Now a big sigh of relief! You should be proud of your accomplishments! Phase 6 is a celebration of 5 Phases of completion, 100’s of hours of time (likely), good money spent to protect your company and resume business when disaster strikes, and ultimately, be there for your customers in times of need.
So what’s on tap for Phase 6? Now, you just have to go back to your Phase 4 draft and update it with all of the notes, new things learned, and any other changes and fine tuning you have from implementing and testing in Phase 5. This is when you wrap everything up in it’s final version.
So what do you do now that all 6 phases are complete? Do we just wait for something to happen, after we pray it doesn’t of course?
Ok, so you’ll feel a little withdrawal for a bit…but the stress and work is all off your shoulders now, right? Almost! There likely were new systems, both technologically and non, that will need maintenance and tuning over time. This may not have been part of your original processes, but why wouldn’t you maintain these costly new ‘things’?
You’ll want to make sure that 6 months, 12 months or any other month for that fact, that your plan works. Testing it once is not enough. You must test it every so often. Some test every 6 months or every 12, while others test different parts every 3 months so by the end of the year it’s all been tested. This is a decision you must make. There is no standard other than to say, ‘test it, kick the tires, take it for a spin around the block once in while to keep the oil fresh’.
Your DR team needs to keep the procedures and actions at top of mind. You don’t want them forgetting too much. The plan needs to be updated when new software, hardware, business processes, and even people are added to the company. The same goes for the ones you take away and get rid of. KEEP YOUR BCP CURRENT. If you don’t, you’ve just wasted a hige amount of time, money and resources.
I hope you liked this series. If you have any questions or would like expansion of any other topics, please do not hesitate to let me know.
Rick
