Business Continuity Management > Learn about Business Continuity Planning

[Mary Hain]

Overview

Business Continuity Planning is useful for developing continuity and recovery plans for all critical business processes and IT functions. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Identifying the plan scope.
• Documenting loss scenarios and business continuity strategies like alternate work arrangements, incident response, supply chain continuity, and emergency communications.
• Creating a predefined list of tasks with appropriate owners.
• Articulating the roles and responsibilities of the people participating in the plan.
• Coordinating plan exercise and maintenance as well as plan activation procedures.
• Integrating critical information from the relevant Business Impact Analysis and CMDB tables.

The plans can be routed through an appropriate workflow for review and approval before they are published for plan participants.  

🆕 New in Zurich: MS Word Report Builder: Export BIAs, business continuity plans, events, and exercises as Word documents using customizable templates—so you can create reports that match your organization's format and requirements, not just static PDFs.

Demos

• Zurich release:  MS Word reporting capabilities for simplified reporting (coming soon).
• Business Continuity Management Overview provides a short demo of the BCP functionality of BCM starting at 5:02
• Building Better Business Continuity Plans with ServiceNow Business Continuity Management
• For additional BCM demos, check out our demo library.

Resources 

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• Now Create BCM Process Guide - Provides detailed guidance on the way that ServiceNow intends the BCM process to work for Business Continuity Management. (p.16)
• Product Documentation – Business Continuity Planning
• BCM Community Forum         

FAQ

What tasks does the business continuity plan (BCP) owner perform?
The BCP owner creates the plan using a template, adds assets and scope, creates documentation, and adds loss scenarios, recovery strategies, and tasks.

How do you create a BCP?
A business continuity plan is created in the BCM UI Builder Workspace by selecting Add a Plan using a plan template.

What is a loss scenario and why is it important?
A loss scenario is a situation that has potential risks or disruptions. You can use BCM to define related asset dependencies, plan a recovery strategy, and standardize on the recovery activities.

How do you add a recovery strategy for asset dependencies?
A recovery strategy is added to address dependencies and ensure recovery of assets within a defined timeframe during a loss scenario.

What is the role of recovery tasks in a BCP?
Recovery tasks are actions to restore business operations during a loss scenario. They can be automated to speed up disaster recovery.

What enhancements were introduced in the Xanadu release for business continuity planning?
The Xanadu release improves handling of nested related plans, detects cyclic dependencies, and refines recovery timelines for better task management.

Should you automate recovery tasks within the BCP?
An automated flow can help expedite recovery. For example, in the case of a crisis event, an automated task could be triggered to “check the status of specified servers.” When routine or known recovery tasks are marked automated, crisis managers can focus on other activities.

How can you visualize relationships for a BCP?
A 360° view can be accessed in BCM UI Builder Workspace to visualize the relationships between the business continuity plan and its associated entities.

How do you generate a PDF of the BCP?
A PDF of the business continuity plan can be generated and saved for future reference in the BCM UI Builder Workspace.

What kind of BCP maintenance is required once BCM implementation goes live?

BCM owners must define the frequency of BCP updates and approvals. This step is essential for gauging the level of participation needed from BCP contributors and for planning an effective maintenance process.