Our approach
Because business continuity can be confusing
Business Continuity planning has been around for a long time - ask Noah!
But advice on it still varies around the world. (BS 25999 in the UK, HB 221:2004 in Australia, NFPA 1600 in the US etc plus regulations on certain aspects ISO 17799, Basel II, Sarbanes Oxley, King II, CCA etc). Terminology and jargon have evolved (recovery point objectives, business impact analyses, risk matrices and single points of failure).
we decided to focus on the basics
We looked at the ideas in some of the standards and regulations but picked out the stuff that a small business could deal with. Because small businesses;
- Don't have much money or time (to hire consultants or learn theories).
- Already know each part of their business well (so we cover business impact analysis and risk assessments but focus on resource plans).
- Want to keep things simple (complex plans will simply not get tested).
in a way that was informative and informal
Our style is informal because;
- Nobody likes to be preached at.
- Business continuity can be a scary subject for many people.
so that businesses could learn from each other.
The Continuity Check can be used by the business themselves or given to their suppliers because;
- It can be very difficult to evaluate yourself but easier to examine others.
- When the questions in the Continuity Check are combined with answers from a business, information is transformed into knowledge.