T3: Design Profile for Walk-through Test

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

Test Design Profile for Walk-through Test

Explanation

This design profile is a checklist to ensure that all aspects have been considered in planning a Walk-through Test. In this Walk-through Test, recovery team members meet to verbally walk-through the specific steps of each component of the business continuity process according to the completed plan.

Definition
Objective	Confirm the feasibility of the business unit’s recovery procedures without invoking recovery resources
Scope and Scale (Active/ Passive; degree of involvement)	Passive
Components to be tested
Plans	Yes
People	Yes
Place	No
Resources	No
Success Criteria	There should be NO disagreement between Controller and business unit coordinators
Essential Pre-Conditions	Both Business Unit Coordinator and his/her Business Unit Heads must have agreed on the plan
Participants	-
Internal	Yes
External	Yes
Scheduling
Time of Test/Schedule	At a pre-arranged time during office hours
Duration	Maximum 2 Hours (any areas not covered must be dealt with at another meeting)
Frequency (mandatory/desirable)	Once a year (mandatory); after each review (desirable)
Notice Requirement/Warning	Yes
Briefing of Participants	Yes - short email introduction in advance of the test to define basic objectives and conduct
Scenario	Not Required
Test of plan	No
Budget for test	No
Execution/ Monitoring
Controllers	One controller, external to the business unit. Possibly business unit coordinators of another business unit or members of the corporate BCP Team
Document
Documentation (capable of audit) -Track events and degree of success	Record results. and Note issues arising
Review/ Measure
Post-Mortem Meeting	Meeting not immediately required. Consider a number of Walk-through Tests at a regular meeting
Report/ Output
Post-Test Actions (documented) –link to maintenance/reporting	Record the outcome on “Records of Exceptions Noted During Test” 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). Arrange re-tests where necessary

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 25: T3: Design Profile for Walk-through Test"

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