| The Business Continuity Plan for most companies | | | | so that someone with a little bit less experience |
| has taken a long time to develop and consumed | | | | can follow them and restore or recover the |
| numerous resources, in dollars and staff time. It is | | | | technology and business activities? |
| maintained regularly with updated contact lists and | | | | - Where are the recovery tasks actually located |
| team members are required to sign-off that they | | | | in the document? Are they at the back after |
| have read the plan and understand it. The plan | | | | pages and pages of company information, the |
| document sits in a big red binder in every | | | | recovery philosophy, schedules and maps? Or are |
| manager's office and people even have copies at | | | | the tasks up front where they should be so that |
| home. | | | | they are readily available and the team members |
| The plan is tested every year and the objectives | | | | do not have to flip through pages and pages of |
| have been set so that they are gradually getting | | | | information that they do not immediately need. |
| more difficult to achieve. You are moving forward | | | | You need to make the tables readily available. |
| to be able to recover more and more of your | | | | They should be indexed and easy to find. Group |
| business during each exercise. Everyone is pleased | | | | like tables together so that someone who is from |
| with the results so far and your team is really | | | | another team can easily find all of the contacts |
| experienced. In fact your team is made up of all | | | | for the team member he is trying to contact in a |
| of the senior people within each department. Most | | | | common area |
| of them actually developed the plan document | | | | Get non-expert people to go through the plan |
| with your guidance. | | | | recovery steps. If they cannot recover the |
| But, could your plan actually be used during an | | | | technology or the business using the steps |
| emergency to bring the company back to an | | | | contained in the plan, go back and re-write the |
| operational status? Things are not controlled as | | | | steps. In fact, bring non-expert people into the |
| they are during an exercise. Your senior people | | | | recovery teams on a regular basis. You will verify |
| may be busy elsewhere during the actual | | | | the document information and you will also build |
| recovery. They may not be available for you to | | | | expertise on the recovery plan outside of your |
| use for other reasons as well. | | | | core team. |
| So now you have inexperienced people trying to | | | | Many plans that are in use today go to great |
| use your plan document to actually recover the | | | | lengths up front to explain why they where |
| business. They are under stress and you are | | | | developed, the methodology used, who developed |
| getting pressure from the executives to get the | | | | the plans and other background information. They |
| business up and running again, just like you do | | | | may even have copies of the Business Impact |
| every exercise. | | | | Analysis in them. This is all great information, but it |
| To make the use of your plans a bit easier you | | | | doesn't belong at the front of the plan document. |
| need to take a real close look at its organization. | | | | Put this information into the Appendices. |
| - How is the document organized? Does it have | | | | A well organized plan document can save a lot of |
| tables and lists of team members, vendors, | | | | time during an actual disaster and can also make |
| clients, inventory, call trees and other great | | | | the maintenance of the plan easier if it is well |
| information spread throughout the plan? | | | | designed and the layout is actually usable by those |
| - Are the actual recovery tasks detailed enough | | | | people who will need it after an emergency event. |