The Mission Continuity Program (MCP) sponsors a university-wide tabletop exercise (TTX) annually. All University organizations use the same event scenario as the basis for their TTX. The goal is to test an organization’s ability to plan, respond, and recover in the event of an outage or disruption in order to continue operations and uphold the core missions of the University. The Provost and the Senior Executive Vice President have asked that all Schools and Centers within the University participate in conducting a tabletop exercise.
Each School and Center is responsible for scheduling its own tabletop exercise during a period of time determined by the central MCP leadership. Schools and Centers conducting tabletops will be provided with:
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A slide deck of a scenario for the exercise
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A facilitator who will run the exercise
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Representatives from other organizations around the University, as appropriate
Tabletop exercises allow Penn to ensure that plans for dealing with disruptions or outages are realistic and comprehensive. Schools and Centers are strongly encouraged to update their plans and other information in the software in advance of the exercise and then again afterward, taking into account what has been learned as a result of the exercise.
After the exercise is completed, organizations are asked to complete a short post-exercise report about their results and reactions. With any questions about preparing for a tabletop exercise, please contact MCP at askmc@lists.upenn.edu.
Tabletops can be scheduled by sending the following information to Maureen Goldsmith at mgoldmi@upenn.edu:
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Name of your organization
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Name of contact person
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Date of exercise
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Time of exercise (we recommend a 90-minute slot, either 9:30-11 AM or 2-3:30 PM)
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Whether exercise will be virtual, in person or hybrid
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If in person, location of exercise]
The following items may prove useful to you as you prepare for your tabletop exercise:
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TTX guidelines [updated each year]
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TTX timeline [updated each year]
All Schools and Centers are welcome to conduct additional tabletop exercises throughout the year besides the centrally organized one. Here are some scenarios that have been used in the past for tabletops; feel free to use them for extra testing of your organization’s readiness to meet risks and threats. Or you may construct your own scenario. Please feel free to reach out to the MCP program at askmc@lists.upenn.edu for help in constructing a tabletop scenario customized for your organization.