Effective Contingency Planning

Contingency planning is simply an outline of procedures to follow in case some major

event impacts your operations. Technically, the contingency plan is a document that
identifies the actions the organizations will take when a specified incident happens. The
plan demonstrates that the organization has thought of ways to minimize the impact to
its operations and by default the customers.
Below are 8 steps for effective contingency planning:
1.

2.

Start by setting up a committee and chose a lead. The leader will provide the
skills, tools and direction so that each department can develop its own plans.
Contingency planning is a big task, so involve the appropriate number of people to
maximize input.
Record the business processes for each department.

3.

Identify issues (real and potential) that can negatively impact business
operations.

4.

Review the issues with department managers and rank contingency priority to
help focus plan development.

5.

Create plans to address each prioritized issue. Try to minimize the number of
steps required to resume operations.

6.

Test your contingency plans. If a portion of the plan is flawed or conflicts with
other contingency plans, modify and then reassess the plan.

7.

Formalize and communicate the plan with applicable personnel within the
organization.

8.

Finally, make sure to review the plan at predetermined intervals to insure

continued relevance. The review helps identify areas for improvement or
modification.

By following the steps outlined above, you will be able to create effective contingencies
to address your business functions. Remember, contingency plans should be developed
for critical processes, tasks and/or systems.