Preparing to Develop a Disaster Recovery Plan

1. Preparing to Develop a Disaster Recovery Plan Chapter 2

2. You Will Learn How To… • Understand the need for executive support of disaster recovery planning • Establish leadership for disaster recovery planning • Organize a disaster recovery planning team • Create an inventory of planning team skills • Help train the disaster recovery planning team

3. You Will Learn How To… • Start an awareness campaign for disaster recovery planning • Establish a budget for disaster recovery planning and management • Cope with standards and regulatory bodies • Assess progress of the plan and move ahead

4. The Need for Executive Support • Successfully organizational change or enterprise-wide initiatives is easier when top managers support the effort • Executives • Are responsible for leading the development of disaster recovery plans • Will probably not continue to provide support if they do not receive support in return • Need training in disaster recovery planning and regular briefings on the progress of the plan

5. Disaster Recovery Planning • Four of every 10 managers surveyed think the upper-level managers do not take disaster recovery planning seriously enough

6. Executive Preparation • Middle-level managers • Perform the detailed, day-to-day work to analyze disaster recovery needs • Develop policies and procedures • Executives • Play an essential role in developing disaster recovery plans that no other person can perform • Are high-level emissaries to boards of directors, investors, business partners, the general public, and the media • Executive preparation - the process of training executives to articulate the organization’s philosophy for disaster recovery planning

7. Actions Required to Prepare Executives

8. Executive Briefings • The coordinator of the disaster recovery planning team should be responsible for briefing executives on the planning effort • Planning team leaders from various departments should attend these briefings and answer specific questions • Key public relations personnel and legal counsel should also attend the briefings • Executives should receive a disaster planning support list of people with whom they can discuss planning issues

9. Establishing Leadership for Disaster Recovery Planning • The highest levels of management need to support disaster recovery planning across the enterprise • The highest levels of management include • Chief executive officer ( CEO ) • Chief operating officer ( COO ) • Chief financial officer ( CFO ) • Chief information officer (CIO )

10. Challenges to Effective Leadership • Good leaders must have • Political clout within the organization • The motivation to stick with the time-consuming task of developing a plan

11. Disaster Recovery Planning • Five of every 10 organizations surveyed have established some type of centralized disaster recovery planning

12. Disaster Recovery Planning Coordinator • The disaster recovery planning coordinator is responsible for project management and day-to-day leadership of the planning team • A mid-level manager should be assigned the coordinating role in developing a disaster recovery plan • The person assigned to be the planning coordinator must dedicate considerable time to the process • The coordinator needs to be • Able to give the plan full attention when necessary • Detail-oriented without getting lost in the process • Able to work diplomatically with all departments and external resources • Able represent all corporate concerns for the plan • Able to balance various department perspectives

13. Organizations with a Disaster Recovery Coordinator

14. Disaster Recovery Coordinator Responsibilities

15. Files a Disaster Recovery Coordinator Should Maintain

16. Adequately Documented Disaster Recovery Procedures • Five out of every 10 organizations surveyed think that disaster recovery procedures are not adequately documented in their organization

17. Activity Log • Activity log - a list of important events or accomplishments, the dates they occurred, and which departments or subcommittees participated

18. Organizing the Disaster Recovery Planning Team • Every department in the enterprise needs to be represented • Each department should have two representatives • Primary department representative - a full member of the planning team • Alternate department representative - a secondary member • Two representatives • Increase the chances of maintaining team continuity • Decrease the difficulty in scheduling meetings

19. The Executive Champion • The big challenge in forming a team is getting the time and attention of busy managers • The executive champion should ensure that the team gets the resources, participation, and cooperation needed • The executive champion’s role is symbolic and supportive • The team must understand the responsibilities of each department in disaster recovery planning

20. Departmental Responsibilities in Disaster Recovery Planning

21. Departmental Responsibilities in Disaster Recovery Planning

22. The Role of IT Staff and Network Managers on the Team • IT and Network Management departments are represented on the disaster recovery planning team • They probably require more representatives on the team than most other departments, and more of a role in planning • IT and network managers on the team must address enterprise issues as well as specific department and business application issues • The mix of IT architecture and software applications helps determine the number and expertise of the IT representatives

23. Representation • At least one representative each is needed from • Data center operations • Network management • Desktop computing • Each of the major IT applications, including • Financial management support • Supply-chain systems • Enterprise resource planning (ERP) • Human resources support

24. Areas of Representation of IT and Network Management

25. Creating Interdepartmental Subcommittees • Disaster recovery planning subcommittee • A group of planning team members and technical experts from various departments that is formed to solve specific problems or explore special planning issues • These subcommittees typically address problems that do not need the full attention of the planning team, and require expertise that all team members may not possess

26. Organizing the Team at the Departmental Level • Each department should have its own disaster recovery planning group • These groups should • Conduct specific departmental research to help establish the corporate plan • Help evaluate the plan as it is drafted by the enterprise team • Implement the plan at the department level once it is developed

27. Organizing the Team at the Departmental Level • The size and membership of departmental teams vary depending on the department’s diversity of activities • The major obstacle in forming well-rounded department planning groups is getting the time and interest of necessary supervisors and technical experts • Employees may feel threatened by the entire process of disaster recovery planning

28. IT Staff and Network Managers and Department Teams • IT staff and network managers • Should be prepared to work with departmental disaster recovery planning groups • Can help department planning groups protect these systems in a crisis • Can also help departments overcome the technology challenges of operating in temporary quarters and completely recovering their operations

29. Creating an Inventory of Planning Team Skills • To help determine the skills of planning team members, the coordinator should compile an inventory of their background and training • A skills inventory includes a list of corporate team members and those in department planning groups, along with an assessment of each team member’s skills • The inventory should point out which employee skills are most helpful in disaster recovery planning, and which team members have prior experience in managing such plans

30. Skills Inventory for Disaster Recovery Planning Team

31. Individual Skills Inventory • All planning team members need to conduct initial assessments of their own departments to determine if any staff have experience with disaster recovery planning • Departmental team members with related experience need to be noted as potential resources

32. Individual Skills Inventory

33. Training the Disaster Recovery Planning Team • The planning team needs training to understand what it is trying to do and to understand the issues and basic concepts of disaster recovery planning • Each team member should research disaster recovery issues that affect their disciplines or departments • This research includes • Case studies of what other organizations have done • Professional papers from their disciplines • Government regulations that individual departments need to observe in their business processes • The biggest obstacle to disaster recovery training is getting all the team members together at one time and having them focus on the topic

34. Selecting Outside Help • Many organizations need outside help at some stage of disaster recovery planning • Organizations are more likely to know what outside support they need once • They have inventoried the skills of the planning team • Members have undergone initial training

35. Selecting Outside Help • Two of every 10 organizations surveyed have hired outside consultants for disaster recovery planning

36. Setting the Planning Team’s Schedule • Organizations should establish an agenda for their disaster recovery planning team • They should also set a schedule for accomplishing goals immediately after the team has been formed • The first step is to set a regular meeting schedule • Weekly meetings are recommended for the first several weeks • The planning team coordinator should oversee the scheduling of these meetings to ensure that all involved parties attend

37. Setting the Planning Team’s Schedule • During these initial meetings, the team needs to establish a communications process • If a company so chooses • Form subcommittees • Identify responsibilities • Assign interdepartmental tasks • The departmental planning groups should meet as often as necessary to keep their tasks on schedule and support the enterprise-wide planning team

38. Sample Disaster Recovery Planning Schedule

39. Starting an Awareness Campaign • To successfully implement a disaster recovery plan, an organization needs the support of all its employees • Five of every 10 managers think that employees in their organization do not take planning efforts seriously enough

40. Starting an Awareness Campaign • Organizations must start building awareness of their planning efforts early in the process • The goal of an awareness campaign is to inform all the employees in an enterprise about the disaster recovery planning effort • Efforts to build awareness include • In-house media campaigns • Enterprise-wide training • Media campaigns can include articles in employee newsletters, postings on enterprise intranets, and posters on bulletin boards • Public relations staff should be asked to help develop these campaigns

41. The Message Upper Management Should Convey to the Outside • Executives should convey a consistent and uniform message about their disaster recovery planning efforts • Any executive statements regarding the organization’s disaster recovery planning should be relatively short and to the point • Statements should be formulated in coordination with the planning team, the public relations staff, and even the legal counsel, depending on the circumstances • Executives should not comment on pending legislation or government regulations

42. What Upper Management Should Tell the Board and Investors • Executives are responsible for briefing the board of directors on the organization’s disaster recovery planning • These briefings should be precise reports on the plan’s progress and obstacles • If the board is not interested in the details, the planning team coordinator should prepare a five- to 10-minute presentation that covers the plan’s high points and its implementation

43. The Message to take to the Media and the General Public • Executive responses to questions about disaster recovery planning should be short and to the point • They should refer detailed questions to the public relations staff and the disaster recovery planning team • The purpose of this approach is to avoid putting executives in the awkward position of explaining details they may not know off the top of their heads

44. Budgeting for Disaster Recovery Planning and Management • Organizations use one of two major models to establish a disaster recovery function • A centralized office or a part-time coordinator • Four of every 10 organizations surveyed use a centralized office, while the other six have placed the function in another department • A centralized office requires a larger budget than a part-time planning coordinator • Regardless of the office structure, salaries are usually the most expensive item in a disaster recovery planning budget

45. Disaster Recovery Planning Coordinators

46. Salaries for Disaster Recovery Planning Staff • Salaries for full-time disaster recovery planners are influenced by location, years of experience, and related certifications

47. Salaries for Disaster Recovery Planning Staff

48. Salaries for Disaster Recovery Planning Staff

49. Budget Structure for a Centralized Office • A centralized office of disaster recovery planning is probably necessary in large organizations • Each organization can place the office within a reporting structure that makes the most sense • This placement varies by organization • A centralized planning office requires several budget items, as shown in Table 2-13

50. Budget Structure for a Centralized Office