The disaster recovery plan should include a descriptive list of the organization's major business areas. This list should rank the areas in order of importance to the overall organization.

Each item should include a brief description of the business processes and main dependencies on systems, communications, personnel, and information / data.

To assist, we have prepared a list of functional areas/processes which could be included as part of the strategy.

Functional areas to rank within your disaster recovery plan could include the following:

E-commerce processes

E-mail based communications

Other on-line real-time customer services

Production line

Production processes Human resources management

Information technology services

Premises (Head Office and branches)

Marketing and public relations

Maintenance and support services

Quality control mechanisms

Customer service handling

Sales and sales administration

Finance and treasury

Research and development activities

Accounting and reporting

Strategic and business planning activities

Internal audit

It is vital that the organization takes the development and maintenance of the disaster recovery plan seriously. It is not a task that can be left and left until someone finds enough time to deal with it. A serious incident can of course occur at any time.

AWARENESS

It is good practice for the organization's Board or Governing Body to demonstrate a clear commitment to establishing and maintaining an effective disaster recovery planning process.

All management and staff should be informed that a disaster recovery plan is required in order to ensure that essential functions of the organization are able to continue in the event of serious adverse circumstances.

THE PLANNING PROJECT

Having obtained the full backing of the organization, the person or team developing the plan needs to prepare carefully.

A good start is to create a list of all necessary documents and information. Where this includes documents containing sensitive information, care must be taken to ensure that confidentiality is not compromised.

To assist, we have prepared a list of documents and information which could be included as part of this exercise.