Contingency Planning

Collecting information for use within a BIA/RA/or continuity plan is a tedious task to begin with, but what do you do when you are receiving NO cooperation from fellow employees?

Unfortunately, fellow workers are not always as enthused by contingency planning as you and I and require some “encouragement” in order to provide the necessary input. While contingency planning matters are on the top of our list, they are likely on the bottom of the list for others within the organization. Given this, it is important to be as understanding and as flexible as possible when seeking this information to avoid breaking important bonds. This may require constant reminding, the use of alternate meeting methods (teleconferencing, emails, meetings over coffee, and so on), re-explanation, and in a worst-case scenario escalation.

This has always been a difficult subject area to breach. What are your thoughts?

The Contingency Planner

As the field of contingency planning continues to mature, certification bodies continue to crop up globally, all offering certification. For someone who is new to the field, this can cause quite a bit of confusion. Which certification is of the most value?

My opinion: stick with the tried and tested certifications like those offered by the Disaster Recovery Institute. These are most recognized by employers and clients alike and will increase your chances of success significantly more than receiving certification from a “flash in the pan” organization.
While gaining certification from reputable organizations may prove to be a tedious task, it will prove to be a valuble process (especially when coupled with post-graduate studies) in the long run.

The Contingency Planner

The decision from senior management to fund the development of a contingency program is often just the first decision required during the development of an organizations contingency program.

In my experience, an organization will come across many critical decisions even after deciding to proceed with a contingency program. One such decision is determining how to differentiate between an incident and a disaster.

Thus, it is useful to have some standard or tool to define what a disaster may look like, regardless of the organization. Personally, when I am on an engagement, I suggest that organization’s look to the nature of a potential incident, the likely impacts of the incident, the likelihood that critical services could be recovered based upon the projected impact, the level of management required to act in order to resume critical services, and the actual response and recovery actions required of these individuals. Based on these factors, it quickly becomes evident what constitutes an incident and what constitutes a disaster.

Obviously, some organizations can tolerate larger disruptions than others (based upon level of preparedness and experience in managing disruptions) so this must be considered when defining an incident versus a disaster within a particular organization.

All this to say that this topic still seems to generate quite a bit of interest in the industry. What are your thoughts? How do you define an incident versus a disaster?

Until next time,

The Contingency Planner

Welcome to the Contingency Planning blog. I hope to share my experience and knowledge, much of which has been gathered while on the job, with you. In turn, I welcome you to comment as you wish, providing thoughts and knowledge based on your experiences in the field.

Enjoy and check back often.

The Contingency Planner