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You can hire a consultant for 3 months. It is much easier and faster than to teach a newcomer.<br>Newcomer should work some time together with the main DBA.<br>Newcomer should try to accomplish a task on his own and ask questions if s/he faces any difficulties. The answers should be documented as standard operational procedure (SOP).<br>If the situation happens again then SOP will help to resolve it in the absence of the main DBA.
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Have you deleted your previous comment, that had some really useful suggestions on topics to cover in the testing, and now it appears to have completely vanished?<br />
We are not suggesting 'newcomers', but using and developing existing internal resources and skill sharing rather than paying extortionate contractor fees.<br />
Hopefully you can restore your previous comments so I can make note of some of the ideas.
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Pau Lo

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ok no problem, maybe it was edited then as it had a huge list of possible test exercises including setting permissions etc.
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For business continuity testing purposes, specific to the DBA section of the IT support department (currently 1 senior DBA with 10+ years experience, and 2 entry level DBA's with &gt;2 years experience), we need to identify some useful annual/6-monthly test drills (i.e. table top exercise format perhaps), to review how well a small team of DBA's could cope if the senior DBA was unavailable, e.g. sick leave for a 3 month period.&nbsp;<br>Is there any specific tests you can suggest to build into the test plan?&nbsp;<br>The main objective is to ensure that if such an event occurs, that the DBA service could still be delivered to an acceptable level until their return. And/or identify any gaps whereby gaps could be improved to further mitigate the 'unavailability' scenario.
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For business continuity testing purposes, specific to the DBA section of the IT support department (currently 1 senior DBA with 10+ years experience, and 2 entry level DBA's with >2 years experience), we need to identify some useful annual/6-monthly test drills (i.e. table top exercise format perhaps), to review how well a small team of DBA's could cope if the senior DBA was unavailable, e.g. sick leave for a 3 month period. 
Is there any specific tests you can suggest to build into the test plan? 
The main objective is to ensure that if such an event occurs, that the DBA service could still be delivered to an acceptable level until their return. And/or identify any gaps whereby gaps could be improved to further mitigate the 'unavailability' scenario.

DBA unavailability BCP testing

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