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How Often Should a Business Continuity Plan Be Reviewed?

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Reviewing and testing the plan are steps you absolutely can’t skip. Business continuity planning must be a process—not a one-time task. Today, many organizations recognize this: A 2015 survey found that 52.5 percent of organizations expected to incorporate small changes to their BC plan that year; nearly 33 percent anticipated significant changes.

With the dynamic nature of BC in mind, how often should your organization review its business continuity plan? The answer depends on several factors:

The size of your organization.

Larger businesses are naturally going to have more complex BC plans because they will involve more employees and facilities, often spread over broader geographic areas. While small and mid-sized organizations can also have complex plans, they typically require less frequent review.

The nature of your business.

Of course, the type of work your organization does will also impact business continuity planning. For example, companies with a complex supply chain or locations in foreign countries will probably require a more frequent and robust management and review process than those without.

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The BC systems you have in place.

How your organization administers its BC functions can also impact review frequency. Many newer business continuity innovations, such as a mobile crisis app with actionable and role-based digital playbooks, help streamline and automate certain BC tasks, which ensures that plans stay up to date and relevant over time. With these types of systems in place, the review process can be much easier and faster, reserving resources for other key BC duties.  

A Recommended Schedule

With the above factors in mind, you can begin to develop a schedule for reviewing your BC plan. The review process should be continual, with different aspects being appraised and using various methods at least a few times a year.

Many organizations strive for a schedule that includes the following:

Checklist review: Twice a year

The BC team conducts a high-level check on each element of the plan, ensuring that all objectives are still being met.

Emergency drills: Once a year

A key part of business continuity is ensuring that all stakeholders know what to do before, during, and after an emergency situation . Hold annual emergency drills to keep their skills sharp and ensure BC plans account for all facets of a potential business-impacting event.

Tabletop review: Every other year

In this type of review, you’ll gather all key stakeholders, including the BC owner and steering committee, to do a verbal walk-through of the plan. This type of review is helpful because it doesn’t require much time or many resources but can often reveal gaps, inconsistencies, or outdated information in the plan.

Comprehensive review: Every other year

This stage should include a close look at the organization’s risk assessments, business impact analysis, and recovery protocol. This is also an opportunity to update the BC plan to reflect any recent changes to the company’s structure, business, operations, or location.

Mock recovery test: Every two or three years

Larger organizations will also benefit from the occasional recovery simulation, in which the BC plan is fully tested. This active review identifies any gaps in your plan and helps employees and other stakeholders feel prepared and comfortable with their roles.

How often does your business review its business continuity plan? Do you feel that this frequency should be increased?

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How Often Should a Business Continuity Plan Be Tested

January 16, 2024

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In the dynamic landscape of modern business, the importance of a robust Business Continuity Plan (BCP) cannot be overstated.

As enterprises navigate an ever-evolving array of risks—from natural disasters to cyber-attacks —they need a well-crafted and regularly tested BCP to ensure organizational resilience and operational continuity.

But a key question often arises: “How often should a Business Continuity Plan be tested?”

This question is not just about compliance or ticking a box; it’s about ensuring that your plan is effective, current, and capable of guiding your organization through unforeseen challenges.

In this blog post, we delve into the intricacies of BCP testing frequency, exploring factors that dictate the timing and the impact of regular testing on an organization’s readiness to face disruptions.

We aim to provide insights that help businesses survive and thrive in the face of adversity, understanding that the frequency of BCP testing is a crucial component of this journey.

A well-crafted Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a roadmap for organizations to mitigate risks and prepare for unforeseen disruptions.

However, the effectiveness of a BCP lies in its regular testing. This article will explore the crucial question: How often should a business continuity plan be tested?

Organizations can enhance resilience by understanding test frequency and types to safeguard their operations.

business continuity plan

What is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan is a comprehensive strategy that outlines the necessary steps and procedures to ensure the continued operation and resilience of a business in the face of disruptive events or incidents.

It is a crucial aspect of business continuity planning , as it helps mitigate the risks associated with potential disruptions and ensures the smooth functioning of business operations.

Regular business continuity plan testing is essential to evaluate its effectiveness and identify gaps or areas for improvement.

This testing process involves conducting tests on various aspects of the plan, such as communication processes, resource allocation, and recovery procedures.

The results of these tests are then reviewed to determine if any adjustments or enhancements are needed to strengthen the plan’s ability to protect the business and its operations.

2. Benefits of Regular Testing

Regular testing of a business continuity plan offers numerous benefits . It allows organizations to assess the plan’s effectiveness and make necessary improvements to ensure the continued operation and resilience of the business .

The benefits of regular testing can be summarized as follows:

  • Identifying weaknesses: Regular tests allow identifying any weaknesses or gaps in the business continuity plan . By simulating potential business disruptions, organizations can uncover areas that need improvement and take necessary actions to address them.
  • Evaluating potential risks : Through regular testing, organizations can evaluate potential risks and their potential impact on the business. This allows them to understand the vulnerabilities better and develop effective strategies to mitigate those risks .
  • Ensuring readiness: Regular testing ensures the organization is prepared to respond to potential disruptions. Organizations can ensure that their strategies and procedures are up-to-date and aligned with current best practices by conducting frequent reviews and updates to the business continuity plan .

3. How Often Should a Business Continuity Plan Be Tested?

To maintain the effectiveness and resilience of a business continuity plan , it is important to test its capabilities and response strategies regularly.

Testing is a critical component of the business continuity plan review process and ensures that the plan remains up-to-date and aligned with the organization’s evolving needs.

The testing frequency depends on various factors, including the organization’s size, industry regulations, and the level of risk it faces.

Business continuity testing can range from smaller-scale exercises, such as tabletop simulations, to larger-scale exercises, such as full-scale exercises involving multiple departments and external stakeholders.

It is generally recommended to conduct testing at least once a year, following a structured testing lifecycle that includes planning, executing, evaluating, and updating the test results.

Regular testing, combined with an annual review, helps organizations identify gaps, improve response strategies, and enhance the overall effectiveness of their business continuity plans .

4. Types of Tests to Consider

When considering the types of tests to include in a business continuity plan, it is important to focus on relevant and realistic scenarios.

One type of test to consider is natural disaster scenarios, such as earthquakes or hurricanes, to ensure the plan can effectively address these potential disruptions.

Another type of test to consider is unexpected event scenarios, such as power outages or cyber attacks, to evaluate the plan’s ability to respond to unforeseen circumstances.

Natural Disaster Scenarios

Simulating natural disaster scenarios is one effective approach to testing a business continuity plan .

This type of testing helps organizations evaluate their preparedness and response processes in the face of potential incidents caused by natural disasters.

Businesses can simplify natural disaster testing by breaking the process down into sub-lists.

  • Types of natural disasters : This include hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and severe storms.
  • Location-specific threats : Businesses should consider the specific natural disasters that are most likely to occur in their geographic location.
  • Allocation of resources : Testing should assess the availability and adequacy of resources such as backup power, communication systems, and emergency supplies.

Businesses can improve their readiness for natural disasters by testing their business continuity plans against various scenarios .

Incorporating these tests into a regular review schedule is important to maintain the plan’s effectiveness.

Unexpected Event Scenarios

Testing a business continuity plan should also include simulations of unexpected event scenarios to ensure preparedness and effectiveness.

These scenarios go beyond natural disasters and encompass various disruptive events that can impact business operations.

To conduct effective testing, organizations should consider performing a business impact analysis to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities.

This analysis will inform the development of a comprehensive business continuity strategy and implementing a business continuity management system .

Tests such as business continuity drills and incident response exercises can help evaluate the effectiveness of crisis management plans and incident response procedures.

5. Important Details to Remember When Testing Your BCP

During the testing phase of a business continuity plan , it is essential to pay close attention to the important details that need to be remembered.

To ensure the effectiveness of BCP testing processes and the overall resilience of business continuity management systems , several key factors should be considered:

  • Conduct annual tests : Regular testing helps identify potential weaknesses and allows for necessary adjustments to be made in a timely manner.
  • Update business impact analysis : As business risks may change over time, it is crucial to regularly review and update the business impact analysis to ensure it accurately reflects the current environment.
  • Test the disaster recovery plan : Testing the disaster recovery plan is vital to confirm that critical systems can be restored within the required timeframes.
  • Validate redundant systems : Verifying the functionality of redundant systems ensures that backup infrastructure is functioning properly and can be relied upon in the event of a disruption.

6. The Importance of Documentation and Reviews

Proper documentation and regular reviews are essential to ensure the effectiveness and reliability of a business continuity plan .

Documentation plays a critical role in the business continuity lifecycle , as it provides a comprehensive record of the plan’s objectives, strategies, and procedures.

It also helps in business continuity plan maintenance by documenting any updates or changes made to the plan over time.

Regular reviews conducted by business continuity professionals or the business continuity response team are necessary to identify any gaps or weaknesses in the plan and to ensure that it remains aligned with the organization’s evolving needs and priorities.

These reviews may involve business continuity risk assessments , evaluation of business continuity solutions and tools, and analysis of any business continuity issues that may have occurred.

7. Key Personnel for Developing and Implementing the BCP

As part of the business continuity plan’s development and implementation process, identifying key personnel who will be responsible for its execution is crucial.

These individuals play a vital role in ensuring the effectiveness of the plan and its ability to mitigate potential disruptions.

When developing and implementing a BCP, business entities should consider the following key personnel:

  • Business Assurance Team : These individuals assess the organization’s risk profile and identify potential threats. They play a crucial role in developing the BCP by analyzing the impact of various scenarios and defining the strategies to address them.
  • Business Consultants : Engaging experienced business consultants can provide valuable insights and expertise in developing a comprehensive BCP. These professionals can guide organizations in identifying critical business functions, conducting risk assessments , and implementing effective mitigation strategies.
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning Team : This team is responsible for the BCP’s development, implementation, and testing. They coordinate efforts across different departments and ensure that the plan aligns with the organization’s objectives and complies with industry standards.

8. Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and Risk Assessment

To ensure the effectiveness of a business continuity plan , it is essential to conduct regular Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and Risk Assessments.

A business impact analysis is a process that identifies and evaluates the potential impact of disruptive events on an organization’s operations.

It helps identify critical business functions, dependencies, and disruptions’ potential financial and operational impacts .

On the other hand, risk assessment identifies and analyzes potential threats and vulnerabilities to an organization’s assets, such as personnel, facilities, and IT systems.

Organizations can identify potential disruptions and develop strategies to mitigate their impact by conducting BIA and risk assessments.

Regular business continuity plan testing, including disaster recovery exercises and emergency response drills, is crucial to ensure its effectiveness in real-world situations.

business impact analysis

9. Designing a Testing Schedule

A well-designed testing schedule is essential for ensuring the effectiveness of a business continuity plan .

To create an effective testing schedule, businesses should consider the following:

  • Frequency : Regular testing is crucial to identify and address any gaps or weaknesses in the plan. It is recommended to conduct annual emergency drills to assess the readiness of the business continuity management .
  • Types of Tests : Different tests should be incorporated into the schedule. This includes walk-through tests, which simulate potential threats and allow the crisis management team to evaluate the plan’s response. Additionally, conducting tests based on real incidents and disaster recovery scenarios can help validate the recovery strategies.
  • Documentation : Documenting the results and lessons learned from each test is important. This will enable businesses to refine and improve their business continuity plan, ensuring its effectiveness in a real-life crisis situation.

10. Establishing Clear Objectives for Each Test

The establishment of clear objectives for each test is crucial in ensuring the effectiveness of a business continuity plan.

Testing business continuity plans helps organizations identify gaps and weaknesses in their plans, allowing them to make necessary improvements.

Organizations can measure the effectiveness of their testing efforts by establishing clear objectives.

To illustrate the importance of clear objectives, the following table outlines different types of tests and their corresponding objectives:

Establishing clear objectives for each test allows organizations to focus their efforts, measure the plan’s effectiveness, and identify areas for improvement.

This helps ensure that the business continuity plan is robust and capable of effectively responding to any disruptions or incidents.

11. Conducting Full-Scale Exercises

Conducting full-scale exercises is critical to testing a business continuity plan and ensuring its effectiveness in responding to disruptions or incidents.

These exercises simulate real-life scenarios and provide an opportunity to evaluate the readiness of the business continuity team to handle unexpected events.

During these exercises, the business continuity team follows a predefined schedule and simulates the impact of an event on normal operations.

They assess the alignment of their actions with the business objectives and evaluate the effectiveness of their crisis response team.

Furthermore, the exercises involve creating scenarios for threats that could potentially disrupt the organization’s operations.

This allows the leadership to assess their response and identify any gaps in the business recovery plan.

Full-scale exercises provide valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the plan, enabling the organization to make necessary improvements and enhance its overall resilience.

12. Documenting the Results of Tests and Reviews

To ensure accountability and track progress, it is essential to document the results of tests and reviews conducted on the business continuity plan.

Organizations can obtain insights and identify areas for improvement by documenting results for future testing and review cycles.

One effective way to document the results is through the use of a table. The table below provides an example format for documenting the results of tests and reviews:

In addition to documenting the findings, it is important to include recommendations for improvement and any actions taken to address the identified issues.

This helps ensure the business continuity plan evolves and adapts to the changing business landscape and technology standards.

Regular testing and documentation of results are crucial for maintaining a robust and effective business continuity plan .

13. Review Process and Evaluation of Test Results

The review process and evaluation of test results is an integral part of ensuring the effectiveness of a business continuity plan.

It allows organizations to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their emergency preparedness plans and make necessary improvements.

When conducting a review, an insurance company, for example, might consider the performance of critical personnel during a simulated disaster scenario.

They could evaluate the resilience of their supply chain, particularly if it is complex and spans multiple locations.

Additionally, they might assess the effectiveness of their pandemic preparedness and recovery protocols.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the consequences of not regularly testing a business continuity plan.

The consequences of not regularly testing a business continuity plan can be severe, including potential operational disruptions, financial losses, damage to reputation, and inability to recover from a crisis effectively.

Regular testing ensures readiness and identifies areas for improvement.

How Can a Business Determine the Appropriate Frequency for Testing its Continuity Plan?

The appropriate frequency for testing a business continuity plan can be determined by considering various factors such as the criticality of the business operations, industry regulations, changes in the business environment, and lessons learned from previous tests or real incidents.

Are Any Industry-Specific Regulations or Standards That Dictate the Testing Frequency for Business Continuity Plans?

Some several industry-specific regulations and standards dictate the testing frequency for business continuity plans.

These regulations ensure that businesses are adequately prepared for potential disruptions and can effectively recover in a timely manner.

What Factors Should Be Considered When Designing a Testing Schedule for a Business Continuity Plan?

When designing a testing schedule for a business continuity plan, it is important to consider factors such as the criticality of the business functions, changes in technology or infrastructure, regulatory requirements, and lessons learned from previous tests or real incidents.

How Can Businesses Ensure That the Results of Tests and Reviews Are Effectively Utilized to Improve Their Continuity Plan?

To ensure that the results of tests and reviews effectively improve a business continuity plan, businesses can establish a clear process for analyzing and implementing the findings, regularly communicate with stakeholders, and regularly update and revise the plan as needed.

business continuity plan

Regularly testing a business continuity plan ensures its effectiveness and success.

Businesses can identify weaknesses or gaps in their plan by establishing clear objectives, conducting various tests and full-scale exercises and documenting the results.

The review process and evaluation of test results further enhance the plan’s efficacy.

Frequent testing is essential for maintaining a robust business continuity plan .

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Chris Ekai is a Risk Management expert with over 10 years of experience in the field. He has a Master’s(MSc) degree in Risk Management from University of Portsmouth and is a CPA and Finance professional. He currently works as a Content Manager at Risk Publishing, writing about Enterprise Risk Management, Business Continuity Management and Project Management.

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How Often Should A BCP [Business Continuity Plan] Be Reviewed? [And When Should It Be Tested?]

Last Updated: September 19, 2023

The process of developing, finalizing, and communicating your initial business continuity plan (BCP) is no small feat. However, ongoing monitoring and reviewing of your BCP is critical to account for both internal and external changes that may impact your business. So how often should your BCP be reviewed? This blog post will dive into the answer to that question, as well as the results you’ll see from an effective business continuity program, the benefits of conducting business continuity planning, how to improve your organization’s business continuity planning process and more.

How Often Should A BCP Be Reviewed & Tested?

As a best practice, your BCP (business continuity plan) should have a scheduled review annually at a minimum, as well conducting a business review whenever something in your business changes (e.g. a process, product, service, etc.) or there is an external factor impacting your business (e.g. environmental changes, new regulations, an acquisition, etc.).

What are the results of an effective business continuity program?

Having an effective business continuity plan review process can impact your business in many ways:

Better resource planning

With a complete profile of business unit information mapped out within your business continuity plan, you can identify critical functions and analyze the impact they have on your organization. As a result, you’ll be able to better allocate the necessary resources and ensure that backup strategies are in place to maintain basic operations following a loss or outage.

Added insights Gain insight into which business units are most critical to business operations, which are prepared for a business continuity event, and which need to be reevaluated. Housing everything in one centralized program allows you to quickly and easily navigate to the right resources amidst an emergency event.

Reduced losses Having an effective business continuity plan allows you to create various scenarios and recovery strategies for recovering in the case of any losses. 

This enables you to take a proactive, risk-based approach to your organization’s recovery and get back up and running sooner, reducing losses.

What are the benefits of conducting business continuity planning?

Having a formalized process in place for business continuity planning yields a variety of benefits for your organization. Let’s dive into a few of them:

Overcome challenges more quickly

Relying on reactive efforts following a business continuity event leads to higher probability of missteps that could only catastrophize the problem at hand. If you’ve actively invested time and energy into preparing for any potential risk before it manifests, if and when it does, your BCP will direct you to the necessary resources to return to business as usual. This approach results in less collateral damage and shorter downtime periods.

Identify critical areas of improvement

Building a business continuity plan with an enterprise-wide approach empowers your frontline employees to identify dependencies across your organization. This offers better insight to improve your plans; by looking at common risk factors across all departments, you’ll be better enabled to identify unique risks on a function-by-function basis, see which risks are specific to certain teams and which are prevalent throughout the entire organization.

Increase stakeholder confidence

Investing resources into developing a strong BCP assures vendors, investors, customers, employees, and regulators alike that your organization is being run properly. Mitigating risks before they happen is good governance, and that demonstrates corporate responsibility and fosters a positive corporate culture.

Related Post: We compare business continuity and disaster recovery here

How can I improve my organization’s business continuity planning?

Depending on how mature your business continuity management program currently is, there are several ways to improve. First and foremost, without software streamlining your business continuity planning process, reviewing and optimizing your BCP for success can be extremely difficult.

That’s because your business continuity plan is inherently central to being prepared for potential disruptions and solidifying trust with external parties such as vendors, clients, or potential shareholders.

Your organization has multiple business units, functions, teams, and products to keep track of, and lacking insight into which aspects are critical for internal operations and which provide critical services to your downstream dependencies will hinder you from being able to properly allocate resources and lengthen the time of delays.

Here’s a step-by-step outline for improving your business continuity planning process using risk-based software:

  • Start by identifying your most critical processes. When a business continuity event occurs, ERM software enables you to understand what the most critical processes to your organization are that need to be prioritized first to get back up and running to minimize any impacts.
  • Assess the various risks your organization faces. By evaluating all of the various types of risks that a business continuity event could bring up – such as financial, reputational, customer, legal or strategic impact – you’re able to adequately determine which steps must be included in your BCP to minimize those impacts.
  • Mitigate with purpose. Building a business continuity plan through a risk-based lens empowers you to design more effective policies, procedures, and other controls that simultaneously minimize the impact of the disruption at hand.
  • Monitor the effectiveness of your plan over time. Continually monitor the effectiveness of your mitigating efforts using automated software to ensure that your BCP is directly aligned with your most up-to-date risks.
  • Connect your departments. Your business continuity plan does not exist in a vacuum. Using integrated software allows you to identify interdependencies that must be known if an event occurs to ensure all steps are taken.
  • Report historical data. Reporting is a key step in any risk-based approach, as it reveals patterns over time so that you can improve your BCP where needed and keep your organization protected from any future disruption.

Conclusion: Why Complete A Business Continuity Plan Review

When calamity strikes, it shouldn’t be a scramble to get your business back up and running.

Ensuring consistent updating of your BCP as well as having reliable disaster recovery plans helps ensure that no matter how much stress your business is put under, you have steps in place that eliminate uncertainty and minimize downtime.

This means including everything in your BCP that you need and knowing which functions of your business are the most critical, which resources employees use to keep crucial processes functioning, and the recovery steps for getting those functions and resources back online should havoc come to visit.

While doing all of this for disaster recovery may deem you a superhero, superheroes are only as good as their sidekicks. Consider LogicManager’s business continuity planning software as your new sidekick:

  • Easily access, review and update all of your business continuity and disaster recovery plans (like business processes and related assets) within one centralized framework.
  • Manage your responsibilities and track the status of your projects with easily accessible to-do lists.
  • Improve coordination between business continuity, disaster recovery, and crisis response teams with automated tasks, alerts, and reminders.
  • Ensure the BCP you have in place is operational and effective with automated testing.
  • Link risks and controls directly to the business continuity plans they relate to with our taxonomy technology.
  • Evaluate the criticality of each business process with pre-built, intuitive business impact analysis templates.
  • Track business continuity events when they occur, identify the gaps in your plans, and determine follow-up improvements to your procedures with our intuitive incident templates.
  • Prove BCP compliance to auditors and BCP effectiveness to senior management with highly configurable reports and compliance checklists.

With your business continuity planning process improved, you can focus on going beyond the call of duty. At its core, our business continuity planning software is designed to help you align strategic goals with operational objectives.

By giving you an enterprise-wide view of your risk and a risk rating at all times, LogicManager’s business continuity management program not only drastically reduces the time and money you spend on business continuity management, but it also helps you prove your invaluable impact on your company’s success with a comprehensive review to reduce internal and external factors threatening your organization.

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  • How often should Business Continuity Plans be tested?

  27 Apr 2021   Associate

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It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of a Business Continuity Plan unless it is tested by running a Business Continuity exercise. There are considerable risks if the first occasion that Business Continuity Plan is used is when a major incident situation occurs. Furthermore if an organisation is seeking ISO 22301 certification the auditor will expect evidence of intention to conduct Business Continuity exercises of your plans.

However a valid Business Continuity exercise that adequately tests Business Continuity Plans requires the time of a considerable a number of people, many in senior roles. The convening of a Business Continuity exercise can be challenging both in terms of coordinating the participants and the opportunity costs of the participants’ time. So how often should you run a Business Continuity exercise? We conducted a survey, on behalf of a client, on the frequency of Business Continuity exercises in a range of organisations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors which provided some interesting results.

While every participant needs to be available during the exercise period, in today’s connected world participants will not, and do not need to be in the same place. As conferencing technology is being adopted in the day-to-day operations of business, organisations are starting to use it for Business Continuity where it may be the most practical and, in some circumstances, the only option. As well as providing the opportunity for participants to become familiar with the technology in a Business Continuity scenario, for a Business Continuity exercise it has the added benefit of reducing the logistical challenge of arranging for participants to meet together at the same place. However it is important to make sure the collaborative technology is robust and the participants are competent and confident in its use.

A factor in deciding the frequency of exercises is the duration of the exercise. In our experience most organisations cannot afford a full day for a Business Continuity exercise and a half-day exercise is now the norm. A few organisations are making use of conferencing technology to reduce the disruption of an exercise on daily operations by running a Business Continuity exercise over a number of days with participants committing an hour or less of their time each day. This can provide a real-time experience of a scenario that unfolds over a number of days.

So how often should Business Continuity Plans be tested?

The chart below shows the percentages of the organisations surveyed that run Business Continuity exercises at different frequencies.

Business Continuity exercise frequencies .png

Respondents’ frequency of running Business Continuity exercises

Over half the respondents (55%) run a Business Continuity  exercise once a year and an admirable proportion (15%) manage to run exercises twice a year.  Worryingly one in five organisations have yet to test their plans with a Business Continuity exercise.

Types of Business Continuity exercises

There are of course different types of Business Continuity exercises. They range from reading through the exercise plan collectively (of limited value) to full-blown simulation of potentially catastrophic event (where this use of often very expensive resources needs to be justifiable). In our experience what works best for most clients are exercises that focus on decision-making in realistic and challenging scenarios with a limited and controlled amount of role-play. The purpose of a Business Continuity exercise is to test the plan and rehearse participants by providing them with some experience of the decision-making required of their Business Continuity roles rather than assessing the dramatic talents of the participants.

There are also Call Cascade (i.e. communication) tests which should be easy to plan and run with direct benefits - e.g. checking the process works, checking the methods of delivery works, and confirming you have the right contact details for all staff - specially those who have an important role to play. They’re also easy to measure in terms of success. If the organisation’s Business Continuity Plan is robust, it should be possible to run a call cascade at short or no notice, with relatively little planning except to ensure there is a robust method of capturing the results. Best done out of hours for best effect!

Another decision is it what level the exercise should be pitched. Some exercises will test the major incident plan, sometimes called the crisis management plan. These will involve senior managers making decisions at the outset of the event where the focus is on the safety of employees and the public and communications with the press and stakeholders, including managing social media. Other Business Continuity exercises will focus on testing how the organisation can maintain its essential processes with reduced resources. In some cases it is possible to accommodate both in a well-designed exercise that accommodates both be management of major incident and the continuation of the business where all participants are actively engaged.

Effective Business Continuity exercises checklist 

checklist.png

  • The exercise needs to be engaging so that participants are motivated to continue. While the experience can be stressful or full of challenges it should also have an element of fun.
  • The exercises need to be realistic in terms of what most participants believe will happen and agree with the probable impact of events.
  • There should be sufficient preparation - a new Business Continuity exercise can take 10 hours or more preparation for every hour that the exercise runs.
  • There should be sufficient facilities with a room of an appropriate size for facilitation. Ideally away from the normal workplace. Refreshments should be provided as a minor thank you for the participants’ time and effort.
  • Almost all members of the designated team or their deputies should attend. Some absences may reflect the position at a real crisis event, but poor attendance will reduce the value of the exercise and may be regarded as a waste of management time. However, all deputies should also have the opportunity to rehearse their Business Continuity roles in an exercise.
  • It is important to set expectations that the Business Continuity exercise will succeed – failure can create anxiety, which could negatively impact their desire to participate. However, there should be an understanding by all participants that gaps and shortcomings will be identified. Indeed, there should be an expectation that this will happen as part of normal exercising in the name of continuous improvement.
  • A Business Continuity exercise is a safe environment to try out new ideas, and creativity should be encouraged – stepping outside of the current documented plans and procedures if necessary.
  • In facilitating, the team dynamics and interaction of the exercise individual members should not be permitted to bully or push their own agenda and views on others. All members of the team feel they are able to contribute.
  • There should be a dynamic atmosphere for the exercise. The scheduling of role-players, provision of new information, assessing the impact of changes on the event, providing results from previous decisions, etc. on a continuing basis (every few minutes); particularly in the first hour of a major Business Continuity exercise.
  • A senior executive should act as champion and thank the crisis response team for their dedication and efforts.
  • There should be ample time for an initial ‘hot debrief’ at the end of the exercise session. There should also be a Post Exercise Report written reflecting the lessons learned with recommendations on how the Business Continuity Plans should be revised.

Of course, real incidents will occur and it is important that a full Post Incident Review is conducted and the lessons learned are incorporated into revised Business Continuity Plans.

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Business Continuity exercise checklist and why you should run an exercise this year

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How Often Should You Test Your Business Continuity Plan?

Dec 13, 2023

Test Your Business Continuity Plan

In order to stay competitive, relevant, and profitable, an organization can’t afford to be out of the game for long. Even a minimal amount of downtime can wreak havoc on an enterprise. A well-designed business continuity plan (BCP) can allow an organization to bounce back quickly, whether a short interruption or a major disaster. However, maintaining a proper BCP is an ongoing process; enterprises experience change from time to time. As organizations encounter these changes, they need business continuity plans and solutions to keep pace. Regularly testing and reviewing BCPs ensures that they meet and protect the current needs of an organization. 

How Often Should a Business Continuity Plan Be Tested and Reviewed?

When it comes to scheduling a business continuity plan test and review, there are no mandated rules. However, most organizations should consider testing and reviewing their business continuity plan once a year. Some enterprises may conduct a BCP test and review every six months. A BCP test and review aims to ensure the plan will work based on the design should disaster strike. To that end, enlisting the help of someone unfamiliar with the plan is helpful. Their unbiased evaluation will help highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the plan, allowing the organization a chance to strengthen the BCP. Including a BCP test and review in your organization’s operational schedule is always a good idea. How often you decide to conduct a review and test your BCP depends on the unique makeup of the organization. Of course, the more complex the BCP is, the more testing and reviewing it will require. 

Factors that Determine the Frequency of BCP Testing

Each organization is unique, which makes their BCP one-of-a-kind as well. Here are some of the most common factors that will determine the frequency of your organization’s BCP testing:

Organization Size

With a larger enterprise comes a larger BCP.  From personnel to data to equipment and more, the functionality of an organization can be quite complex. For bigger companies, a BCP will require much more oversight and testing. Enterprises with fewer elements to contend with can afford to have less frequent testing. 

Organization Type

Organizations that are part of a highly regulated industry, such as healthcare or finance, may be responsible for overseeing a wide range of sensitive data. There may be strict requirements by industry regulators to ensure the data is secure. In this instance, organizations will want to be sure their BCP is solid. On the other hand, smaller enterprises with less oversight may be able to test less frequently. 

The design of a BCP will determine how often it will need to be tested. If the current BCP is complex, it has more chances to fail. A lower probability of failure equals a lower need for frequent testing. 

Fluctuation Within the Organization

When organizations experience employee turnover or scale business up or down, it can affect the BCP. Also, departments can change, as well as the employee job functions within those departments. Sometimes, employees may be asked to take on additional responsibilities when an organization’s workforce is reduced. Outside of the direct operations of an enterprise, the vendors and clients can change. Big shifts in organizations, such as switching landlines to VoIP phones or moving an IT network to the cloud can cause business continuity plans to be significantly rewritten. Even the changes in the physical structure of an enterprise’s location can alter the design of a BCP. 

Advantages of Constant BCP Reviewing and Testing

When it comes to an enterprise’s ability to bounce back from a disaster, winging it is not a wise plan. Here are three key benefits of upholding consistent BCP reviewing and testing practices:

Minimizes Downtime

Time is a precious commodity for any enterprise. The longer it takes for an organization to recover from a disaster, the greater the damage to its ability to conduct business efficiently. A flawed BCP can end up hampering an organization with severe expenses, lost revenue, and a damaged reputation. A regularly tested and reviewed BCP allows an enterprise to be prepared for potential risks, create adequate responses, and return to “business as usual” quickly. 

Identifies Vital Areas in Need of Improvement

Reviewing and testing your BCP with an organization-wide approach can allow you to uncover every stone and discover any flaws in the design. Enlisting the help of each department within the organization can help illuminate problem areas that may not have been an obvious concern. Each area of an enterprise may have its own unique risks that can be limited to its department or affect the organization’s overall function. All of this information only serves to enhance your BCP. 

Increases Confidence for Stakeholders

Investing resources into strengthening your BCP is money well spent. Not only will your organization have a solid response for potential risks, it will also go a long way in assuring investors, employees, vendors, customers, and even regulators that the business is in good hands. Staying ahead of risks is always a wise investment. Above all, reputation is everything. Maintaining good governance can bolster your organization’s reputation in the marketplace as a responsible, safe, and secure business. 

Cynergy Technology is a leading full-service technology provider specializing in cloud computing solutions. With over forty-two years of experience, our team of professionals can assist your organization in creating a business continuity plan and provide backup and disaster recovery solutions . Contact our team of experts today for a free consultation !

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How to create an effective business continuity plan

A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an event.

Professional Meeting: Senior Businesswoman and Colleague in Discussion

The tumultuous events of the past several years have impacted practically every business. And with the number of extreme weather events, cyberattacks, and geopolitical conflicts continuing to rise, business leaders are bracing for the possibility of increasingly more frequent impactful incidents their organizations will need to respond to.

According to PwC’s 2023 Global Crisis and Resilience Survey , 96% of 1,812 business leaders said their organizations had experienced disruption in the past two years and 76% said their most serious disruption had a medium to high impact on operations.

It’s little wonder then that 89% of executives list resilience as one of their most important strategic priorities.

Yet at the same time, only 70% of respondents said they were confident in their organization’s ability to respond to disruptions, with PwC noting that its research shows that too many organizations “are lacking the foundational elements of resilience they need to be successful.”

A solid business continuity plan is one of those foundational elements.

“Every business should have the mindset that they will face a disaster, and every business needs a plan to address the different potential scenarios,” says Goh Ser Yoong, head of compliance at Advance.AI and a member of the Emerging Trends Working Group at the professional governance association ISACA.

A business continuity plan gives the organization the best shot at successfully navigating a disaster by providing ready-made directions on who should do what tasks in what order to keep the business viable.

Without such as a plan, the organization will take longer than necessary to recover from an event or incident — or may never recover at all.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a strategic playbook created to help an organization maintain or quickly resume business functions in the face of disruption, whether that disruption is caused by a natural disaster, civic unrest, cyberattack, or any other threat to business operations.

A business continuity plan outlines the procedures and instructions that the organization must follow during such an event to minimize downtime, covering business processes, assets, human resources, business partners, and more.

A business continuity plan is not the same as a disaster recovery plan , which focuses on restoring IT infrastructure and operations after a crisis. Still, a disaster recovery plan is part of the overall strategy to ensure business continuity, and the business continuity plan should inform the action items detailed in an organization’s disaster recovery plan. The two are tightly coupled, which is why they often are considered together and abbreviated as BCDR.

Why business continuity planning matters

Whether you operate a small business or a large corporation, it’s vital to retain and increase your customer base. There’s no better test of your capability to do so than right after an adverse event.

Because restoring IT is critical for most companies, numerous disaster recovery solutions are available. You can rely on IT to implement those solutions. But what about the rest of your business functions? Your company’s future depends on your people and processes. Being able to handle any incident effectively can have a positive effect on your company’s reputation and market value, and it can increase customer confidence.

Moreover, there are increasing consumer and regulatory expectations for both enterprise security and continuity today. Consequently, organizations must prioritize continuity planning to prevent not only business losses, but financial, legal, reputational, and regulatory consequences.

For example, the risk of having an organization’s “license to operate” withdrawn by a regulator or having conditions applied (retrospectively or prospectively) can adversely affect market value and consumer confidence.

Building (and updating) a business continuity plan

Whether building the organization’s first business continuity plan or updating an existing one, the process involves multiple essential steps.

Assess business processes for criticality and vulnerability: Business continuity planning “starts with understanding what’s most important to the business,” says Joe Nocera, principle in the cyber risk and regulatory practice at PwC, a professional services firm.

So the first step in building your business continuity plan is assessing your business processes to determine which are the most critical; which are the most vulnerable and to what type of events; and what are the potential losses if those processes go down for a day, a few days, or a week.

“This step essentially determines what you are trying to protect and what you are trying to keep up for systems,” says Todd Renner, senior managing director in the cybersecurity practice at FTI Consulting.

This assessment is more demanding than ever before because of the complexity of today’s hybrid workplace, the modern IT environment, and the reliance on business partners and third-party providers to perform or support critical processes.

Given that complexity, Goh says a thorough assessment requires an inventory of not only key processes but also the supporting components — including the IT systems, networks, people, and outside vendors — as well as the risks to those components.

This is essentially a business impact analysis.

Determine your organization’s RTO and RPO: The next step in building a business continuity plan is determining the organization’s recovery time objective (RTO), which is the target amount of time between point of failure and the resumption of operations, and the recovery point objective (RPO), which is the maximum amount of data loss an organization can withstand.

Each organization has its own RTO and RPO based on the nature of its business, industry, regulatory requirements, and other operational factors. Moreover, different parts of a business can have different RTOs and RPOs, which executives need to establish, Nocera says.

“When you meet with individual aspects of the business, everyone says everything [they do] is important; no one wants to say their part of the business is less critical, but in reality you have to have those challenging conversations and determinations about what is actually critical to the business and to business continuity,” he adds.

Detail the steps, roles, and responsibilities for continuity: Once that is done, business leaders should use the RTO and the RPO, along with the business impact analysis, to determine the specific tasks that need to happen, by whom, and in what order to ensure business continuity.

“It’s taking the key components of your analysis and designing a plan that outlines roles and responsibilities, about who does what. It gets into the nitty-gritty on how you’re going to keep the company up and running,” Renner explains.

One common business continuity planning tool is a checklist that includes supplies and equipment, the location of data backups and backup sites, where the plan is available and who should have it, and contact information for emergency responders, key personnel, and backup site providers.

Although the list of possible scenarios that could impact business operations can seem extensive, Goh says business leaders don’t have to compile an exhaustive list of potential incidents. Rather, they should compile a list that includes likely incidents as well as representative ones so that they can create responses that have a higher likelihood of ensuring continuity even when faced with an unimagined disaster.

“So even if it’s an unexpected event, they can pull those building blocks from the plan and apply them to the unique crisis they’re facing,” Nocera says.

The importance of testing the business continuity plan

Devising a business continuity plan is not enough to ensure preparedness; testing and practicing are other critical components.

Renner says testing and practicing offer a few important benefits.

First, they show whether or how well a plan will work.

Testing and practicing help prepare all stakeholders for an actual incident, helping them build the muscle memory needed to respond as quickly and as confidently as possible during a crisis.

They also help identify gaps in the devised plan. As Renner says: “Every tabletop exercise that I’ve ever done has been an eye-opener for everyone involved.”

Additionally, they help identify where there may be misalignment of objectives. For example, executives may have deprioritized the importance of restoring certain IT systems only to realize during a drill that those are essential for supporting critical processes.

Types and timing of tests

Many organizations test a business continuity plan two to four times a year. Experts say the frequency of tests, as well as reviews and updates, depends on the organization itself — its industry, its speed of innovation and transformation, the amount of turnover of key personnel, the number of business processes, and so on.

Common tests include tabletop exercises , structured walk-throughs, and simulations. Test teams are usually composed of the recovery coordinator and members from each functional unit.

A tabletop exercise usually occurs in a conference room with the team poring over the plan, looking for gaps and ensuring that all business units are represented therein.

In a structured walk-through, each team member walks through his or her components of the plan in detail to identify weaknesses. Often, the team works through the test with a specific disaster in mind. Some organizations incorporate drills and disaster role-playing into the structured walk-through. Any weaknesses should be corrected and an updated plan distributed to all pertinent staff.

Some experts also advise a full emergency evacuation drill at least once a year.

Meanwhile, disaster simulation testing — which can be quite involved — should still be performed annually. For this test, create an environment that simulates an actual disaster, with all the equipment, supplies and personnel (including business partners and vendors) who would be needed. The purpose of a simulation is to determine whether the organization and its staff can carry out critical business functions during an actual event.

During each phase of business continuity plan testing, include some new employees on the test team. “Fresh eyes” might detect gaps or lapses of information that experienced team members could overlook.

Reviewing and updating the business continuity plan should likewise happen on an ongoing basis.

“It should be a living document. It shouldn’t be shelved. It shouldn’t be just a check-the-box exercise,” Renner says.

Otherwise, plans go stale and are of no use when needed.

Bring key personnel together at least annually to review the plan and discuss any areas that must be modified.

Prior to the review, solicit feedback from staff to incorporate into the plan. Ask all departments or business units to review the plan, including branch locations or other remote units.

Furthermore, a strong business continuity function calls for reviewing the organization’s response in the event of an actual event. This allows executives and their teams to identify what the organization did well and where it needs to improve.

How to ensure business continuity plan support, awareness

One way to ensure your plan is not successful is to adopt a casual attitude toward its importance. Every business continuity plan must be supported from the top down. That means senior management must be represented when creating and updating the plan; no one can delegate that responsibility to subordinates. In addition, the plan is likely to remain fresh and viable if senior management makes it a priority by dedicating time for adequate review and testing.

Management is also key to promoting user awareness. If employees don’t know about the plan, how will they be able to react appropriately when every minute counts?

Although plan distribution and training can be conducted by business unit managers or HR staff, have someone from the top kick off training and punctuate its significance. It’ll have a greater impact on all employees, giving the plan more credibility and urgency.

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5 Step Guide to Business Continuity Planning (BCP) in 2021

A business continuity plan provides a concrete plan to maintain business cohesion in challenging circumstances. Click here for the key steps that can help you formulate a formidable BCP.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is defined as a protocol of preventing and recovering from potentially large threats to the company’s business continuity. This article explains what a business continuity plan is today, its key benefits, and a step-by-step guide to creating a formidable plan.

Table of Contents

What is a business continuity plan (bcp), key benefits of having a business continuity plan, step-by-step guide to building a formidable business continuity plan (bcp) in 2021.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a protocol of preventing and recovering from potentially large threats to the company’s business continuity. Such a plan often aims to address the need for updated business norms and operational standards in unpredictable circumstances such as natural disasters, data breach/ exposures, large scale system failures etc. The goal of such a plan is to ensure continuity of business with no or little damage to regular working environments, including job security for its employees.

It covers everything from business processes, human resources details, and more. Essentially a BCP provides a concrete plan to the organization to maintain business continuity even in challenging circumstances. 

Below are key reasons why businesses need to have a BCP today:

  • BCP’s relevance has gone up considerably after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and was also a major testing time for organizations that did have such a plan in place. The organizations which had a business continuity plan in place were better able to cope during these unprecedented circumstances better than those who did not have any such plans.
  • The recorded number of natural disasters has increased from 375 in 2016 to 409 in 2019 Opens a new window . Globally, the loss because of natural disasters was $232 billion in 2019, according to a study by Aon Opens a new window .
  • The number of cyberattacks has also increased in all geographies and all business verticals. MonsterCloud reported that cyberattacks have skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. All this means that the organizations have to be better prepared to fight disasters. The importance of BCP can hardly be exaggerated in this context. Preparing a BCP is imperative for any enterprise, big or small, today. 

The end goal of a BCP is to ensure that the essential services continue to run in the event of an incident. For instance, if there is an earthquake where your customer service representatives operate from, your BCP will be able to tell you who will handle customer calls until the original office is restored.

Also Read: What Is Disaster Recovery? Definition, Cloud and On-premise, Benefits and Best Practices

Difference between a business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DCP)

A BCP is often confused with a disaster recovery (DR) plan. While a DR plan is primarily focused on restoring the IT systems and infrastructure, a BCP is much more than that. It covers all areas and departments of the organization, including HR, marketing and sales, support functions. 

The underlying thought behind BCP is that IT systems can hardly work in silos. Other departments also need to be restored to cater to the client or for meeting the business demands. 

“Many people think a disaster recovery plan (DRP) is the same as a business continuity plan, but a DRP is only a small, yet essential, a portion of a full BCP. A DRP focuses solely on restoring an organization’s IT infrastructure while minimizing data loss. On the other hand, a BCP is a comprehensive guide on how to continue the mission and business-critical operations during a time of an unplanned disruption (natural disasters, pandemics, or malware),” says Caleb Pipkin, a security expert at Logically . 

Whether a business is small, big, or medium-sized, it needs a ‘plan B’ to recover quickly in the event of a natural disaster or a crisis and can survive the disruption. BCP helps you dust yourself and get back to business quickly and easily. It means that the enterprise will be better placed to address their customers’ needs even in the wake of a disaster. 

On the other hand, the lack of a plan means that your organization will take longer to recover from an event or incident. It could also lead to loss of business or clients. Let’s look at some key benefits of BCP.

1. It is a roadmap to act in a disaster

A well-defined business continuity plan is like a roadmap during a disruption. It allows the firms to react swiftly and effectively and maintain business continuity. In turn, this leads to a faster and complete recovery of the enterprise in the shortest possible timeframe. It brings down the business downtime and outlines the steps to be taken before, during, and after a crisis and thus helps maintain its financial viability. 

2. Offers a competitive edge

Fast reaction and business continuity during a disruption allow organizations to gain a competitive edge over its business rivals. It can translate into a significant competitive advantage in the long run. Further, your clients will be more confident in your ability to perform in adverse circumstances allowing you to build a long and sustainable relationship with your business partners.

Developing competence to act and handle any unfavorable event effectively has a positive effect on the company’s reputation and market value. It goes a long way in enhancing customer confidence. 

Also Read: Top 8 Disaster Recovery Software Companies in 2021

3. Cuts down losses

Disasters have a considerable impact on all types of business, whether big or small. Business disruption can lead to financial, legal, and reputational losses. Failure to plan could be disastrous for businesses. You may lose your customers while trying to get your business on track. In the worst circumstances, you may not be able to recover at all. A well-defined business continuity strategy minimizes the damage to an organization and allows you to bring down these losses as much as possible. 

4. Enables employment continuity and protects livelihoods

One of the most significant consequences of a disaster is the loss of employment. The loss of livelihood can be curtailed to an extent if the business continues to function in the event of a disaster. It leads to greater confidence in the workforce that their jobs might not be at risk, and the management is taking steps to protect their jobs. It helps build confidence in senior management’s ability to respond to the business disruption in a planned manner. 

5. Can be life-saving

A regularly tested and updated BCP can potentially help save the lives of the employees and the customers during a disaster. For instance, if the BCP plan for fire is regularly tested, the speed with which the workforce acts can help save lives. 

6. Preserves brand value and develops resilience

Possibly the biggest asset of an organization is its brand. Being able to perform in uncertain times helps build goodwill and maintain its brand value and may even help mitigate financial and reputational loss during a disaster. 

BCP curtails the damage to the company’s brand and finances because of a disaster event. This helps bring down the cost of any incident and thus help the company be more resilient. 

Also Read: 10 Best Practices for Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP)

7. Enables adherence to compliance requirements

Having a BCP allows organizations to have additional benefits of complying with regulatory requirements. It is a legal requirement in several countries.

8. Helps in supply chain security

A precise BCP goes a long way in protecting the supply chain from damage. It ensures continuity in delivering products and services by being able to perform critical activities.

9. Enhances operational efficiency

One of BCP’s lesser-known benefits is that it helps identify areas of operational efficiency in the organization. Developing BCP calls for an in-depth evaluation of the company’s processes. This can potentially reveal the areas of improvement. Essentially, it gathers information that can benefit in enhancing the effectiveness of the processes and operations. 

Also Read: 7 Ways to Build an Effective Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan  

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on preparing for a disaster like never before. We make the job easier for you by listing out the key steps in building a formidable business continuity plan: 

How to Build a Business Continuity Plan

How to Build a Business Continuity Plan

Step 1: Risk assessment 

This phase involves asking crucial questions to evaluate the risks faced by the company. What are the likely business threats and disruptions which are most likely to occur? What is the most profitable activity of your organization? It is vital to prioritize key risks and operations, which will help mitigate the damage in the event of a disaster. 

Step 2: Business impact analysis

The second step involves a thorough and in-depth assessment of your business processes to determine the vulnerable areas and the potential losses if those processes are disrupted. This is also known as Business Impact Analysis . 

Essentially, Business impact analysis (BIA) is a process that helps the organization define the impact if critical business operations are interrupted because of a disaster, accident, or emergency. It helps in identifying the most crucial elements of the business processes. For instance, maintaining a supply chain might be more critical during a crisis than public relations.

While there is no formal standard for a BIA, it typically involves the following steps: 

  • Collating information: As a first step, a questionnaire is prepared to find out critical business processes and resources that will help in the proper assessment of the impact of a disruptive event. One-on-one sessions with key management members may be conducted further to gain insights into the organization’s processes and workings.
  • Analysis: This is followed by analyzing the collected information. A manual or computer-assisted analysis is conducted. The analysis is based on an interruption in which crucial activities or resources are not available. Typically it works on the assumption of the worst-case scenario, even when the chances of a risk likelihood are low. This approach is followed to zero in on the systems that, when disrupted or interrupted, threaten the organization’s very survival. This way, these processes are prioritized in the business continuity plan. 

The analysis phase helps identify the minimum staff and resources required for running the organization in the event of a crisis. This also allows the organizations to assess the impact on the revenue if the business is unable to run for a day, a week, or more. There might be contractual penalties, regulatory fines, and workforce-related expenditure which need to be taken into account while finding out the impact on the business. Further, there might be specific vulnerabilities of the firm, and they need to be considered in the BIA. 

  • Preparing a report: The next step is preparing a BIA report, which is assessed by the senior management. The report is a thorough analysis of the gathered information along with findings. It also gives recommendations on the procedure that should be followed in the event of a business disruption. The BIA report also shares the impact on the revenue, supply chain, and customer delivery to the business in a specific time frame. 

The business impact analysis report may also include a checklist of all the resources, such as the names of key personnel, data backup , contact information, emergency responders, and more.

  • Presenting the report: Usually, this report goes through several amendments before being cleared by the senior management. The involvement of senior management is crucial to the success of the business continuity plan. It sends out a strong signal in the organization that it is a serious initiative. 

Also Read: Will Extreme Weather Events Affect Your Business? Lessons From the Texas Winter Storm

Step 3: BCP Testing

Several testing methods are available to test the effectiveness of the BCP. Here are a few common ones: 

  • TableTop test: As the name suggests, the identified executives go through the plan in detail to evaluate whether it will work on not. Different disaster types and the response to them are discussed at length. This type of testing is designed to make all the key personnel aware of their role in the event of a disaster. The response procedure is reviewed, and responsibilities are outlined, so everybody knows their roles.
  • Walk through: In this type of testing, the team members go through their part in the plan with a specific disaster in mind. Drills or a simulated response and disaster role-playing are part of this. This is a more thorough form of testing and likely to reveal the shortcoming in the plan. Any vulnerabilities discovered should be used to update the BCP accordingly.
  • Disaster simulation testing: In this type of testing, an environment that simulates an actual disaster is created. This is the closest to the actual event and gives the best case scenario about the plan’s workability. It will help the team find gaps that might be overlooked in the other types of tests. Document the results of your testing so you can compare the improvement from the previous tests. It will help you in strengthening your business continuity plan. 

Frequency of testing – Typically, organizations test BCP at least twice a year. At the same time, it depends on the size of your organization and the business vertical you operate in.

Step 4: Maintenance

A business continuity plan should not be treated as a one-time exercise. It needs to be maintained , so the organization’s structural and people changes are updated regularly. The key personnel might move on from the firm, and this would need to be updated in the Business Impact Analysis and BCP. The process for regular updating of the documentation should be followed to ensure that the organization is not caught on the wrong foot in case of a business disruption. 

Also Read: Offsite Data Replication: A Great Way To Meet Recovery Time Objectives

Step 5: Communication

Sometimes executives tend to ignore communication while preparing a BCP. It is a crucial aspect, and your BCP should clearly define who will maintain the communication channels with the employees, regulators, business partners, and partners during the crisis. The contact information of the key people should be readily accessible for the BCP to work without any trouble.

In the end, the organizations should accept that despite preparing a formidable business continuity plan, several factors beyond your control may still affect its success or failure. The key executives might not be available in the event of a crisis; both the primary and the alternate data recovery sites might have been affected by the event; the communications network might be damaged, and so on. Such factors are common during a natural disaster and may lead to the limited success of the business continuity plan. 

The success of a business depends on it acting swiftly and efficiently when confronted with an unanticipated crisis. Any failure to do so results in a financial and reputational loss, which takes up a long time to recover. It can be avoided if the organization quickly gathers itself during a disaster. A business continuity plan is then of paramount importance for a business of any size. At the same time, it is crucial to ensure that the BCP is not a one-time exercise. It needs to be continuously evaluated, tested, amended, and maintained so it doesn’t let you down when you need it the most. 

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How Often Should A Business Continuity Plan Be Tested?

How Often Should A Business Continuity Plan Be Tested

In today’s business environment, even short amounts of downtime can lead to large losses. Ensuring your business or organization can quickly recover from both a short interruption and a major disaster is the basis of a business continuity plan (BCP.) That said, it’s important to understand that a BCP is an ongoing process rather than a singular action. For this reason, BCPs need to be regularly monitored, reviewed and tested to ensure they meet the needs of the organizations they’re meant to protect. So, how often should a business continuity plan be tested ? In this article, we’ll narrow it down.

How Often Should Your BCP Be Tested?

The frequency with which a BCP should be tested depends on the business or organization it’s been designed for. Below are some of the factors that will influence the frequency of your BCP tests.

Organization Size

The larger the organization, the more complicated the BCP is likely to be. For this reason, it will likely require more oversight, fine-tuning and testing. Smaller organizations often have fewer moving parts and may not require such frequent testing.

Organization Type

Highly regulated industries such as finance and medicine as well as organizations that deal with sensitive information may be required by law to have more stringent requirements than less controlled sectors. A small business based around arts and crafts would be less likely to need as much testing as a large healthcare centre.

The type of BCP you have in place will also determine how often it needs to be tested. Complex, wide-ranging plans have more room for failure and should be tested more often. Less complicated BCPs may not need to be tested as much because of the lower probability of complications. Conversely, an automated BCP might be able to regularly test itself and reduce the need for frequent manual tests.

BCP Testing Schedules

Regardless of how often your BCP requires testing, there should be an established schedule to ensure that testing occurs regularly and isn’t forgotten about completely. The timeline of a specific schedule may change according to the business, but this general outline can be used as a reference point.

Biannual Itemized Test

Twice a year, each item on the BCP should be checked to ensure it remains relevant and up to date. Items may need to be removed, improved, amended or fixed. If changes do occur, all affected parties need to be informed.

Annual Simulated Disaster Exercise

Every year a simulated disaster exercise should take place to ensure everyone understands their role and can perform the required tasks accordingly. The exercise should be evaluated and used to identify any changes needed to improve future responses.

Biennial Review

Every two years, all concerned parties should sit down to review and analyze the BCP to ensure it still meets the needs of each part of the organization. If the plan needs updating, improving or a wholesale overhaul, having the entire BCP team in one place should make implementing changes easier.

Disaster Recovery Test

Every two or three years, a full disaster recovery test should take place to ensure the BCP functions properly. Not only will this ensure everyone involved can rehearse their designated roles, but it will identify problems with the BCP and call attention to where improvements can be made.

Ensuring The Effectiveness Of BCP Tests

BCP testing is, by its nature, disruptive. However, it’s important to minimize this disruption to prevent testing fatigue which can reduce the willingness to participate in these necessary activities. All the involved parties should be given advance notice of tests and reminded of their duties. This will ensure they’re not caught off guard as it can lower morale and reduce the willingness to comply in the future. To ensure that your business has a proper disaster recovery plan in place and that unexpected downtime doesn’t mean lost revenue, get a free assessment from MBC today.

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8 Tips to Ensure Your Business Continuity Plan Review Is a Success

Business continuity plans are not just important; they are a business imperative. That is the big takeaway from the recent ransomware attack that temporarily shut down a major U.S. fuel artery.

Against the advice of security experts and the federal government, Colonial Pipeline caved to DarkSide’s demands and paid the ransom. However, the decryption key was so deficient that Colonial Pipeline was able to restore from their backups faster than they could get online again using the key.

Why Business Continuity Matters

Obviously, a lot of mistakes were made in this scenario, but without a business continuity plan in place, Colonial Pipeline would have fared much worse. A comprehensive, well-tested business continuity and disaster recovery strategy is key to getting operations up and running after a cyberattack or other unplanned outage. Without a plan in place, your organization is at the mercy of hackers and in danger of permanently losing valuable data, customers, and revenue.

The Lessons of COVID-19

Many businesses that thought they had their business continuity in hand found critical strategy gaps when COVID-19 added unanticipated pressure and stress to their infrastructure. For example, many IT teams weren’t prepared for the sudden shift to a remote work environment, and they were even less prepared to pivot to 100 percent virtual operations.

Other organizations found that some of their “critical” systems weren’t actually critical, but other “non-critical” systems really were. The problem with this discovery is that time and resources were invested in protecting what turned out to be non-essential functions, while some business-critical systems weren’t included in the plan and couldn’t be brought back online quickly.

Factors in Recovery Plan Effectiveness

Although some gaps in a business continuity plan are simple oversights, there are several specific factors that can alter the effectiveness of your plan, such as:

  • Technology upgrades may impact critical system recovery
  • Staff changes may affect the response team
  • New company policies can change processes
  • New and evolving threats

Any of these scenarios can significantly affect your ability to restore operations during a crisis, so it is essential to review the efficacy of your business continuity plan and adjust as needed.

8 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Business Continuity Plan Review

To ensure your business continuity plan is ready for action, schedule regular plan reviews to check and double check that all processes are in place, all critical systems and their dependencies are accounted for, and all crisis response team members know their role in the response and recovery effort.

Before you dive into a business continuity plan review, implement a few best practices to gather all the information you need about preparedness with the least amount of impact to productivity and daily operations.

1. Minimize disruption to normal workflow.

Be considerate of other employees’ commitments when scheduling the plan review. A time that is convenient for IT might fall in the middle of another department’s end-of-quarter crunch time. 

2. Set expectations in advance.

Let employees know what you will be assessing during the review so they know what to expect and they can plan and prepare accordingly.

3. Establish review objectives upfront.

Effective business continuity plans have set objectives. Be sure to share these objectives with employees and stakeholders so everyone knows what success looks like.

4. Reevaluate objectives as needed.

Post-COVID-19 business continuity objectives may look a lot different from pre-pandemic objectives. Adjusting (and publicizing) changes to the plan objectives prior to beginning the review will better align the results with the current landscape. 

5. Gauge preparedness of key continuity systems and processes.

As mentioned above, sometimes the systems you think are essential really aren’t, and vice versa. But there are a few systems and processes that are always critical to continuity and should be included in every review, including:

  • Contact lists
  • Communication channels
  • Supply chain
  • Essential personnel
  • Data backup and restoration

6. Document any changes to equipment, resources, and policies.

The pandemic caused sweeping changes to the way most businesses function. Your first post-pandemic business continuity plan review must document these changes, including:

  • New equipment to support remote workers
  • Resources such as SaaS solutions
  • Changes to security and device usage policies

7. Review the disaster recovery plan to ensure it still fits with updated business continuity strategy.

The business continuity plan is intended to get critical operations up and running during and immediately after a crisis, but the disaster recovery effort picks up the rest of the pieces and gets IT systems and infrastructure functioning. Any changes made to the business continuity plan should be reflected as appropriate in the disaster recovery plan.

8. Present the new plan to leadership and stakeholders to ensure it’s available immediately.

When the business continuity plan review is complete, immediately analyze the results, compile the findings, and update the plan as needed. Present the new plan to the appropriate stakeholders as soon as it is ready, so the continuity team is prepared to handle a crisis.

How Often Does a Business Continuity Plan Need to Be Reviewed?

Running a complete end-to-end plan review once a month is neither practical nor necessary. Following these generally accepted guidelines for testing frequency will help ensure your business continuity plan stays up-to-date and is ready to deploy as soon as the need arises:

  • Checklist test: Twice a year
  • Emergency drill: Once a year
  • Tabletop review: Every other year
  • Comprehensive review: Every other year
  • Recovery simulation test: Every 2-3 years
  • Unscheduled reviews: As needed; events that warrant an unscheduled review include major system outages, security events, technology changes, and staffing changes

The New Era of Business Continuity

The past year and a half have been a wild ride for businesses as they learned to navigate scenarios unimaginable prior to 2020. Even organizations that were proactive with their business continuity strategy were caught off guard by gaps uncovered during the pandemic. 

Armed with a new perspective, it’s important for IT teams to review and revise their business continuity and disaster recovery plans to accommodate our new business reality. In addition, they must schedule regular, ongoing reviews to ensure you always have a current, complete continuity plan ready. 

Download Smart Strategies for Business Continuity: An IT Survival Guide to learn more ways to overcome downtime and secure critical data.

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Bcms maintenance and review plan.

The purpose of this document is to prescribe the frequency of the review and maintenance of all elements of the business continuity management system.

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What best practices have you found for business continuity testing? Do you prefer tabletop exercises or full simulations? How often do you test without notice?

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Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity

How often should your business continuity plan (bcp) be reviewed & tested.

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Let’s face it – Disaster can break your business if you’re not prepared with a business continuity plan (BCP). According to FEMA, around 90% of businesses fail and shut down within a year if they are unable to recover within 5 days after a disaster. With proper continuity planning, you can identify potential risks within your organization and create strategies to handle them.

It’s important for organizations to review their business continuity plans regularly because the business environment is always changing. If you’re wondering what “review regularly” means, this article explains how frequently you should review your BCP.

What Is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan is a set of procedures, processes, and systems that help an organization prepare for potential business disruptions. It’s designed to ensure business operations are maintained during unexpected events or disasters. The goal of the BCP is to minimize business downtime and enable business recovery as quickly and efficiently as possible.

What’s Included in a Business Continuity Plan?

A BCP should include detailed steps for restoring business operations and guidelines for managing disruptions. These steps should include:

  • Assess business processes, critical staff, and data.
  • Identify and prioritize business risks
  • Develop strategies to address business risks
  • Create a business continuity team and assign tasks to each team member
  • Designate resources for business recovery
  • Test the plan regularly

Is Testing Your BCP Really Necessary?

Creating a business continuity plan is simply not enough. The plan should be tested to ensure it works and that there are no serious gaping vulnerabilities. After all, cybercriminals love to exploit vulnerabilities and natural disasters are great at catching business owners off-guard.

About 32% of businesses develop and test their BCP. Testing your plan is not only necessary but also important to make sure that the plan works as expected. Avoiding continuity testing can be a costly mistake and could put your business at risk.

How Often Should You Review and Test Your BCP?

The phrase “test regularly” is not very helpful. What is regular to one business may be different for another. The frequency of business continuity plan review depends on the size and complexity of the organization. Generally speaking, a BCP should be reviewed and tested at least once a year.

But if a business is complex or rapidly changing, such as in the case of technology businesses, it should be reviewed more often. Additionally, businesses that operate in high-risk or highly regulated industries should also review their BCP quarterly or bi-annually.

It’s also recommended to review and test business continuity plans after any major organizational changes such as staffing changes or business expansion. This way business owners can be sure that the continuity plan is up-to-date with the latest business information and strategies.

Be Prepared for Any Disaster with Simple Systems.

Proper continuity planning requires a dedicated team and resources to ensure that business operations are restored quickly after disaster strikes. With Simple Systems’ business continuity solutions , you can easily create and maintain an open business with minimal effort.

Our team of experts will help you identify business risks, develop strategies to address those risks, and create plans to ensure your business continues to stay open. We also offer business continuity testing services to make sure your plan works as expected.  

Contact us today to get peace of mind knowing that your business is prepared for any disaster.

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Dan Lauritzen

Dan is the Founder and CEO of Simple Systems, an IT support company based in Salt Lake City, Utah providing Managed IT Services for a host of clients with all the services of a full-time IT staff without the expense. Our primary goal is to provide the same service to our clients that we expect from others. Our work gets done quickly – we tend to delight and surprise our clients by finishing before the deadline. Simple Systems (SS) first opened its doors in 2007. Over the past 9 years, we have enjoyed working closely with 100’s of small businesses and home users around the Salt Lake Valley. In 2009, SS was honored to be nominated in the Utah Student 25. We are proud of this distinction and look forward to continued growth. In 2012, we opened our retail location in Holladay, Utah to provide home PC customers a more cost effective way to have service and support.

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Business continuity plan maintenance: How to review, test and update your BCP

A professional updating their business continuity plan on a tablet.

We've written before about how all organizations need to have a robust business continuity plan . A comprehensive BCP gives your business assurance that it can continue operations, even in the event of an unexpected incident or full-blown crisis.

Putting in place a plan is the first stage in this process, but far from the only on Business continuity plan review checklist. Business continuity plan maintenance, review and testing form equally vital steps in your business continuity strategy.

Is Business Continuity Plan Maintenance Important?

Those who were best-prepared have shown themselves to be most resilient when it comes to facing the challenges of Covid-19 . The pandemic has provided an all-too-live example of the need for a plan B. If ever there was a time to be confident in your business continuity strategy, it's now. However, it's a mistake to think that creating a BCP is a one-time exercise; that once you've put your plan in place, you can sit back and breathe a sigh of relief. There's no room for complacency in business continuity ' the threats you face are ever-changing, and the potential remedial actions need to evolve in tandem. Your business continuity plan might follow best practice guidelines. You might be certified to ISO23301 standards and have put in place the ideal team to manage your disaster planning and BCP strategy. But none of this compensates for a BCP that has grown stale, failing to move with the times when it comes to identifying the latest threats and using the newest approaches to tackle them. That's why reviewing, testing and updating your BCP is as vital as the process of creating a plan in the first place.

Questions You Should Ask When Scheduling BCP Reviews and Drills

Your BCP   plan needs to be a   living document . Creating a BCP isn't a one-off; once you have put your plan in place, you should ask yourself the following questions:

  • How often should a business continuity plan be reviewed?
  • How often should a business continuity plan be tested?
  • How often should a business continuity plan be updated?

Here we look at each of these questions and identify the best strategies for testing, updating and reviewing your plan.

The Importance of the Business Continuity Plan Review

Why is it important for the business continuity plan reports to be submitted and reviewed regularly? There are several reasons:

  • The nature and severity of the threats you face may change
  • Your business operations may have evolved, leading to, for instance, a larger number of entities or subsidiaries to consider in your planning or new operating geographies . You may have taken your company public , which brings with it a range of new regulatory obligations
  • Your personnel may have changed, so the people responsible for continuity planning may re no longer be current

Your business continuity plan should be reviewed when any of these situations apply. How often you should review your plan is another question organizations often ask; cio.com recommends that you '''Bring key personnel together at least annually to review the plan and discuss any areas that must be modified.''' Feedback from employees is essential in the review. Intentionally seek input from those involved in creating the plan and those involved in its execution. What can they tell you about changes to staff, operations or other factors that impact the plan? This is particularly important if you have numerous locations or remote operations where changes might not be immediately apparent to people sitting in a headquarters building. Ensuring your plan is based on comprehensive, accurate information about all your entities and subsidiaries ' a '''single source of truth' for your entire organization ' is vital. Putting in place a checklist is often a good strategy for any business review, and your BCP is no exception. Consider creating a business continuity plan review checklist to ensure you capture all the elements you need to consider. And of course, if you've been unfortunate enough to face a business continuity issue that forced the enactment of your plan, you can use the real-life experience you gained to finesse it. What worked well; what should be changed?

Business Continuity Plan Testing Considerations and Best Practices

Testing is an equally essential stage in ongoing BCP management. What should testing your business continuity plan look like? And during what stage of the business continuity lifecycle do we need to test the business continuity plan? Of course, the real test is an incident itself. But doing business continuity drills will give you the reassurance that your plan is robust enough to face a real incident ' and enables you to determine this in a less pressured way than waiting for a real crisis. 

Business Continuity Plan Testing Types

When it comes to types of business continuity plan testing, there are three main routes: a table-top exercise, a structured walk-through or full disaster simulation testing.

First: Table-top or role-playing exercises allow everyone involved in the plan to go through it and identify any missing steps, inconsistencies or errors. Second: A walk-through is a more in-depth test of your approach, with everyone involved examining their own responsibilities to spot any weak points. Third: A full simulation of a possible disaster goes a step further, creating a scenario that mirrors an actual disaster to determine whether your plan enables you to maintain operations. It should include your internal team, alongside any vendors or relevant external partners like security or maintenance companies. However you test your plan, it should be rigorous - CIO suggests that '''you try to break it' to ensure that it's fit for purpose. And whatever route ' or combination of approaches ' you choose, you should carry out business continuity plan testing at least once a year.

How To Keep Your Business Continuity Plan Current

Of course, however comprehensive your reviews and testing, they're of no benefit if you don't act on the findings. Updating your BCP is the final stage in the business continuity plan maintenance lifecycle, taking on board the results of your walk-through or simulation and finessing your plan to adopt any improvements noted during your reviews and tests. How often should a business continuity plan be updated? Every time you identify any shortcomings ' whether this is due to your testing/reviewing regime or whenever any errors or omissions come to light. What elements should you consider in an update? While all aspects of your plan are worth checking to ensure they remain current, some areas deserve singling out for special attention:

  • Your contact list: To ensure you have up-to-date details of everyone you need to contact in the event of an incident.
  • Your business entities and subsidiaries data : This forms the basis for your plan. Do you have an up-to-date picture of your organizational structure? Do you have accurate information on all your legal entities and critical functions?
  • Challenge assumptions: Play devil's advocate to challenge your beliefs about incidents that could occur.
  • Your technologies and systems: Including entity data management software , CRM systems and other IT systems central to supporting your operations.

Maintain Confidence in Your BCP

It's clear, then, that putting in place a BCP is only the first step. Reviewing, testing and updating your plan are all equally important stages. In other words, business continuity plan maintenance is crucial. Underpinning all of this is the need for reliable data on your organizational structure, people, systems and dependencies. Diligent's software suite can help you create the single source of truth you need to manage all your business entities effectively. Find out more by getting in touch with us for a no-obligation demo.

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What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?

A  Business Continuity Plan (BCP)  is a detailed strategy and set of systems for ensuring an organization’s ability to prevent or rapidly recover from a significant disruption to its operations. The plan is essentially a playbook for how any type of organization—such as a private-sector company, a government agency or a school—will continue its day-to-day business during a disaster scenario or otherwise abnormal conditions.  

Examples of such disruptions include a fire, a major earthquake or other a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a cyberattack and many other scenarios that could upend “business as usual.” When such events significantly disrupt an organization’s normal routines, it turns to its business continuity plan for instructions, processes and tools it needs to continue to operate or to quickly recover from downtime. 

business continuity plan review frequency

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Hindsight is 2020 - The Pandemic Provides a Wakeup Call

Why is a business continuity plan important.

Risks can be managed, but they can’t be eliminated. Business continuity planning is critical because without it, an organization faces downtime and other problems that could damage its financial health. In major disasters, a lack of a business continuity plan could cause irreparable financial harm that might ultimately force a company to permanently close. 

How to create a Business Continuity Plan?

There are many frameworks for creating an effective business continuity plan. Most of them cover three overlapping phases: 

  • Analysis : In this phase, you identify and evaluate the various functions of your business and its operations. Then, you determine how those different functions will be affected by a disaster. This phase usually entails prioritizing different areas or departments in terms of how important they are to your operation, so that your plan ultimately ensures the continuity of your most critical functions first. Business continuity  professionals often conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) at the outset of developing a new plan. A BIA estimates the consequences of different disaster scenarios in terms of lost revenue and other business-specific metrics.
  • Planning : Once an initial analysis is complete, the next phase entails all facets of developing an actual plan for continuing to operate in a disaster, or rapidly recovering from a disruption to normal operations. During the planning phase, organizations:  
  • Develop protocols for potential needs such as a rapid relocation or shift to  remote work . 
  • Strategize temporary staffing changes or needs. 
  • Implement  IT disaster recovery  tools to ensure continuity of critical systems. 

A key part of this phase is to name a continuity or crisis management team, comprised of executives and stakeholders who will lead the plan’s implementation if necessary. 

  • Training and Testing : Even the most robust BCP must be put through regular testing to ensure it will work if needed. This includes educating employees on their roles and responsibilities in these scenarios, as well as conducting trials of various elements of the plan. An example would include a short-term rollout of a remote work scenario to identify issues and opportunities for optimization.  

Key features of a business continuity plan

Some features of a BCP will be industry or business-specific, but there are components that are common to almost any plan: 

People : A BCP will clearly define roles and responsibilities, not just for the crisis management leadership team, but also for any units responsible for implementing different pieces of the plan in a disaster scenario. Some BCPs will also define “essential personnel”—for example, people whose job requires them to report to work even in periods of heightened risk. 

Technology : Almost all modern business continuity plans will also clearly outline the role that information technology will play in ensuring critical data, applications and services remain available or are quickly restored after an interruption. These include: 

  • Data backup and recovery tools 
  • Cloud computing infrastructure  and services 
  • Remote work platforms

Service Delivery : A BCP should also describe which services are most critical and how they will continue to be delivered to customers, employees, partners, the public and other stakeholders. 

Health & Safety : Finally, a strong business continuity program will include criteria and guidelines for ensuring the health and safety of all people involved—employees, customers, partners—as the plan is implemented and managed. 

Business Continuity Plan checklist

Many organizations create a checklist as part of their business continuity planning. This is a list of all of the key steps in the BCP. It can be used in two ways:  

  • Conception : First, it can be used as part of the initial creation of the plan. In this context, the BCP checklist would describe in detail the steps necessary to develop the plan, from analysis through testing.  
  • Implementation : Second, a BCP checklist can be used for testing and/or actually implementing the plan. In this context, the BCP or crisis management team would use the checklist to ensure that it addresses all of the plan’s tools and processes and communicates them effectively throughout the organization. 

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

Business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning are often mentioned in similar contexts, but they are not interchangeable terms. A business continuity plan is an overarching strategy for operating in disaster scenarios or recovering from a major disruption. 

A disaster recovery (DR) plan refers more specifically to the IT processes and tools you can rely on to retain or restore access to mission-critical data, applications, and services in these scenarios. A DR plan would detail, for example, how you could restore access to a revenue-generating web application in the event of a flood in the data center that powers that service. 

How often should a Business Continuity Plan be reviewed?

Most experts recommend that business continuity plans be reviewed regularly and updated as needed. This helps ensure that the plan will still meet the organization’s needs in the face of evolving risks and threats. 

The frequency with which you review a business continuity plan depends on many factors, including the nature of the organization, its industry and its particular risks. As a general rule of thumb, such plans should be reviewed annually or at least every other year. However, there are multiple scenarios where an organization may want to consider more frequent reviews, including: 

  • Significant changes to the business or its operations 
  • Location in a region at greater risk for natural disasters or other potentially disruptive events 
  • Any organization or agency that provides essential services to the public 

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  • Business Continuity Plan Basics
  • Understanding BCPs
  • Benefits of BCPs
  • How to Create a BCP
  • BCP & Impact Analysis
  • BCP vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Business Continuity Plan FAQs

The Bottom Line

What is a business continuity plan (bcp), and how does it work.

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What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? 

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company. The plan ensures that personnel and assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster.

Key Takeaways

  • Business continuity plans (BCPs) are prevention and recovery systems for potential threats, such as natural disasters or cyber-attacks.
  • BCP is designed to protect personnel and assets and make sure they can function quickly when disaster strikes.
  • BCPs should be tested to ensure there are no weaknesses, which can be identified and corrected.

Understanding Business Continuity Plans (BCPs)

BCP involves defining any and all risks that can affect the company's operations, making it an important part of the organization's risk management strategy. Risks may include natural disasters—fire, flood, or weather-related events—and cyber-attacks . Once the risks are identified, the plan should also include:

  • Determining how those risks will affect operations
  • Implementing safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks
  • Testing procedures to ensure they work
  • Reviewing the process to make sure that it is up to date

BCPs are an important part of any business. Threats and disruptions mean a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition. It is generally conceived in advance and involves input from key stakeholders and personnel.

Business impact analysis, recovery, organization, and training are all steps corporations need to follow when creating a Business Continuity Plan.

Benefits of a Business Continuity Plan

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic. Business continuity planning is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of major disasters such as fires. BCPs are different from a disaster recovery plan, which focuses on the recovery of a company's information technology system after a crisis.

Consider a finance company based in a major city. It may put a BCP in place by taking steps including backing up its computer and client files offsite. If something were to happen to the company's corporate office, its satellite offices would still have access to important information.

An important point to note is that BCP may not be as effective if a large portion of the population is affected, as in the case of a disease outbreak. Nonetheless, BCPs can improve risk management—preventing disruptions from spreading. They can also help mitigate downtime of networks or technology, saving the company money.

How To Create a Business Continuity Plan

There are several steps many companies must follow to develop a solid BCP. They include:

  • Business Impact Analysis : Here, the business will identify functions and related resources that are time-sensitive. (More on this below.)
  • Recovery : In this portion, the business must identify and implement steps to recover critical business functions.
  • Organization : A continuity team must be created. This team will devise a plan to manage the disruption.
  • Training : The continuity team must be trained and tested. Members of the team should also complete exercises that go over the plan and strategies.

Companies may also find it useful to come up with a checklist that includes key details such as emergency contact information, a list of resources the continuity team may need, where backup data and other required information are housed or stored, and other important personnel.

Along with testing the continuity team, the company should also test the BCP itself. It should be tested several times to ensure it can be applied to many different risk scenarios . This will help identify any weaknesses in the plan which can then be corrected.

In order for a business continuity plan to be successful, all employees—even those who aren't on the continuity team—must be aware of the plan.

Business Continuity Impact Analysis

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis. It identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis. The worksheet should be completed by business function and process managers who are well acquainted with the business. These worksheets will summarize the following:

  • The impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and process
  • Identifying when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts

Completing the analysis can help companies identify and prioritize the processes that have the most impact on the business's financial and operational functions. The point at which they must be recovered is generally known as the “recovery time objective.”

Business Continuity Plan vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

BCPs and disaster recovery plans are similar in nature, the latter focuses on technology and information technology (IT) infrastructure. BCPs are more encompassing—focusing on the entire organization, such as customer service and supply chain. 

BCPs focus on reducing overall costs or losses, while disaster recovery plans look only at technology downtimes and related costs. Disaster recovery plans tend to involve only IT personnel—which create and manage the policy. However, BCPs tend to have more personnel trained on the potential processes. 

Why Is Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Important?

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic and business continuity plans (BCPs) are an important part of any business. BCP is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of threats and disruptions. This could result in a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition.

What Should a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Include?

Business continuity plans involve identifying any and all risks that can affect the company's operations. The plan should also determine how those risks will affect operations and implement safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks. There should also be testing procedures to ensure these safeguards and procedures work. Finally, there should be a review process to make sure that the plan is up to date.

What Is Business Continuity Impact Analysis?

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis which identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis.

These worksheets summarize the impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and processes. They also identify when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts.

Business continuity plans (BCPs) are created to help speed up the recovery of an organization filling a threat or disaster. The plan puts in place mechanisms and functions to allow personnel and assets to minimize company downtime. BCPs cover all organizational risks should a disaster happen, such as flood or fire.  

Federal Emergency Management Agency. " Business Process Analysis and Business Impact Analysis User Guide ." Pages 15 - 17.

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COMMENTS

  1. How often should you review a business continuity plan?

    Traditional business continuity practice suggests that the organization must review completed business continuity plans on at least two occasions. The first is an annual review, and the second is after the business goes through a material change. This might be an IT or hardware change, or it can be when the company goes through a merger or ...

  2. How Often Should a Business Continuity Plan Be Reviewed?

    How your organization administers its BC functions can also impact review frequency. Many newer business continuity innovations, such as a mobile crisis app with actionable and role-based digital playbooks, help streamline and automate certain BC tasks, which ensures that plans stay up to date and relevant over time. With these types of systems ...

  3. How Often Should a Business Continuity Plan Be Reviewed?

    Unfortunately, there isn't a short and sweet answer to how frequently you need to review your BCP. The truth is, it depends. The more complex the plan, the more care and feeding it requires. For example, a large, multinational corporation will require a far more intensive continuity plan than a two-person startup.

  4. How Often Should A Business Continuity Plan Be Tested

    Testing is a critical component of the business continuity plan review process and ensures that the plan remains up-to-date and aligned with the organization's evolving needs. The testing frequency depends on various factors, including the organization's size, industry regulations, and the level of risk it faces.

  5. How Often Should A BCP Be Reviewed & Tested In 2022

    As a best practice, your BCP (business continuity plan) should have a scheduled review annually at a minimum, as well conducting a business review whenever something in your business changes (e.g. a process, product, service, etc.) or there is an external factor impacting your business (e.g. environmental changes, new regulations, an ...

  6. How to Review Your Business Continuity Plan

    However, a general rule of thumb is to review your BCP at least once a year, or whenever there is a trigger event, a risk assessment, a business impact analysis, a test or exercise, or a ...

  7. How often should Business Continuity Plans be tested?

    Respondents' frequency of running Business Continuity exercises. Over half the respondents (55%) run a Business Continuity exercise once a year and an admirable proportion (15%) manage to run exercises twice a year. Worryingly one in five organisations have yet to test their plans with a Business Continuity exercise.

  8. Business Continuity Plan: How Often Should You Test It?

    When it comes to scheduling a business continuity plan test and review, there are no mandated rules. However, most organizations should consider testing and reviewing their business continuity plan once a year. ... Here are some of the most common factors that will determine the frequency of your organization's BCP testing: Organization Size ...

  9. How to Ensure Your Business Continuity Plan Review Is a Success

    During the Review. Your business continuity plan review should focus on two main factors: 1) how well prepared critical areas of the business are to bounce back from a crisis, and 2) the effectiveness of each phase of the continuity plan. During the review, assess the following systems and elements for business continuity preparedness.

  10. How to create an effective business continuity plan

    Bring key personnel together at least annually to review the plan and discuss any areas that must be modified. Prior to the review, solicit feedback from staff to incorporate into the plan. Ask ...

  11. 5 Step Guide to Business Continuity Planning (BCP) in 2021

    It will help you in strengthening your business continuity plan. Frequency of testing - Typically, organizations test BCP at least twice a year. At the same time, it depends on the size of your organization and the business vertical you operate in. Step 4: Maintenance. A business continuity plan should not be treated as a one-time exercise.

  12. How to Test and Review Your Business Continuity Plan

    3 Document and analyze your results and lessons learned. After each testing session, you should document and analyze your results and lessons learned. You should identify what went well, what went ...

  13. How Often Should A Business Continuity Plan Be Tested?

    Find out why it is essential to routinely test your business continuity plan and how often is recommended. 24 Hour Support Desk (905 ... The frequency with which a BCP should be tested depends on the business or organization it's been designed for. ... all concerned parties should sit down to review and analyze the BCP to ensure it still ...

  14. 8 Tips to Ensure Your Business Continuity Plan Review Is a Success

    When the business continuity plan review is complete, immediately analyze the results, compile the findings, and update the plan as needed. ... Following these generally accepted guidelines for testing frequency will help ensure your business continuity plan stays up-to-date and is ready to deploy as soon as the need arises: Checklist test ...

  15. Why It's Time to Review Your Business Continuity Plan

    A business continuity plan is a document in which a broad range of information, policies and procedures are compiled and ready for use when an event disables the normal delivery of products and ...

  16. BCMS Maintenance and Review Plan [ISO 22301 templates]

    BCMS Maintenance and Review Plan. The purpose of this document is to prescribe the frequency of the review and maintenance of all elements of the business continuity management system. The document is optimized for small and medium-sized organizations - we believe that overly complex and lengthy documents are just overkill for you.

  17. What best practices have you found for business continuity ...

    In my area, the first step is to develop a business continuity plan that outlines the critical functions and processes of the educational institution. The plan should include information on how to respond to various scenarios, such as natural disasters, cyber attacks, and pandemics. We conduct regular testing and involve all stakeholders.

  18. How Testing Your Business Continuity Plan Identifies Gaps

    Types of Business Continuity Tests Plan Review. A plan review is much like an audit of the BCP. The BCP team and the C-level management or department heads get together to review the plan and decide if any components are missing or need revision. This type of test is beneficial for training new members of the BCP team or in regular onboarding.

  19. How Often Should You Review Your Business Continuity Plan?

    The frequency of business continuity plan review depends on the size and complexity of the organization. Generally speaking, a BCP should be reviewed and tested at least once a year. But if a business is complex or rapidly changing, such as in the case of technology businesses, it should be reviewed more often.

  20. Business continuity plan maintenance: How to review, test and update

    Consider creating a business continuity plan review checklist to ensure you capture all the elements you need to consider. And of course, if you've been unfortunate enough to face a business continuity issue that forced the enactment of your plan, you can use the real-life experience you gained to finesse it.

  21. What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?

    A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) ... The frequency with which you review a business continuity plan depends on many factors, including the nature of the organization, its industry and its particular risks. As a general rule of thumb, such plans should be reviewed annually or at least every other year. However, there are multiple scenarios where ...

  22. What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), and How Does It Work?

    Business Continuity Planning - BCP: The business continuity planning (BCP) is the creation of a strategy through the recognition of threats and risks facing a company, with an eye to ensure that ...

  23. PDF Crisis management and business continuity guide

    Develop a prioritized implementation project plan to achieve the desired target state for Business Continuity. Phase 5: Debrief & Review Hold a debrief session with relevant stakeholders to summarize findings, and provide a detailed review including recommendations to further enhanced maturity.