Home Compliance & Certification Tabletop Exercise After-Action Report Guide

Tabletop Exercise After-Action Report Guide

Last updated on Feb 01, 2026

1. Purpose of This Guide

This artefact proves that your organisation actively tests its cyber and data breach response plan, not just files it away and hopes for the best.

Under PDPA Data Protection Essentials Clause 7.5, you’re expected to run tabletop exercises regularly and document what happened, what worked, and what needs fixing.

The After-Action Report is that proof. It shows reviewers that your response plan is practical, your team understands their roles, and you’re improving over time — not waiting for a real incident to find gaps.

2. What You Will Submit

You will upload one completed After-Action Report that documents a tabletop exercise.

It should include:

  • A written report (document or PDF)

  • Details of a simulated cyber or data breach scenario

  • Notes on how your team responded

  • Clear observations and improvement actions

This can be created using:

  • A StrongKeep-generated report, or

  • Your own internal template

3. How to Collect / Generate This Evidence

For StrongKeep customers, you can use the built-in crisis simulation tool to run your exercise and generate the report. Otherwise, you can try on your own or hire a consultant to run an exercise manually.

Step 1: Run a tabletop exercise

Gather the relevant people (for example: management, IT, admin, data protection lead) and walk through a realistic incident scenario, such as:

  • Phishing email leading to account compromise

  • Lost laptop containing personal data

  • Ransomware affecting shared systems

No laptops required. This is a discussion-based exercise.

Step 2: Capture the key details

During or immediately after the exercise, document:

  • Exercise date

  • Scenario description

  • Participants and roles

  • What actions were discussed

  • Where decisions were unclear or slow

Step 3: Record findings and recommendations

Your After-Action Report must clearly list:

  • What went well

  • What caused confusion or delays

  • Gaps in the response plan

  • Specific recommendations to improve procedures, training, or roles

Step 4: Finalise the report

Save the completed report as a single file, ready for upload.

4. Evidence Format

  • Accepted file types: PDF, DOCX

  • Recommended naming format:

    YourCompanyName_TabletopExercise_AAR_YYYY-MM-DD.pdf

    Example:

    AcmeClinic_TabletopExercise_AAR_2025-07-01.pdf

5. What “Good” Looks Like

A strong After-Action Report clearly shows:

  • Visible Element: Exercise date and scenario
    Why it matters: Proves the exercise actually happened and wasn’t theoretical.

  • Visible Element: Named participants and roles
    Why it matters: Demonstrates role clarity during an incident.

  • Visible Element: Observations from the discussion
    Why it matters: Shows honest evaluation, not box-ticking.

  • Visible Element: Actionable recommendations
    Why it matters: Confirms continuous improvement of your response plan.

If an auditor can read it and understand how your team would respond in real life, you’re in good shape.

6. Tips from Sir Stonk 🗡️

  • Keep it realistic. Choose scenarios your organisation could actually face.

  • Don’t aim for perfection. Auditors prefer honest gaps with clear improvement actions over “everything went perfectly” reports.