What tasks are solved by the Business Continuity Plan
In the pursuit of new tools and approaches to IT project management, managers forget about proven approaches that have long demonstrated their effectiveness. These include the Business Continuity Plan, which was originally developed for crisis management, but later became successfully used in the IT sector. It helps to answer one of the main questions that a manager should ask when creating a new project: “What to do if…”. Creating a plan makes it possible to understand how the business process will work if the conceived idea doesn’t work or doesn’t bring the expected effect.
The concept of BCP is directly related to the concept of a disaster recovery plan or DRP. Both are tools that help a business function when something goes wrong. It is better to consider the BCP application with the help of an example. DDos-attacks on websites have become frequent these days, as a result of which various systems, among them electronic document management, can be hacked. In the case of such a situation, specialists study the plan for business continuity, also an algorithm for the restoration of activity. It clearly describes all the steps out of the crisis and the rapid transition to alternative systems until the problem is solved. In addition, the plan describes the actions for rapid correction of the situation. Due to the BCP, the speed of response is much higher, and it allows you to maximize the time to solve the problem and quickly restore important functions.
There are no specific rules for developing an IT business continuity plan, usually, each specialist does it with the specifics of the company in mind. However, there is a set of basic blocks that are most often used.
Options for a possible disaster. This describes in detail the situations that may occur, their signs, and the main points of recovery.
Targets – with their help, the company determines how long it will be able to operate without serious damage under the influence of the threats described earlier.
Responsible people – a list of specialists who should be contacted in the event of a disaster.
It should be understood that the purpose of a business continuity plan for IT is to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of important processes. Therefore, it must be implemented according to all the points outlined, clearly and in accordance with the instructions. Therefore, it should be developed before there is a need to restore anything. It is better to spend on BCP creation quite a lot of time and describe everything in detail than to think over your actions in a frantic manner to save your business.
It should be understood that not all situations can be handled by yourself, so in the plan for business continuity, it is better to describe the types of problems that require outside intervention.
