Objectives, injects, evaluation
Objectives
An exercise objective is measurable. Compare:
- "Test the continuity plan" — not measurable, you will not know whether it was achieved.
- "Measure the time to assemble the crisis team out of hours" — measurable, a duration.
- "Verify the holding statement is published within 60 minutes" — measurable, yes or no.
- "Identify the decisions the team cannot take without the CEO" — measurable, a list.
Three to five objectives suffice. Beyond that, observation scatters and nothing is measured properly.
Injects
An inject is information introduced during the exercise to evolve the situation. A good inject forces a decision.
| Weak inject | Strong inject |
|---|---|
| "The service is still down." | "The provider announces restoration at 22:00. Client services asks whether to notify the 4,000 affected clients now or wait." |
| "The press is taking an interest." | "A journalist calls, says she has an internal source, and wants a reaction before 17:00 for her edition." |
| "A server has gone down." | "The second site has just gone down too. On-call asks permission to restore from last night's backup, losing the day's data entry." |
The right-hand column creates a dilemma: two options, each with a cost. It is in those trade-offs that you observe the team's real capability.
The evaluation grid
It is written before the exercise, from the objectives, and handed to the observers.
| Objective | Observable criterion | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Team assembly | Time from alert to first situation point | ___ min (target: < 45) |
| Holding statement published | Time of first message | ___ (target: < 60 min) |
| Incident log kept | Number of timestamped, sourced entries | ___ |
| Decision quality | Every decision has an identified decision-maker | Yes / No |
| Anticipation | Did the team address a 24-hour horizon topic? | Yes / No |
Without a prepared grid, the debrief produces impressions. With one, it produces measures comparable across exercises.
The hot debrief
Fifteen to thirty minutes, immediately after the exercise, before everyone rebuilds the narrative.
Three questions, in this order:
- How did it feel? Discharges the emotional load and unlocks speech.
- What was missing? Information, tool, authority, person.
- What must change? One action per participant, concretely phrased.
The order matters: starting with technical analysis blocks expression, and the most useful findings — "I didn't know I was allowed to decide that" — never surface.
The action plan
An exercise with no tracked action plan is a cost. Three requirements:
- Each finding becomes an action with an owner and a date;
- Follow-up is presented to the committee that steers continuity, not filed in the report;
- The next exercise explicitly verifies that the previous actions had an effect.
That final loop is what turns an exercise programme into measurable improvement.
Key takeaways
- Three to five measurable objectives, not ten intentions
- An inject forces a decision, it does not inform
- The evaluation grid is written before the exercise