What September 11th uncovered was the lack of policies and procedures in place to facilitate minimum outages. If nothing else, we hope that all Program Managers now have Disaster Recovery as an activity that is planned, well-documented and accessible in times of disaster.

It is important for every Program Manager to have specific disaster recovery activities assigned to a specific person in order to minimize the business impact. This applies to the product as well as to the program. 9/11 illustrated that a disaster will always be unexpected and that the best way to minimize the impact of a disaster is to be prepared. People need to feel connected to familiarity. Therefore, it is necessary for the disaster recovery plan to be clearly defined and tested and re-communicated during the disaster. The Program Manager must lead through the disaster with confidence and be prepared with instructions to minimize the impact on the business and the program.

Every Disaster Recovery plan should cover the following:

• Communication
• Protection of Valuable Assets
• Alternate Facilities

Let's look at each area in terms of what the Program Manager must define for both their product and project. For the product, disaster recovery includes how to ensure that the product will work in alternate scenarios. For the program, disaster recovery includes keeping the momentum of the project going with the least amount of disruption.

Policies and procedures should be developed and communicated as to specifically what to do in time of disaster. This includes developing a plan for your staff and business partnerships. A well thought-out Disaster Recovery Plan should provide answers to all of the following questions.

Communication

On a Product Level:

• Do you know the backup communications links for all business partnerships? Do they know yours?
• Is there a backup organization if the business partnership cannot perform its function?

On a Program Level:

• How will you communicate with your staff and business partners in times of disaster? How will they communicate with you?
• Do you have an alternate report-to location? Does your staff know where that is?

Protection of Valuable Assets
Policies and procedures should be developed and communicated that protect the corporation's assets. These assets include important information in whatever form that they take Ð whether it is an electronic document or a hard copy.

On a Product Level:

• Is all electronic information, such as partnership agreements, orders, commissions, backed-up and kept off site? What about the paper-only information?
• Have the alternate facilities been tested within the last six months?
• Is access to information protected from the alternate location?
• Are the tolerance parameters set for the product still acceptable when operating in disaster mode?
• Are their any new risks in light of this new mode of operation?

On a Program Level:

• How will you account for your staff?
• Are all work products (even those in draft format) backed-up and off site?
• How will you rebuild lost information?
• Is the program still feasible (schedule, budget, resources) given the interruption?
• Are the tolerance parameters set for the program still acceptable when operating in disaster mode?

Alternate Facilities
Policies and procedures need to work at the current location as well as the alternate location.

On a Product Level:

• How long will it take to produce the product from alternate locations? What is the financial impact of the delay?
• What expenditures will be required to get the alternate facility running? How and when will the monies be dispersed?
• How long will the product be able to function in this disaster mode?

On a Program Level:

• Will your staff have the proper security clearance to the products and information they need to continue their work from an alternate facility?
• If staff is primarily working from home, where will meetings be held, when necessary?
• How long can the program operate in this disaster mode?

Though this date will be forever etched in our minds, may we all learn and improve from that terrible day. We know that since 9/11, nothing is the same. We just hope that businesses are faring well in finding the new "normal" which includes making disaster recovery and security issues a priority.

For more information on commonly overlooked disaster recovery topics and disaster recovery scenarios view the following tip: http://www.sbdi-consulting.com/GroundZero2001.shtml

SBDi can assist you to minimize the negative affect of business outages by reviewing or assist in writing your product or program Disaster Recovery Plans.

Pat Ferdinandi