Contingency Management

Question: What's the difference between contingency planning, crisis planning, continuity planning and disaster recovery planning?
Answer: It depends. Despite what you may read elsewhere, there is no formal definition of these terms - the language is still evolving along with the underlying concepts. Some people use the terms loosely and interchangeably, others claim to know precisely what they each mean and are outraged if anyone 'gets it wrong'. The following bullet points simply explain what we understand to be the current consensus:

• Contingency planning is an all-encompassing term meaning making preparations for uncertain future situations (i.e. what we do is contingent, or depends upon, the situation that actually unfolds). It comprises a suite of techniques designed to identify and minimise risks. Contingency planning concepts apply to business, IT, political, personal and other situations.
• Crisis planning specifically concerns planning for the immediate aftermath of a disaster - evacuating staff safely, putting out the fires, treating casualties and so forth. This is probably the most critical period of all since normal processes and controls have more or less completely failed at this point. Some individuals have reverted to primitive survival instincts, while others may be physically and/or mentally traumatised to the extent that they are incapable of normal behaviour. A good crisis plan provides sufficient structure and guidance to stabilise the situation and enable the actual recovery processes to commence.
•  Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) concerns making arrangements to recover critical IT services after a serious incident. This typically involves either continuing IT operations in hot-site (dual-live) data centres, or restoring services on standby systems and network equipment in warm- or cold-site recovery.
• Business Impact Analysis (BIA) - The most important aspect, however, is the business impact analysis to identify which sections of the business actually contribute the most profit and contribution to the corporation and whose loss would undoubtedly cause the closure of the business.
• Business Continuity Planning (BCP) means preparing to keep the business going despite a disaster. Critical business processes are identified and arrangements made to ensure any associated IT services are resilient and/or have effective Disaster Recovery plans. Critical functions/processes with the IT department typically include IT operations and help desk: these need continuity plans.
• Resilience is an associated concept, meaning the ability to withstand most incidents without interrupting normal services. Resilient IT services, systems and networks use redundancy, automated failover and similar techniques.

Talk to ChoiceIT about designing, preparing and testing appropriate contingency plans for your business that strike a balance between cost and confidence. We have experience of all aspects noted above, and more besides (e.g. have you planned for 'logical' disasters such as major software bugs, website failures etc.? What about serious frauds or the sudden loss of key staff, managers or teams?). We've seen entirely predictable situations turn into disasters that should never have happened, and contingency plans that are far too complex to manage. It's mostly just common sense to us.