DRP Maintenance and Testing

Dhammica De Silva

Senior Technical Officer

Welcome to the ‘mundane’

What comes after the ‘key is turned’?כ Preferably, everyone wants silence.כ One of most tedious jobs in the world.כ …you end up hoping for a small disaster.

The workload …..כ Maintain the ‘system’כ Test the ‘system’

Doesn’t get much more critical than this!

Operations Framework

Initiate BCM

Business Impact Analysis

Risk Assessment

BC Strategy

Organization &Implementation Planning

Implement Stand-byAgreements

Develop Recovery PlansImplement Risk Reduction

Measures

Develop Procedures

Initial Testing

Education &Awareness

Review &Audit

Testing

ChangeManagement

Training

Assurance

Stage 1:Initiation

Stage 2:Requirements & Strategy

Stage 3:Implementation

Stage 4:Operational Management

Project Vs.

Process

Operational Management

Education &Awareness

Review &Audit

Testing

ChangeManagement

Training

Assurance

Stage 4:Operational Management

Why test and maintain?

Three major points to keep in mind:כ Viable and Readied action planכ DRP currency כ Recovery

Maintaining the plan

Helps ensure currency of what is to be recovered Changes, changes, and changes…

כ Test results may indicate problem areasכ Addition of new equipment, application, etc.כ Changes to HW, SW, network, etc.

Regular, and surprise reviews.

Testing the plan

Testing results ‘feed’ maintenance Testing the plan needs a plan:

כ Parameters, objectives, criteria, method, etc.כ Problems are an opportunity to improve

Important criteria for designing testsכ Comprehensive testing of entire planכ Non-prohibitive costs of test proceduresכ Minimal disturbances to normal operationsכ Maximum reliability and accuracy of test result dataכ Usefulness of test data.

Standard testing methodologies

Checklist Testing Walk through testing Virtual Machine Technology Simulation Testing Parallel Testing Full-Interruption Testing

Maintain your will, test your patience..