Category: Business Continuity

Residual Risk: if you’re not familiar with the term, you should learn how it applies to your Business Continuity Management program. In pulmonary science (the study of lungs) there’s something called ‘residual volume’.  That’s the amount of air that remains in your lungs after you forcefully exhale.  No matter how hard you try, there will […]

Risk Assessments have always been a ‘best practice’ in Business Continuity Management. That classic legacy approach has required a thorough examination of threats & vulnerabilities, probability & impacts – resulting in some manifestation of risk index. But at the end of the day, Business Continuity Planning is about the ability to respond to disruptions. Does […]

Assumptions are the IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices) of Business Continuity. Anyone can create one and, once strategically placed (usually tucked among the Mission Statement and Objectives) they have the capability to destroy a Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery Plan in an instant. So what can a Planner do to protect against those roadside bombs? I’ve […]

When you can’t put your full weight on your foot or leg because of an injury or surgery, you can still get around using crutches. It’s not hard, but it’s clumsy, it’s slow, and you can’t keep doing it forever (or at least you hope you won’t have to). The goal is to get healthy […]

The Business Continuity industry, consultants and associations have created a long list of standards, best practices guides, methodologies and certification processes. Sometimes, implementing these recommendations as part of an organizations’ BCM program becomes an obsession or an end unto itself.  Perhaps it is time to take a step back and change perspective. Simplifying the Business […]

Your Disaster Recovery Plan has a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) – or, perhaps multiple RTO’s for each Application or Service being recovered).  Your Business Continuity Plans have RTO’s for the underlying functions or business processes they are designed to recover. But do these RTO’s really mean the same thing?  Probably not; and if your Business […]

In 1977, Irving Wallace and his children began publication of The Book of Lists (since updated many times). It’s a fascinating book, but only useful for making odd references at parties. The same holds true for Business Continuity Plans. I’ve seen Plans 300 pages long – without a single word telling me what to do. […]

No one can predict when a disruption will happen, nor what the impact will be, what resources will be available, or who might be available to execute the restoration plans. Yet that is the reality of Incident Management planning.  So how do you plan for what you don’t know? Scenarios are often used as planning […]