[OR] [BDO] [E3] [C1] Starting Your OR Implementation

 eBook 3: Chapter 1

Beginning the Journey of Operational Resilience Implementation

The journey toward operational resilience moves from understanding and planning to execution. This third instalment, “Starting Your OR Implementation,” marks the pivotal transition in which strategy is translated into actionable, organisation-wide practices.

Building on the foundations established in the earlier eBooks—“Understanding Your Organisation” and “Implementing OR Planning Methodology”—this volume serves as the practical launchpad for implementing a structured and sustainable Operational Resilience (OR) programme within BDO Unibank.

Following the foundational understanding established in eBook 1: Understanding Your Organisation and the design principles and frameworks articulated in eBook 2: Implementing Operational Resilience for BDO, this third instalment marks the transition from planning to execution. 

It focuses on how BDO and similar financial institutions operationalise operational resilience through structured analysis, documentation, and testing.

This eBook 3,  Starting Your OR Implementation, is designed to support organisations at the most critical juncture of their operational resilience journey: Phase 2 (P2) of the Operational Resilience Planning Methodology. 

At this stage, high-level intent, governance structures, and policy commitments are translated into detailed operational artefacts that regulators, senior management, and internal assurance functions expect to see. 

Consistent with the  BSP Circular No. 1203 (Operational Resilience), this phase emphasises identifying Critical Business Services (CBS) or Critical Operations, mapping dependencies, establishing impact tolerances, and validating resilience through severe yet plausible scenario testing.

Unlike theoretical guides, this eBook compiles real organisational submissions from an operational resilience exercise.

The content reflects real-world constraints, regulatory interpretation, and practical decision-making, making it especially relevant for institutions preparing for supervisory engagement, internal reviews, or maturity uplift initiatives. 

Examples and illustrations align with the expectations outlined in the BSP 1203 Guidelines on Operational Resilience, including end-to-end service mapping, tolerance setting informed by considerations of customer harm and financial stability, and scenario testing that extends beyond traditional IT disaster recovery.

Purpose and Scope of This eBook

The primary objective of this eBook is to drill down into Phase 2 [P2] of the Operational Resilience Planning Methodology, focusing on the practical and evidence-based activities required to operationalise resilience within the organisation.

Unlike conceptual or policy-driven guidance, this volume is intentionally implementation-oriented. It translates methodology into structured deliverables, artefacts, and submissions that an organisation would realistically produce during an operational resilience exercise.

This eBook is therefore positioned as:

• A hands-on implementation guide for operational resilience practitioners, and
• A compilation of organisational submissions developed during an operational resilience exercise, reflecting how theory is applied in a real institutional context.

Focus on Phase 2 [P2]: Operational Resilience in Action

Phase 2 of the Operational Resilience Planning Methodology is the point at which resilience concepts are embedded in day-to-day operations.

This eBook addresses the six key requirements of Phase 2 as requested by regulators globally,  namely:

1. Outline Detailed Processes (Phase 2 – Stage 1) [DP]
   Translating high-level business services into detailed, end-to-end operational processes that enable service delivery.
2. Map Dependency (Phase 2 – Stage 2) [MD]
   Identifying internal and external dependencies, including people, technology, data, facilities, third parties, and suppliers.
3. Map Processes and Resources (Phase 2 – Stage 2) [MPR]
   Establishing clear linkages between processes and the resources required to support them under normal and disrupted conditions.
4. Establish Impact Tolerances (Phase 2 – Stage 2) [iTo]
   Defining the maximum tolerable level of disruption for each critical business service, aligned with client harm, market integrity, financial stability, and regulatory expectations.
5. Identify Severe but Plausible Scenarios (Phase 2 – Stage 4) [SuPS]
   Developing stress scenarios that meaningfully challenge the organisation’s ability to remain within its defined impact tolerances.
6. Perform Scenario Testing (Phase 2 – Stage 4) [ST]
   Testing the organisation’s capability to withstand disruption and identifying vulnerabilities, control gaps, and areas for resilience enhancement.

Each of these requirements is explored in the context of the organisation’s operating model and service landscape.

 To ensure relevance and practicality, the implementation activities in this eBook are anchored to its Critical Business Services (CBS), including: 

• CBS-1 Retail Deposit & Account Services
• CBS-2 Payment & Funds Transfer Services
• CBS-3 Corporate & SME Lending Services
• CBS-4 Treasury & Liquidity Management
• CBS-5 Digital Banking & Channels
• CBS-6 Card & Merchant Payment Services
• CBS-7 Clearing & Settlement Operations
• CBS-8 Customer Support & Contact Services
• CBS-9 Regulatory Reporting & Compliance
• CBS-10 Trade Finance & International Banking

Each CBS is analysed through the lens of process mapping, dependency identification, and scenario testing, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of vulnerabilities and resilience capabilities.

Each CBS is examined through the lens of process resilience, resource dependencies, tolerance thresholds, and scenario-driven vulnerabilities, enabling readers to understand not only what needs to be done, but how to do it in a structured, regulator-ready manner.

This eBook is designed for practitioners—risk managers, BCM professionals, operations leaders, compliance teams, and senior management—who are responsible for building, enhancing, or validating operational resilience capabilities.

It serves as both a hands-on implementation guide and a reference artefact, supporting consistency, traceability, and continuous improvement across the OR lifecycle.

This is a complimentary service offered by BCM Institute to organisations intending to implement an Operational Resilience project or enhance an existing Operational Resilience programme.

It is specifically designed to support organisations adopting the BCM Institute’s training-led implementation approach, where learning is directly integrated with real organisational deliverables.

For participants attending BCM Institute’s certification or competency-based training courses, this eBook serves as:

• A practical reference for applying training concepts to live organisational exercises,
• A structured guide for developing implementation artefacts, and
• A bridge between professional development and real-world resilience outcomes.

Readers should approach this eBook not as a theoretical manual but as a companion to working implementations.

The content reflects the realities, challenges, and decision points encountered when starting operational resilience implementation within your financial institution.

By the end of this eBook, readers should have a clear understanding of what needs to be produced, why it matters, and how it supports the organisation’s resilience-by-design.

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