Impact analysis
Business impact analysis
Purpose. Establish which activities are critical, how quickly harm appears when they stop, and what they depend on. Without this, a continuity plan is a collection of assumptions.
The analysis looks at products and services, supporting processes, applications, premises, records, third parties, and the people who cannot be substituted in the first hours. Impact is described in operational terms: missed deliveries, regulatory clocks, cash, safety, and reputation — using the organization’s own language.
Strategy
Continuity strategy design
Purpose. Choose, for each critical function, the method by which it will continue or pause without making the incident worse.
Typical options include relocation, remote working, split-site operation, manual workaround, alternative supplier, increased buffer stock, or a controlled stop with a defined restart. Strategies are tested against resources the organization actually has or is willing to fund. A strategy that requires a second site the client does not possess is not presented as a finished answer.
Plan
Business continuity plan development
Purpose. Produce the plan the organization will open during an interruption: activation, roles, actions, and restart.
The document is structured for use under pressure. It includes invocation criteria, a command structure that matches how the organization actually decides, internal and external communication paths, recovery procedures by function, resource and contact lists, and stand-down. Annexes hold detail that would slow down the first pages.
Playbooks
Crisis and incident playbooks
Purpose. Give the first hours a script that is shorter than the full continuity plan and faster to open.
Playbooks cover convening the response, confirming facts, protecting people, notifying those who must be told, logging decisions, and handing over to the continuity procedures once the immediate incident is stable enough to manage. They are written for the people who will be on the call, not for an abstract crisis committee.
Exercises
Continuity exercises and validation
Purpose. Find the gaps while the organization is calm. An untested plan is a hypothesis.
Exercises are designed around the client’s own functions and plausible interruptions. A tabletop walkthrough tests decisions and information flow. A limited operational test can check a manual workaround or a relocation step without shutting the business down. Findings are recorded as actions with owners and dates.
Maintenance
Plan maintenance and governance support
Purpose. Keep the plan aligned with the organization as people, systems, and sites change.
Maintenance covers owner reviews, version control, change triggers (new site, new core system, new critical supplier), and a simple report that leadership can read. The aim is a living file, not an annual ceremony that nobody prepares for.
