The most effective disaster recovery plans and programs depend on the people
involved.  Working strategies depend on stakeholder cooperation
and collaboration, combining needs and capabilities to form a
cohesive program that incorporates business continuity, security and
safety.  Read on to learn more about how to take a “team
approach” to disaster
recovery planning.

To create a full-fledged program for disaster recovery, the right
resources must be pulled together, at the right time, and for the right
purpose.  As a process, structured disaster recovery planning flows through
a series of phases designed to facilitate requirements definition, response
planning, and when necessary, related action. DRP team structure should
be designed to mirror phase structure and workflow, ensuring that all
essential planning bases are covered. 

What’s the Purpose of a DRP Team?

A “team approach” to disaster recovery planning provides three (3) primary advantages:

1. It takes a team to identify comprehensive disaster recovery requirements,
   sufficiently diverse and relevant to all key needs and operational
   perspectives.
2. It takes a team to create an actionable disaster recovery
   program, considering all operational capabilities and constraints.
3. It takes a team to put all the plans and programs into action
   and keep current with changing needs.

As can be expected, skill, knowledge and staffing requirements may vary according
to the scope and purpose of the disaster recovery planning process (considering requirements,
planning and implementation).  In order to maintain a
consistent process flow, appropriate resources must be identified, allocated and assigned
accordingly.  Considering this results-driven organizational approach,
each team “unit” must be structured to suit process goals, skills, roles
and responsibilities.

Planning for DRP Team Success

Every team deserves the opportunity to succeed.  In order to
give your “team” a head start to deliver required results, it must
properly assembled and tasked, given all of the necessarily
operational tools.  To achieve these results, the following
questions must be addressed as part of organizational planning:

1. What is the specific mission of the DRP “team”?
2. Who are the DRP stakeholders considering interest
   in disaster recovery planning and the ability to influence
   the outcome?
3. What will each stakeholder contribute to the process
   considering skills, experience and knowledge.
4. Who are your decision making stakeholders?
5. Who are sponsoring stakeholders (to promote disaster
   recovery planning initiatives)?
6. How will roles and responsibilities be allocated in order to
   leverage stakeholder authority, skills, experience and
   knowledge?
7. How will work be allocated to complete disaster recovery
   planning tasks and produce related deliverables?

Organizing Principles for DRP Team Composition

To deliver actionable results, an effective DRP team must be
organized according to standardized principles for operational
management.  In this fashion, roles and responsibilities can be
clearly defined to ensure that all “interests” are being served, and
that you have the broadest level of input needed to deliver
successful results.  Considering these goals, team composition
must account for the following:

• Authorized leadership (to provide direction,
  governance and operational authority).
• Organizational expertise (team members who represent the executive, legal and regulatory interests).
• Operational
  expertise (team members who bring business operational knowledge and interests).
• Technical expertise (team
  members who bring technology and IT management expertise).
• Administrative expertise  (team members
  who will coordinate and administer DRP activities).

Further, as a matter of “good practice”, every DRP “team” should
“organize and operate” according to the following
defining principles:

• The team must have a defined mission that is aligned to the
  IT
  management vision.
• The team must be structured in order to facilitate operational
  needs.
• The team must operate under an approved charter.
• Collaboration and cooperation are the keys to success.

And, communication is key. Team resources should be well-informed and
well aware of all DRP goals and objectives. Any significant disaster
event will impact a business as a “whole”, and as such, all sides of
the business entity must be represented in the DRP team. This is essential
to ensure that the actual “Disaster Recovery Plan” covers
all the angles (technical, financial, operational and
administrative).

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