BCM - Plan Versions

[Todd Romansky]

We are implementing Business Continuity Management (BCM), initially starting with IT Disaster Recovery plans.  As part of compliance requirements for our industry, we need to be able to produce the versions of each DR Plan that were in effect during a 3-year audit window.  So while we have the DR Plans setup and working as expected, we are struggling with figuring out the best approach for creating new versions of a Plan.  It seems there are 2 possible approaches:

1. Edit an "approved" plan.  There are 2 flaws with this approach:
   1. Once the plan is edited and moved back to an "In Progress" state, it is no longer available to select in a planned or actual "Crisis Event".
   2. Once the edited plan is approved (ie version #2), the PDF that is generated overwrites the original.  Thus, we are unable to provide audit evidence to show the differences between the original and version #2.
2. Make a "copy" of the approved plan.  Flaws with this approach:
   1. There is nothing linking the copied plan with the original (using a "parent" field or some other relationship)
   2. Once the copied plan is approved, the original plan remains approved and would manually need to be archived (this could easily be solved if there was something linking the original and copied plans)

I am guessing #2 is the direction we should go, but I am hoping someone has tackled this problem an can provide a recommended approach.  I am also keeping my fingers crossed that someone from Fairchild Resiliency Systems (the original creators of BCM) sees this post and can provide some guidance.

Thanks in advance!

[trishjohnson]

 Hi Tera, 

Did you find anything more on this question?  We are in the same boat and went with #2, but there are some particular challenges to making it a good user experience.  

[Community Alums]

Hi @Todd Romansky ,

Your Option 2 works the best provided we do not have anything OOTB for Versioning for BCM Plans.