Incident exercises

Rehearse difficult decisions before an incident.

A facilitated tabletop exercise helps teams practise coordination, escalation and communication in a realistic scenario without disrupting live systems.

Discuss an incident exercise

Exercise structure

A structured exercise from preparation to debrief.

Each exercise is designed around the audience, the systems in scope and the objectives agreed with you. It is a preparedness activity and does not replace the handling of a real incident.

Format and duration are agreed during scoping.

  • Scenario preparation

    Before the exercise

    Agree objectives, participating roles and a scenario that is relevant to your organisation.

    • Objectives and scope
    • Scenario based on your context
    • Roles agreed in advance

  • Roles and decisions

    During the exercise

    Participants take decisions on containment, escalation and communication, as they would in a real incident.

    • Participant roles and responsibilities
    • Escalation and coordination
    • Decisions and trade-offs

  • Debrief and actions

    After the exercise

    Review what worked, where decisions were slow or unclear, and agree improvement actions.

    • Facilitated debrief
    • After-action report
    • Improvement actions for follow-up

An exercise is a preparedness activity. It does not provide live incident response and does not prove that every incident scenario is covered.

Four stages

From preparation to improvement.

Each exercise follows the same logical order, adapted to the scenario and the group. The stages below show a typical flow.

  1. 1

    Preparation

    Agree objectives, scope and the scenario with the people who will take part.

  2. 2

    Roles

    Confirm who makes which decisions and how the teams coordinate.

  3. 3

    Exercise

    Work through the scenario, make decisions and test escalation and communication.

  4. 4

    Debrief

    Review decisions and communication, then record lessons and improvement actions.

Example scenario

A scenario built around your organisation.

The scenario is tailored to your sector, systems and risk profile. The example shows the kind of situation a team might work through. It is illustrative only.

Decisions during the exercise

  • Confirm what is known and what is not
  • Decide on isolation and continued operation
  • Agree who is informed, internally and externally
  • Set the escalation point and the responsible owner
  • Record decisions and the reasons behind them

What participants gain

Practice that improves response.

Clearer escalation

Practise when and how a decision goes to management, and who acts once it is made.

Practised coordination

See how teams share information and divide tasks under time pressure.

Visible roles

Find where responsibilities are unclear before a real incident happens.

Exercise outputs

Documented results for your next steps.

Outputs are agreed during scoping. The standard set includes the following.

  • Exercise plan

    Objectives, scenario outline, roles and the agreed schedule.

  • Facilitated session

    The exercise itself, with facilitation, timing and decision points.

  • After-action report

    Observations, decisions taken, gaps identified and improvement actions.

Next step

Discuss an incident exercise.

Tell us your objectives, audience and the systems in scope. We will propose a scenario and format for your organisation.

Discuss your needs