Domain 03 of six
Operational resilience
Continuity arrangements are usually written once and assumed thereafter. This domain establishes whether yours would hold, and whether anyone has checked.
Why it matters
The problem this addresses
Almost every organisation has a continuity document. Far fewer have confirmed how long each critical system can be unavailable before the organisation is genuinely affected, or tested whether recovery works in the time assumed.
An untested arrangement is a statement of intent. It becomes a plan the first time it is exercised, and that is a much better moment to find the gaps than during an actual outage.
Scope
What we examine
- Which systems and processes are genuinely critical, established with the business rather than with technology alone
- How long each can be unavailable before the impact becomes material
- What recovery arrangements exist, and what they actually cover
- Whether those arrangements have been tested, when, and what the test found
- Whether people know their part without needing to read a document first
Assessment
Included in the Assessment
Fixed scope, agreed in writing before work begins. Findings your leadership can act on within ten working days of the final interview.
- Maturity rating for this domain on the five-level scale
- Business impact analysis, with recovery time and recovery point objectives agreed with the business
- Continuity and recovery arrangements written to be usable under pressure
- Test schedule, with a first exercise designed and ready to run
- Gap list, ranked by consequence rather than by ease of fixing
Implementation
Available as an Implementation Engagement
An assessment that ends at a report has done half the job. Most organisations know roughly what is wrong. What they lack is the time and the specialist capacity to fix it while also running the organisation.
In this domain that means
- Write the continuity and recovery documentation
- Design and facilitate the first exercise, including the scenario
- Work through what the exercise exposes, in priority order
Where does this sit for you today?
If you are not sure whether this domain is a priority, the Quick Diagnosis takes about two minutes and gives you a position on the page. Nothing is sent anywhere.