Effective Contingency Planning

Contingency planning is simply an outline of procedures to follow in case some major event impacts your operations.  Technically, the contingency plan is a document that identifies the actions the organizations will take when a specified incident happens.  The plan demonstrates that the organization has thought of ways to minimize the impact to its operations and by default the customer’s.  

Below are 8 steps for effective contingency planning:

1. Start by setting up a committee and chose a lead.  The leader will provide the skills, tools and direction so that each department can develop its own plans.  Contingency planning is a big task, so involve the appropriate number of people to maximize input.
2. Record the business processes for each department.
3. Identify issues (real and potential) that can negatively impact business operations.
4. Review the issues with department managers and rank contingency priority to help focus plan development.
5. Create plans to address each prioritized issue.  Try to minimize the number of steps required to resume operations.
6. Test your contingency plans. If a portion of the plan is flawed or conflicts with other contingency plans, modify and then reassess the plan.
7. Formalize and communicate the plan with applicable personnel within the organization.
8. Finally, make sure to review the plan at predetermined intervals to insure continued relevance.   The review helps identify areas for improvement or modification.

By following the steps outlined above, you will be able to create effective contingencies to address your business functions.  Remember, contingency plans should be developed for critical processes, tasks and/or systems.

To learn how Accupoint can help you streamline contingency planning, call us toll-free at 800.563.6250 or visit us on the web at accupointsoftware.com.