvement, you ensure that your organization is not only compliant — but resilient.
Even a short tabletop exercise can reveal critical gaps, clarify roles, and build confidence across your team. If you’re not sure when to exercise your plans next, revisit the list above — chances are, the time is now.
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