Whenever I host a tabletop exercise I provide a handy-dandy checklist to all participants. It is a valuable take-away. It helps guide them when reviewing their plan for completeness and finding gaps. It is also a starting point for readiness discussions with their team members.
I hope you enjoy the list. Consider it a starting point. Please customize for your organization.
When I give this away I get a lot of ‘thank-you Marty‘ comments from attendees and I think you will too.
| Yes / No | Do your recovery employees know how to get to the designated alternate recovery site? |
| Yes / No | Have employees that are designated to work-from-home during a crisis tested their ability to reach all of their critical systems? |
| Yes / No | Is the employee section of your plan, including contact information, complete and up-to-date? |
| Yes / No | Have you exercised your call tree(s) within the last quarter? If not, how do you know the phone numbers are correct? |
| Yes / No | Is the telecom section complete? |
| Yes / No | Do you have critical customer facing toll free numbers that must be re-routed? |
| Yes / No | Have you tested re-routing toll frees to your recovery site? |
| Yes / No | Have all of your processes and sub-processes been documented in your plan? |
| Yes / No | Are the RTO’s and RPO’s appropriate for each process and sub-process? |
| Yes / No | Is the critical software application section complete? |
| Yes / No | Is the equipment section complete? |
| Yes / No | Is the vendors section complete? |
| Yes / No | Is the customers section complete? |
| Yes / No | Is the vital records section complete? |
| Yes / No | Is there anything in your office (e.g. case folders, tracking spreadsheets, etc.) that you would deem critical and would cause you significant problems if you relocated to your designated recovery site and did not have access to them? |
| Yes / No | Is the task section of your plan complete and up-to-date? |
| Yes / No | Have you developed a manual work-around procedure to support your business if critical systems are not available? |
| Yes / No | Was your plan missing information and do you need to modify and / or add recovery tasks to accommodate your findings? |
| Yes / No | Do you have a ready box stored off-site with important supplies, forms and equipment? |