Testing & Training

Will our business continuity plan work? Everyone wonders about that once the plan is established, but not everyone takes the step that would answer that question... testing & exercising. The only way to find out if it will work is to use it, and we don't mean in the next disaster. The safe way to find out if it works is to test it. This week's articles provide information on the value of testing and on different ways to do it.

Bring some creativity to your business continuity exercises. (Item #1)   Whatever scenario you use for your testing, it should be relevant to your business. (Item #2)   There has been a sea change in business continuity and disaster recovery planning. (Item #3)  

Testing your plan could be easier than you think. (Item #4)   Here's information on how to design a cost-effective yet valuable training program. (Item #5)   Testing will help staff understand what the plan is and what their roles are. (Item #6)  

As always, we look forward to hearing your comments & insights regarding business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email me at [email protected].

Bob Mellinger, President
Attainium Corp

1. Creative Tests for Your Business Continuity Plan

Business continuity planning often falls under the purview of the IT department, even though it affects the entire company. This is both a great thing and a not-so-great thing. On one hand, IT knows that it's covered in the event of a crisis. On the downside, the rest of the company is often left thinking, "Not my problem." So when the time comes for IT to test the disaster recovery models, the rest of the business often won't tolerate being put offline for the sake of business continuity testing.
http://www.informationweek.com/creative-tests-for-your-business-continuity-plan
/d/d-id/1110877?page_number=2

2. Choosing an appropriate scenario for your business continuity plan exercises

The choice of business continuity exercise scenario is an important factor in its success, but how do you go about deciding what you should focus on? Simple scenarios that have no direct correlation to the risks that concern management only serve to produce superficial exercises that do little to further the development of a business continuity plan and are likely to reduce the value of business continuity management in the organization.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature1101.html

3. Business Continuity Planning: Best Practices for Your Organization

Back in the 1990s, "business continuity" wasn't a common part of everyday business lexicon. What many professionals spoke of was "disaster recovery." At the time, DR was principally the domain of technical specialists and engineers, with limited visibility and sponsorship from corporate executives. The focus was getting all that big hardware back up and running, in some cases within 24-48 hours, when a catastrophic event like a hurricane, flood or fire hit. Fast forward to the current decade and what has resulted is a sea change in thinking about disaster recovery.
http://www.mcsmanagement.com/PDFs/whitepaper_businesscontinuity.pdf

4. Testing and Exercising Your Business Continuity Plan

Exercises tend to be shrouded in intimidating terminology, but anyone can run one. All it really involves is a little project management and the facilitation skills that you would normally use when delivering a presentation, running a workshop or chairing a meeting. This guide should give some prompts on what to think about.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=17&cad=rja
&ved=0CHEQFjAGOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.eastriding.gov.uk%2FEasySiteWeb
%2FGatewayLink.aspx%3FalId%3D103463&ei=Et0CU4DtOcT70gHUx4GQDQ
&usg=AFQjCNHunDhMTwIUsXHvW7uiLXPM_gWcww&sig2=wBvrkJ-BQE1uuAJpUnEXuQ

5. Designing a business continuity training program to maximize value and minimize cost

Employees are often unaware of the existence of a business continuity management program within their organization and if they are aware of it, they may not be aware of their specific role within the business continuity effort. Can management rely on a business continuity program if employees are unaware of their response and recovery strategies? No - and as a result, the time and resources invested in the planning effort are often wasted. So why do organizations continue to place business continuity training and awareness raising at the end of a long list of priorities?
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/docs/busind/BCCM%20-%20Session%2016%20-%20Handout%20I%20-%20Designing%20business%20continuity%20training%20program.pdf

6. Exercises & Testing

Exercising Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery Plans is necessary and should be completed on a regularly scheduled basis and whenever a BC or DR plan has had significant changes made to it. This is essential for ensuring that your plan is current, fully functional and addresses your current operational processes and procedures. An exercise and testing program is necessary to ensure that all staff have a good understanding of their responsibilities as defined in the Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery Plan.
http://continuity.georgetown.edu/exercises