Tabletop Exercises

If you haven't tested your business continuity, disaster recovery, or incident response plan, you aren't ready to manage a disaster event. Period. Having a plan is great. Training your team on the plans is better. But until your organization engages in a tabletop exercise or drill, you will never truly know if it will work during a crisis. For the same reason that soldiers train, athletes practice, and students do homework, preparation produces better results.

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The BluTinuity approach to incident response, business continuity, or disaster recovery drills is to design highly personalized, creative scenarios that intentionally focus on your specific objectives. Regardless of whether you select a tabletop exercise, a role play event, or a hybrid model, we guarantee that your teams will learn from the event. Our team has designed and facilitated over 165 exercises and drills with organizations of all types and sizes. 

Our proven and streamlined approach includes the following process: 

• Identification of Goals: We start by meeting with your team to understand your business, its leadership, various departments and teams, culture, and many other important facets such as regulatory compliance requirements, relevant industry segments, geographic location, and supply chain impact.  From this discussion, specific goals will be identified, such as validation of certain procedures, mapping of recovery capabilities, or verification of team communication techniques.

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• Plan Review and High Level Risk Analysis: We examine your existing incident response, business continuity, disaster recovery, or contingency plans and supporting documentation, using industry best practice frameworks or certification standards as a benchmark. Any areas of vulnerability are identified as potential targets in the drill.

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• Disaster Scenario Design and Executive Review: We design a unique and personalized disaster scenario deliberately planned to stress key teams, systems, or processes in order to meet the goals of the drill. One or more disasters are chosen that will create a realistic situation that will support the goals of the exercise.

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• Exercise Facilitation: We facilitate the scenario to involve collaborative role playing within the organization, but may also involve your customers and suppliers, law enforcement, or other third parties that may be useful. If appropriate, the scenario may also include building evacuations and site relocations. In some cases, actors may be used to assist with the simulation.

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• Lessons Learned / After-Action Review Session: Following the exercise, we meet with the team to share lessons and recommendations for improvement in documentation, procedures, technology, team interaction, and leadership.