Step 4: Develop the scenario

Scenarios are the story line and context that drive the exercise. In addition to defining the threat or hazard, scenarios should be as realistic as possible and be designed to stress the resources or plans of the utility. The facilitator and EDT select a scenario (e.g., flood, earthquake, cyber attack) based on the exercise objectives.

Each scenario in this tool contains a SitMan template that has been pre-populated with “preliminary” scenario-based text. The facilitator and EDT should modify this text to reflect exercise objectives, utility-specific operations, business processes, standard operating procedures as outlined in the ERP and any regional factors such as street names and geographic setting.