Tabletop Exercise Planning Checklist

Define objectives

Write observable objectives such as testing activation, executive decision-making, communications, supplier contingency, degraded operations, or recovery priorities.

• Write 3–5 observable objectives.
• Tie each objective to a real plan, decision, dependency, or capability.
• Avoid objectives that only ask whether participants “understand” the plan.

Choose the participants

Include the people who own the decisions being tested. Avoid inviting a large audience that has no role in the objectives.

• Invite decision owners and the people who provide essential information.
• Identify facilitators, evaluators, and observers separately.
• Include external partners only when their role serves an objective.

Define the starting condition

Establish what participants know at the beginning, what systems or facilities are available, and what assumptions they are allowed to make.

• State what is unavailable or degraded.
• Define the date, time, workload, staffing, and operating context.
• Tell participants what information they have at the start.

Build injects

Use scenario changes to force decisions.

• Add information that forces a decision or tests an assumption.
• Use time pressure only when timing matters to the objective.
• Include a second complication only if it tests coordination or prioritization.

Define evaluation evidence

Decide what observers should capture: decisions, assumptions, delays, unclear authority, communication gaps, workarounds, strengths, and areas for improvement.

• Capture decisions and who made them.
• Record missing information, unclear authority, delays, workarounds, and strengths.
• Compare actions with the plan or expected capability target.

Plan the after-action process

Set expectations for hotwash, written findings, corrective-action ownership, due dates, and later effectiveness verification.

• Schedule a hotwash while observations are fresh.
• Separate strengths from areas for improvement.
• Convert material gaps into owned actions with due dates.
• Define how critical fixes will be verified or retested.

Decide what evidence counts as success

Before the session, define what observers should be able to say afterward. Examples include whether activation occurred within the expected time, whether leadership identified the correct priorities, whether contact information worked, whether the fallback was usable, and whether participants knew who owned key decisions.

Keep the scenario proportional to the objective

A tabletop does not need a cinematic disaster. A credible loss of one facility, supplier, system, utility, or key role can generate better evidence when it directly challenges the capability being tested. Add complexity only when it serves an objective.

Use improvement planning after the discussion

The exercise should end with strengths, areas for improvement, owners, due dates, and a way to verify important corrective actions. FEMA HSEEP resources provide useful structures for evaluation and improvement planning.