Terra Firma was approached by one of the Victorian judicial systems to review its Business Continuity (BC) Plans. At that time, the plans were twelve months old, and the Business Continuity Manager had decided to assess the extent to which they required remediation by undertaking a facilitated simulation exercise.

The judicial service sought professional assistance to deliver an activity that would evaluate the skills of the Crisis Management Team. This activity would assess and improve the team’s ability to respond to disruptions in community court services lasting more than one day.

The Terra Firma Business Continuity and Resilience team:

1. Designed, developed and facilitated a disruption scenario based on the unavailability of staff and one building.
2. Ensured the exercise would challenge and stretch the individual skills and abilities of the Incident & Crisis Management Teams.
3. Facilitated a hot debrief.

Terra Firma established a work program according to the following steps:
 

1.  Awareness – Terra Firma’s Business Continuity expert:
   • Met with the project sponsor to agree on learning objectives and key content for the awareness materials
   • Designed the awareness pack based on input and documentation from the judicial service, together with our knowledge of Business Continuity and Crisis Management.
2. Discovery and Planning – Terra Firma’s Business Continuity expert:
   • Facilitated a series of meetings to understand the judicial service’s operational landscape, with specific focus on the most critical activities within each goup (i.e., those with the shortest Recovery Time Objective).
   • Became familiar with their Crisis Management and Business Continuity documentation (including Plans and Procedures).
3. Exercise Scenario Development
   • Together, Terra Firma and the project sponsor confirmed the exercise objectives and devised an exercise structure and scenarios suitable for the participants involved and the time allowed.
4. Create Exercise Material –
   • Terra Firma developed scripts, slides and other materials designed to enhance the experience of the exercise.
5. Deliver the awareness session –
   • Terra Firma delivered a 90-minute education and discussion session
6. Facilitate the Exercise –
   • The Terra Firma Exercise Director:
     a. Introduced the construct of exercising including rules for the session
     b. Facilitated the Simulation Exercise
     c. Facilitated the hot debrief
   • The observer was active throughout the session to record the exercise findings and recommendations that went into the Exercise Report
7. Report – the Terra Firma Exercise Observer constructed draft reports based on:
   • Observations and feedback during the debrief
   • Findings, observations, and general comments
   • Recommendations for improvement (low/ medium/ high risk recommendations).
8. The judicial service responded to the draft reports so that Terra Firma could finalise.

The Exercise provided participants with great insights into the implications of business disruption. It highlighted the relationship between disrupted services and the community relying on those services. The activity also emphasised the complexities of decision making under stressful circumstances surrounding the loss of facilities and staff.

The exercise was acknowledged as a beneficial learning activity that improved documentation, processes and competency.