A regional insurance firm has just approved its business continuity plan (BCP) and the BC coordinator must propose the first exercise to validate it. The executive sponsor wants assurance that the plan is internally consistent and that recovery team members understand their roles before any disruption to live operations. Which exercise type should the coordinator run FIRST?
- AA full interruption test that fails over production workloads to the alternate site during business hours
- BA parallel test that brings the alternate site online alongside production and compares outputs
- CA tabletop walkthrough where recovery team members talk through the plan against a scripted scenario Correct
- DA simulation test that activates the recovery team and exercises notification procedures end to end
Why A is wrong: A full interruption test does validate the plan under realistic conditions, but it is the most disruptive and highest-risk exercise type and is reserved for mature plans that have already passed lower-impact tests.
Why B is wrong: A parallel test is useful for confirming that recovery systems produce correct results, but it requires technical readiness that has not yet been demonstrated by any earlier exercise.
Why C is correct: A tabletop walkthrough is the lowest-risk way to validate plan content, role clarity, and decision flow before committing to any technical or operational test, which matches the sponsor's stated goal.
Why D is wrong: A simulation test is a reasonable next step after a walkthrough, but jumping straight to it skips the cheaper paper validation of the plan's internal consistency that the sponsor asked for.