There is so much information out there about business continuity and how to do it. You can talk to consultants, read articles, attend conferences and participate in webinars and still feel like you’re not sure if you’re doing the right things.
You’re not alone. There is no “right” or “wrong” when it comes to business continuity. However, there are some guidelines that can allow you to develop a business continuity plan that works for you organization.
To help fellow professionals like you, we’ve put together a business continuity plan (bcp) checklist that you can use when creating or updating your plan:
Business continuity plan Checklist
□ What did your business impact assessment reveal as being the top threats for your business? Start with the top one or two results and work from this.
□ Read your plan - does it address these threats? If not, make adjustments.
□ Determine your communication strategy. This includes having an up-to-date contact list, an up-to-date team list, and a way to communicate with those people.
□ Know your meeting place(s) and determine how you will tell your team where this is.
□ Define the key processes that you need to keep up-and-running so that your organization can be a success. Identify your vital third-party contacts. Know what your customers are expecting and when.
□ What about your infrastructure? Don’t forget that disaster recovery is a key component of business continuity. Learn the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery.
□ Test, test, test. Hold a mock disaster. Make it as real as possible - think about the business impact assessment and determine how you can best test your plan.
□ Based on your mock disaster and thorough plan assessment - adjust your organization's business continuity plan accordingly.
□ Schedule time now in your calendar and the calendars of important colleagues, to revisit and update your plan. Remember as your business changes - so does your plan.
We want to hear from you - do you have suggestions on what works when creating or updating a plan? Do you have a mobile app that you like to use? Did you hold a mock disaster - what happened?
