Business Continuity

Overview

The business decides what has to continue

Continuity plans usually fail on their assumptions rather than their content. A recovery time is agreed by people who do not own the process, a dependency turns out to sit with a supplier who has their own outage, and the plan is exercised as a walkthrough that nobody could fail.

A business continuity management (BCM) system turns on two questions, and both belong to the business rather than to IT: which activities have to continue, and how quickly. Impact analysis answers the first; continuity strategies and the arrangements behind them answer the second.

Professional tracks

Halderstone tracks follow a modular structure. They first establish a strong, role-specific foundation across disciplines, which is then applied to the chosen discipline.

Business Continuity · ISO 22301ISO 22301 AuditorAuditing business continuity beyond documented plans◎Diploma in Management System Auditing◎Halderstone Certified ISO 22301 Auditor19 modules · capstone · examView the track →

Business Continuity · ISO 22301Business Continuity ManagerPrepare the organisation to continue before disruption strikes◎Diploma in Management System Management◎Halderstone Certified Business Continuity Manager22 modules · capstone · examView the track →

Training modules

Each module can be taken on its own and trains the calls a practitioner has to make without being prompted. These are the modules that teach this discipline; the cross-discipline core that every track shares is in the catalogue.

HAM-BC-A-02 · Business ContinuityAuditing Business Continuity Implementation & ReadinessEvaluate whether continuity strategies, operational readiness and exercising provide credible recovery capability in an ISO 22301 BCMSView details →

HAM-BC-A-01 · Business ContinuityAuditing Business Impact AnalysisAssess whether business impact analyses produce credible recovery priorities and recovery objectives in an ISO 22301 BCMSView details →

HAM-BC-S-03 · Business ContinuityBusiness Continuity Preparedness & ResponseStructure continuity plans, define response roles and communications, and design exercises aligned with continuity requirementsView details →

HAM-BC-S-02 · Business ContinuityBusiness Continuity Strategies & SolutionsEvaluate continuity strategy options, design continuity solutions, and apply decision criteria aligned with ISO 22301 time-based requirementsView details →

HAM-BC-S-01 · Business ContinuityBusiness Impact AnalysisPerform ISO 22301-aligned business impact analysis, identify critical activities, and define time-based recovery requirementsView details →

Advisory

We help organisations build continuity arrangements that are credible, proportionate and workable under real disruption conditions. This includes governance, impact analysis, continuity strategies, response structures, exercising and evidence frameworks that strengthen resilience, support assurance and improve preparedness across critical products, services and operations.

The four phases below are the life of a management system, and an engagement can begin at any one of them.

1. 01

   Design

   Establishing clear structures and accountability

   –Business continuity framework and policy design, including Business Continuity Management Systems (BCMS) aligned with ISO 22301

   –Definition of roles, responsibilities and decision rights

   –Structuring of governance for disruption management, recovery and crisis escalation

   –Identification of critical activities, dependencies and resilience priorities

   –Design of documentation, evidence and reporting structures

2. 02

   Operate

   Making business continuity work in daily practice

   –Business impact analysis and continuity risk assessments

   –Development of continuity and recovery strategies

   –Operational processes for incident response, escalation and recovery coordination

   –Design and review of business continuity plans and related playbooks

   –Enablement of key roles across management, operations and support functions

3. 03

   Assure

   Providing confidence and audit readiness

   –Independent reviews of BCMS design and implementation

   –Implementation and effectiveness checks for continuity arrangements

   –Outsourced internal audit based on ISO 22301

   –Certification readiness assessments

   –Review of testing, exercising and evidence structures

   –Preparation for internal and external audits

4. 04

   Evolve

   Keeping business continuity effective as risks, dependencies and requirements change

   –Monitoring of regulatory, operational and organisational developments

   –Maturity assessments and improvement roadmaps for BCMS

   –Executive sparring on resilience priorities and continuity decisions

   –Integration of new business, technology or supplier dependencies into existing arrangements

   –Support for continual improvement and stronger cross-functional coordination

Audit

A BCM system audit asks whether the arrangements would hold: whether the impact analysis still matches the business, whether the strategies close the gap it identifies, and whether the exercises were hard enough to fail.

Insights

29 May 2026Deepwater Horizon: When Barriers Become AssumptionsHow a controlled well operation became a disaster when barrier evidence, contractor interfaces and stop authority failed21 min readRead more →