PLAN TESTING EVALUATION AND MAINTENANCE

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. Deciding to create a plan is an important step toward ensuring the survival of your business after a disaster. But simply writing the plan is not enough. Turning thoughts into action is not an exact science. In order to be considered reliable, your plan must be tested. A proven plan increases your confidence in its workability and avoids having a false sense of security in a plan that may look good on paper but is deficient in reality. Testing also assists in training the participants and familiarizing them with their roles. It lowers the stress during the emergency and reduces the possibility of panic since people will have a basic familiarity with their roles.

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. The following types of exercises can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your plan.

• Table-Top Exercise – An exercise that simulates an emergency situation in an informal, stress-free environment. The participants, usually people on a decision-making level, gather around a table to discuss general problems and procedures in the context of an emergency scenario. The focus is on training and familiarization with roles, procedures, or responsibilities. While this type of exercise lacks realism and provides only a superficial exercise of plans, procedures, and staff capabilities, it requires only a modest commitment in terms of time, cost and resources. It is a good way to acquaint key personnel with emergency responsibilities, procedures, and one another.

• Functional Exercise or “Drill” - The functional exercise simulates an emergency in the most realistic manner possible, short of moving real people and equipment to an actual site. As the name suggests, its goal is to test or evaluate the capability of one or more functions in the context of an emergency event. Players practice their response to an emergency by responding in a realistic way to carefully planned and sequenced messages given to them by simulators. All decisions and actions by players occur in real time and generate real responses and consequences from other players. The guiding principle is to imitate reality. The atmosphere is stressful and tense due to real-time action and the realism of the problems. While this type of an exercise can test the same functions and responses as in a full-scale exercise without high costs or safety risks, it is lengthy and complex, requires careful scripting, careful planning, and attention to detail.

• Full-Scale Exercise - A full-scale exercise is as close to the real thing as possible; it replicates the disaster to the smallest detail. It is a lengthy exercise which takes place on location, using, as far as possible, the equipment and personnel that would be called upon in a real event. It differs from a functional exercise or “drill” in that a drill focuses on a single operation. Scenarios often include surprise events to test responses of the participants and to achieve realism as much as possible. (For example, people posing as casualties may be made up with wounds to test the reactions of the participants to events they may actually encounter in a disaster.) Full simulations normally are used by the military, police, fire/rescue and emergency management organizations and businesses with high exposure.

Ideally, everyone in your business and third parties (vendors, suppliers, customers, governmental agencies, etc.) who could possibly be involved in the event of a disaster should participate in the test. Obviously, this is not always practical or even possible, especially the third parties. Even if interested parties are unable to participate, they should be informed of their expected role in your plan and the team should simulate activities assigned to third parties unable to participate. Try to work with the third party in advance to find out how they intend to respond in a disaster. It is important to thoroughly document this portion of the exercise in case the third party’s planned response is determined to be inadequate during the exercise. This documentation will be important when you present your results to them and ask for changes. If such an occasion arises, it will likely illustrate the need for the third party’s active participation in subsequent exercises.

The plan should be tested at least annually. More frequent exercises may be required for high-risk operations. Seasonal exercises should be considered. These should be conducted far enough in advance of the season to incorporate revisions and possibly retest.

After an exercise, consider the lessons learned and make certain any necessary changes to the plan are incorporated into the document. Major changes may require another exercise. Occasionally, the results of an exercise may warrant not only another exercise. You may also discover a higher level of testing than originally thought was needed. For instance, a business that originally decided that a walkthrough was a sufficient exercise may discover that a partial or full simulation is now needed because the walkthrough was inadequate to thoroughly test the plan.

It is extremely important to document each exercise. The tests should have a script that describes each situation or scenario, who should participate, how it is to be conducted, the expected results, and a place to record the actual results. 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.

Every business can encounter an emergency situation that could disrupt or cease operations. By taking the time and making the commitment to plan for the unexpected, you are not only protecting your business, employees and customers, you are helping to protect your community and local economy.