Described herein are improvements for generating courses of action for an information technology (IT) environment. In one example, a method includes identifying a first course of action for responding to an incident type in an information technology environment and generating a simulated incident associated with the incident type. The method further includes initiating performance of the first course of action based on the generation of the simulated incident. The method also includes, upon reaching a particular step of the first course of action that prevents the performance of the first course of action from proceeding, providing a first simulated result that allows the performance of the first course of action to proceed.