The facilitator’s field guide

You bring the team.
We’ll guide the conversation.

A cyber tabletop exercise is a conversation about a fictional incident. The useful bit is discovering how your team would make decisions, communicate and follow through.

Before you start

Set aside about 20 minutes. Invite the people who approve decisions, communicate with staff or customers, and handle finance, operations or IT. Share one screen and nominate one person to record. You can skip optional role names.

Choose a scenario that feels familiar. Use the 3-minute fictional demo first if you want to see the workflow. Demo notes are separate from your real draft.

During the rehearsal

1. Read each fictional update aloud. The displayed times are story times, not deadlines.
2. Ask the prompt. Discuss what you would decide, why and what information is missing.
3. Record the team’s answer. Blank answers stay visibly unanswered; the app never fills in a real decision for you.
4. Move to the next update. Back and the step navigation let you revise your notes.

Hints help the discussion. They are not authoritative incident-response advice. Follow your organization’s approved processes and qualified support in a real incident.

Make the debrief count

Review what was unclear or difficult. Add concrete improvements: “Confirm the backup approver for supplier changes” is more actionable than “improve security.” Assign an owner and a due date when you can. Unassigned details remain visible.

Saving, privacy and recovery

Notes remain in this tab by default. Enable “Save on this browser” only on a device where storing these notes is appropriate. The app stores one real draft in this origin’s browser local storage, with no exercise notes sent to Flask. Demo work is temporary and separate. There are no analytics or third-party page assets.

Browser storage may be blocked, full or cleared. If saving fails, your current work stays in the tab: use Export session immediately. Export downloads a JSON file with your notes; protect it appropriately. Print to PDF also contains the notes you entered.

Import supports this app’s version-1 JSON session format, up to 512 KB. It validates fields before replacing your draft and asks before replacement. Invalid files leave your current work intact. Import your export to resume on another browser.

Clear this rehearsal asks before deleting the current draft and this app’s saved draft. It doesn’t delete downloads or other apps’ storage. Switching scenarios also asks before removing recorded work.

Offline and installation

Your first visit needs the local server. Wait for “Ready offline” in the footer, then reload once so the service worker controls the page. The public app shell and original scenarios are cached; your notes are never in the service-worker cache. A successful offline preparation lets you rehearse without the server. A browser may evict its cache, so keep exports of important sessions.

If the browser supports PWA installation, use its Install app or Add to home screen menu after preparation. HTTPS or localhost is needed for service workers. The hosted beta is at cyberrehearsal.progretech.com. Account creation and email preferences require an internet connection; rehearsal remains available offline after preparation. Updates wait until existing app windows close; no update is forced mid-rehearsal.

Using this exercise well

Rehearse decisions in a safe fictional environment. The evidence, choices and consequences help the team discuss trade-offs; follow your organization’s approved procedures during a real incident. Your report records your own decisions and follow-through. Use the browser’s print dialog to keep a PDF.