Disaster Recovery Planning: Step By Step
Phase I – Information Gathering
- Organize the Project
- Who will be running the project?
- When does it need to be done?
- What tasks are involved?
- What are the objectives and scope of the plan?
- Conduct Business Impact Analysis
- What are the most critical functions or systems in your unit?
- What would be the impact if they were severely interrupted?
- Could the system being down impact instruction, research, grants, or external funding?
- Conduct Risk Assessment
- Where is the critical system or function performed?
- What is the probability of this area being severely interrupted?
- Develop Recovery Strategy
- How will you operate during a severe disruption to insure all critical functions can be performed?
- How will you get your unit back up and running?
- Review Onsite and Offsite Backup and Recovery Procedures
- Are you backing up critical information and systems?
- Where are the backups located?
- Will they be affected if a fire occurs in your building?
- Select Alternate Facility
- Do you have a location to perform work in the event your facility is destroyed?
Phase II – Writing and Testing the Plan
- Develop Recovery Plan
- Documentation of all components and steps from recognizing a disaster, to performing during recovery, to restoration are compiled.
- Test the Plan
- Does the plan work?
- Are all contact numbers listed and critical areas detailed?
Phase III – Maintaining and Auditing the Plan (Ongoing)
- Maintain the Plan
- When changes occur in the work force, system, equipment, or process the plan needs to be updated to reflect these changes.
- Perform Periodic Audit
- Have someone outside of your unit review and assess your plan.
