Critical Decision Support: Why Test Plans?
"Failure to test and update plans is one of the five common failures in a disaster"
INTRODUCTION
The success of any emergency, continuity, or disaster recovery plan depends upon its routine testing, audits and updates. Plans cannot be expected to work properly unless they have been tested prior to their actual implementation in an emergency. Don’t wait until an emergency unfolds to see if the plans and procedures you’ve implemented are effective in responding to and recovering from a crisis event.
Everyone has a role in a crisis. Some are strategic; some are tactical. How decisions are made in a crisis is critical to the outcome. Because of this, the following holds true:
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Practicing emergency response helps assure that the response can proceed predictably during a crisis or disaster;
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Participation in exercises familiarizes everyone with the vulnerabilities, impacts, plans, mitigation strategies, incident management and crisis communications;
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Testing allows problems or weaknesses to be identified and used to stimulate necessary and appropriate changes; and
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Errors committed and experience gained during testing will provide valuable insights and lessons learned that can be factored into the planning/updating process.
Exercises empower critical decisions in a crisis. Exercises focus participants to determine:
- What changed?
- What do they know?
- Are they concerned? If so, about what?
- What is their plan?
- What will they monitor & how?
TEST EXERCISE PROCESS
Test exercises serve several purposes. Exercises:
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Allow management to use and assess plans and procedures to determine their feasibility and determine whether they will work under actual conditions
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Assess and measure the degree to which personnel understand their emergency response functions and duties.
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Enhance coordination, communication, and proficiency among response staff.
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Identify areas for improvement.
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Increase the ability of management and staff to respond to emergencies.
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