How do you present stress test results clearly?

1 Define your objectives

Before you start preparing your presentation, you need to define your objectives and expectations. What is the purpose of the stress test? What are the key questions you want to answer? Who are your target audiences and what are their interests and concerns? How do you want them to react and respond to your findings? By clarifying your objectives, you can focus on the most relevant and impactful information and tailor your message accordingly.

2 Choose your scenarios

One of the most important aspects of stress testing is choosing the scenarios that you want to analyze and compare. Depending on your objectives, you may want to use historical scenarios, hypothetical scenarios, or a combination of both. Historical scenarios are based on past events that have affected your system or industry, such as the global financial crisis or the COVID-19 pandemic. Hypothetical scenarios are based on plausible events that have not occurred yet, such as a cyberattack or a natural disaster. You should select scenarios that are realistic, relevant, and challenging, but not unrealistic or improbable.

3 Visualize your data

Once you have your scenarios and data, you need to visualize them in a way that is clear, concise, and compelling. You can use different types of charts, graphs, tables, or dashboards to show your results, depending on the level of detail and complexity you want to convey. For example, you can use a line chart to show the trend of a key metric over time, a bar chart to compare the performance of different scenarios, or a heat map to highlight the areas of high or low risk. You should also use colors, labels, and legends to make your data easy to understand and interpret.

4 Explain your assumptions

Another crucial element of presenting stress test results is explaining the assumptions and limitations that underpin your analysis. You should be transparent and honest about the sources, methods, and models that you used to generate your data and scenarios. You should also acknowledge the uncertainties, gaps, and biases that may affect your results and their validity. By explaining your assumptions, you can enhance your credibility and avoid misleading or confusing your audiences.

5 Provide insights and recommendations

The ultimate goal of presenting stress test results is to provide insights and recommendations that can help your audiences make informed decisions and actions. You should not just report the numbers, but also interpret what they mean and why they matter. You should also provide suggestions on how to mitigate the risks, exploit the opportunities, or improve the performance of your system or organization under different scenarios. You should also invite feedback and questions from your audiences and engage them in a constructive dialogue.

6 Practice and refine

Finally, you should practice and refine your presentation before you deliver it to your audiences. You should rehearse your speech, check your slides, and test your equipment. You should also anticipate the possible questions, objections, or challenges that your audiences may raise and prepare your responses. You should also seek feedback from your colleagues or peers and make adjustments as needed. By practicing and refining your presentation, you can increase your confidence and effectiveness.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?