How can you ensure service continuity and recovery?

1 Assess your service risks

The first step is to identify and analyze the potential risks that could affect your service operations, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, equipment failures, human errors, or regulatory changes. You should consider the likelihood, impact, and interdependence of each risk, and prioritize them according to their severity and urgency. You should also review your existing risk management policies and procedures, and update them as needed.

2 Define your service objectives

The second step is to define your service objectives, which are the desired outcomes and performance levels that you want to achieve or maintain during and after a disruption. You should align your service objectives with your business goals, customer expectations, and stakeholder requirements, and make them SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). You should also identify the critical success factors and key performance indicators that will help you measure and monitor your service objectives.

3 Design your service continuity plan

The third step is to design your service continuity plan, a document that outlines how you will manage and mitigate risks, and ensure the continuity or recovery of your service operations. This plan should include a clear scope and purpose, a list of roles and responsibilities of the service continuity team and stakeholders, a communication plan that specifies how, when, and to whom you will communicate during and after a disruption, a risk response plan with actions, resources, and tools to prevent, reduce, or transfer risks, a continuity strategy that defines minimum service levels, recovery time objectives, and recovery point objectives to aim for during and after a disruption, as well as a recovery plan with steps, procedures, and checkpoints to restore your service operations.

4 Test and update your service continuity plan

The fourth step is to test and update your service continuity plan regularly, to ensure that it is effective, realistic, and up-to-date. You should conduct different types of tests, such as tabletop exercises, simulations, or live scenarios, to evaluate your plan's feasibility, functionality, and compatibility. You should also review and update your plan based on the test results, feedback, lessons learned, best practices, and changes in your service environment, risks, objectives, or requirements.

5 Train and educate your service continuity team

The fifth step is to train and educate your service continuity team and other stakeholders, to ensure that they are aware, prepared, and capable of executing your service continuity plan. You should provide them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and competencies to perform their roles and responsibilities, to use the resources and tools effectively, and to follow the communication and recovery procedures. You should also foster a culture of service continuity awareness and readiness across your organization, and encourage collaboration and cooperation among your team and stakeholders.

6 Monitor and improve your service continuity performance

The sixth and final step is to monitor and improve your service continuity performance, to ensure that you are meeting or exceeding your service objectives, and that you are delivering value to your customers and stakeholders. You should collect and analyze data on your service continuity activities, outcomes, and impacts, and use them to evaluate your performance against your key performance indicators and critical success factors. You should also identify and implement opportunities for improvement, innovation, and optimization, and incorporate them into your service continuity plan and practices.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?