Critical to a successful Business Continuity Program, is the ability to stress test Business Continuity Plans frequently. As frequently as a logical, systematic schedule that facilitates understanding strengths, weaknesses and learnings to continuously enhance. Something that can be compared with the daily stand-up methodology of agile.
Your Guide to Frequent Testing for Business Continuity
You may check this guide on how to facilitate frequent Business Continuity
Plan testing:
1. Testing goals are documented and communicated.
Documenting and communicating testing goals helps identify and eliminate errors or omissions in the business continuity plan. It also helps create familiarity within the systems and processes for best plan outcomes.
When there's regular testing, you can optimize the current Business Continuity Plans. This would then result in a practical implementation of the plan.
2. The required data for testing must be identified and readily available.
When you conduct business continuity plan test, the necessary data must be known and available to have standardized procedures. If the testing indicates that obtaining good sound, consistent, and relevant data to achieve objectives is doubtful, challenging items should be removed, and alternate data collection methods should be sought. A single source of truth, that is a digital repository enabling real time access adds tremendous value in times of disruption.
3. A stress test is given outside of business hours
The need for stress-testing business continuity management software and systems has been highlighted by recent occurrences, such as the recent pandemic. This process allows you to check how well the plan can adapt to any situation.
Stress-testing plans during the weekend, holidays, or post-business hours ensure to give you appropriate leverage to expose potential flaws. It's better to be aware of pitfalls ahead of time, so alternate solutions can be identified.
4. Lessons are learned, rinsed, and repeated
When you do frequent testing, new lessons are learned. The lessons could indicate preferences of key stakeholders to digest the business continuity data presented, changes to the operating landscape, or even requirements to accommodate unique steps for out of business working hours. These customization’s or changes play a key success factor and thus poses the need for frequent testing of business continuity plans.
Test your BC plans as frequently as daily stand-up, using BCM next.
The BCM Next assistant, will enable you to test as frequently and as seamlessly on the touch of a button.
The user would experience the real time scenario modelling that pulls data from Business Continuity Plans and identifies critical enablers to be recovered based on the damage identified.
Talk to us and learn how more about our real time testing.
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