Business continuity planning is a critical aspect of small business operations. It involves the creation of strategies and plans to ensure that a business can continue to operate during and after a disaster or disruption. This glossary will delve into the various terms and concepts related to business continuity planning, providing a comprehensive understanding of this essential business practice.
Understanding these terms is vital for small business owners and managers, as it allows them to effectively plan for potential disruptions, ensuring the survival and success of their business. This glossary aims to provide a detailed and comprehensive overview of these terms, providing the knowledge needed to develop and implement effective business continuity plans.
Business Continuity
Business continuity refers to the ability of a business to maintain essential functions during, as well as after, a disaster has occurred. It involves planning and preparation to ensure that an organization can continue to operate in case of serious incidents or disasters and is able to recover to an operational state within a reasonably short period.
This concept is not only about being able to continue business operations, but also about minimizing the impact on the business, ensuring the highest levels of availability and service for their customers. It's about safeguarding the interests of the business and its stakeholders.
Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a document that outlines how a business will continue operating during an unplanned disruption in service. It's more comprehensive than a disaster recovery plan and contains contingencies for business processes, assets, human resources and business partners – every aspect of the business that might be affected.
Plans typically contain a checklist that includes supplies and equipment, data backups and backup site locations. Plans also identify plan administrators and include contact information for emergency responders, key personnel and backup site providers.
Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a systematic process to determine and evaluate the potential effects of an interruption to critical business operations as a result of a disaster, accident or emergency. A BIA is an essential component of an organization's business continuance plan; it includes an exploratory component to reveal any vulnerabilities and a planning component to develop strategies for minimizing risk.
The result is a business impact analysis report, which describes the potential risks specific to the organization studied. One of the basic assumptions behind BIA is that every component of the organization is reliant upon the continued functioning of every other component, but that some are more crucial than others and require a greater allocation of funds in the wake of a disaster.
Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery is an area of security planning that aims to protect an organization from the effects of significant negative events. DR allows an organization to maintain or quickly resume mission-critical functions following a disaster.
Disaster recovery involves a set of policies, tools and procedures to enable the recovery or continuation of vital technology infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems supporting critical business functions, as opposed to business continuity, which involves keeping all essential aspects of a business functioning despite significant disruptive events.
Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a documented process or set of procedures to recover and protect a business IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster. Such a plan, ordinarily documented in written form, specifies procedures an organization is to follow in the event of a disaster.
It is "a comprehensive statement of consistent actions to be taken before, during and after a disaster." The disaster could be natural, environmental or man-made. Man-made disasters could be intentional (for example, an act of a terrorist) or unintentional (that is, accidental, such as the breakage of a man-made dam).
Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the targeted duration of time and a service level within which a business process must be restored after a disaster (or disruption) in order to avoid unacceptable consequences associated with a break in business continuity.
It can include the time for trying to fix the problem without a recovery, the recovery itself, tests and the communication to the users. Decision time could be included in this period or not, depending on the business process. RTO is spoken of as a complement of Recovery Point Objective (RPO).
Resilience
Resilience in business continuity planning can be defined as the capability of an organization to continue delivery of products or services at acceptable predefined levels following a disruptive incident. Resilience is about the organization being able to bend and bounce back in response to a disruption, rather than breaking.
Resilience is not just about being able to continue business in the face of a major incident, but also about being able to adapt and evolve in the face of ongoing change, whether that's due to new technologies, new competitors, or new regulatory requirements.
Operational Resilience
Operational resilience is the ability of an organization to continue to serve its customers, deliver products and services, and protect its workforce in the face of adverse operational events by anticipating, preventing, recovering from, and adapting to such events.
It's about understanding the organization's operational risk profile, identifying the business processes that are most important to its success, and ensuring that those processes are robust enough to deal with disruptions. This requires a combination of risk management, business continuity planning, and operational flexibility.
Resilience Strategy
A resilience strategy is a plan of action designed to increase an organization's ability to respond to and recover from disruptions. It includes measures to increase the organization's operational flexibility, improve its ability to manage risks, and enhance its capacity to recover from disruptions.
The strategy should be based on a thorough understanding of the organization's risk profile and business priorities, and it should be integrated with the organization's overall business strategy. It should also be regularly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in the organization's operating environment and risk profile.
Incident Management
Incident management is a term describing the activities of an organization to identify, analyze, and correct hazards to prevent a future re-occurrence. These incidents within a structured organization are normally dealt with by either an Incident Response Team (IRT), or an Incident Management Team (IMT).
These teams are often either designated beforehand, or during the event, and are placed in control of the organization while the incident is dealt with, to ensure it causes the least amount of damage possible.
Incident Response Plan (IRP)
An incident response plan (IRP) is a set of written instructions for detecting, responding to and limiting the effects of an information technology (IT) incident. An IT incident can be anything that negatively affects the IT infrastructure and the ability of the system to function.
An IRP is a crucial component of an incident management plan and is typically included as part of a disaster recovery plan. An IRP includes a policy that defines, in specific terms, what constitutes an incident and provides a step-by-step process that should be followed when an incident occurs.
Crisis Management Team (CMT)
A Crisis Management Team (CMT) is a group of individuals tasked with the development, implementation, and management of the organization's overall crisis management plan. The CMT is typically composed of key decision makers, including the CEO, CFO, and heads of major organizational departments.
The CMT is responsible for ensuring that the organization is prepared for a crisis, that it can respond effectively when a crisis occurs, and that it can recover and return to normal operations as quickly and efficiently as possible after a crisis.
Conclusion
Understanding these terms and concepts related to business continuity planning is crucial for small business owners and managers. It allows them to effectively plan for potential disruptions, ensuring the survival and success of their business. By familiarizing yourself with these terms, you can develop and implement effective business continuity plans, safeguarding the interests of your business and its stakeholders.
Remember, business continuity planning is not just about being able to continue business operations during a disaster, but also about minimizing the impact on the business, ensuring the highest levels of availability and service for their customers. It's about safeguarding the interests of the business and its stakeholders. So, take the time to understand these terms and concepts, and use them to enhance your business continuity planning efforts.
