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The 10 phases of a BCP to audit – Best practices including case studies

1. Initiation

• BCP and operational risks
• Get a sponsor, authority, scope, and funding.

2. Risk analysis

• Document and prioritize current risks. Risks include natural disasters and man-made events.

3. Business impact analysis

• Develop a low-level business process blueprint; determine what is needed to sustain the business.

4. Create strategy

• Use the risk analysis and business impact analysis to formulate a possible strategy based on facts and assumptions in evidence.

5. Emergency response

• Integrate the planned strategy with the first responder by using the Incident Command System (ICS).

6. Plan creation

• Create and organize the plan, including personnel assignments and detailed procedures.

7. Training and awareness

• Teach individuals the necessary roles and skills to perform the required functions of the BC/DR plan. Educate the organization about the plan’s existence and anticipated areas of coverage.

8. Maintain and test

• Nothing is out of date faster than a big book of plans. People have to practice their roles to gain proficiency, and a change control system will be needed to improve the documentation. It is impossible to keep plans current without structured exercises to improve skills and identify deficiencies.

9. Communications

• Clients, investors, partners, employees, and stakeholders need to be kept informed and feel comfortable with the information they receive. Internal and external messages need to be properly vetted to portray the intended message; a schedule of communications and scripted messages needs to be developed in advance. Poor communications can be more damaging than the actual disaster itself. Plans need to include an uninterruptible communication system.

10. Integrate with other organizations

• No organization can exist by itself. A good plan will integrate with plans of business partners, suppliers, clients, and government agencies. You may need to rely on them, or they may need to rely on us during critical functions. Often a prime contractor will incorporate the plans of a subcontractor into their own.

11. COVID responses and lessons learned