Importance Of Contingency Planning

Contingency planning is a major component in the continuity of business. Since conducting business in itself is a risk, there is a need to consider ways to either prevent the occurrence, mitigate or recovery the business after a chance event. The management of a business need to have its risk management team whose sole responsibility is to manage risks that are bound to happen. A contingency plan is aimed at making sure the business activities continues as usual even after the occurrence of the risk as soon as possible. In most cases, the contingency planning is directed at the operations and technical levels of business activities. The probability of occurrence of the risk needs to be calculated and determined so that specific measures are …show more content…
The steps ensure that all the necessary considerations are involved and taken into account. The National Institute of Standards and Technology designed the seven progressive steps to be integrated into each stage of the system development life cycle when coming up with a contingency plan.
Step 1: Contingency Planning Policy Statement The first step is to develop a contingency planning policy statement. Having a formal policy that is acceptable within the company provides the authority needed while coming up with the plan. The policy also gives guidelines that are needed to develop a very efficient, precise, and effective contingency plan. Without this, a company could very well not have a direction to follow.
Step 2: Business Impact Analysis The second step involves conducting a business impact analysis. The analysis will help in identification of information systems and components that are critical in supporting the business mission and goals achievement. The analysis will also enable prioritization of such components when the plan is being formulated. Such an analysis will ensure challenges like over planning are eliminated to utilize resources adequately for the business. One is also able to avoid under preparation for the risk …show more content…
Carrying a pilot project helps in the testing of the developed plan. Such will help in determining the strength and how effective the plan will be in the case of actual occurrence of the risk. In case gaps are identified in the plan, improvements can be employed to ensure the system will be effective. Training of the personnel who are in charge of the plan is paramount. Such is because they will need to familiarize themselves with the new plan and know how it works. The staff will be able to understand how they can execute the contingency plan in case of occurrence of the risk anticipated. The overall advantage of this step is that it ensures that proper and timely execution of the plan in case of occurrence. Such will ensure that mitigation and reversion of the damage is achieved for the benefit of the