A Management Proposal for Implementing the DR Plan

Overview

Executive Management’s recognition and support are a key factor for the successful implementation of a DR Plan for any organization. Because the process of developing the DR Plan is very resource intensive. It needs to:

Identify the related parties in the organization and involve them to analyze, prepare and document risk and recovery processes.
Seek sources of funds to procure DR equipment, software, services, awareness and training programs.
Provision for resources to continuously maintain, update and test the DR Plan to keep it current with the actual IT operating environment.

Often, some Executive Management do question the need for investing resources and funds into developing and maintaining the DR function as it is not a revenue generating activity. As an Organization DR Coordinator, there is a need to provide a well-thought strategy by collecting enough statistics and information to convince the Executive Management in allocating the resources to support the development and subsequent maintenance of the DR Plan.

Management Proposal Format

IC_DR_Management Proposal Format These are the major items to be included in a management proposal.

Objective and Scope

Similar to any other management proposal papers, a clear objective and scope must be specified clearly so that the Executive Management can understand what they are endorsing. The clarity in this section seeks for the commitment of resources, budget, and time to develop the DR Plan for the organization.

Historical Facts

Research and studies must be carefully done to ensure that you have sufficient information to put forth your business case for initiating a DR planning project for the organization. Some of the major historical facts that you should research on includes:

Past disruptions within the organization that have caused considerable losses or inconvenience.
News and figures on disaster events that may have happened in the same geographical location as your organization or areas where your organization has a presence.
Financial/business losses due to disaster events for the same industry.
Financial/business losses due to disaster events for business partners.

Mandatory Requirements

One of the strong justification is to highlight any mandatory requirements such as statutory requirement, contractual requirement, industrial requirement or military requirement. Also, highlight any formal service level agreements that your organization has with its business partners, customers or government authorities with an agreed tolerable unavailability window, otherwise substantial penalties may have to be paid to these external parties.

In-house or External Approach

In this section, it highlights the approach to carry out the DR project planning process. For example, do the organization need to engage a DR consultant to assist in managing the entire DR Plan development cycle or does the organization has the capability to do it themselves. The list the pros and cons of the proposed approach are elaborated.

Resources

Estimate the following resources that are required to develop the DR Plan:

Manpower needed to develop, test, verify and maintain the DR Plan.
The budget for engaging DR consultants, DR services, hardware and software, and training of the DR teams and general users.

Project Schedule and Key Milestones

Provide an overview of the complete project development schedule with an indication of major milestones such as completion of risk analysis, business impact analysis, development of DR strategy and so on. Also indicate the management reporting structure and timeline for reporting of project development progress to the Executive Management.

Budget

The budget is the source of funding for the DR planning project.

Key Responsibilities

The responsibility of each business units and functions should be published to ensure that all staff participating in the DR Planning project is clear on their roles and responsibilities.

Risks and Exposures

One has to consider the likelihood of exposure to events with potential to cause considerable disruption to your IT operations. Critical services and infrastructure, such as power supply sources, telecommunication linkages, cabling risers, hardware, and software must be carefully considered.

For example, if your organization is sharing a common telecommunication cable riser with other tenants in a building, the potential risk of someone accidentally cutting off your telecom cable is relatively higher than if your organization had exclusive use of a riser.

Estimate the time you would need to recover telecommunications if the cable is accidentally cut, and what the loss would be to your organization during the outage period. The estimates are usually obtainable through the various business unit owners who use your IT systems or infrastructure to support their business operations.

This section may not be available at the start of a new DR planning project and may be excluded from the proposal. The objective of this section is to give your Executive Management a feel of the IT operational risks that your organization is facing and what potential damages the business operation is liable for.

Overview of Preliminary Strategy

Present an overview of the measures that your organization can take to prevent, minimize and recover from disaster events that may have impacts on its business operations. Compare the pros and cons for each of the measures before putting forward your recommended strategy.

Reference

Goh, M. H. (2016). A Manager's Guide to Implementing Your IT Disaster Recovery Plan. Business Continuity Management Specialist Series (2nd ed.). Singapore: GMH Pte Ltd.

Extracted from "A Management Proposal for Implementing the DR Plan"

More Information About IT DR Blended Learning

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