Business Continuity Planning Frameworks Collection

Business Continuity Planning (BCP) frameworks provide a structured approach to developing, implementing, and maintaining a comprehensive and effective BCP. These frameworks offer guidance on best practices, methodologies, and processes that organizations can adopt to enhance their resilience and ensure the continuity of critical operations during disruptions. Several widely recognized BCP frameworks include:
ISO 22301: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 22301 is a global standard for business continuity management systems (BCMS). It provides a systematic approach to identifying, managing, and reducing the risks associated with disruptions and ensuring that organizations can continue to operate during adverse events. ISO 22301 covers risk assessment, business impact analysis, recovery strategies, incident response, training, and testing.
NIST SP 800-34: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-34, “Contingency Planning Guide for Information Technology Systems,” provides guidance on developing and maintaining contingency plans for IT systems. It covers the entire lifecycle of IT contingency planning, including planning, development, testing, and maintenance, and emphasizes the importance of integrating IT contingency planning with overall BCP efforts.
Business Continuity Institute (BCI) Good Practice Guidelines (GPG): The BCI GPG is a comprehensive guide to best practices in business continuity and resilience. It is based on the Business Continuity Management (BCM) Lifecycle, which consists of six stages: understanding the organization, determining BCM strategy, developing and implementing a BCM response, exercising and maintaining the BCM arrangements, embedding BCM in the organization’s culture, and coordinating with external stakeholders.
Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) Professional Practices: The DRII Professional Practices provide a framework for developing, implementing, and maintaining an effective business continuity program. The practices cover topics such as program initiation and management, risk assessment, business impact analysis, business continuity strategies, incident response, training and awareness, and testing and maintenance.
ITIL 4: The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) 4 is a framework for IT service management (ITSM) that incorporates business continuity principles. ITIL 4 emphasizes aligning IT services with business needs and includes guidance on service continuity management, which focuses on ensuring that critical IT services can continue to operate during disruptions.
Organizations can choose one or a combination of these frameworks to guide their BCP efforts. The choice depends on the organization’s unique needs, industry, regulatory requirements, and risk tolerance. Regardless of the framework chosen, the key is to adopt a systematic, structured approach to BCP that ensures the continuity of critical operations and enhances overall organizational resilience.
The Business Continuity Planning Frameworks category within our CIO Reference Library is a curated collection of resources, articles, and insights designed to help CIOs and IT executives understand, evaluate, and implement established business continuity planning (BCP) frameworks within their organizations. This category provides IT leaders with the knowledge and guidance necessary to adopt and adapt proven BCP frameworks, ensuring the resilience, reliability, and recovery of their organization’s critical systems, processes, and operations in the event of disruptions, disasters, or other incidents.
In this category, you will find valuable information on a wide range of BCP frameworks, including:
ISO 22301: A global standard for business continuity management systems (BCMS) that provides a systematic approach to developing, implementing, and maintaining BCP initiatives.
NIST SP 800-34: The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s guidelines for contingency planning for information systems, offering a comprehensive framework for IT-focused BCP efforts.
Business Continuity Institute’s (BCI) Good Practice Guidelines: A set of best practices and principles for effective business continuity planning based on the experiences of BCI members and leading organizations worldwide.
Disaster Recovery Institute International’s (DRII) Professional Practices: A collection of industry-accepted practices for business continuity management, covering key aspects of BCP such as risk assessment, business impact analysis, and plan development.
ITIL Service Continuity Management: A component of the ITIL framework focused on ensuring the continuous delivery of IT services in the event of disruptions or disasters.
COBIT: A comprehensive IT governance and management framework that includes guidance on business continuity planning and management within its overall structure.
By exploring the Business Continuity Planning Frameworks category, IT leaders can gain a deeper understanding of the various established frameworks available for guiding their BCP efforts. This knowledge will enable you to select, adopt, and adapt the most appropriate BCP framework for your organization’s unique needs, objectives, and technology landscape, ensuring that your critical systems, processes, and operations remain resilient, reliable, and recoverable in the face of disruptions, disasters, or other incidents.