My worry with software based planning is that it has the ability to become a form-filling exercise rather than a planning process.

I’ve recently seen one system that I think might be useful if it was tweaked more but, even then, I wonder if I just want it to work because my companies (when I work in-house) and clients (when external) really want me to have a recommendation.

Until I have one I stand by my notion that it’s better to have a real plan done in plain old word than a beautiful and organised one that was created after a form filling exercise in a manner that those who used it haven’t truly thought through their step-by-step arrangements and checklists…

Which software might you recommend I look at next?!

How do you manage your business continuity issues around up-time of your software around google apps? Are you able to negotiate SLAs with them if you pay for the apps or are you using the free version.

Really would be genuinely interested to learn more about how you’ve found the switch in relation to you BC expertise.

Rachel

We have a debate at one of the big clients – they is a battle going on as to where BCM should be i.e. ownership.

As a best practice I believe that BCM should always be outside IT.

If it must be within IT – where should it be? Would love some comments on this.

I do have one question though, how does one “address risks faster than they grow?

In my experience, I always opt for a proactive approach to risk management, and in most cases — conflicts are extinguished before they become full-blown fires. However, what is your recourse when risk management backfires?

I like your focus here….it’s proactive as opposed to reactive.

Maybe fodder for a future post?

Keep up the good work.

I do have one thing to add though. You mentioned that software CAN in fact be a boon to business continuity, and I agree with you wholeheartedly that it must be the “right” software. Do you think, though, that software can often become a crutch that gets in the way of purely inter-personal methods of BCP implementation?

By predictability, I think you are referring to “continuity”. Executives want the business to keep going in the face of a disaster, with business not being interrupted. I would be very concerned for an organization that felt it was resilient because it was able to accurately predict anything that might happen to it. This smacks of the turkey in Taleb’s “The Black Swan” which is fed every day by the farmer each morning. This pattern establishes its expectation/prediction that this will continue indefinitely, until one fateful Thanksgiving when the turkey has a “revision of belief”.

The all hazards approach can help to improve resilience, but is designed under the assumption that our ability to predict hazards is flawed. An agile organization with a clear business continuity plan may identify specific hazards that historically have a greater chance of occurring, but will also need to be prepared for those that cannot be predicted.