Three Principles of Practical Business Recovery

• Build it in – don’t add it on
• Adopt business recovery – don’t implement it
• Test, test, test – don’t just plan, plan, plan

Build It In – During Design Phase

• Redundancy
• Equipment (hardware and software)
• Connectivity
• Data
• Facility
• People
• Capacity
• Excess isn’t excessive
• Utilization Solution
• Dual uses for as much as possible
• Development
• Testing
• Training

Adopt – Don’t Just Implement

• Processes
• Automatic synchronization
• Server based software
• People
• Keep knowledge spread among many
• Mindset
• People hate change – but they will do it when it makes sense to them
• Duplicate all critical material ( Yes, all  )
• Small costs can have big impact
• E.g. home connectivity for critical users

Testing is Better Than Planning

• Usual Proposal from Recovery Consulting Vendors:
• Massive, complex plan – many books (that sit on a shelf, unread and unused)
• Test (when you can)
• Better Method
• Have many smaller distributed plans.
• Test often – very often.
• Test using the actual people who will (or may) recover.

Plans Are Necessary

• Better to have a tested plan that has been used
     than to have a more robust plan that no one reads
• Many small plans are better
• Like the Internet
• More resilient
• More redundant
• Coordination is an issue
• Testing is the solution

Testing is Absolutely Necessary

• Critical Success Factors
• Realistic: actual people doing actual tasks
• Repeated: at least annual; semi-annual is better
• Partnerships: not adversarial
• Non-judgmental: errors are good in tests
• People gain confidence
• Not a map – I’ve been there
• I know the server works – I use it every week
• I know how to use server based systems – I did it last month

Testing The Site

• Test at least once annually
• Twice when there are major changes
• Real people do real tasks: e.g.
• Payroll
• Purchasing
• Accounts Payable
• Customer Service
• Electronic Mail

Basic Concepts

• Build it in
• Adopt the mindset
• Test, test, test

Moving Forward

• Backup critical people
• Better documentation of critical processes
• More cross training to reduce “failure” points
• Geographic dispersion of trained people
• Temporal separation helps, but it’s not sufficient

Next Steps

This Consultant Note is a summary of the approach we use to help improve the implementation and effectiveness of business recovery / disaster planning initiatives. To help you achieve better payoff from your business recovery operation, contact us or email to info@christophertechnology.com.

Some of the material in this Note was originally presented at the annual meeting of the Information Systems Management Forum in Tampa, Florida, December 2001.

© Copyright 2002-2003, Christopher Technology Consulting LLC