How Do You Test Business Continuity Plan

In today's business environment, even short amounts of downtime can lead to large losses. Ensuring your business or organization can quickly recover from both a short interruption and a major disaster is the basis of a business continuity plan (BCP.) That said, it's important to understand that a BCP is an ongoing process rather than a singular action. For this reason, BCPs need to be regularly monitored, reviewed and tested to ensure they meet the needs of the organizations they're meant to protect. So, how often should a business continuity plan be tested? In this article, we'll narrow it down.

How Often Should Your BCP Be Tested?

The frequency with which a BCP should be tested depends on the business or organization it's been designed for. Below are some of the factors that will influence the frequency of your BCP tests.

Organization Size

The larger the organization, the more complicated the BCP is likely to be. For this reason, it will likely require more oversight, fine-tuning and testing. Smaller organizations often have fewer moving parts and may not require such frequent testing.

Organization Type

Highly regulated industries such as finance and medicine as well as organizations that deal with sensitive information may be required by law to have more stringent requirements than less controlled sectors. A small business based around arts and crafts would be less likely to need as much testing as a large healthcare centre.

BCP Type

The type of BCP you have in place will also determine how often it needs to be tested. Complex, wide-ranging plans have more room for failure and should be tested more often. Less complicated BCPs may not need to be tested as much because of the lower probability of complications. Conversely, an automated BCP might be able to regularly test itself and reduce the need for frequent manual tests.

BCP Testing Schedules

Regardless of how often your BCP requires testing, there should be an established schedule to ensure that testing occurs regularly and isn't forgotten about completely. The timeline of a specific schedule may change according to the business, but this general outline can be used as a reference point.

Biannual Itemized Test

Twice a year, each item on the BCP should be checked to ensure it remains relevant and up to date. Items may need to be removed, improved, amended or fixed. If changes do occur, all affected parties need to be informed.

Annual Simulated Disaster Exercise

Every year a simulated disaster exercise should take place to ensure everyone understands their role and can perform the required tasks accordingly. The exercise should be evaluated and used to identify any changes needed to improve future responses.

Biennial Review

Every two years, all concerned parties should sit down to review and analyze the BCP to ensure it still meets the needs of each part of the organization. If the plan needs updating, improving or a wholesale overhaul, having the entire BCP team in one place should make implementing changes easier.

Disaster Recovery Test

Every two or three years, a full disaster recovery test should take place to ensure the BCP functions properly. Not only will this ensure everyone involved can rehearse their designated roles, but it will identify problems with the BCP and call attention to where improvements can be made.

Ensuring The Effectiveness Of BCP Tests

BCP testing is, by its nature, disruptive. However, it's important to minimize this disruption to prevent testing fatigue which can reduce the willingness to participate in these necessary activities. All the involved parties should be given advance notice of tests and reminded of their duties. This will ensure they're not caught off guard as it can lower morale and reduce the willingness to comply in the future.
To ensure that your business has a proper disaster recovery plan in place and that unexpected downtime doesn't mean lost revenue, get a free assessment from MBC today.

Pavel Odnoletkov

With more than 20 years of experience, Pavel leads MBC's marketing efforts.

monizupos1990.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.mbccs.com/how-often-should-a-business-continuity-plan-be-tested/