Exercise Planning Master-Class
Thursday 27th May, London
This event is now full. Please email lucy.burns@thebci.org to be added to the waiting list.
The 2009 Exercise Planning Masterclass was rated by delegates as one of the best workshops ever delivered by the BCI.
“Excellent planning and development section providing key knowledge and explanations. Good interaction, well structured and acute presentations.”
Exercise planning is an essential skill for Business Continuity practitioners, but acquiring the experience of different types of exercise and having the courage to develop and deliver a major test of your business continuity plan can be daunting. The Exercise Planning Masterclass will provide an opportunity for you to learn from the experience of your peers and from the knowledge of a team of experienced exercise planners. Confirmed session leaders are:
David Lloyd is the Development Consultant for the BCI and a member of the PD25666 Working Group. He is also an author and facilitator for over seventy BCM related workshops, and is responsible for the development of the Masterclass, including the exercise.
Duncan Ford is a Consultant with LINK Associates and member of the PD25666 Working Group. He is a highly experienced exercise planner working with a wide cross-section of organisations.
Dave Clarke is the Business Continuity Manager for Telefónica O2 UK Limited. He is a highly experienced exercise planner from a major end-user organisation.
Gareth Jones is a Principal Advisor to the KPMG Business Resilience team and a member of the PD25666 Working Group. He is an experienced designer and director for major exercises and acknowledged for special skills in the area of exercise and incident debriefing.
The workshop will provide an intense experience of working through the four phases of the exercise planning process; exercise planning, exercise development, delivery, debrief and report. Working in groups, you will be set the challenge of defining objectives, developing scenarios, writing scripts, delivering and debriefing an exercise. The Masterclass includes reference to BS25999, and the soon to be published BSI guidance PD25666 on Test and Exercise Planning.
Why attend?
The programme for the Exercise Planning Masterclass has been developed to take into account the feedback from delegates that attended the very successful Exercise Planning Workshop held in July 2008 and the Masterclass in July 2009. The Masterclass leaders and facilitators have been invited by virtue of their knowledge and experience in exercise planning, development and delivery. Four out of the five are members of the BSI Test & Exercise Planning Working Group that has developed PD25666.
Who should attend?
- Professionals wishing to improve their capability in the fifth key competency that includes Exercising.
- BC and EP practitioners with an enthusiasm for exchanging ideas and learning from the experience of their fellow professionals.
- BCM team members charged with the task of developing an exercise programme or delivering a test or exercise and looking for a structure within which to work.
- BC or EP practitioners that have recently undergone specific training in exercise planning or are perhaps working from a text book who have specific issues where they would like to benefit from the expert knowledge of the workshop facilitators.
We have outlined the key elements of the Exercise Planning Masterclass below, it is not intended as a specification for the event and the BCI reserves the right to make changes to the programme in the interests of delivering the best possible value.
09:30 Start of Workshop
- Briefing on the Masterclass practical exercise
Workshop Leader: David Lloyd |
Session 1: PROGRAMME PLANNING
Session Leader: Duncan Ford |
- Why exercise?
- Why an Exercise Policy & Strategy should be developed and supported by top management?
- Hints & tips for effective programme planning, winning approvals and funding, and ensuring commitment by senior management.
- A mixture of tests, exercises and rehearsals (what do we mean by each?), and how to get the right balance.
- Expectations of BS25999 and guidance from PD25666.
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Discussion
- What are the obstacles to delivering a fully effective test & exercise programme? How can these difficulties be overcome?
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Reflection
- What have I learnt that will enable me to gain greater commitment to our exercise programme?
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Session 2: EXERCISE PLANNING
Session Leader: Alan Elwood |
- Hints & tips for effective exercise planning.
- Assembling the exercise planning team: roles & responsibilities.
- Defining desired outcomes and setting objectives.
- Selecting the scenario, what supporting materials might be needed?
- Importance of ensuring that the scenario, injects and expected decisions are commensurate with the seniority and expectations of the players.
- Costing, making the business case, and winning approval.
- Risks associated with running the exercise.
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Discussion
- What is the real purpose of the exercise and how will we ensure that the players are fully engaged?
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Practical
- Develop key elements of the Exercise Plan
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Session 3: EXERCISE DEVELOPMENT
Session Leader: Dave Clarke |
- Hints & tips on how to deliver the exercise: creating realism, keeping to time, time-outs, risks, etc.
- Master events list (script) and injects
- The exercise delivery team: roles & responsibilities.
- Starting and stopping the exercise.
- Briefing the players.
- Safety considerations.
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Discussion
- What supporting documents will need to be developed?
- What can possibly go wrong?
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Practical
- Develop key elements of the Exercise Plan
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Reflection
- What have I learnt about planning and development? How can I use these ideas?
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Session 4: DELIVERY |
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Discussion
- What were the main challenges in delivering the exercise? How might we improve?
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Session 5: DEBRIEF & REPORT
Session Leader: Gareth Jones |
- An outline framework for exercise debriefing.
- Hot debrief; questionnaires and interviews.
- Organisational learning and the BCM lifecycle.
- Reporting outcomes and ensuring action.
- Potential difficulties and “political” traps.
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Discussion
- How can we ensure that the “report & actions” are well-matched to the purpose and objectives of the exercise?
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Reflection
- What have I learnt, and what will I do differently as a result?
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17:00 End of Workshop |
Delegates for the Exercise Planning Masterclass should note that this will be a longer than usual workshop, starting promptly at 9:30am and aiming to finish at 5:00pm. The Masterclass will require the active participation of all delegates for the full day, there is a lot to cover and the practical sessions demand hard work and time in order to be effective.
The Exercise Planning Masterclass is scheduled for Thursday 27th May in London
Click here to book to ensure your place at the Exercise Planning Masterclass and take advantage of the Early-Bird rates.
Workshop prices
EARLY BIRD RATE UNTIL 30TH APRIL:
BCI Members and employees of BCI Partners: £250(+vat)
Non-members: £336(+vat).
Full price after 30th April:
BCI Members and employees of BCI Partners: £295 (+vat)
Non-members: £395 (+vat).
Non-member rates include the option of 12 months BCI Affiliate Membership in order to provide access to the conference materials and the Members-only area of the BCI website after the workshop. It also provides discounted rates for attendance at BCI workshops for the next twelve months.
BCI Members that are now maintaining a CPD log will wish to ensure that they have credited the appropriate number of CPD hours to their personal accounts as a result of attending this Workshop.
Venue and Timings
Mayfair Conference Centre
17 Connaught Place
London
W2 2ES
9:00am-9:30am: Registration
9:30am: Workshop begins
5:00pm: Workshop ends
Comments from the Exercise Planning Masterclass 2009
- “Excellent practical day”
- “Greatly exceeded my expectations”
- “Very well organised and excellent presenters”
- “Made me re-evaluate what I was doing and re-appraise my approach. Excellent to have a first rate facilitator on each table”
- “Practical elements were very useful”
- “Gave me a good insight and provided the confidence to carry out small training groups. Well structured and led course”
- “Really enjoyed the course”
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