T4: Design Profile for Integrated Test

Testing Business Continuity Exercises

This is a series of useful templates that you can use to develop the Testing and Exercising program.

Design Profile for Integrated Test

Explanation

Integrated Tests involves combining two or more Component Tests in the order that they would occur during recovery. This template is a checklist of factors to consider in designing the test.

Definition
Objective	To integrate the recovery of several business units in the order that they would occur during actual recovery operations
Scope and Scale (Active/Passive; degree of involvement)	Active, business unit coordinators and/or deputies from ALL business units in one location plus relevant support teams with independent controllers
Components to be tested
Plans	Yes
People	Yes
Place	Ideally at the alternate office
Resources	No
Success Criteria	ALL participants confirm that the test was a useful and realistic simulation of a disruptive incident. There should be NO disagreement between controllers and all business unit coordinators
Essential Pre-Conditions	Walk-through Tests must have been successfully carried out for all the participating business units
Participants
Internal	Yes
External	No
Scheduling
Time of Test/Schedule	Pre-arranged, possibly extending beyond office hours
Duration	Maximum of 4 hours
Frequency (mandatory/desirable)	Every 18 months (mandatory), Annually (desirable)
Notice Requirement/Warning	Yes
Briefing of Participants	Yes, a briefing note to be issued at time of scheduling
Scenario	Yes
Test of plan	Yes
Budget for test	No, unless external participant involved
Execution/ Monitoring
Controllers	Four controllers, BCC or external consultant (if agreed)
Document
Documentation (capable of audit) -Track events and degree of success	Controllers’/business unit document checklist. Record the outcome on the “Records of Exceptions Noted During Test” and document remedial actions required (with responsibilities and target dates)
Review/ Measure
Post-Mortem Meeting	Yes - immediate de-brief (in certain cases there may be a need for a more considered review meeting some days later)
Report/ Output
Post-Test Actions (documented) –link to maintenance/reporting	Record the outcome on the standard assessment pro-forma and document remedial actions required (with responsibilities and target dates)
Maintenance/ Follow-Up
Make amendments to plan as required	If appropriate, amend the plan(s)

Source

Goh, M. H. (2006). Testing and Exercising Your Business Continuity Plan. Business Continuity Management Series (2nd ed.). Singapore: GMH Pte Ltd.

Extracted from "Chapter 26: T4: Design Profile for Integrated Test"

More Information About Blended Learning BCM-5000 [BL-B-5]

To know more about our blended learning program and when the next course is scheduled, feel free to contact our friendly course consultant colleagues via sales.ap@bcm-institute.org. They are the BL-B-3 Blended Learning BCM-300 ISO22301 BCMS Implementer and the BL-B-5 Blended Learning BCM-5000 ISO22301 BCMS Expert Implementer.