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Business Continuity Tip #1    Do your employees have comprehensive procedures on how to recover systems at their homes and in their cars? Sometimes it is not possible to lug documentation around in your house, car, and at work (much less keep it up to date).

Business Continuity Tip #2    The Project Management Institute estimates that nearly 90% of a project manager's time is spent communicating in some form. This may be sending or receiving project status reports, working with the various project change control boards, or personally meeting with management (or clients) to insure their needs are addressed. Conflict resolution techniques are powerful tools to assist the project manager when dealing with a problem project. This is especially critical when dealing with Business Continuity and/or Disaster Recovery projects.

Business Continuity Tip #3  Tip out of date

Business Continuity Tip #4  Project risk may be either a problem or opportunity. During project initiation, risks are identified and categorized according to their potential impact to the project.

Business Continuity Tip #5  Scope on most projects changes over time and as the scope changes, risk events that may have been low at one point may rise in importance or probability. Every time a change in scope is requested, a part of the analysis of the change should include the potential changes to existing identified risks or the introduction of new risks to the project.

Business Continuity Tip #6  Sarbanes-Oxley Act (sections 302 and 404) and Business Continuity implications are often misrepresented or misunderstood. Sometimes companies are aware of SOX requirements, but are not as familiar with the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery implications buried within the act.

Business Continuity Tip #7   Does your project have an actual funded budget? Often that simple question has a complicated answer. With many projects the answer is "no". This usually means that people may have been allocated to doing a task in their "spare" time, but management will not allocate any specific time or material resources to getting the project completed.


Business Continuity Tip #8   Do you have Risk Reserves to mitigate identified and unknown risks on your project? The better question may be "Do you know what Risk Reserves are and how to use them in preparing the budget for your Business Continuity project?" Sometimes referred to as "Management Reserves", this is a sum of money that is set aside specifically to handle known and unknown risk events within a project. You can think of this as "self insurance" for your project.

Business Continuity Tip #9   Business Continuity, like any other project, tends to grow in complexity and size over time. Often, this referred to as Scope Creep and is the result of people asking for new features from the project team and the project team including them in the project without considering the impact. Scope Creep can bog down your schedule, run costs through the roof, cause you to miss quality specifications, and make your clients (internal and external) hostile.

Business Continuity Tip #10  Should Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery be treated like a project? Often, people get tangled up in the technical descriptions of what actually constitutes a project. The only way you can have a viable Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery plan is to treat it exactly like what it is. A project.

Business Continuity Tip #11  Are you in compliance with your corporate directives not to transmit un-encrypted information across the internet? Most people ignore this directive and e-mail all kinds of confidential project plans, work schedules, and project communications across the internet without proper encryption. Be aware that this information may be beneficial to your competitors or the competitors of your client.

Business Continuity Tip #12  Key Results Management's Jim Copenhaver will be a speaker at The Palmetto State's Symposium on April 25, 2006. The topic will be: Executive Briefing on Business Continuity. This presentation is based on Key Results Management's Advanced Business Continuity Concepts Boot Camp and Jim's upcoming new book.

 Business Continuity Tip #13  One key element in any project that is regularly overlooked is the after project celebration. As odd as it sounds, this critical part of project closeout should be addressed early in the project and the costs should be included in the approved budget.

Business Continuity Tip #14  Project Scope is the sum of all of the things a project is supposed to produce (along with what it is NOT supposed to produce). With Business Continuity, the final result is a Business Continuity Plan that matches actual Business Needs. As indicated in previous tips, the scope of a project can change quickly.

Business Continuity Tip #15  Often companies go the extra mile to protect their production data from internal hacking and unauthorized access. However, development and test systems can be biggest security holes because no one thinks there is any valuable data on them. Generally, this is because the information is "old". This unsecured data can be copied, downloaded, and sold to competitors or identity thieves.

Business Continuity Tip #16  May 11-12, 2006 Jim Copenhaver will present at the Central Illinois PMI Chapter's Project Management Conference in Bloomington. The Four topics being presented are: 1). Executive Briefing on Business Continuity. The presentation is based on Key Results Management's Advanced Business Continuity Concepts Boot Camp and Jim's upcoming new book. 2). Using OPM3 for Business Continuity Assessments. 3). Twenty Elements of a Successful Business continuity Plan. 4). Risk and the Business Impact Analysis starring the Three Stooges, Porky Pig, Herman the Mouse, and Flash Gordon.

Business Continuity Tip #17  IT projects often get into trouble in one of three general areas. 1. The manager in charge of the project has no formal training on how to manage projects. 2. Managers are often unwilling to track and report on cost, risk, time, and quality problems. 3. Managers are often unwilling to say "no" to poorly defined projects.

Business Continuity Tip #18  Successful IT project management takes serious commitment from upper management, both internal and external to IT. IT needs an environment where middle management is assured that accurate reporting of project status will not be a career killer. Adherence to project management policies can be tied to quarterly and yearly performance evaluations.

Business Continuity Tip #19  There are two important goals that should be met to get a handle on IT projects. 1). A baseline study is an important first step in determining where the company stands in relation to best practices and corporate goals. Part of this study should also include a comparison on how the company currently meets their customer’s needs and expectations and what can be done to improve performance. A cost/benefit/risk analysis should be included to document potential savings if an IT project management office was established.

Business Continuity Tip #20  Have you participated in a formal risk analysis for Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery in the past three years?

A formal risk analysis for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery risks have a direct impact on how well a company can survive an incident. Performed correctly, everyone in a management or senior staff capacity should participate in identifying and mitigating risks. This insures that the correct risks are identified for the correct reasons and can be part of an internal or external assessment effort.

Business Continuity Tip #21 Does your company have a Project Management Office with the ability to approve or reject proposed projects or project changes?

A Project Management Office is not an absolute requirement for a stable Business Continuity Project. However, it may be required if your company is complex in terms of changes or simply with the number of people working on different projects. A Project Management Office, with the power to approve or decline a project or change, should have enough clout to make sure that every project has Business Continuity impacts identified and addressed in every project.

Business Continuity Tip #22   Have you participated in Business Continuity and/or Disaster Recovery planning within the past 12 months?

Every manager and senior staff member should be involved in Business Continuity and/or Disaster Recovery planning as a part of their normal job functions.

Business Continuity Tip #23  Normally, a lot of the details regarding Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Project Management, etc. are quite sterile and mechanical. You have Person A perform Task D to produce Result Z. Yet often, it is how you manage and relate to the people you work with that really makes the difference in whether Person A succeeds or fails. This softer side (or people side) of management is often difficult for people that are in technical roles. In fact, I would be safe in stating that it is more important in rescuing your business or successfully finishing your project than raw technical ability ever will be.

Business Continuity Tip #24  Has a comprehensive Business Impact Analysis been performed at your company?

Failure to perform a comprehensive Business Impact Analysis across all divisions in a company indicates that no one really knows what would be impacted in the event of an incident. This is often seen in large corporations with divisions that operate independently (often called silos). It is assumed that everyone in each division really has a handle on what is business critical and what is not. Determining what Business Critical should be up to the managers with fiduciary responsibility. They are the ones with the checkbooks that can make sure the correct problems are addressed.
 

Business Continuity Tip #25  Many people have a difficult time presenting a business case to upper management about Business Continuity. You see some really interesting and creative formulas to “prove” the ROI on Business Continuity. Most people would agree that it is nearly impossible to prove anything related to Business Continuity before a Business Continuity Plan is created. It is next to impossible to prove a valid ROI even after a Business Continuity Plan is created.

Why? The short answer indicates it is difficult prove a negative. With Business Continuity, like Security, you are confronted with the problem of nothing happening. If you develop and test a Business Continuity Plan and no catastrophic event happens, you cannot prove (under most circumstances) that any events were avoided solely due to your BCP efforts. Security can point to a decrease in intrusion alerts, but it cannot prove that security has not been compromised without detection.

Business Continuity Tip #26 Have Recovery Time Objectives been defined for EVERY department and division within your company?

Many companies focus on a few, high profile departments (such as accounting and HR) and don't consider the impact of other departments like shipping and receiving or the mail department in determining recovery time objectives. Those support roles are even more critical in a recovery. How quickly they can be recovered has a direct impact on how people get paid, what payments are received, and how business critical shipments in a crisis are processed.
 

Business Continuity Tip #27 Business Continuity Consulting Services SALE!
We have a couple of top consultants warming the bench. We would rather give you a GREAT deal on their services than watch them read.

These consultants are certified in BOTH Project Management (PMP) and Business Continuity (CBCP). They can save you money by delivering a Business Continuity Plan that fits YOUR needs and budget.

Business Continuity Tip #28  Has data been successfully been synched back up to Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point Objectives during an exercise?

This is something that few companies (outside of banks, insurance companies, or other highly regulated companies) do well. Often, drills are considered a "success" if data can actually be recovered and someone can access it. Although everyone knows it is a major risk to avoid synchronizing data bases, no one wants to pick up that rock and look underneath. They know it will cost a lot of money and take a lot of time to do the job correctly and look at this as a cost to manage down.
 

Business Continuity Tip #29  Business Continuity Planning is now part of US federal law!
It was included in part of the "IMPLEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 9/11 COMMISSION ACT OF 2007".

An excerpt can be found at www.k-r-m.com

Buried at the end of the act is something called NFPA 1600.
NFPA stands for National Fire Protection Association. NFPA 1600 contains the teeth in Title IX of the 9/11 act.