Disaster Recovery and the Road Ahead - IGNOU

stakeholders from all types of organizations working in the affected area, along with the community.
This ensures working together in an integrated fashion to solve a problem. The following principles
provide a foundation for understanding disaster planning. They will help guide the people in an
organization who need to develop the disaster recovery plan. You may provide your inputs to
disaster recovery plan. The fundamentals would focus on:
Development of a solid disaster recovery plan which would require the support and participation
of upper-level functionaries, the directors of all functional departments such as human resources,
facilities management, Information Technology (IT), corporate security, legal counsel, and the
managers of all business units
Assessment of an organization’s risks. This generally requires time-consuming, detailed analysis
based on a realistic understanding of the environmental, economic, social, and political conditions
in which the organization, its suppliers and its beneficiaries operate
Support to the critical needs of business operations; and compliance with all relevant laws and
regulations
Delineation and documentation of the chain of command of the managers responsible for
declaring, responding to, and recovering from a disaster
Facilitation of control of communications among decision makers, managers and staff, as well
as external support organizations
Accessibility of recovery policies to all departments, managers, and staff at all times during
disaster response and recovery
Training for all personnel involved in disaster response and recovery in order to implement
documented procedures, and to address unanticipated problems
Testing of disaster recovery procedures. The results of such an evaluation should be used to
modify the plan, procedures or training design
Evaluation of new threats and business conditions as they develop, and then updating disaster
recovery plans and procedures accordingly
Assessment of effectiveness of disaster response procedures and monitoring the physical safety
and mental health of employees at all times. The results of the evaluation should be used to
improve the disaster recovery abilities of the organization
Every member of the disaster recovery team needs to be made familiar with certain steps and how
they relate to each other: These are:
i) Organizing the team
ii)
iii)
iv)
Assessing risks in the organization
Establishing roles across departments and organizations
Developing policies and procedures
v) Documenting disaster recovery procedures; and
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