Business Continuity Management Essentials

As much as you would like it, life never goes to plan. Normally in business, you encounter and resolve problems in your stride. However, would you be able to keep your business running in the face of a major disaster? There are numerous risks that can threaten the continuity of your business. Beyond social unrest and unstable marketplace, have you considered power price-spikes or shortages, denials of site or data access, even biological, chemical or bomb-threats? What happens if a critical vendor goes down or if productivity plummets with a sector-wide industrial strike?

Business continuity management attempts to answer these questions. It’s essence is to ensure that business operations continue to function even in the event of a disaster or emergency. Does your organization currently have business continuity (BC) in place; is your BC strategy realistic enough to offer practical solutions in the time of crisis? In your last emergency, did you invoke your business continuity plan at all and how would you measure its success? For those that would are in the process of preparing continuity plans, or are unsure if their current plans will work for them in an emergency, this program has been specifically designed for you, using leading-edge methodology to refocus and enhance your BCM efforts!

This 3-day Business Continuity Management Essentials course is intended for (but not limited to) those who will play a part in Business Continuity planning, implementation, day to day maintenance, and who may have a role to play in the event of a disaster It contains a number of practical sessions, designed to build on the ‘taught’ components of the module, and to encourage debate and the sharing of knowledge and experience between students.

Students will leave the class with the information they need to understand and cooperate with Business Continuity Management Projects and to participate in Recovery operations.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This 3-day workshop will enable participants to have an understanding of:

• The function of and the need for Business Continuity Management within an organization and why Business Continuity Management awareness must be embedded within the organization.
• The Business Continuity Management Lifecycle and the main components of a Business Continuity Management program
• The need for Risk Assessment within Business Continuity Management
• Business Continuity Management strategy options.
• The plans that form a Business Continuity Management response
• The need for Exercising, Maintenance and Review of all plans.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

The qualification promotes a hands-on approach to Business Continuity Management, making use of current international standards, enabling candidates to make immediate use of the module on their return to their organizations.

This seminar in Business Continuity Management is intended for (but not limited to) those who are involved in the areas of information security and information assurance, including:

• Business Managers involved in the establishment of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans.
• Line Managers providing staff or other resources to Business Continuity Planning efforts and Business Process Managers who will interact with the Business Continuity Process.
• IT Operations, Service Support, and Service Delivery Managers.
• Business staff who will provide input to the Business Continuity Planning effort.
• Any individual who will plan a role in Recovery efforts.
• Service Provider staff members who will be involved in Recovery or Return to Normal activities.

PREREQUISITE

There is no prerequisite for this course. It functions as a standalone course.

MATERIALS

Each participant will receive a course binder containing copies of presentation slides, case studies, exercises, and suggested solutions.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Day 1: Introduction, Initiation, and Planning and Requirements Gathering

• Where do we start, who should be involved, and what’s included?
• The Business Continuity Management Lifecycle.
• Identifying and communicating the need for Business Continuity Planning.
• Understanding the necessary organizational and governance.
• Using Project Management methodologies to plan and implement BCP.
• What do we need to protect against, how much will we lose, what MUST be protected?
• Learn the Business Impact Analysis methodology, used to determine the value of Business Processes and identify those which are Mission Critical.
• Identifying threats to your organization and objectively determining your level of risk.

Day 2: Continuity Strategy, Creating Continuity Plans, and Preparing to Execute

• What should we do if the worst happens and how should we do it?
• Understand how the information from the Requirements Gathering stages is used to evaluate and select strategic options to protect your business.
• Learn how to identify and select Risk Reduction and Recovery measures for Business Processes, supply chains, and technology.
• Understand the contents and objectives of the various plans required. Lean why they are required, how they are used, and how they will be maintained.
  
  
  • Incident Management
  • Business Continuity
  • Invocation
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Business Resumption
  • Return to Normal Operation
• Learn how plans are built, tested, exercises and how schedules for testing, exercising, awareness, and training are developed.
• Identify the people, skills and knowledge necessary to test, deploy, and maintain all plans.
• Conduct the initial exercises and tests, adjusting the documents as required.

Day 3: “Training and Awareness”, “Exercise, Maintain, Review”, Invocation, and Wrap up

• How do we make sure that we can act when the time comes?
• What do we do when the worst happens?
• Understand the importance of Change Control as applied to Continuity Planning.
• Lean how ongoing awareness sessions, keeping the materials up to date, and ensuring that all parties are familiar with their responsibilities will help support Continuity Planning over the long term.
• Staying in touch with other parties to the plans, holding regular reviews to ensure that documentation is up to date at all times, and conducting audits.
• See how the Training, Testing, Exercise and Review schedules are put to use.
• Walk through the use of plans in a disaster, determine how to “Return to Normal: and how to review actions after the fact.
• Lean how actions are reviewed after the event if necessary.
• Review of all materials with highlights on key points