Extract from Brad Harris’s article “This Is Not a Drill: Designing Tabletop Exercises to Test Your Preservation Strategies”
If you—or your child—have ever been in a live performance, you know that it hardly matters how much time and effort the cast and crew have put in: the moment that curtain goes up, everything changes. Actors who know their lines perfectly well in a quiet room or at a table read will suddenly be tongue-tied. Props or wardrobes that seemed flawlessly designed and executed will turn out to be unexpectedly untenable. That’s why directors insist on dress rehearsals—they know that pressure can unravel the best-laid plans.
The same tenet applies to archiving data for litigation, compliance, or internal investigations. You may think you have your systems all thought out and locked down, but using them under the constraints of a real-life situation can reveal gaps you completely overlooked.
That’s why tabletop exercises—the business equivalent of dress rehearsals—are so valuable.
