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A successful exercise is one that reveals problems. Therefore, a less-than-successful exercise, one where no problems were noted and everything seemed to work like clockwork, could foretell less-than-successful crisis response capability in a real situation. It may also mean the test was poorly designed.

Evaluation should occur within one to three weeks of the exercise. Participant evaluation by the business recovery team is an option as well as outside entity evaluation, such as internal audit personnel.

The exercise critique reviews performance, documents lessons learned, assesses capabilities of personnel and adequacy of dedicated equipment, and identifies deficiencies in the crisis management plan.

An evaluation process, with input from the participants and evaluators, includes the
following:

Different points of view and observations about problems that occurred.
Instances of resourcefulness used to overcome the problems within the restraints of the scenario.
Written records of deficiencies and corrective actions..
Unrealistic or undocumented assumptions, especially with respect to staffing.

Examples of undocumented assumptions within the disaster may include:

All personnel are unaffected by the disaster event and available for recovery duty.
No key person is traveling or on vacation.
All personnel can move freely to the recovery location with no impediments to travel.
All individuals are available for the length of time that may be required for recovery.
All personnel are concentrating on completing disaster recovery for the organization and not be distracted by personal concern

Recommendations include provisions for additional training, assignment of appropriate personnel, suitability and performance of equipment, and changes in scope or thoroughness of the plan.
Management reports are prepared following the evaluation. Management needs to know:

If the objectives of the test were completed,
Where short-falls exist, and
The recommendations for the next testing period.

The business function manager and the business recovery coordinator should use the evaluation for planning subsequent tests and exercises.