BS 25999 BCM exercising, maintenance, review and audit
The key deliverable here is to enable an organisation to demonstrate the extent to which its strategies and plans are complete, current and accurate, and to identify opportunities for improvement. URM has particular expertise in assisting organisations develop their testing regime and ensure they meet an organisations needs and reflect the importance of business continuity to the organisation and its key products and services. Other benefits of exercising include ensuring that BCP team members gain experience in their roles, providing training to the personnel responsible for response and recovery activities and checking that any business changes are reflected in the plans.
There are a number of recognised methods of testing BC plans including desk check, desktop walk through, simulation exercise (including tabletop) Test Plans for critical activities, invoke testing of individual departmental or business unit plans and full business continuity plans. Each has its merits and disadvantages. Overall, it is essential to document how often plans and processes will be exercised and to document lessons learned to ensure issues and errors are addressed.
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