How to Help People with a Disaster Recovery Plan
Before disaster strikes, it's a good idea to have a recovery plan so that a person, family, team or company can bounce back from the disaster. If a person doesn't have a disaster recovery plan, he can be left trying to pick up the pieces without knowing exactly what to do. Help others create a disaster recovery plan so that they will be prepared in the event that a disaster strikes.
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Instructions
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Sit down with the other person and make a list of potential disasters that can affect her, her family, her job or the organizations that she belongs to. Individuals are encouraged to come up with worst-case scenarios. Pick one disaster from the list that is the most likely to occur and that may have the most impact on the individual.
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Write a list of potential impacts that the disaster will have. Ask the individual how he will know the disaster has struck and how he will determine the scope of the damage. List items such as loss of money, loss of space, loss of facilities, loss of possessions, or loss of records. Pick a specific person or group that is responsible for overseeing and communicating the effects of the disaster in case it occurs.
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Brainstorm a list of what will need to be done once the disaster strikes. The first priority should be to contain the disaster. For example, if someone is running a business and she realizes that her credit card machine has a virus and is stealing her clients' credit cards, the first step would be to stop all credit card transactions and stop the machine from working. Go through all the steps necessary to resolve the disaster.
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Assign an individual to be responsible for each step of the recovery process. Give people responsibilities based on their strengths or their position. Think about what tasks could be delegated to others. If the disaster affects a group of people, assemble the group and ask who would be best suited to handle the different parts of the recovery process.
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Write out a budget of what it might cost to recover from the disaster. Instruct the individual to save money for a disaster and keep it in a disaster relief fund. He should ideally save enough to cover the majority or all of the budgeted disaster relief expense. Instruct him to keep the disaster relief fund safe, and to only withdraw the money to help clean up the disaster and get him or his organization back up and running.
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Lock critical records in a fireproof and floodproof durable safe. Scan any critical documents into the computer, and save the documents on an external hard drive. Backup any critical computer documents on the hard drive as well. Keep the external hard drive locked in a disaster safe box.
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Instruct the individual to review the disaster recovery plan after the disaster strikes to account for any improvements that can be made during future disaster recovery operations. Look for pitfalls or unclear directions in the disaster recovery plan that proved to be difficult to overcome or unexpectedly challenging. If you're working with a team, have the team write down their response to the disaster recovery plan and hold a formal meeting to discuss what improvements can be made.
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Tips & Warnings
The recovery plan should include three types of disaster: natural, human or environmental risk. A natural risk is anything that falls under the category of natural disaster, such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. A human risk is anything that falls under the category of human error, such as poor management skills, operating errors or loss of people. An environmental risk may be a loss of power or equipment malfunction.
Define the exact type of disaster recovery plan that you're creating. See the Office of The Chief Information Officer Disaster Recovery and Business Resumption plans for a list of different plan types. For example, if the disaster is a flood, you would want to create a disaster recovery plan that focuses on what you can do to prevent damage, as well as what you're going to do in case the event actually occurs.
Make backup copies of critical records and store them in a safe disaster proof location on a daily or weekly basis.
References
- Photo Credit car hotel disaster accident image by paul prescott from Fotolia.com
