Exercising Business Continuity Plans

Exercising Business Continuity Plans is key to successfully responding
to a real incident.

We prefer to use the term “exercise” rather than “test” as the latter term implies a pass or fail.  The purpose of exercising Business Continuity Plans is twofold: to improve the plans and to ensure that relevant staff are familiar with them and their roles should an incident occur.

In practice the exercising of Business Continuity Plans should develop over time.  Initial exercises will concentrate on identifying errors and shortcomings in the plans and ensuring that relevant staff are familiar with their roles.  Table top exercises are ideal for this purpose.

As Business Continuity Planning becomes better established within the organisation, more complex exercises involving several departments can be appropriate to refine the plans and provide a higher degree of staff competence in the face of a real incident.

Business Continuity Plans need to be periodically exercised to ensure that they are up to date and would be effective in dealing with a real incident.

Our Business Continuity Consultants are experienced in helping our clients exercise their Business Continuity Plans by running exercise workshops based around an agreed scenario.  If you would like more information e-mail info@activityim.com