Business continuity planning is a process of continual improvement, not a matter of writing a plan and then putting your feet up. Attempting to validate every aspect of your plan, however particularly in a live rehearsal situation could create a disaster of your own making. Validating Your Business Continuity Plan examines the three essential components of validating a business continuity plan exercising, maintenance and review and outlines a controlled and systematic approach to BCP validation while considering each component, covering methods and techniques such as table-top reviews, workshops and live rehearsals.
The book also takes account of industry standards and guidelines to help steer the reader through the validation process, including the international standard ISO 22301 and the Business Continuity Institute’s Good Practice Guidelines.
In addition, it provides a number of case studies based on the author’s considerable experience – some of them successful, others less so – to highlight common pitfalls and problems associated with the validation process.
Validating Your Business Continuity Plan: Ensuring your BCP actually works| Robert Clark (Author)| IT Governance Publishing
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence, The benefits of effective validation, “Why do we need to exercise our BCP?”, “Does everyone need to validate their BCP?”, In the beginning there was a flood.
Chapter 2: Standards and guidelines
“What is in a name ?”, Regulations, legislations, standards and good practice, The ISO22301 BCMS family of standards, The Business Continuity Institute’s good practice guidelines, Small and medium size enterprise considerations, Quality assurance.
Chapter 3: Business continuity begins at home
Chapter 4: Defining your exercise programme
Securing an exercise programme budget, Planning your exercises, Executing your exercises, Post exercise activity, Validating outsourced products and service, Running unannounced exercises, Assessing the costs and risks.
Chapter 5: Selected Scenarios
Media communications, ICT disaster recovery, Terrorism, Scenario summary.
Chapter 6: Live rehearsal case studies
From a full dress rehearsal to the real thing inside four months, Guildhall filled with smoke for training exercise, Airport simulates runway aircraft collision, Rehearsing a 9/11 type scenario 16 years before it happened, Sorry, you cannot evacuate the building before lunch is finished!, Three active shooter situation exercises, Waking Shark II – Desktop cyber exercise, Wave I pandemic exercise, Twitter used in mock bomb threat exercise, Responding to a WMD incident, Power failure – testing your generators, Bomb scare at General Hospital, No, Rakesh is an Indian.
Chapter 7: It could happen to anyone, couldn’t it?
Did you hear the one about the Irish business continuity exercise?”, Don’t forget to tell the emergency services, Your shortest RTO is two hours and it will take three hours to retrieve your BCP, La piece de resistance – and I couldn’t even claim the credit, “Who has got the disaster recovery site key?", I’m sorry, he doesn’t live here anymore, Don’t forget your desktop environment, We can’t come, it’s our Christmas cruise, “Who forgot to tell the catering manager?”, Check the small print in the contract, Oh, we did a full live exercise of our BCP last Monday.
Chapter 8: Maintaining your BCMS
Maintenance activities, Keeping abreast of organisational changes, Project control, Managing your documentation.
Chapter 9: Reviewing your BCMS
Introduction.
Chapter 10: Performance appraisal
Chapter 11: Using consultants to help you exercise
Chapter 12: Training and education
Certificate of the Business Continuity Institute, Diploma of the Business Continuity Institute, Bachelor’s Degree in Business Continuity, Master’s Degree in Business Continuity, Doctorate in Business Continuity, ISO22301 Certified Business Continuity Lead Auditor/Implementer.
Chapter 13: Additional reference material
Books, Videos, Games.
Chapter 14: Works Cited
Chapter 15: Glossary
Chapter 16: Free template downloads
ITG Resources
LINK FOR THE BOOK