Business continuity planning

A company business continuity planning approach and project scope may vary widely, and are driven exclusively by business requirements and constraints. However, a number of common project characteristics remain:

• Business Continuity Program Design and Deployment including definition of policies, standards and tools to support business continuity efforts. In addition, an effective BCM program should include assigning accountability and responsibility for each key area (e.g., crisis management, business resumption and IT disaster recovery).

• Business Impact Analysis establishing recovery objectives (business and technology), as well as the associated justification for each.

• Risk Assessment: – identifying and prioritizing threats and failure scenarios to which the organization may be vulnerable.

• Strategy Design and Implementation: identifying and implementing continuity strategies that best meetthe organization’s needs, based on a cost-benefit analysis.

• Plan Documentation: documenting response, recovery and restoration procedures to enable effectivebusiness continuity operations.

• Testing: validating and continuously improving business continuity strategies and plans.

• Training and Awareness : increasing knowledge regarding business continuity operations, both in termsof response/recovery team members, as well as employees in general.

• Compliance Monitoring and Audit: establishing compliance with internal and third-party businesscontinuity standards. Business continuity planning is critical in BCM