It is vital that the organization takes the development and maintenance of the disaster recovery plan seriously. It is not a task that can be left and left until someone finds enough time to deal with it. A serious incident can of course occur at any time.
AWARENESS
It is good practice for the organization's Board or Governing Body to demonstrate a clear commitment to establishing and maintaining an effective disaster recovery planning process.
All management and staff should be informed that a disaster recovery plan is required in order to ensure that essential functions of the organization are able to continue in the event of serious adverse circumstances.
THE PLANNING PROJECT
Having obtained the full backing of the organization, the person or team developing the plan needs to prepare carefully.
A good start is to create a list of all necessary documents and information. Where this includes documents containing sensitive information, care must be taken to ensure that confidentiality is not compromised.
To assist, we have prepared a list of documents and information which could be included as part of this exercise.
RANKING KEY BUSINESS AREAS
The disaster recovery plan should include a descriptive list of the organization's major business areas. This list should rank the areas in order of importance to the overall organization.
Each item should include a brief description of the business processes and main dependencies on systems, communications, personnel, and information / data.
To assist, we have prepared a list of functional areas/processes which could be included as part of this exercise.
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