Business Continuity Plan Template
To Make The Planning Job Easier

Variations of the business continuity plan template are available on the Internet. We make recommendations here as we've done elsewhere on this site, covering why some plans fail and listing basic principles.

We've also reviewed a few very important resources, essentially some key industry organizations, which you should become a member of, if you're not already one.

There are six steps that are intended as standard guidelines, in effect a business continuity plan template. They can be modified to fit your organization.

• Step 1: Preparing for the initial meeting with senior management.
  • The 10 things you should do in order to make sure you are well prepared to present the issues.
  • A suggested agenda for the meeting.
  • Issues to consider for your presentation.
  • Recommended actions for following-up.
  • The formation of a project team.
  • Conducting a second senior management meeting.
  • Business impact analysis questionnaire.
• Step 2: Conducting the business impact analysis.
  • Gathering the information.
  • Conducting the interviews.
  • Highlight time sensitive processes and application systems within your organization.
• Step 3: Preparing for disasters.
  • Define the alternatives and potential costs.
  • Recommend a strategy.
  • Prepare the report to senior management.
  • Meeting with senior management to obtain approval.
• Step 4: Developing and implementing the plan.
  • Define the scope for each alternative.
  • Develop the alternate site proposal.
  • Define the business continuity team (should involve all business areas of the company).
  • Conduct meetings with each of the business area teams.
  • Suggested agenda for the meetings and related follow-up.
  • Organize your resources - people, places, supplies.
  • Establish team tasks and procedures.
  • Conduct periodic meetings to review team progress.
  • Schedule periodic plan reviews.
• Step 5: Testing and maintaining the plan.
  • Establish plan exercises that grow in complexity.
  • Establish team members training requirements.
  • Develop plan maintenance procedures and schedules.
  • Declare an actual disaster scenario.
• Step 6: Gathering additional resources.
  • Scorecards used to evaluate business continuity preparedness Senior management, IT management).
  • Business continuity plan checklist.
  • Additional reference material.

Need Additional Help?

The team of business professionals behind this website has a complete skill-set, including, for example, how to use a business continuity plan template. It's our goal to make needed IT resources available through this website.

It could be as straightforward as directing you to a resource like the training planning information on our business continuity planning training page. This is typical of the way many of the resources on the site are offered.

We're also offering two important and useful industry standard books, free of charge. The content is based on years of experience in working with companies just like yours.

How To Get Help

Our offer of professional help is a serious one. First of all, you'll find that while the site information is exhaustive, it appears in a brief, easy-to-read, often bulleted, executive style.

You won't get bogged down in details while browsing this site, but we DO have extensive in-depth information for you if you want or need it. It's free and all you have to do is ask!

Start right now by going to the Contact Us page and complete the simple online form. You'll receive immediate access to two authoritative industry books, which our site sponsor will mail to you at no cost.

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