Instructors Notes

Exercise Management Course

Unit 6
EXERCISE
DOCUMENTATION
Session Overview:
Content
1. Introduction
2. Exercise Documents
3. Group Activity
4. Conclusion

Activity

Time

Instructor lead presentation

Instructor lead presentation and
discussion
Group Activity
Instructor lead presentation

5
40
40
5

Total session time: 90 minutes

Required Materials:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

LCD projector
Power point presentation set
Participant Workbook Unit 6
White board
Sample documents

Learning Objectives:
By the end of this session participants should be able to:
1. Identify the documents required to design, conduct and evaluate an exercise

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Instructors Notes

Instructors Notes:

A/V Aids

1. Introduction
Exercise managers should spend sufficient time to properly
document the exercise. Documentation provides information for the
people involved in designing, conducting and evaluating the
exercise. Good documentation also allows an exercise to be used
more than once, providing a valuable return on the time invested.
This unit provides guidance on the different documents that may be
useful to manage an exercise.
Exercise documentation is essential for a number reasons. These
include:
Verbal instructions are not reliable
Documents form a permanent record of what has been
planned and undertaken
Documents assist with the actual running of the exercise
Documents help to gain commitment to the exercise
2. Exercise Documents
The amount of documentation and the detail required will vary
considerably, depending on the size and complexity of the intended
exercise.
The minimum documentation needed could be a single page
detailing the aim, one or two objectives, a scenario with a couple of
special ideas and details of the location, equipment and timings.
For a more complex exercise, the list of documents could include
any or all of the following and probably more:
Scoping documents
Meeting agenda and minutes
Exercise Plan
Detailed Scenario documents
o General Idea
o Special Idea
o Exercise Instructions
o Exercise inputs
o Checklists, forms, templates
Exercise Instructions
o Participants
o Directing Staff
Post Exercise Report
Each of these documents plays an important role in the
management of exercises and will contribute significantly to the
success of your exercise.

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Exercise Scoping Documents

Exercise scoping documents will assist you to answer the question
of Why do we need to conduct an exercise?
Exercise scoping documents also contribute towards the authority
to conduct an exercise and can take many forms, but may include:
Reports and/or recommendations from previous exercises or
actual responses
Directives from higher authorities
Plans and procedures
etc
(Provide sample scoping documents as examples and explore how
they contribute to the need to conduct an exercise)
Meeting Agenda and Minutes
While this may appear to be obvious, there are many exercises
being conducted without any written record of the actions that took
place to design, conduct and evaluate them. Meeting minutes in
particular form a valuable record for evaluation, reflection and
guidance on the conduct of future exercises.
(Refer to meeting agenda templates in Workbook Attachments)
Exercise Plan
The purpose of the Exercise Plan is to provide an outline of the
method (agreed to by the Exercise Planning Team) by which the
exercise will be designed, conducted and evaluated.
The Exercise Plan describes the aim, objectives and performance
measures for the exercise. It should provide guidance on all issues
relating to the design, conduct and evaluation of the exercise.
The Exercise Plan should outline the program of related activities
with proposed dates and sequence of events. Proposed participants
and exercise management arrangements should be identified in
addition to planning milestones and resource considerations.
Normally the Exercise Plan would not be distributed to exercise
participants, however some of the information would need to be
reproduced in the relevant Exercise Instructions.
(Refer to Exercise Plan template in Workbook Attachments)

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Detailed Scenario Documentation

The type and size of the exercise will influence the level of scenario
documentation that is required. As a guide the following should be
considered:
Detailed description of the scenario (including General and
Special Ideas)
Master Schedule (including exercise timings and sequence of
inputs)
Exercise Inputs
Background information and Profiles (information on people,
businesses, places etc mentioned in the scenario and inputs)
Facilitator Checklists
NOTE: All exercise documents should be clearly marked as
EXERCISE ONLY
(Refer to exercise document templates in Workbook Attachments)
Exercise Instructions
Sometimes referred to as joining instructions, the Exercise
Instructions are provided to exercise participants and Directing Staff
in advance of the exercise.
While all exercise instructions will contain similar information, they
may need to be tailored for their respective audience.
The Exercise Instructions should provide sufficient information and
be accompanied by any pre reading that the participant or Directing
Staff require to participate in the exercise.
The information that participants and staff received to participate in
this workshop is a good example of the type of information that
should be included in exercise Instructions
Post Exercise Report
The Post Exercise Report will be prepared by the Exercise
Evaluation Team and endorsed by the Exercise Planning Team.
Depending on the nature of the exercise and the sensitivity of the
information, the Exercise Planning Team will determine its
distribution. The Post Exercise Report should include:
A description of the exercise
A narrative of key events
An evaluation summary addressing the attainment of
exercise objectives, and performance measures, and
Key observations and recommendations
(Refer to the Post Exercise Report template in Workbook
Attachments)

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Activity 8

In your groups identify the documentation that will be required to conduct your
exercise.
(20 min discussion, 5 min presentation)

Exercise / Group Work Guide:

Supporting materials:
Instructions:
Important points about the activity:
3. Conclusion
Documentation is an essential component for any exercise.
Further discussion points

What resources are required to develop the range of

documentation required for your exercise?
Have you considered these in your planning team or do you
need to recruit more people?

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