Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

A business continuity plan (BCP) sets out the people, procedures, resources, and alternative ways of working needed when normal operations are disrupted. A power failure, severe weather event, supplier outage, cyber incident, or inaccessible workplace can all threaten critical business activities. A useful plan starts with a business impact analysis: identify essential functions, assess how disruption affects customers and revenue, and decide which work must continue first.

A BCP assigns decision-makers, contact methods, alternative locations or suppliers, access to essential records, and steps for communicating with employees and customers. It should also define when to switch to a fallback process, how to test it, and when to resume normal service. Business continuity is broader than disaster recovery: restoring a server may be necessary, but a company also needs a way to answer calls, manage bookings, and dispatch work.

Plans require review when staffing, vendors, systems, or business priorities change. A written document alone does not establish readiness; exercises help reveal unclear ownership and unrealistic assumptions.