BusinessContinuityManagement

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a holistic management process that identifies potential threats to an organization and the impacts to its operations so that it can continue to provide essential services during and after a disruption. BCM covers planning, implementation, testing, and governance needed to ensure resilience and rapid recovery in events ranging from natural disasters to cyber incidents and supply chain interruptions.

A BCM program typically begins with leadership sponsorship and a formal policy, followed by a lifecycle that includes a business impact analysis (BIA) to identify critical processes, a risk assessment to determine threats and vulnerabilities, and strategy development to establish recovery objectives and resource requirements.

Key outputs include a business continuity plan (BCP), incident response procedures, and crisis management protocols. Critical metrics such as recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) guide design decisions and testing.

Implementation involves putting controls in place, creating awareness, and training staff. Plans are exercised regularly through tabletop and functional drills, with results feeding back into plan updates.

BCM is commonly aligned with international standards such as ISO 22301 and is integrated with related domains including information security, IT disaster recovery, and supplier and third party risk management.

Ongoing maintenance, audits, and continual improvement are built on the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle, ensuring the program adapts to changing operations and threats.