In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & Chief Executive Bryan Strawser discusses 7 Business Continuity Exercise Scenarios that you can use to prepare your organization for disruption.

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Episode Transcript

Hello, and Welcome to the Managing Uncertainty podcast. This is Bryan Strawser, Principal and Chief Executive here at Bryghtpath. And in this week’s episode, I’d like to talk about seven business continuity exercise scenarios that you can use, that you can prepare for in your organization. According to research, we know that about 25% of businesses fail to recover after a disaster. If they lack a business continuity plan, a recovery plan, it becomes hard to cope with the repercussions of a disruption. That’s why your business needs a business continuity plan. Now, to top up your security, your business security, and thinking about exercises, testing your business continuity plan is crucial. It’s good to understand that every business has a distinct business continuity plan and approach, depending upon your industry and your size and regulatory issues, and other factors.

That’s why you need to make sure you carry out a risk assessment and a business impact analysis, to be aware of these factors as a part of your planning process. But here we’re going to talk about some common business continuity exercise scenarios, the types of exercises, and the importance of making sure that you’re exercising or testing your continuity plan.

First, from our standpoint, there are three common types of exercises that you may use with your business continuity plan. The first is just a plan review, probably the most straightforward type of exercise. Your team goes through all the points on the business continuity plan. We use it to ensure the plan covers all the company’s objectives. And we do this without doing any real practical exercise work. It’s a walkthrough of review. The second is a tabletop. It’s probably the most common type of exercise. It’s definitely a strengthened version of the plan review. In this exercise, employees use the plan in a facilitated kind of conference setting, virtual or physical. And as inputs are received from the facilitator, your employees then respond to those exercise inputs as if they would, in an actual incident. The third is a simulation, by far the most realistic of these three exercises where employees actually do the thing.

They use the plan and execute the elements of the plan. It’s the most practical and detailed, and probably the closest to reality that you can get in an exercise. Now, exercising your business continuity plan is critical. It creates a picture of risk scenarios. It makes it easy for teams to understand how to use the plan. It builds confidence. Your team gets practical preparation. They build muscle memory, it helps you identify loopholes in your continuity plan. It ensures you cover al