The Barbarino Test for Actionable Plans

[Nick Ferraro1]

Vinny Barbarino was a likeable character on a 1970s sitcom called Welcome Back Kotter. Welcome Back Kotter featured Gabe Kaplan as a Brooklyn school teacher charged with the education of some very unique students who had little interest in their studies. Barbarino, played by John Travolta, was the ringleader of the crew. He was famous for attempting to extricate himself from sticky situations by feigning complete ignorance of the subject matter. With a confused look, Barbarino would pose the following questions to Mr. Kotter: Who? What? Where? When? Barbarino’s ploy never fooled Mr. Kotter, but it can be a useful means of establishing how actionable recovery plans will be in the event of a disruption. Try the Barbarino Test to determine how actionable your plans are. Does your plan answer who, what, where, and when?

Who? Your plan should answer who with contact information. Employee lists or call trees are part of the answer, but ensure you have multiple contact methods for any organization or person with which you would need to communicate during a recovery. Think about employees, vendors, customers, emergency management personnel/organizations, health care providers, and government organizations. Think about key skill sets and who possess them. Include backup personnel with the same capabilities. Document alternates, and account for the chain of command, or line of succession for your organization.

What? Think about exactly what needs to be done to recover. The heart of an actionable plan is a detailed list of the procedures required for recovery. Leverage standard operating procedures and adjust them as needed assuming that your normal workplace is unavailable. Think about the level of detail required so that someone less familiar with the procedures can still execute them. There is no guarantee that key personnel will be able to work. Include workarounds for unavailable IT systems and data.

Where? The plan should include where people will perform their recovery responsibilities. The normal workplace is not available, so where will you go? Include directions for people traveling to recovery sites. Include contact information in the who of your plan for the people that provide access to the sites you need. Account for the space available and the number of people planning to work at each location. Ensure that the people who will work remotely have been provided with the right equipment and training to make the connection to organizational networks/data/systems.

When? Account for when things need to occur in order to recover. If you are responsible for business processes, rank them in order of criticality. Document all recovery prerequisites and dependencies. Create a sequence for the necessary actions to be executed. The proper recovery of IT systems is often tied to successfully sequencing the order in which things are brought back online.

Do you think you have it all in place? Prove it – exercise the plan. The Barbarino Test is a decent guideline, but plan exercises/tests are the only way to know if your plan is truly actionable. My son continues to be frustrated when he doesn’t hit the ball over the heads of all the other kids at his tee ball games. The vast majority of organizations are satisfied with having untested plans. What do these things have in common? I continue to tell my son and all the organizations that I work with that it doesn’t make any sense to think you will be great at something you have never done before. Your organization shouldn’t act like a five year old. Put the Barbarino Test and your plan to action. Learn where the plan gaps are, and address them; then test again. If you follow these simple steps it will keep your recovery from looking like a 1970s sitcom.