Testing, Training & Exercising
Your Business Continuity Plan

If, as this week's quote says, everyone's IQ in an emergency goes to zero, how can you get around that problem? Well, the answer is the same as the one to the question, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Practice, practice, practice. It's why schools and other organizations have fire drills... if everyone knows what to do, they are more likely to be able to do it if they have practiced it several times. So don't forget the critical step of testing your plan and providing some training for your employees. This week's articles can help shed light on how to do this.

One of the most frequent questions asked when discussing business continuity is: how often should I test my plan? (Item #1)   A plan is only as good as its implementation. (Item #2)   How can you train your employees within your BC plan? (Item #3)  

The objective of a post-development employee awareness training program is to raise the level of awareness of employees' role prior to, during, and after an emergency event. (Item #4)   The purpose of DR/BC testing is to achieve organizational acceptance that the business continuity solution satisfies the organization's recovery requirements. (Item #5)   While there are numerous disaster recovery plans on the Internet that can be used to structure a recovery effort, what is often overlooked is whether the plan will work when it really has to. (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. Testing Business Continuity Plans; How Often is Often Enough?

We test to ensure that the solution published in the business continuity plan meets the business recovery/continuity requirements. Plans may fail to meet expectations due to insufficient or inaccurate recovery requirements, solution design flaws or solution implementation errors. At minimum, testing should be conducted on an annual basis. Biannually is better. Quarterly is better still.
http://community.xmatters.com/thread/2765

2. How to Test a Business Continuity Plan

If we do not execute the plan, the very purpose of the plan is defeated. In case of a business continuity plan, there is a twist in the tale. This is because a Business Continuity Plan comes into use only when a situation calls for it. Otherwise, it remains a plan. So, it is important to test the plan at regular intervals to make sure that it serves the purpose.
http://www.wikihow.com/Test-a-Business-Continuity-Plan

3. How to Train Within a Business Continuity Plan

To continue operating your business or to restore operations quickly, ensure your staff can execute the plan. Schedule training exercises within your business continuity plan to maximize awareness. Three types of training (plan review, role-playing activities and simulated dry runs) validate your business continuity plan. Plan to run training events at least once a year or more if your business conditions change more frequently.
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/train-within-business-continuity-plan-17046.html

4. Training Your Employee after DR/BC Plan Development

The mere knowledge of the existence of a plan is enough to elevate the comfort level and self-assurance of employees in organizations. Such knowledge is certain to make employees take comfort in knowing that senior management is committed to the protection and preservation of the assets of the organization, including people, the number one asset in any organization. Additionally, the organization can realize several benefits, as well as ensure long run successful implementation of the organization's continuity plan.
http://www.drj.com/article-archives/dr-plan-awareness/training-your-employee-after-drbc-plan-development.html

5. Overview of how to test a Business Continuity Plan

The goal of this document is to identify the sections of the plan to perform, additional tasks required for testing and those tasks in the plan that cannot be completed because this is a test. Furthermore, this Test Plan helps out in analyzing the performance of the test by rating the outcome of the activities performed during the test. Rating each task shows areas where the test team did extremely well and areas requiring attention. In addition, rating the tasks aids in ranking the overall objectives and in turn, the success of the test.
http://www.dcag.com/images/BCP_Testing.pdf

6. Protect the Network: What can happen when you don't test that DR plan

Not testing a disaster plan can be disastrous. One enterprise experienced three days of lost productivity, but it gained some valuable lessons. After reading this article, one TechRepublic member chimed in with a neat resource.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/protect-the-network-what-can-happen-when-you-dont-test-that-dr-plan/