Buyer’s guide
How to procure a tabletop exercise.
Decide the purpose, write the requirement, judge the offers.
A practical guide for agencies and organisations planning to buy a tabletop or scenario exercise: what to decide first, what to put in your statement of requirements, how to evaluate providers and what to expect.
Key points.
The short version, for a buyer who has five minutes. The sections below give the detail.
- A tabletop exercise is a facilitated, discussion-based session in which a team works through a realistic scenario to test plans, coordination and decisions.
- Start with why you are exercising: the purpose shapes the type of exercise, participants, scenario and evaluation.
- Write measurable objectives, and ask for independent evaluation and a lessons register in your statement of requirements.
- Judge providers on experience in your environment, method, facilitation, evaluation and how lessons lead to action.
Last reviewed October 2026. Prepared by Wisdom Learning, RTO 88062.
Who this guide is for.
Emergency management, business continuity, security and risk teams in government agencies, emergency services and regulated organisations who need to test a plan, train a team or validate arrangements, and are preparing an approach to market.
It is general guidance, not legal or procurement advice. Always follow your organisation’s procurement rules, including the Commonwealth Procurement Rules where they apply.
1. Be clear about why you are exercising.
The purpose shapes everything else: the type of exercise, who takes part, the scenario and how you evaluate it. Common purposes are:
- Test a planCheck whether a plan or procedure works as written, and find the gaps before a real event does.
- Build capabilityGive people practice making decisions in their roles, in a safe setting.
- Validate arrangementsTest how teams, agencies or service providers work together, including handovers and communication.
- Meet a requirementShow regulators, boards or government that plans have been tested, for example business continuity testing.
2. Choose the right type of exercise.
Exercises range from a simple discussion to a full field deployment. For most organisations, a well-designed discussion or tabletop exercise gives the best value.
- Discussion and tabletop exercisesParticipants work through a scenario around a table or online, discussing decisions and actions. Lower cost, low risk, and ideal for testing plans and building understanding.
- Functional exercisesTeams perform their functions in real time from their usual locations, for example an incident management team responding to simulated information. More realistic, and more planning.
- Field exercisesPeople and resources are deployed in the real world. The most realistic and the most resource-intensive.
3. What to put in your statement of requirements.
A clear statement of requirements gets better, more comparable responses. Include:
- Aim and objectivesWhat the exercise must test or achieve, written as measurable objectives.
- ScopeThe plans, capabilities, teams, agencies or providers being tested, and anything out of scope.
- ParticipantsWho takes part, roughly how many, their roles, and any observers.
- Scenario requirementsA realistic scenario built around your risks and arrangements, with injects that test the objectives.
- Exercise rolesWho provides the exercise director or controller, facilitators and evaluators.
- DeliverablesExercise plan, scenario and injects, participant briefing, facilitation, a hot debrief, an evaluation report, and a lessons register.
- Lessons managementHow observations become insights and lessons, and how they will be tracked to action.
- Security and logisticsSecurity classification of the scenario, clearances needed, location, format (face to face or virtual) and dates.
4. How to evaluate providers.
What separates a provider who can run an exercise from one who can design one that produces lessons you will act on.
- Experience in your environmentHave they designed exercises for organisations like yours, and can they show examples?
- A disciplined methodCan they explain how they scope, design, conduct, debrief and capture lessons?
- Facilitation and evaluationWho will facilitate and evaluate, and what is their operational and facilitation background?
- Lessons that lead to actionWill the report give you specific, prioritised lessons, rather than a summary of the day?
- SecurityDo they have the clearances and information handling your scenario needs?
- Value for moneyIs the price clear, with deliverables and assumptions stated?
5. Questions to ask providers.
Questions to put to every provider in a market approach, and what a strong answer sounds like.
- How will you make the scenario realistic for our organisation and risks?
- How do you make sure the exercise tests our objectives, rather than generic responses?
- Who will facilitate and evaluate, and what is their background?
- How do you create a safe environment where people will be honest about gaps?
- What will the evaluation report contain, and when will we receive it?
- How do you help us turn lessons into action after the exercise?
- Can you show an example of a scenario outline or report structure (with client details removed)?
- What do you need from us, and how much of our people’s time will it take?
6. What to expect.
Timeframes vary with complexity, approvals and the number of agencies involved. A typical tabletop exercise moves through these stages:
- 1ScopeAgree the aim, objectives, participants and constraints.
- 2DesignBuild the scenario, injects, exercise plan and briefing.
- 3ConductRun the exercise, with facilitation and evaluation.
- 4DebriefCapture observations while they are fresh.
- 5LessonsReport, prioritise and track lessons to action.
7. Common pitfalls.
The mistakes that appear most often in exercise procurements.
- Objectives that are too broad to test in the time available
- A scenario that is spectacular but does not test your plan
- The wrong people in the room, or senior people who arrive late and leave early
- No independent evaluator, so observations are not captured
- A report that sits on a shelf because no one owns the lessons
Questions buyers ask.
Short answers to the questions buyers ask about tabletop exercises. If yours is not here, ask us.
What is a tabletop exercise?
A tabletop exercise is a discussion-based exercise in which participants work through a realistic scenario, discussing the decisions and actions they would take. It tests plans and builds understanding at low cost and low risk.
How long does a tabletop exercise take to run?
The exercise itself is often a half day or a full day. Scoping, design and approvals take longer, and the evaluation report follows the exercise.
What should an exercise evaluation report include?
Observations against each objective, insights about what worked and what did not, specific lessons, recommended actions with owners, and a way to track them.
Can a tabletop exercise be run online?
Yes. Many discussion exercises run well online or in a hybrid format, which makes it easier to involve dispersed teams and agencies.
How to engage Wisdom Learning.
Wisdom Learning designs, facilitates and evaluates tabletop and scenario exercises, including emergency management exercises with our partner C2 Operations. Agencies can engage us directly or through government panels and arrangements; see our buying guide for the right route.
We respond to every enquiry within one business day.