Exercise and Testing IDRC 2010 Emergent Leadership For a leader to be effective in today s uncertain world, they have to understand the nature of complexity and adapt their leadership role in a manner that reflects the realities of the situation they are faced with Non routine events may require non routine responses For a community, agency, department or Government the need and requirement is no different Our challenge is to provide individuals, communities, agencies, with an environment where they can experience how to manage during a disaster, gain knowledge and be able to assist in the future 1
Exercise and Testing A well defined, developed and facilitated exercise will provide for the further enhancement of capability and resilience. It can assist in the effective management of a variety of events by: Providing the capability to manage unanticipated event(s) Developing the ability and capacity of people and the community, organization, etc Allowing for community, organizational, agency, governmental activity to continue Assisting to reduce the potential negative impacts of a disaster event 2
Exercising and Testing Assists in: Providing people and organizations with improved awareness of the content of plans and their use; Providing people and organizations with enhanced confidence in using the plans and in operating during a disruption; Identifying inadequacies in the written plans and in their interpretation by people and organizations; Assessing and confirming the feasibility of the identified strategies; Assessing the adequacy of resource allocations and logistics; Meeting regulatory, contractual or governance requirements; Providing assurance that plans can be implemented effectively when required; and Providing confidence in capability to stakeholders.[1] [1] Based on HB 292:2006, Practitioners Guide to Business Continuity Management, Standards Australia, 2006 The Exercise Pyramid Testing Test: Test Capability Training Train: Develop Capability Educate Exercising Exercise: Gain New Knowledge Educate Based on Draft ISO/WD 22398-1.0, Societal Security Guidelines for exercises and testing 3
Exercising, Testing &Training Tiered training for people involved in disaster response and management Involved in the activation and management of plans Support personnel People who maintain the continuity plans, procedures or locations General awareness training for the community, agency, department or organization Similar to fire evacuation drills How to manage an incident Individual resilience and group/ community involvement Fun, relevant and realistic Use of previous incidents Exercise and Testing How Do We Do It??? 4
The Approach 5
What We Need to Know Why are we conducting the exercise? To educate To test To inform To develop To comply What do we want to achieve? The objectives for the exercise that are linked to the reason for conducting the exercise Who is going to be involved? Participants, Observers, Interested Parties, Notional Parties What is the best method for achieving our Aims and Objectives? Interviews, Desktop Review, Full scale exercise, Deployment exercise Specialized recovery tests, Notification and communications call out Discussion exercise, Seminar, Workshop Exercise Assistance Checklist Activity Conduct initial meeting to determine context and scope of exercise Identify the sponsor for the exercise Identify aim and objectives for the exercise Identify regulatory / legislative / governance / contractual basis for exercise Identify issues that could affect the exercise operating environment, adequacy of current plans and procedures, location, participants, etc Identify exercise participants and exercise support resources Identify the communications strategy for the exercise Identify the exercise date, location and timings Identify support required to develop and conduct the exercise Confirm the appropriateness of the developed exercise material by the sponsor of the exercise Brief participants and exercise support resources prior to the exercise beginning Conduct the exercise Identify the time and location for the debrief Confirm the format of the exercise report Identify the monitoring and review method for the implementation of the exercise report recommendations 6
Testing What? Testing the Capability Is the plan is workable and fit for purpose Benchmarking against similar organisations Emergency / crisis management team Test IT systems and alternate facilities Providers / partners Lessons learnt follow up action plan Common Elements Understanding what s important Understanding di uncertainty t disruption threats t Ensuring that critical processes continue to operate after the disaster has occurred Ensuring that critical processes are supported before, during and after the disaster 7
What You Need to Do Provide a regular testing schedule that tests the understanding and use of the plans at all levels of the organisation Shortfalls &/or improvements can be identified and corrected Clarification of resources requirements and recovery timings validated Confidence in the ability to manage a disaster is improved time spent in rehearsals is NEVER wasted!!!!! So what does that really mean? Simply: Helps us to answer What could happen? So what does it mean to me? So what does it matter to my community, organization, agency, nation What is critical to continuing providing the services that are required? What do we have to do pre, during and post incident, event, crisis, emergency? 8
Exercise and Testing Its not knowing what to do that will save you. Its knowing that you know what to do!! Amanda Ripley Blog, 18 June 2008 9