You should always plan before a disaster occurs: in green time you create, build, and maintain your plan; in amber time you test, rehearse, and exercise your plan; in red time you recover and continue your business faster if you have undertaken a rigorous planning process.

What takes place in amber time? [a] you start to create a new plan; [b] you rehearse an existing plan to find its weaknesses; [c] you quickly recover your business following a real disaster. Which of a, b, or c?

[b] Rehearsal takes place in amber time. Rehearsal is formally defined in industry standards as EXERCISING the plan. 20% potential for business resilience is seeded in green time. The remaining 80% is reaped in amber time when the plan is properly exercised and refined in the light of testing. Your Business Continuity Plan should be exercised at least once a year.

Involve everyone. No-one in your business should be excluded from the planning process, everyone has a potential contribution to make. It can be useful to create a new email address in the form bcplan@yourbusiness.com and invite everyone to submit suggestions to it from anywhere at any time. Embed a continuity culture.

What is the purpose of involving everyone in the planning process? [a] to gain as wide and ongoing an input as possible; [b] to promote a continuity culture within the business; [c] to give everyone a chance to be wise before the event? Which of a, b, or c? Or all of them?

Why involve everyone? Any reasons for involving people are good reasons. It is important that any contribution, idea, or view, however poorly formed, is given permission to be expressed and is considered seriously.

Have something else somewhere else...today. Physical disasters tend to be location specific: the fire in the office; the flood in the neighbourhood; the enforced evacuation of a region however caused. You should anticipate a sudden need for alternative locations (near and far) from where to continue at least temporarily with limited resources. Which essential resources do you have elsewhere in readiness?

Alternatives? But how, which and where? [a] Replicate everything nearby; [b] Focus on Mission Critical Applications; [c] Replicate only your tax records. Which of a, b, or c?

Business Impact Analysis. Business Impact Analysis is the formal name of a methodology used to anticipate the most critical of your business applications for immediate support in crisis when everyday priorities change. So, what would you do first if a major incident happened today? To put first things first, focus on your most mission critical of applications ...and know what else could wait.

Rehearsal: testing your documented plan. Business units may have to co-ordinate their efforts in significantly different ways in an emergency situation. Maybe not everyone you would rely on will be present in emergency? Rehearsal will unearth the assumptions you have built into your documented plan. Remember that the planning process is more valuable than the plan itself.

The Essential Value of Rehearsal. How do you know if something works or not, if you don't test it?

Rehearsal is Key. Exercising is the critical testing of Business Continuity Management (BCM) strategies and plans. Exercising includes rehearsing the roles of team members and staff, and testing the recovery of systems. Testing is the only way before a disaster to demonstrate BCM competence and capability. Is your business crisis prone, or crisis prepared? How do you know?