Business Continuity Audit Program and Checklist

An audit program and checklist designed for business continuity will assist in creating procedures to maintain company operations during an emergency, such as backup and restoration strategies for physical documents as well as digital ones.

Your risk assessment and BIA analysis must also incorporate a process for identifying Critical Business Functions (CBFs). This should work hand in hand with CBF identification.

Preparedness
Your business continuity plan must cover a wide range of situations, such as power outages, natural disasters and unexpected public health crises like pandemics.

Specific details will depend on the size and complexity of your organization, but some key steps include outlining responsibilities, communication protocols and evacuation procedures as well as creating a list of critical processes which must continue operating during an emergency situation.

Once your business continuity plan is in place, it’s essential that it be regularly tested and practiced. Benchtop exercises and emergency drills can be effective ways of pinpointing any areas where preparation may fall short; more realistic simulations will enable employees to better respond in times of real crisis, ultimately improving your preparedness while building employee trust in its plan.

Planning
Business continuity auditing is an integral component of an organization’s risk management strategy, as it identifies gaps in security safeguards and offers objective feedback on an enterprise’s readiness for an emergency situation. Furthermore, audits allow organizations to implement new and enhanced controls into their plans more easily; additionally they may assist them with improving existing plans through additional implementation initiatives. The attached checklist serves as a useful resource when auditing an organization’s Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) processes – with audit objectives, controls and testing procedures provided as part of its implementation.

Pre-planning involves identifying which aspects of the BC/DR plan require review, who needs to review them, identifying key personnel and creating a training program, conducting regular tests to ensure it remains accurate and up-to-date as technology evolves, and threats evolve; then reviewing any results of testing, analyzing them and fixing any identified problems as soon as possible.

Implementation
Implementation is when a company puts into effect plans and strategies to manage disruptions, covering people, processes and technology. Plans should also include data backup/recovery strategies as well as protection from network/telecommunications infrastructure failure; additionally they should address risks associated with staff shortages or an absence of process management processes.

Finalizing and assessing a plan requires regular testing and evaluation. As technology and threats evolve, testing the plan should also provide an opportunity to detect any gaps and take measures to close them.

The Department’s BCM program contains processes designed to coordinate an integrated federal response in case of threat or emergency, yet the BIA identified one critical service not currently covered by any BCPs and is working on creating one specifically for this service.

Monitoring
Monitoring involves keeping an eye on the status of your BCP, with an aim of identifying any loopholes or vulnerabilities and taking steps to address them. A good way of doing this is conducting regular internal audits on it.

This can help identify problems or gaps in your BCP, such as inadequate or outdated documentation. Furthermore, it will allow you to identify essential business functions and their interdependencies.

Ideal procedures should include everything necessary to keep your business operating in an emergency scenario, from business impact analysis and risk evaluation, recovery strategies and test plans.

But keep in mind that your BCP should not simply be seen as a checklist to be checked off and forgotten about; rather it should form part of the larger safety and security culture that should be constantly reviewed for updates as necessary.