Desktop exercises, what are they?

Put simply, the business continuity management (BCM) desktop exercise is an activity where one or more simulated emergency situations are discussed or enacted, in a non-threatening environment. There are different approaches to these exercises; the most widely known ones are:

• Discussion-based — a page by page walkthrough of a plan to develop a basic understanding of the content and implied responsibilities.
• Command Post — an incident is simulated while participants typically operate from their usual place of work and receive updates from which responses are provided.
• Live — often operates in real time and could include highly realistic features such as media reporting or scripted actors. This is usually a resource-heavy organization-wide event.
• Table Top — arguably the most widely used approach, at its most basic level it involves a group of selected participants who work through a hypothetical scenario. It’s designed to familiarise participants with the plan and their role within it.