Introduction

In Chapter 28, we discussed the relationship of disaster recovery and business continuity activities. You learned that disaster recovery plans are implemented in the immediate aftermath of a business disruption. Business continuity activities usually begin after the immediate impact of the disruption, event, or disaster has been addressed. It should be clear, then, that business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) are two distinct plans that intersect. Each can be planned as a separate project using standard project management (PM) methodologies, or they can be planned as one larger, integrated plan. The steps needed to deal with the immediate aftermath of a disaster and the steps needed to ensure the business stays up and running may be one and the same for some companies. Only you and your project team will be able to make that distinction. However, regardless of the approach you take, you'll need to design your BC/DR projects as formal IT projects in order to avoid costly mistakes such as erroneous assumptions or gaping holes in your plan.

A project is defined as a set of tasks having a defined start and end point and specific objectives, requirements, and goals. Clearly, both business continuity and disaster recovery planning qualify as projects under this definition. The BC/DR planning process can, and should, be constructed as a project plan and each component (BC, DR) can then be implemented as projects. There is good reason for mentioning this. One of the reasons many companies fail to develop effective plans is...