PgM 3: What is BCM Plan Maintenance?

IC_Morepost_PgM_BCM Plan Maintenance BC Plan Maintenance is the first major activity to start the entire Program Management phase.

In plan maintenance, there is a heavy dependence on the continuous availability, supply and sufficiency of people, budget and resources to develop, manage and deliver the series of maintenance activities to keep the BC Plan up-to-date and accurate.

How well the maintenance is executed will directly impact the BC capability of the organization. This is because the effectiveness of BC Plan will be significantly reduced if there are no maintenance processes to keep the Plan current and accurate.

In this chapter, various methods for BC Plan maintenance activities, the related resources that are required for carrying out the maintenance activities and the management criteria such as documentation of change control, plan distribution and access control will be explained in detail.

Objectives

The objectives of the Maintenance component within the Program Management phase are to establish an on-going management system to ensure:

The establishment of organization policies to formalize and support management and execute the maintenance efforts
The adequate provision of manpower, resources and budget
The delegation of roles and responsibilities to everyone within the organization to perform the maintenance activities
The testing and exercising of BC Plan are carried out frequently in order to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization’s capability to recover from ill effects of disaster events
All changes to the BC Plan are properly coordinated and managed through a formal change control management process
All updated BC Plan are distributed to all the BC team personnel promptly via a formal BC Plan distribution and collection management process

Tasks

The tasks to complete this maintenance component within the Program Management phase include:

Nominating the right person/business units to maintain and manage the BC Plan
Establishing maintenance procedures and schedules
Creating distribution list and circulation arrangement
Establishing annual budgetary guidelines for BC functions

What Does Maintenance Entail?

It is important that the BC Plan be continually maintained and updated. The major considerations in this process include:

Stage 1: Develop a BCP Maintenance System
Stage 2: Formulate Change Control Procedures
Stage 3: Identify Support Tools for the Maintenance of the BC Plan

Expected Deliverables

The expected deliverables at each stage of a typical maintenance phase are based on the development of a list of:

Officially appointed parties responsible for the BC Plan maintenance
Maintenance procedures (Appendix 2: Maintenance & Testing Procedures), schedules, distribution lists, policies and documentation change procedures
Accountability for annual BC planning expenditure

Reference

Goh, M. H. (2021). Managing & Sustaining Your Business Continuity Management Program. Business Continuity Management Planning Series (3rd ed.). Singapore: GMH Pte Ltd.

Extracted from "Chapter 3: What is Maintenance?"

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