Perform Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery via Business Process Management and Other Software Tools

Organizations wishing to improve their Enterprise Architecture and their Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery capabilities can implement an approach using BPM tools for planning their business processes, EA, and BC/DR right up front to dramatically increase their ability to plan for and recover from a disaster or other disruption to business operations. Currently, the BPM and BC/DR software industries represent two separate and distinct paths with little or no intersection between them. This capability can revolutionize the BC/DR discipline and empower business owners by placing more of the ability to perform the planning into their hands versus relying totally upon subject matter experts to plan and conduct their programs. This approach runs leaps and bounds ahead of traditional approaches where contingency personnel rely upon paper-based or other static plans that may be obsolete by the time they are activated or rendered ineffective by real-life circumstances. A plan is only as good as the last update. BPM tools can provide pre-planned and real-time capabilities to plan for and respond to a disaster or disruption.

This new approach in its very infancy employs a BPM application totally unanticipated by industry experts within the disciplines of BPM, EA, and BC/DR. BPM software tools can exponentially increase the scope and effectiveness of BC/DR planning either by themselves or in conjunction with other software packages such as BC/DR planning packages, regression testing and operational testing tools, IT management systems and Manager of Managers (MOM), and other potential applications. This approach holds the most potential for those organizations that find and retain professionals who understand the inter-relationships and how to develop business processes, who can design the enterprise architecture, and write BC/DR plans as well as run the programs. This capability facilitated by incorporating BPM tools can benefit all industry and government segments, regardless of type or nationality in focused or broad approaches depending on an organization’s individual tastes and requirements.

Almost universally, organizations address BC/DR as a parallel effort at best although they usually address it as an after-thought, if at all. BC/DR crosses all of an organization’s boundaries and affects external parties as well. Although largely not addressed to the degree organizations truly require, it represents one of the most complex business problems any organization could possibly resolve. To complicate matters, almost no one in the industry has the ability to perform BPM, design the EA, and write all the BC/DR plans as these skill-sets are normally discrete skill-sets and few understand the ramifications of these three disciplines combined and to sufficient depth. This gap between BPM, EA, and BC/DR often exists as each has skill-sets that often do not really incorporate the thinking of counterparts in other organizations.

Current state of BPM and BC/DR tools

Industry analysts do not predict BPM tool growth for BC/DR and no IT, BPM, or BC/DR professional seems to have heard of this application in current use or even forecasted to this degree. Within the information security profession, Gartner Group industry analysts and others expect that BPM tools would be only used minimally for IA and mainly for C&A in limited circumstances and not for BC/DR.

BPM tools range from extremely sophisticated BPM tools in the Gartner Group Magic Quandrant that have all-encompassing capabilities to interface and execute commands and procedures through and with other software packages to more simplified versions that mainly provide the capability to perform BPM within themselves and provide a repository for limited documentation.

BPM and BC/DR software companies focus on their own markets, regardless of its level of sophistication. However, one of the high end BPM software companies has written applications for the financial industry that address a sub-set of requirements. Typically, BPM tools are used more on the business and operations side with some applications for the IT side. This tendency probably exists because the business process management experts understand the power of harnessing these software programs for BPM and IT professionals would normally focus on business processes as they apply to EA.     

The Impact of a BC/DR Program

Most organizations’ business operations could be negatively affected by various types of disruptions and business owners would ideally analyze their implications and plan accordingly. Disruptions may stem from seemingly benign causes to obvious and extreme disruptions. In the end, the resulting organization’s disruption in its ability to provide services can be the same regardless of the type of disruption. Obvious catastrophies such as Hurricane Katrina and the San Diego wildfires provide some of the most vivid examples of recent major disruptions. Disruptions can also result from some of the following examples:

• Inability for staff to man jobs caused by illness, inability to access the work site, pandemic
• Power outages
• Supply chain complications interfering with the ability to provide parts and supplies in our increasingly just-in-time economy
• Equipment malfunctions 
• Natural disasters 
• Acts of war
• Cyber-terrorist attack, etc.
• Benefits of using BPM for BC/DR 

Any type of BPM tool could facilitate designing the business processes, designing the EA, and BC/DR planning. Often the current BC/DR state entails use of spreadsheets and word documents in lieu of BC/DR software programs. Although this approach is in its infancy in part because IT system designers are virtually never the people who write the BC/DR plans, organizations would ideally plan the business processes to include those required for recovery from a disruption, design the supporting EA complete with its disaster recovery capabilities, and plan the BC/DR capabilities right up front. Unfortunately, the sad fact is that virtually none of the professional disciplines fully understands what it takes to accomplish the goals and objectives of its counterparts to sustain the continuum of BPM, EA, and BC/DR. Furthermore, the pool of professionals who possess the conceptual understanding and can provide the excruciating detail of what it takes to maintain and recover operations from a business process, humanistic, and technology perspective is minute but growing.

In varying levels according to the tool’s sophistication and the user’s abilities, BPM tools offer substantial benefits for both EA and BC/DR as well as for BPM.

• As with BC/DR tools, BPM tools can allow for pre-planning a series of likely scenarios and their requisite responses. 
• Some of the more sophisticated BPM tools can facilitate the analysis required to develop BC/DR plans and programs by collecting data provided by personnel as well as systems and performing the analysis. 
• Ability to start with a simpler application all way up to agency or headquarters level 
• Provide capability of planning business processes in Visio or other tools
• Provide ability to associate processes with documentation, resources, and other elements necessary for plan execution
• Most importantly, provides ability to plan new processes and re-associate existing processes and resources according to need in real time should the pre-planned scenarios and associated resources become infeasible
• Often use web access to be accessible regardless of location
• Provide for security capabilities
• Provide ability to develop new processes for completely new alternate site if the original alternate and alternate processes sites are unavailable for some reason and needs require a totally new plan
• Provide varying levels of sophistication or simplicity to suit organizations budget, skills, and extent to which it wishes to incorporate BPM

BPM tools may be used in conjunction with or in place of BC/DR tools by building BC/DR processes and supporting resources within the BPM tool, just as one would build any other process. BC/DR tools range from fairly simple and easy for almost anyone to use to highly sophisticated ones that provide sophisticated capabilities but require a substantial manpower commitment to maintain properly.

Myths surrounding BC/DR

Many myths surround the discipline of BC/DR and often stem from the point of view of individuals and organizations. One of the most prevalent myths, just because an organization has an alternate or BC/DR site does not mean that it has an executable plan and an effective BC/DR program. Having a plan and program that the organization hasn’t tested does not indicate success under fire. Unfortunately, hiring so-called experts does not guarantee viability of plans as the BC/DR discipline is so complicated and broad-reaching that anyone can tell a good story and write fluffy plans that few can evaluate or execute properly. The only real way to test the effectiveness of a BC/DR plan and program is a thorough testing program and feedback for improvement. Organizations could use BPM tools to assist with the testing and maintenance aspects of a program as well as other processes.

Conclusion

BPM tools used separately or in conjunction with other software tools such as BC/DR could revolutionize the incredibly complex and all-encompassing realm of BC/DR planning and life-cycle management. These tools could exponentially facilitate an organization’s ability to prepare for and recover from a disaster in pre-planned and real-time scenarios. Using any BPM software tool could enhance an organization’s BC/DR program and its selection can be based upon an organization’s budget, desire to incorporate this solution, and its ability to harness the human capital possessing the ability to implement this approach in greater or lesser degrees.   

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