---
title: "[BCM] [JHA] [E2] [C7] Testing and Exercising Phase for Business Continuity Management Planning Methodology for Jamiyah Home for the Aged"
description: "Testing and exercising for JHA under ISO 22301: initial and advanced exercise types, how to run one, and what MSF's SRH Code of Practice requires."
---
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###### Sustaining Community Services: Implementing BCM at Jamiyah Home for the Aged
# \[BCM\] \[JHA\] \[E2\] \[C7\] Testing and Exercising Phase for Business Continuity Management Planning Methodology for Jamiyah Home for the Aged
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/1ce18ee1-97ef-4ed4-b16b-5d6ab24cec19)
Chapter 6 produced validated plans for each area of the Home and a recovery organisation with a crisis management team, an emergency response team and business unit recovery teams. Testing and exercising now checks those plans against reality. For a home caring for frail, largely destitute residents, exercising has a particular constraint: it must never put residents at risk or cause them undue distress. That shapes which types of exercise JHA uses and how often.
Two terms are often used loosely. A test checks whether something works, such as whether a phone tree reaches everyone or whether backup data can be restored. An exercise checks whether people can carry out a plan, often under simulated pressure. Both are needed. All schedules and scenarios in this chapter are illustrative.
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/05ab08af-9acb-430c-8a4d-030a6a0e0fe2)
[Dr Goh Moh Heng](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/bcm-v2/author/dr-goh-moh-heng) Nov 3, 2026
A business continuity plan that has never been tried is an assumption, not a capability. The Testing and Exercising (TE) phase gives Jamiyah Home for the Aged (JHA) evidence that its plans work, that staff know their roles and that contact details, supplies and arrangements are what the plans say they are. This chapter describes the types of exercise JHA can use, starting simply and building up, explains how an exercise is planned and run, and sets out what the regulator requires or expects about testing.
## [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/1ce18ee1-97ef-4ed4-b16b-5d6ab24cec19)
## [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/05ab08af-9acb-430c-8a4d-030a6a0e0fe2)
## Introduction
[![\[BCM\] \[JHA\] \[E2\] \[C7\] Testing and Exercising](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3893111/dfe34c11-6c82-4601-b9ee-c9af90d01f21.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/dfe34c11-6c82-4601-b9ee-c9af90d01f21)
Two terms are often used loosely. A test checks whether something works, such as whether a phone tree reaches everyone or whether backup data can be restored. An exercise checks whether people can carry out a plan, often under simulated pressure. Both are needed. All schedules and scenarios in this chapter are illustrative.
## Initial Tests
Initial tests build familiarity and find obvious gaps at low cost and low risk. Master them before attempting advanced tests.
### Component tests
A component test checks one element of a plan in isolation. For example, JHA might test whether emergency lighting and battery fans work for their rated time, whether the printed emergency resident list can be produced when the computer system is unavailable, whether backups of resident records can be restored, or whether the alternative caterer can actually deliver within the time stated in the plan. Component tests are quick, can be scheduled during quiet periods, and give clear pass-or-fail results.
### Call notification tests
A call notification test checks that the people named in the plans can be reached and respond. The organisation's business continuity management (BCM) coordinator sends a test message, often outside office hours, and records how many people acknowledge and how quickly. For JHA, a useful version is to test whether the senior staff member on night duty can reach the Superintendent or deputy, the relief staff list and key suppliers within the first hour. Out-of-date numbers are the most common finding.
### Walkthrough exercises
A walkthrough exercise brings the recovery team together to talk through a plan step by step against a scenario. Nobody moves residents or switches anything off. For example, the kitchen recovery team might walk through the meals plan for a scenario in which the main food supplier fails to deliver on a Friday evening (R5). Participants check whether each step is clear, whether they have what they need and whether anything is missing. Walkthroughs are especially valuable at JHA because they can include night-shift staff without disrupting care.
## Advanced Tests
Once initial tests run smoothly, JHA can move to exercises that test several plans together and add realism.
### Integrated tests
An integrated test exercises several plans and teams at once. A scenario such as a prolonged power failure at night (R3) involves the premises plan, the care plan, the medication plan, the meals plan and the communication plan together. The aim is to find gaps between plans: for example, two teams expecting the same staff member, or the premises team needing the office keys held by the administration team.
### Simulation tests
A simulation test, often run as a tabletop exercise, presents a developing scenario through timed injects, while the crisis management team makes decisions as if the event were real. For JHA, a scenario might begin with two residents developing symptoms of a respiratory infection, escalate over a simulated week to several staff off sick and visitors restricted (R2 and R4), and include injects such as a request for information from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), a concerned call from a resident's relative and a shortage of protective equipment. A simulation tests decision-making, escalation and the 24-hour reporting step without touching operations.
### Live tests
A live test carries out recovery actions for real. At JHA, live tests should be limited to actions that do not endanger residents, such as switching to emergency lighting, setting up the temporary meal serving area, moving staff to a relief roster for a shift, or a partial evacuation drill of one area using staff and volunteers to play residents. Full evacuation of frail residents for exercise purposes carries real risk and should be weighed carefully; the regular fire drills already required, carried out at varied timings, provide much of the evacuation practice the Home needs.
## Planning and Running an Exercise
Every exercise, however small, benefits from a simple structure.
1. **Set objectives.** State what the exercise should prove, such as "the night team can maintain supervision and medication rounds for four hours without mains power."
2. **Choose the type and scenario.** Match the exercise to the plan's maturity, drawing scenarios from the risk register (R1 to R10).
3. **Define scope and participants.** Decide which plans, teams and critical business functions (CBFs) are involved, and who will observe.
4. **Plan safety and resident care.** Confirm that supervision ratios are maintained throughout, that residents are told in advance, in reassuring terms, where they may notice activity, and that the exercise can be stopped immediately if a real incident occurs.
5. **Prepare materials.** Write the scenario, injects, timeline and observer checklists.
6. **Run the exercise.** Start with a briefing, keep to time, record decisions and issues.
7. **Debrief immediately.** Ask participants what worked, what did not and what should change, while memories are fresh.
8. **Report and follow up.** Produce a short report with findings, corrective actions, owners and due dates, and update the plans.
An illustrative first-year programme for JHA might include quarterly call-notification tests, component tests of emergency lighting, water, and backups twice a year, a walkthrough of each plan, one integrated tabletop exercise on an outbreak or power failure, and regular fire drills.
## Regulatory Requirement for This Phase
JHA's primary regulator is MSF, and from 1 July 2026 social residential homes are licensed under the Social Residential Homes Act 2025. The Code of Practice for Social Residential Homes (First Edition), issued under the Act, describes its contents as minimum requirements that must be met, and breaches may lead to regulatory action. It is therefore binding on licensees, not guidance. On testing and exercising, the Code contains the following relevant requirements, paraphrased here:
- Fire safety arrangements must include regular fire drills for residents and staff at varied timings, with records kept, and a fire safety manager overseeing the fire emergency plan (clause 2.9.3).
- Business continuity procedures must be reviewed at least once a year, and all staff must be aware of, trained in and follow the home's procedures (clauses 1.11.1 and 1.11.2).
- Incident management policies should include regularly updated business continuity plans (clause 5.1.1).
- Under emergency preparedness, the home must follow any advisories and guidelines on business continuity management issued by MSF (clause 5.2.1).
The Code does not set a specific frequency or method for testing or exercising business continuity plans beyond fire drills. Any such expectation would come through MSF's BCM advisories and guidelines referred to in clause 5.2.1, which do not appear among MSF's published SRHA materials; JHA should obtain the current advisories from MSF and confirm whether they specify exercise requirements \[verify\].
In the absence of a specific regulatory frequency, the nearest relevant standard is ISO 22301, which requires organisations to exercise and test their business continuity procedures at planned intervals and to review the results \[verify\]. A programme of the kind outlined above, with records kept for each exercise, would allow JHA to show MSF both compliance with the fire drill requirement and a structured approach to exercising its wider plans.
## Summary Table
| **Type** | **Group** | **What it checks** | **Illustrative JHA example** | **Illustrative frequency** |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Component test** | **Initial** | **One element works** | **Emergency lighting, backup restore, printed resident list** | **Twice a year** |
| **Call notification test** | **Initial** | **People can be reached** | **Night duty to Superintendent, relief staff and suppliers** | **Quarterly** |
| **Walkthrough exercise** | **Initial** | **Plan steps are clear and complete** | **Meals plan for supplier failure (R5)** | **Each plan yearly** |
| **Integrated test** | **Advanced** | **Plans work together** | **Night-time power failure (R3)** | **Yearly once initial tests mastered** |
| **Simulation test** | **Advanced** | **Decision-making and escalation** | **Outbreak with staff shortage (R2, R4)** | **Yearly** |
| **Live test** | **Advanced** | **Recovery actions in practice** | **Partial evacuation drill, temporary meal service** | **Alongside required fire drills** |
## [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/64d16cdc-b532-47f6-af61-7b33f5b500a3)
## Conclusion
Testing and exercising turns JHA's plans from documents into practised routines. Starting with component, call notification and walkthrough tests, and moving to integrated, simulation and carefully limited live tests, the Home builds confidence without putting residents at risk. The Code of Practice already requires regular fire drills and an annual review of business continuity procedures, and directs homes to follow MSF's BCM advisories; a recorded exercise programme lets JHA show it meets these requirements. The final phase keeps all of this current over time.
## Sources
- [Code of Practice for Social Residential Homes (First Edition)](https://www.msf.gov.sg/api/media/93ce9c5e-b2dd-4916-9b65-97484987f21a.pdf)
- [Ministry of Social and Family Development, Regulatory Requirements under SRHA](https://www.msf.gov.sg/what-we-do/srha/regulatory-requirements)
- [Ministry of Social and Family Development, About the Social Residential Homes Act](https://www.msf.gov.sg/what-we-do/srha/about-srha)
**Continue reading:** Chapter 8, *Program Management Phase for Business Continuity Management Planning Methodology for Jamiyah Home for the Aged*, shows how JHA can keep its BCM programme current through governance, review, training, measures and audit.
---
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