Disaster Recovery Plan Template
ITA – Premium: Strategy & Planning Tool
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1) Walkthroughs- Team members verbally go through the specific steps as documented in the plan to
confirm effectiveness, identify gaps, bottlenecks or other weaknesses. This test provides the opportunity to
review a plan with a larger subset of people, allowing the DRP project manager to draw upon a
correspondingly increased pool of knowledge and experiences. Staff should be familiar with procedures,
equipment, and offsite facilities (if required).
2) Simulations- A disaster is simulated so normal operations will not be interrupted. Hardware, software,
personnel, communications, procedures, supplies and forms, documentation, transportation, utilities, and
alternate site processing should be thoroughly tested in a simulation test. However, validated checklists
can provide a reasonable level of assurance for many of these scenarios. Analyze the output of the
previous tests carefully before the proposed simulation to ensure the lessons learned during the previous
phases of the cycle have been applied.
3) Parallel Testing- A parallel test can be performed in conjunction with the checklist test or simulation test.
Under this scenario, historical transactions, such as the prior business day's transactions are processed
against preceding day's backup files at the contingency processing site or hot site. All reports produced at
the alternate site for the current business date should agree with those reports produced at the alternate
processing site.
4) Full-Interruption Testing- A full-interruption test activates the total DRP. The test is likely to be costly and
could disrupt normal operations, and therefore should be approached with caution. The importance of due
diligence with respect to previous DRP phases cannot be overstated.
Any gaps in the DRP that are discovered during the testing phase will be addressed by the Disaster Recovery Lead
as well as any resources that he/she will require.
Call Tree Testing
Elective
Testing of the call trees is normally a good idea. Feel free to omit this section if you feel that it is irrelevant.
Call Trees are a major part of the DRP and <<Organization Name>> requires that it is tested every <<Enter time
frame here>> in order to ensure that it is functional. Tests will be performed as follows:
1) Disaster Recovery Lead initiates call tree and gives the first round of employees called a code word.
2) The code word is passed from one caller to the next.
3) The next work day all Disaster Recovery Team members are asked for the code word.
4) Any issues with the call tree, contact information etc will then be addressed accordingly.
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