It’s a new year and maybe one of your resolutions this year is to finally get to grips with that business continuity project that’s been on the back burner for a while.

But a full-blown business continuity project can be a daunting thing, particularly for someone who’s new to the subject. There’s just so much to get to grips with – business impact analysis, risk assessment, strategy development, production of recovery plans, testing, and so on and so on. And each of these areas has a whole host of activities associated with it. So where on earth to start?

The thing is, a business continuity project can take an awfully long time from initiation to having the strategy and plans fully implemented and tested (if indeed they ever are). But if some sort of business disruption or crisis happens in the meantime, there will be a whole load of “stuff” to deal with, whether your strategy and plans are in place or not.

So an effective incident management capability is absolutely essential. And rather than waiting ‘til half way through the project before thinking about it, why not sort out your Incident Management Team right at the start. Decide who should be in it, brief them on their roles and responsibilities and get them up to speed by way of an incident management exercise.

This needn’t take forever. But by doing it, even if the analysis, strategy and detailed plans aren’t complete, you’ll have a fighting chance if the “stuff” should hit the fan in the meantime.