The need to establish, maintain and improve business continuity management (BCM) programs has been accelerated given the recent COVID19 pandemic. In addition business disruptions due to adverse weather conditions, labour unrest, cyber incidents and third party failures, have also transformed the way business continuity practitioners are approaching BCM programs.

The focus for business continuity practitioners is no longer on “what” should be done, but rather on ”how” it should be done, to prepare organisations to respond effectively to disruptions.  For this reason business continuity practitioners should adopt the Business Continuity Institute’s (BCI’s) Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) of 2018.

The GPG is aligned to the ISO 22301(Business Continuity Management Standard), and is written in a flexible manner to ensure the guidelines can be interpreted and adapted by the practitioner to suit the requirements and organisational environment.

The GPG is made up of six professional practices, also referred to as stages, namely:

1. Policy and program management
2. Embed business continuity
3. Analysis
4. Design
5. Implementation
6. Validation

Collectively the six stages make up the BCM lifecycle, and is a sound foundation for a comprehensive BCM program.

The GPG is highly recommended as the guideline for business continuity practitioners seeking guidance.