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Business Continuity Planning
Business continuity planning
Business continuity planning
Business continuity planning
Business continuity planning (BCP) “identifies an organization’s exposure to internal and external threats and synthesizes hard and soft assets to provide effective prevention and recovery for the organization, while maintaining competitive advantage and value system integrity”
Business continuity planning
Any event that could impact operations is included, such as supply chain interruption, loss of or damage to critical infrastructure (major machinery or computing/network resource). As such, risk management must be incorporated as part of BCP.
Business continuity planning
In December 2006, the British Standards Institution (BSI) released an independent standard for BCP — BS 25999-1
Business continuity planning
Business continuity management is standardised across the UK by British Standards (BS) through BS 25999-2:2007 and BS 25999-1:2006
Business continuity planning
This document was superseded in November 2012 by the British standard BS ISO22301:2012. (British Standards Institution, 2012)
Business continuity planning
In 2004, following crises in the preceding years, the UK government passed the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (The Act). This provides the legislation for civil protection in the UK.
Business continuity planning
The Act was separated into two distinct parts: Part 1 focuses on local arrangements for civil protection, establishing a statutory framework of roles and responsibilities for local responders. Part 2 focused on emergency powers, establishing a modern framework for the use of special legislative measures that might be necessary to deal with the effects of the most serious emergencies.
Business continuity planning
The Act is telling responders and planners that businesses need to have continuity planning measures in place in order to survive and continue to thrive whilst working towards keeping the incident as minimal as possible. (Cabinet Office, 2004)
Business continuity planning – Business impact analysis (BIA)
A Business impact analysis (BIA) differentiates critical (urgent) and non-critical (non-urgent) organization functions/activities. Critical functions are those whose disruption is regarded as unacceptable. Perceptions of acceptability are affected by the cost of recovery solutions. A function may also be considered critical if dictated by law. For each critical (in scope) function, two values are then assigned:
Business continuity planning – Business impact analysis (BIA)
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) – the acceptable amount of time to restore the function
Business continuity planning – Business impact analysis (BIA)
The recovery point objective must ensure that the maximum tolerable data loss for each activity is not exceeded. The Recovery Time Objective must ensure that the Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption (MTPoD) for each activity is not exceeded.
Business continuity planning – Business impact analysis (BIA)
Next, the impact analysis results in the recovery requirements for each critical function. Recovery requirements consist of the following information:
Business continuity planning – Business impact analysis (BIA)
The business requirements for recovery of the critical function, and/or
Business continuity planning – Business impact analysis (BIA)
The technical requirements for recovery of the critical function
Business continuity planning – Threat and risk analysis (TRA)
After defining recovery requirements, each potential threat may require unique recovery steps. Common threats include:
Business continuity planning – Threat and risk analysis (TRA)
The impact of an epidemic can be regarded as purely human, and may be alleviated with technical and business solutions. However, if people behind these plans are affected by the disease, then the process can stumble.
Business continuity planning – Threat and risk analysis (TRA)
During the 2002–2003 SARS outbreak, some organizations grouped staff into separate teams, and rotated the teams between primary and secondary work sites, with a rotation frequency equal to the incubation period of the disease. The organizations also banned face-to-face intergroup contact during business and non-business hours. The split increased resiliency against the threat of quarantine measures if one person in a team was exposed to the disease.
Business continuity planning – Impact scenarios
After defining threats, impact scenarios form the basis of the business recovery plan. In general, planning for the most wide-reaching impact is preferable. A typical impact scenario such as “building loss” encompasses most critical business functions. A BCP may document scenarios for each building. More localized impact scenarios – for example loss of a specific floor in a building – may also be documented.
Business continuity planning – Recovery requirement
After the analysis phase, business and technical recovery requirements precede the solutions phase. Asset inventories allow for quick identification of deployable resources. For an office-based, IT-intensive business, the plan requirements may cover desks, human resources, applications, data, manual workarounds, computers and peripherals.
Business continuity planning – Recovery requirement
Other business environments, such as production, distribution, warehousing etc. will need to cover these elements, but likely have additional issues.
Business continuity planning – Solution design
The solution design phase identifies the most cost-effective disaster recovery solution that meets two main requirements from the impact analysis stage. For IT purposes, this is commonly expressed as the minimum application and data requirements and the time in which the minimum application and application data must be available.
Business continuity planning – Solution design
Outside the IT domain, preservation of hard copy information, such as contracts, skilled staff or restoration of embedded technology in a process plant must be considered. This phase overlaps with disaster recovery planning methodology. The solution phase determines:
Business continuity planning – Solution design
crisis management command structure
Business continuity planning – Solution design
telecommunication architecture between primary and secondary work sites
Business continuity planning – Solution design
applications and data required at the secondary work site, and
Business continuity planning – Solution design
physical data requirements at the secondary work site.
Business continuity planning – Implementation
The implementation phase involves policy changes, material acquisitions, staffing and testing.
Business continuity planning – Testing and organizational acceptance
The purpose of testing is to achieve organizational acceptance that the solution satisfies the recovery requirements. Plans may fail to meet expectations due to insufficient or inaccurate recovery requirements, solution design flaws or solution implementation errors. Testing may include:
Business continuity planning – Testing and organizational acceptance
Crisis command team call-out testing
Business continuity planning – Testing and organizational acceptance
At minimum, testing is conducted on a biannual schedule.
Business continuity planning – Testing and organizational acceptance
The 2008 book Exercising for Excellence, published by The British Standards Institution identified three types of exercises that can be employed when testing business continuity plans.
Business continuity planning – Tabletop exercises
Tabletop exercises typically involve a small number of people and concentrates on a specific aspect of a BCP. They can easily accommodate complete teams from a specific area of a business.
Business continuity planning – Tabletop exercises
Another form involves a single representative from each of several teams. Typically, participants work through simple scenario and then discuss specific aspects of the plan. For example, a fire is discovered out of working hours.
Business continuity planning – Tabletop exercises
The exercise consumes only a few hours and is often split into two or three sessions, each concentrating on a different theme.
Business continuity planning – Medium exercises
A medium exercise is conducted within a “Virtual World” and brings together several departments, teams or disciplines
Business continuity planning – Medium exercises
A medium exercise typically lasts a few hours, though they can extend over several days. They typically involve a “Scenario Cell” that adds pre-scripted “surprises” throughout the exercise.
Business continuity planning – Complex exercises
A complex exercise aims to have as few boundaries as possible. It incorporates all the aspects of a medium exercise. The exercise remains within a virtual world, but maximum realism is essential. This might include no-notice activation, actual evacuation and actual invocation of a disaster recovery site.
Business continuity planning – Complex exercises
While start and stop times are pre-agreed, the actual duration might be unknown if events are allowed to run their course.
Business continuity planning – Maintenance
Biannual or annual maintenance cycle maintenance of a BCP manual is broken down into three periodic activities.
Business continuity planning – Maintenance
Confirmation of information in the manual, roll out to staff for awareness and specific training for critical individuals.
Business continuity planning – Maintenance
Testing and verification of technical solutions established for recovery operations.
Business continuity planning – Maintenance
Testing and verification of organization recovery procedures.
Business continuity planning – Maintenance
Issues found during the testing phase often must be reintroduced to the analysis phase.
Business continuity planning – Information/targets
The BCP manual must evolve with the organization. Activating the call tree verifies the notification plan’s efficiency as well as contact data accuracy. Types of changes that should be identified and updated in the manual include:
Business continuity planning – Information/targets
Organization structure changes
Business continuity planning – Information/targets
Communication and transportation infrastructure such as roads and bridges
Business continuity planning – Technical
Specialized technical resources must be maintained. Checks include:
Business continuity planning – Technical
Application security and service patch distribution
Business continuity planning – Testing and verification of recovery procedures
As work processes change, previous recovery procedures may no longer be suitable. Checks include:
Business continuity planning – Testing and verification of recovery procedures
Are all work processes for critical functions documented?
Business continuity planning – Testing and verification of recovery procedures
Have the systems used for critical functions changed?
Business continuity planning – Testing and verification of recovery procedures
Are the documented work checklists meaningful and accurate?
Business continuity planning – Testing and verification of recovery procedures
Do the documented work process recovery tasks and supporting disaster recovery infrastructure allow staff to recover within the predetermined recovery time objective?
Business continuity planning – Notes
Jump up ^ Elliot, D.; Swartz, E.; Herbane, B. (1999) Just waiting for the next big bang: business continuity planning in the UK finance sector. Journal of Applied Management Studies, Vol. 8, No, pp. 43–60. Here: p. 48.
Business continuity planning – Notes
Jump up ^ Intrieri, Charles (10 September 2013). “Business Continuity Planning”. Flevy. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
Business continuity planning – Notes
Jump up ^ British Standards Institution (2006). Business continuity management-Part 1: Code of practice :London
Business continuity planning – Notes
Jump up ^ British Standards Institution (2012). Societal security – Business continuity management Systems – Requirements: London
Business continuity planning – Notes
Jump up ^ Cabinet Office. (2004). overview of the Act. In: Civil Contingencies Secretariat Civil Contingencies Act 2004: a short. London: Civil Contingencies Secretariat
Business continuity planning – Bibliography
Business Continuity Planning, FEMA, Retrieved: June 16, 2012
Business continuity planning – Bibliography
Continuity of Operations Planning (no date). U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved July 26, 2006.
Business continuity planning – Bibliography
Purpose of Standard Checklist Criteria For Business Recovery (no date). Federal Emergency Management Agency. Retrieved July 26, 2006.
Business continuity planning – Bibliography
NFPA 1600 Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs — PDF (2010). National Fire Protection Association.
Business continuity planning – Bibliography
United States General Accounting Office Y2k BCP Guide (August 1998). United States Government Accountability Office.
Business continuity planning – International Organization for Standardization
ISO/IEC 27001:2005 (formerly BS 7799-2:2002) Information Security Management System
Business continuity planning – International Organization for Standardization
ISO/IEC 27002:2005 (renumerated ISO17999:2005) Information Security Management – Code of Practice
Business continuity planning – International Organization for Standardization
ISO/IEC 27031:2011 Information technology – Security techniques – Guidelines for information and communication technology readiness for business continuity
Business continuity planning – International Organization for Standardization
ISO/PAS 22399:2007 Guideline for incident preparedness and operational continuity management
Business continuity planning – International Organization for Standardization
ISO/IEC 24762:2008 Guidelines for information and communications technology disaster recovery services
Business continuity planning – International Organization for Standardization
ISO 22301:2012 Societal security – Business continuity management systems – Requirements
Business continuity planning – International Organization for Standardization
ISO 22313:2012 Societal security – Business continuity management systems – Guidance
Business continuity planning – British Standards Institution
BS 25999-1:2006 Business Continuity Management Part 1: Code of practice
Business continuity planning – Others
“A Guide to Business Continuity Planning” by James C. Barnes
Business continuity planning – Others
“Business Continuity Planning”, A Step-by-Step Guide with Planning Forms on CDROM by Kenneth L Fulmer
Business continuity planning – Others
“Business Continuity Plan Design, 8 Steps for Getting Started Designing a Plan” By Richard Kepenach
Business continuity planning – Others
“Disaster Survival Planning: A Practical Guide for Businesses” by Judy Bell
Business continuity planning – Others
Harney, J.(2004). Business continuity and disaster recovery: Back up or shut down.
Business continuity planning – Others
Dimattia, S. (November 15, 2001).Planning for Continuity. Library Journal,32–34.
Business continuity planning – Others
Exercising for Excellence (Delivering successful business continuity management exercises) by Crisis Solutions
Crisis management – Business continuity planning
When a crisis will undoubtedly cause a significant disruption to an organisation, a business continuity plan can help minimize the disruption
Crisis management – Business continuity planning
Each critical function and or/process must have its own contingency plan in the event that one of the functions/processes ceases or fails, then the business/organisation is more resilient, which in itself provides a mechanism to lessen the possibility of having to invoke recovery plans (Osborne, 2007)
Crisis management – Business continuity planning
A note of caution when planning training scenarios, all too often simulations can lack ingenuity, an appropriate level of realism and as a consequence potentially lose their training value
Crisis management – Business continuity planning
Following a simulation exercise, a thorough and systematic debriefing must be conducted as a key component of any crisis simulation. The purpose of this is to create a link and draw lessons from the reality of the simulated representation and the reality of the real world. (Borodzicz, 2005).
Crisis management – Business continuity planning
The whole process relating to business continuity planning should be periodically reviewed to identify any number of changes that may invalidate the current plan. (Osborne, 2007).
Facility management – Business continuity planning
All organisations should have in place a continuity plan so that in the event of a fire or major failure the business can recover quickly. In large organisations it may be that the staff move to another site that has been set up to model the existing operation. The facilities management department would be one of the key players should it be necessary to move the business to a recovery site.
Facilities management – Business continuity planning
All organizations should have in place a continuity plan so that in the event of a fire or major failure the business can recover quickly. In large organizations it may be that the staff move to another site that has been set up to model the existing operation. The facilities management department would be one of the key players should it be necessary to move the business to a recovery site.
Emergency procedure – Business Continuity Planning
Business continuity planning may also feed off of the emergency procedures, enabling an organization to identify points of vulnerability and minimise the risk to the business by preparing backup plans and improving resilience. The act of producing the procedures may also highlight failings in current arrangements that if corrected, could reduce the risk levels.
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