XX T28: Terminology

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

Terminogy

Explanation

Business Continuity Coordinator (BCC) A staff member who is assigned the overall responsibility for coordinating the organization’s BCM program among its various business units.

Business Continuity Management (BCM) It is an ongoing management process employed by the organization to identify potential risks-impacts and establish the necessary arrangements and plans to maintain its business continuity capability.

Business Continuity Planning (BCP)  It is a process of developing advance arrangements and procedures that enable an organization to respond to an event in such a manner that critical business functions continue without interruption or essential change.

Business Continuity Plan   Documentation of a predetermined set of instructions or procedures that describe how an organization’s business functions will be sustained during and after a significant disruption.

Business Unit Coordinator (BUC) A staff appointed by a business unit to serve as the liaison person responsible for all BCM direction and activities within the business unit.

Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP)  It is a process of developing advance arrangements and procedures that enable an organization to respond to a disaster and resume the critical business applications within a predetermined period of time, minimize the amount of loss, and repair or replace the damaged facilities as soon as possible.

Disaster Recovery Plan   A written plan for processing critical applications in the event of a major hardware or software failure or destruction of facilities.  Also known as IT Disaster Recovery Plan.

Emergency Operations Center (EOC)  It is a site from which response teams exercise direction and control in an emergency or disaster.  Also known as Command Center.

Executive Management  The highest level of management within an organization responsible for the approval and allocation of all necessary resources for business continuity.

Exercise  An activity performed for the purpose of training and conditioning team members, and improving their performance in executing the BC Plan.  The exercise also serves to highlight the operation and effectiveness of the BC Plan so as to improve the BC Plan itself.

Simulation  It is a process whereby BC team members perform some or all of the actions they would take in the event of BC plan activation.  It may involve one or more of the recovery teams and are performed under conditions that at least partially simulate disaster.

Test  An activity that is performed to validate certain capabilities of the BC Plan relative to specified objectives or established criteria.  For example, the outcome of the test can be graded in terms of Pass/Fail or a 4-point scale ranging from highly unsatisfactory to highly satisfactory.

Test Schedule  It is a schedule for testing the plan and its components.  Plan change over time depending upon the needs of the business, many of which are predictable over a two year period.

Practice Test  A try-out of the procedures, rules and actions specified for a certain situation.

Rehearsal  A practice session whereby both infrastructure and people responses are tested concurrently.

Talk-through  It is to establish whether the expected is likely to meet the business unit’s expectations.  Typically this test would be conducted at the desk of the Business Continuity Coordinator or in a small interview room, with only two people present.

Trial  A session for briefing of team members before the conduct of a test/exercise so as to run through the general outline of the test or exercise.

Verification  The systematic checking of all data in a plan. Data used should be correct at the moment of use.

Source

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

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