Disaster Recovery Journal- Volume 13, Issue 3 - Summer 2004 Issue

Return to the
Summer 2004 Issue

DISASTER RECOVERY
JOURNAL

P. O. Box 510110
St. Louis, MO 63151
(314) 894-0276
Fax: (314) 894-7474
Internet www.drj.com
E-mail drj@drj.com

PUBLISHER &
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com

SENIOR EDITOR
Janette Ballman
janette@drj.com

MANAGING EDITOR
Jon Seals
jon@drj.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Ed Pearce, CBCP
ed@drj.com

COPY EDITORS
Richard Sandhofer
richards@drj.com
Pamela Clifton
pamelaclifton@hotmail.com

ADVERTISING
Robert Arnold
bob@drj.com

_____________

Corporate

President/CEO
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com

Vice President
Robert Arnold
bob@drj.com

CONFERENCE COORDINATOR
Patti Fitzgerald, CBCP
patti@drj.com

CONFERENCE REGISTRAR
Merce Knese
mercedes@drj.com

CIRCULATION
Laura Baugh
laurab@drj.com

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Jeff Dato, MBCP, KPMG
John Jackson, IBM
Edward S. Devlin, E.S. Devlin & Associates
James Hammill, CBCP, JMH Consulting Inc.
Pat McAnally, SunGard Availability Services
Brian Turley, Strohl Systems
Belinda Wilson, Hewlett-Packard

INTERNATIONAL
CONTACTS
England: Thom Hetherington
Business Continuity
Phone: 0161-237-1007
thomh@tempus.demon.co.uk

Australia: Anthony J. Harvey
Journal of Business Continuity
Phone: 0011-613-953-0055-8
fax: 0011-613-953-0528
sector@notability.com.au

Japan: Shinji Hosotsubo
Quake Japan Co., Ltd.
Phone: 03-3215-2880
fax: 03-3215-2881

Brazil: Jose Carlos Ferreira
Disaster Recovery Mercosul
Phone: 55 11 3666-9506
conc2000@uol.com.br
www.drms.com.br

Click Here for a Printable Version

NEWCOMERS

The Saga Continues…
New Kid on the Block

By MICHAEL BARBARA, CBCP

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article serves as a follow up to an article published in the winter 2004 edition (http://www.drj.com/articles/win04/1701-19.html) featuring the trials and tribulations of a new BC professional.

A full year has passed since being employed as a full-time business continuity coordinator and, without a doubt, this position has led to many varied unexpected challenges. Nonetheless, many lessons have been learned.
The process of creating and implementing the business continuity plan (BCP) for the corporate office was one of the most daunting challenges. Four months later, this first plan is now in place and copies have been properly distributed to all key individuals. Nevertheless, during this time-consuming and iterative process, many lessons learned definitely need to be shared.

LESSON 1:
Are We There Yet?
The distribution of the BCP would not have been able to take place without the approval of upper management. Following an extended period of revisions (at least three reviews were done), the plan was then approved and signed-off by the upper echelon. This experience proved to be both a test of patience and a likewise illuminating introduction to the world of office politics. This reminded me of waiting for term paper grades in college.
Lesson learned: The corporate world is not much different from the academic world.

LESSON 2:
Critical Tasks Bear Repeating
The various roles and responsibilities assigned to each BC team member were fully explained, and a thorough review of each section was conducted, elaborating on important and relevant sections within the BCP. Despite these detailed explanations, I found that several individuals asked for further explanations throughout the process.
Lesson learned: Teach repetitively until you are confident that all members are clear about their duties.

LESSON 3:
Updates Beyond Updates
Scenario: A BC professional is in the process of completing a time-consuming and important section of the BCP (call trees, vendor listing). The following day, a key employee leaves the corporation. Not only does this event impact the department and organization as a whole, but the BC coordinator must now think of all necessary modifications within the plan – call trees, organizational charts and contact information – that require modification. The new employee will need to be made aware of the existence of such a plan and his/her specific roles and responsibilities.However, should these changes be incorporated now or later?
Lesson learned: Such “perpetual” changes will never cease, and it is essential that new information is updated as soon as possible. Nevertheless, the issue remains: do such changes, as minor as these, necessitate a re-distribution of the affected pages to all key members at that moment in time? Can the BC coordinator collect such changes over a specific timeframe, incorporate them, and then send out the changes to all affected parties? The answer to these questions remain. Maybe, through my experiences, will I be able to assuredly answer such questions.

LESSON 4:
Awareness
The creating and promoting of awareness – or even the existence – of a BCP within a corporation is a most difficult task. In general, employees do not have a positive inclination to attend awareness sessions to gain knowledge in this field, especially if there are no incentives to entice them (prize drawings, lunches, etc…). Sadly, the field of business continuity is not a top priority for a majority of employees.
Lesson learned: Participation in awareness activities is not an employee’s “cup of tea” unless attractive perks are offered.

LESSON 5:
Scheduling a Test Run
In a similar vein, scheduling a test with key members identified in the BCP is as difficult and time-consuming as any of the activities mentioned above. Last minute cancellations, other priorities, illnesses, and vacations are just some of the explanations members have given prior to the testing taking place. As mentioned in the previous article, one of the on-going hardships is to schedule meetings with various users on a one-on-one basis.
Lesson learned: The larger the group, the more difficult it is to get everyone together at the same time.

LESSON 6:
Make Yourself Accessible
Of all of the lessons described in this article, none can be more heartfelt as this one. The day I left for my vacation to Florida, the major power outage that blacked out a majority of the Northeastern US and Ontarian power grid occurred. On Aug. 13, 2003, several corporate offices were directly affected and no set procedures were in place to deal with such an event. Work on the BCP was not completed at that exact moment in time! In addition, a majority of the modes of communication were inoperable.
In retrospect, I thought to myself, “What would be the odds of something happening during my vacation?”
Lesson Learned: Did I ever learn a lesson! Numerous employees were calling in asking what should be done in such a situation – who should we call, what were the next steps, etc…. In fact, I needed to retrieve such calls from a pay phone at the airport. Nonetheless, the national general manager of IT and I ensured that an appropriate contact was referred to and resolved most of the issues. In retrospect, always be reachable through some sort of immediate communication medium (e.g. pager, cellular, Blackberry…) in order to promptly respond to unforeseen emergencies.
An interesting outcome from the power outage was that the only communication technology that was fully operational was wireless text-to-text messaging (Blackberry). All e-mail and most telephone and cellular communications were either inoperable or affected by an overly congested network. As such, increased reliance and use of such messaging became an important factor and created a much needed awareness and urgency to switch to this technology. As a result, more and more employees are now turning to wireless messaging and leaving cellular technology aside.

The Road Ahead
During the next months, increased awareness on the subject of business continuity and testing sessions will be warranted within many of the corporate offices. Maintenance of the current BCPs is always on-going, and several offices are scheduled for their first business impact assessment. In sum, the coming months will prove to be somewhat of a major stepping-stone for this business continuity coordinator.

Michael Barbara, CBCP, is the recently-appointed business continuity coordinator at a law firm in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He has been employed there since March 2003. Barbara has previously worked as a business analyst and is a silent partner in a breakfast restaurant.