An Unexercised Continuity Plan Could Be More Dangerous Than No Plan At All! Is exercising your continuity program too time-consuming, costly, or difficult to justify in the face of conflicting organizational priorities or senior management buy-in? What if you could use quick, cost-effective, easy exercises to get valuable results with only a relatively modest commitment? Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or just getting started, Charlie Maclean-Bristol provides you with expert guidance, a practical framework, and lots of proven examples, tools, tips, techniques and scenarios to get your business continuity exercise program moving! You can carry out any of the 18 simple yet effective exercises detailed in this book in less than an hour, regardless of your level of experience. Plus, you will find all the support you will need to produce successful exercises. Build your teams’ knowledge, experience, confidence and abilities while validating your business continuity program, plans and procedures with these proven resources! Business Continuity Exercises: Quick Exercises to Validate Your Plan Will Help You To: Understand the process of planning and conducting business exercises efficiently while achieving maximum results. Develop the most appropriate strategy framework for conducting and assessing your exercise. Overcome obstacles to your business continuity exercise program, whether due to budget restrictions, time constraints, or conflicting priorities. Choose the most appropriate and effective exercise scenario, purpose and objectives. Plan and conduct your exercise using a straightforward, proven methodology with extensive tools and resources. Conduct exercises suitable for responding to all types of business interruptions and emergencies, including cyber incidents and civil disasters. Conduct exercises for newcomers to business continuity as well as for experienced practitioners. Create a comprehensive post-exercise report to achieve valuable insights, keep management and participants in the loop, and to further your objectives.

Management, Business continuity, Management operations, Risk analysis, Risk assessment, Planning

Rather than providing readers with only one perspective on testing contingency plans, Mr. Rothstein has taken the powerful approach of carefully assembling a panel of thirty professionals to contribute their unique expertise in 36 detailed chapters, 350+ pages,covering such subject areas as:- test planning and management, including management's role, budgeting, justification and politics- test participants and resources, including professional development, human factors, the test team, self-assessment, the roles of vendors, consultants, auditors, clients, software- testing methods, including walkthroughs, simulations, joint testing, surprise testing, real disasters as the ultimate test- what is being tested, including business units, locations, data centers, voice / data communications, trading floors, local area networks- any other practical considerations, such as test monitoring, first-time testing, feedback, reporting and follow-up;even a sample test plan is included.

Exercises are a mainstay in the field of emergency management and business continuity planning. Although many organizations conduct exercises, and the organizers may be emergency management/business continuity subject matter experts, they do not excel in the discipline of designing and conducting the actual exercise - which means they simply don't get the best results out of their effort. This comprehensive and highly interactive course provides everything that an instructor needs to teach - and inspire - students to create great exercises. The course begins with a "silly little question": Why are we doing this? What seems like a simple query is actually one of the keys to get the most out of every exercise design. The course then peels back the mysteries of the design process with the goal of creating the best experience possible. Whether your students are developing simple tabletop exercises or working on a full-scale extravaganza that resembles a Hollywood movie, this course will provide you and them with gems of wisdom to make their exercises powerful and pack a punch. An internationally recognized expert in exercise design, Regina Phelps whispers her secrets into your ear week by week to ensure your course success.

This comprehensive how-to guide captures the distilled wisdom and experience of Jim Burtles, a founding fellow of the Business Continuity Institute; an internationally renowned figure in business continuity with over 30 years of experience and teaching across 22 countries; and a veteran of practical experience that includes recovery work with victims of events such as bombings, earthquakes, storms and fires, along with technical assistance/ support in more than 90 disasters, and advice/guidance for clients in over 200 emergency situations. As such, this book is a gold mine of practical information, based on solid theoretical underpinnings. It is an ideal combination of the practice of business continuity - standards, best practices, global perspectives - and, the process of business continuity - planning, development, implementation, and maintenance. Jim presents a clear picture of not only how to do what needs to be done, but why. By striking a balance between theory and practice, Jim's approach makes the reader's job much easier and more effective. Illustrated with numerous charts, forms and checklists, the book covers business continuity management from start to finish: understanding risks; assessing impact and developing a Business Impact Analysis; choosing contingency strategies; emergency response processes and procedures; salvage and restoration; disaster recovery; developing business continuity plans, including those for business continuity, emergency response, crisis management, function restoration, and disaster recovery; maintaining long term continuity; reviewing and auditing plans; exercising and testing plans; crisis management; dealing with various personnel issues before, during and after a crisis; and working with a variety of agencies and people, including local authorities, regulators, insurers, fire and rescue personnel, and neighbors. This comprehensive reference based on years of practical experience will ensure that the reader is in a position to engage in all of the activities associated with the development, delivery, exercise and maintenance of a business continuity program. There is a glossary of 90 business continuity terms. The accompanying downloadable BCP Tool Kit has 24 planning and analysis tools, including sample plans for evacuation, emergency response, and crisis management; scripts and plot development tools for creating exercises to test and audit plans; analysis tools for fire exposure, service impact, resource requirements, etc. It also includes checklists, case studies, and Web references. In addition to those highlighted above, this book includes additional important features: Ideal for senior undergraduate, MBA, certificate, and corporate training programs. Chapter overviews and conclusions; charts, graphs and checklists throughout Glossy of 90 business continuity terms. Downloadable Business Continuity Tool Kit, including templates of a sample business continuity plan, evacuation plan, emergency response plan, crisis management plan; case studies and exercises; student assignments; Websites; reader self-assessment. Instructor Materials, including PowerPoint slides, Syllabus and Instructor's Manual for 8-week course, with emphasis on student role playing. Author is a business continuity management pioneer and legend

As an instructor, you have seen business continuity and risk management grow exponentially, offering an exciting array of career possibilities to your students. They need the tools needed to begin their careers -- and to be ready for industry changes and new career paths. You cannot afford to use limited and inflexible teaching materials that might close doors or limit their options. Written with your classroom in mind,Business Continuity and Risk Management: Essentials of Organizational Resilience is the flexible, modular textbook you have been seeking -- combining business continuity and risk management. Full educator-designed teaching materials available for download. From years of experience teaching and consulting in Business Continuity and Risk, Kurt J. Engemann and Douglas M. Henderson explain everything clearly without extra words or extraneous philosophy. Your students will grasp and apply the main ideas quickly. They will feel that the authors wrote this textbook with them specifically in mind -- as if their questions are answered even before they ask them. Covering both Business Continuity and Risk Management and how these two bodies of knowledge and practice interface, Business Continuity and Risk Management: Essentials of Organizational Resilience is a state-of-the-art textbook designed to be easy for the student to understand -- and for you, as instructor, to present. Flexible, modular design allows you to customize a study plan with chapters covering: Business Continuity and Risk principles and practices. Information Technology and Information Security. Emergency Response and Crisis Management. Risk Modeling – in-depth instructions for students needing the statistical underpinnings in Risk Management. Global Standards and Best Practices Two real-world case studies are integrated throughout the text to give future managers experience in applying chapter principles to a service company and a manufacturer. Chapter objectives, discussion topics, review questions, numerous charts and graphs. Glossary and Index. Full bibliography at the end of each chapter. Extensive, downloadable classroom-tested Instructor Resources are available for college courses and professional development training, including slides, syllabi, test bank, discussion questions, and case studies. Endorsed by The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) and The Institute of Risk Management (IRM). QUOTES "It's difficult to write a book that serves both academia and practitioners, but this text provides a firm foundation for novices and a valuable reference for experienced professionals."--Security Management Magazine "The authors...bring the subject to life with rich teaching and learning features, making it an essential read for students and practitioners alike." – Phil AUTHOR BIOS Kurt J. Engemann, PhD, CBCP, is the Director of the Center for Business Continuity and Risk Management and Professor of Information Systems in the Hagan School of Business at Iona College. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management Douglas M. Henderson, FSA, CBCP, is President of Disaster Management, Inc., and has 20+ years of consulting experience in all areas of Business Continuity and Emergency Response Management. He is the author of Is Your Business Ready for the Next Disaster? and a number of templates.

If you had to evacuate from your building right now and were told you couldn't get back in for two weeks, would you know what to do to ensure your business continues to operate? Would your staff? Would every person who works for your organization? Increasing threats to business operations, both natural and man-made, mean a disaster could occur at any time. It is essential that corporations and institutions develop plans to ensure the preservation of business operations and the technology that supports them should risks become reality. Building an Enterprise-Wide Business Continuity Program goes beyond theory to provide planners with actual tools needed to build a continuity program in any enterprise. Drawing on over two decades of experience creating continuity plans and exercising them in real recoveries, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, Master Business Continuity Planner, Kelley Okolita, provides guidance on each step of the process. She details how to validate the plan and supplies time-tested tips for keeping the plan action-ready over the course of time. Disasters can happen anywhere, anytime, and for any number of reasons. However, by proactively planning for such events, smart leaders can prepare their organizations to minimize tragic consequences and readily restore order with confidence in the face of such adversity.

You designed your Business Continuity Plan to keep your business in business regardless of the forces of man and nature. But how do you know that the plan really works? Few companies can afford the recommended full-scale exercises several times a year. In The Manager’s Guide to Business Continuity Exercises, Jim Burtles, an internationally known expert, details the options for conducting a range of tests and exercises to keep your plan effective and up to date. Your challenge is to maintain a good and effective plan in the face of changing circumstances and limited budgets. If your situation is like that in most companies, you really cannot depend on the results of last year’s test or exercise of the plan. People tend to forget, lose confidence, lose interest, or even be replaced by other people who were not involved in your original planning. Jim Burtles explains: “You cannot have any real confidence in your plans and procedures until they have been fully tested...Exercises are the only way we can be sure that the people will be able to interpret the plans and procedures correctly within the requisite timeframe under difficult circumstances.” As you do your job in this constantly shifting context, Jim Burtles helps you to: • Differentiate between an “exercise” and a “test” – and see the value of each in your BC program. • Understand the different types of plans and identify the people who need to be involved in exercises and tests for each. • Use the “Five-Stage Growth Path” – from desktop to walkthrough to full-scale exercise -- to conduct gradual testing, educate personnel, foster capability, and build confidence. • Create a variety of unusual scenario plot-lines that will keep up everyone’s interest. • Identify the eight main elements in developing and delivering a successful BC exercise. • Select and prepare a “delivery team” and a “response team” for your exercise. • Make sure everyone understands the “rules of engagement.” • Use the lessons learned from exercises and tests to audit, update, and maintain the plan. You are well aware that a host of problems may crop up in any kind of company-wide project. These problems can range from basic logistics like time and place, to non-support from executives and managers, to absenteeism, to the weather, to participants forgetting their lines. Throughout the book, Burtles uses his decades of experience working with companies like yours to give you useful examples, case studies, and down-to-earth advice to help you handle the unexpected and work toward the results you are looking for.

"TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 93: Operational and Business Continuity Planning for Prolonged Airport Disruptions provides a guidebook and software tool for airport operators to assist, plan, and prepare for disruptive and catastrophic events that have the potential for causing prolonged airport closure resulting in adverse impacts to the airport and to the local, regional, and national economy. The software tool is available in a CD-ROM format and is intended to help develop and document airport business continuity plans or revise current plans in light of this guidance. The CD is also available for download from TRB's website as an ISO image."--Publisher's description.

Many companies fail to carry out any business continuity exercising. This book explains why validating your BCP is essential to your business's survival, and describes the component parts of a validation programme, with case studies and expert guidance.