A clear definition of the need for the exercise and the purpose for conducting it will aid the planning process by clarifying who should be involved and exercise scope (e.g., tabletop, game, full-scale).

The following need and purpose statements were based on a tabletop exercise template provided by Alliant Energy: “Our business is highly dependent on moving information across telecommunication networks. We need to be prepared to continue important business activities even if telecommunication networks stop functioning. The purpose of this exercise is to ensure that business groups can adapt to unpracticed emergency situations, like loss of telecommunication networks, and understand the actions that may be needed to keep important business functions operating.”