Creating a New Custom Scenario via Excel Download/Import

In addition to creating and editing custom scenarios in the platform, you can also download, edit, and then re-import any scenario from the scenario catalog via Excel to create a new custom scenario.

You can download draft (not yet published) scenarios from the Draft Scenarios page in the Platform or you can download published scenarios directly from the scenario page.

Note that changes made to an already published scenario, once re-imported, will not change or update the scenario from which the Excel sheet was imported, but rather will create a new version/copy of the scenario. It is recommended that you change the Scenario Title (either in Excel or from the scenario editor in the platform) before publishing to avoid confusing it with the original scenario.,

How to download a Crisis Simulation or Workforce Exercises scenario to an Excel sheet

To download a published scenario:

1. Navigate to the scenario catalog: Exercise > Immersive Crisis Simulations/Workforce Exercises > Scenario Catalogue.
2. Select the scenario that you want to download and then click Download from the scenario page:
   
   

To download a draft custom scenario to Excel:

1. Navigate to Exercise > Immersive Crisis Simulations and then click Create Scenario.
2. From the Draft scenarios section, click Download for the desired scenario:
   
   

The .xlsx file will be downloaded to your default download folder.

How to edit a Crisis Simulations or Workforce Exercises scenario in Excel

Once you have downloaded a scenario to Excel, most of the fields in the sheet will already be filled out from the export. If you intend to edit the scenario via Excel (rather than from within the platform), there are some rules and guidance that must be followed to ensure that the Excel sheet can be re-imported to the platform successfully. 

These rules are as follows:

• Bolded header columns/rows cannot be edited or otherwise changed. These are used to identify which fields the data belongs to.

• Data in columns marked with 'Inject UUID'/'Parent Inject UUID' in the options, attachments and attached links sheets , must match the 'UUID' value of the inject that they are attached to. The inject UUID can be found on the inject sheet.

• Workforce scenarios can have the key takeaways sheet; this sheet is not relevant for Crisis Sim scenarios.

• The Performance Indicator column headers at the end of the 'Options' sheet must match the title of the performance indicators on the 'Performance Indicators' sheet.

• The role column data on the inject sheet must match the job title of one of the roles specified on the roles sheet

• There are some fields where the data in the fields is limited to a specific set of options, these are:

  • Overview Sheet:

    • Industry sector: Government, Financial Services, Logistics and Supply Chain, Energy and Infrastructure, Healthcare, Technology, Manufacturing, Other

    • Attack vector: Insider Threat, Malicious Code, Denial Of Service, Unauthorized Access, Vulnerability Disclosure/Reporting, Phishing, Data Breach, Remote Working, Targeted Attack, Other, Ransomware, Supply Chain Compromise, Zero-Day Exploit

    • Threat Actor: Criminal Groups, Political/Social Activists, Disgruntled/Former Employees, Current Employees, Customers, Terrorist Groups, Nation State, Red Hat Hackers, Human Error, Other

    • Security Topic: Digital footprint, Security reporting and responsiveness, Social engineering, Physical security, Device security, Browsing securely, Authentication, Data handling

    • Show Feedback: true, false

    • Feedback Type: each_option, with_results

    • Rank Options: true, false

    • Capture response confidence: true, false

    • Capture justification: true, false

    • Format Version: 0, 1. If missing, this value defaults to 0. This affects the terminology that can be used to describe option ranks on the options sheet (see below).

  • Roles sheet:

    • Category: executive, operations, legal, human_resources, physical_security, cybersecurity, finance, communications, other, it, marketing

  • Performance Indicator sheet:

    • Starting Value: Must be a number

  • Inject sheet:

    • Type: Inject, Interlude

  • Options sheet:

    • Rank: 

      • For format version 0 (used for scenarios exported prior to March 2025) these must be one of:  very weak, weak, moderate, strong

      • For format version 1 (used for scenarios exported from March 2025 onwards) these must be one of: weak, okay, good, great

      • The resulting scenario will be identical regardless of which set of option rank terminology is used.  An option imported with a rank of “strong” in an unversioned file will be identical to one imported with a rank of “great” in a file marked with a format version of 1.

    • Performance indicator columns: must be a number

  • Attached Links sheet:

    • URL: Must be a valid url

Once you have made your changes, be sure to save the file.

How to import a Crisis Simulations or Workforce Exercises scenario from an Excel sheet

Importing a scenario from Excel will create a new Custom Scenario, which you will then need to review and publish to your Scenario Catalog before being able to schedule the exercise.

To import a scenario from Excel:

1. Navigate to Exercise > Immersive Crisis Simulation and then click Create Scenario.
2. From the Choose your scenario choices, select Import your scenario:
   
   
   
   
3. From the Import scenario file window click Choose file.
4. Navigate to the location of the saved Excel file. and click Open once you have selected a file to import. Note that the supported file types are only Excel files (.xls and .xlsx).
5. Once your file has been successfully imported you will see the following message:
   
   
   
   
6. Click View your scenario to open the scenario editor in the platform.

You can make additional changes in the editor, or you can review and publish the new custom scenario.