Auditing BCP plans is crucial to ensuring a consistent product is being developed across the organization. Inconsistency raises the potential for failure of recovery should the plan be activated.
In our audit of BCP plans, we look for industry standard components that make up a best practice plan. For each component, we assign a Red (Does Not Exist), Yellow (Needs Work but it’s There) or Green (it’s in Great Shape).   Components to consider are:
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| Plan Approval and Sign-Off |
| Activation Authority |
| Delegation of Authority |
| Plan Overview |
| Recovery Sequence of Critical Business Processes |
| Building/Area Outage Plans |
| Technology Outage Plans |
| Telecommunication Outage Plans |
| Loss of Resources Plans |
| Loss of Other Channels Plans |
| Regulatory Requirements and Desk Procedures |
| Business Unit Information: |
| Initiation/Escalation Procedures |
| Criticality Designation |
| BU Processes |
| BU Dependencies |
| Assumptions |
| Workflow Input/Output |
| Manual Operating Procedures |
| Deviations to Standard Procedures or SLAs |
| Approach to Returning to Normal Ops/Location |
| Appendices |
| Critical Contacts: Internal and External |
| Alternate Site Information |
| Vital Records |
| Work Area and Equipment Inventory |
| Â Â Â Â Â Other Hardware, Tools and Supplies |
| Certification and Exercise Record |
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At the end of our assessment, we provide our client with a “heat map” summarizing the state of each plan and its adherence to industry best practice components. We look for common themes across the plans to aid the customer in identifying quick opportunities for improvement. Detailed findings and opportunities are also documented and presented to the client. Remember, no checklist is perfect and DOES NOT mean a plan with a clean bill of health will execute seamlessly!
About MHA: Â MHA Consulting, with its decade-long track record, is a proven leader in business continuity planning, disaster recovery planning, IT best practices and data center moves and relocations. Every day, MHA helps protect trillions of dollars of global-market assets and top companies around the world rely on MHA services for the continuity of their business. For more information on MHA, contact Michael Herrera at herrera at mha-it dot com.
Michael Herrera
Michael Herrera is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MHA. In his role, Michael provides global leadership to the entire set of industry practices and horizontal capabilities within MHA. Under his leadership, MHA has become a leading provider of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery services to organizations on a global level. He is also the founder of BCMMETRICS, a leading cloud based tool designed to assess business continuity compliance and residual risk. Michael is a well-known and sought after speaker on Business Continuity issues at local and national contingency planner chapter meetings and conferences. Prior to founding MHA, he was a Regional VP for Bank of America, where he was responsible for Business Continuity across the southwest region.
