Guide
The Definitive Guide to Disaster Planning for Professional Services
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Checklist for Business Continuity Testing
Business continuity plan (BCP) testing is the most reliable way to validate a BC strategy, and it is a critical component of continuity planning. Use this checklist for business continuity testing for an actionable plan. By skipping regular testing, you won’t know if your organization is prepared for a disaster—until it’s too late.
Testing in Numbers
According to 2019 BC Benchmark Study, 57% of companies stated that semi-annual or quarterly (consistent) testing helps to gain buy-in throughout the organization, making it more likely to be prepared for an interruption.
Testing your business continuity program allows you to validate your BC plan and manage risks. In fact, 88% of our online poll respondents test BCP’s at their companies to identify gaps, and 63% of them do that to validate their plans. Business continuity testing isn’t about pass or fail. It’s about continuous improvement by learning from findings uncovered in a live exercise.
Reasons to Test a BCP
A well-orchestrated test strategy helps protect the brand, its promise, and its value proposition. If your competitors had a poor test performance or made a critical mistake in a real-life situation with a client, your company can shine by demonstrating its reliability and advance its business forward.
So, why test your BCP?
- Identify interdependencies, gaps, and areas for improvement.
- Demonstrate to your clients a higher degree of commitment.
- If you are the supplier to a firm, you rise among competitors, taking on more projects, and winning new business.
- Continually validate and improve plans.
- Satisfy compliance requirements and regulators.
- Reduce recovery time and cost.
