Why you should never test your credit union business continuity plan!

by. Michele Dowis

Every year credit union leaders get worked up about Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan tests.  When I’m onsite with clients, I hear so many comments about fear of failure.  Don’t think of it this way!  The only failure here is to not do it.  There’s a reason that the examiners require them.  Staff needs to be comfortable working in downtime mode which in turn increases your members’ confidence. How do you make your staff more comfortable? Take the “test” out of it! Test implies pass/fail and hinders the creativity of response. Don’t test your plan – Exercise your credit union business continuity plan!

Exercise your plans, just like you exercise your body.  Exercising increases muscle memory, response times and confidence.  Learn the difference between issues in processing versus workarounds needed in a test environment.  Increase the scope each year and test different things and people.  The more involved you are in testing, the more prepared you’ll be for an actual event.

Use your Business Impact Analysis results as your guide and training plan.  Start with the critical processes, systems and departments involved – add on each year.  If issues are encountered during an exercise, make sure to include it again in the following exercise.  Create a testing plan/cycle, have fun and involve everyone in some capacity.  Report to your staff, Board of Directors and your members your successes.  It is important to keep everyone informed.

Practice, practice, practice…  Train for a marathon, train staff for incident.  You can plan for a exercise but an incident will occur without

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