Exercises & Training

Writing the Plan is Not Enough

No matter how well conceived a plan is, it is almost impossible to consider all of the events and possibilities that can be encountered in a real emergency or disaster. In order to be considered reliable, your plan must be tested.

Scenarios

In order to test your plan, you will need to think of scenarios in which you would have to put the plan, or components of the plan, into action. Basically, the threat scenario should be based on those items identified in your risk assessment. Some suggested scenarios include fire, loss of services (including water, wastewater and power), tornado, tropical weather, hazardous materials release and computer virus. You may also want to consider testing re-entry and recovery procedures after the emergency.

Test Levels

Testing the plan can be as simple or complicated as you wish. While you may not want to conduct a full-scale exercise, orientation sessions and tabletop exercises can be very effective. The key is to always evaluate your plan after each training session or implementation and make the necessary changes from lessons learned.

There are seven types of exercises defined within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Exercise Guidance each of which is either discussions-based or operations-based.

Discussions-based Exercises familiarize participants with current plans, policies, agreements and procedures, or may be used to develop new plans, policies, agreements, and procedures. Types of Discussion-based Exercises include:

Seminars
Workshops
Tabletop Exercises (TTX)
Games

Operations-based Exercises validate plans, policies, agreements and procedures, clarify roles and responsibilities, and identify resource gaps in an operational environment. Types of Operations-based Exercises include:

Drills (e.g., a fire drill)
Functional Exercises
Full-Scale Exercises

Your plan should be tested at least annually. More frequent exercises may be required for high-risk operations or if there have been major changes. Seasonal exercises should be considered. These should be conducted far enough in advance of the season to incorporate revisions and possibly retest.

After Action Report

After an exercise, consider the lessons learned and make certain any necessary changes to the plan are incorporated into the document. It is extremely important to document each exercise. The expected results are compared to the actual results at the conclusion of the exercise. The extent to which the expected results match the actual results determines the level of success of the exercise.

For more information, go to Planning Process/Implementing the Plan.

Online Business Tabletop Exercises have been developed by the Center for Disaster Risk Policy Florida State University.