Business Continuity Planning

Perfect Beginner's Guide in Workbook Format

with Worksheets, Forms, Checklists, Tables

and Free Download of Sample Plans and Templates

This easy, how-to-do-it introduction to Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is designed in a workbook format with lots of reproducible worksheets, forms, tables, checklists and action items. It's particularly useful for managers in single-location companies with up to 250 employees and for an office environment where information technology is critical to operations.


Just follow the steps and use some of the templates and you'll have a realistic plan in only a few days. The process will neither overwhelm you nor break the bank, and it will get your business continuity program up and running surprisingly fast and with a lot less effort than you expect.

The accompanying free download provides numerous handy templates and sample forms, including a vulnerability worksheet; Business Impact Assessment (BIA) sample questionnaire for departments; cumulative outage costs worksheet; emergency response team assignments and call sheet; vendor call sheet; sample test plan and maintenance plan, etc. There are also checklists/ corrective action forms for various natural hazards, including, fires, floods, winter storms, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes, along with an emergency response plan (ERP) checklist. Checklists for special hazards include those for power outages, boiler failures, bomb threats, hazardous material spills, and civil unrest, along with a checklist for vital records storage. The BCP resources include information about federal and state agencies, such as FEMA; bibliographies; articles and papers; and links to a variety of related Web sites.

Endorsed by both the Business Continuity Institute and Disaster Recovery Institute International, this workbook includes these helpful features:

Worksheets in both the book and free download in Microsoft Word that provide step-by step practice in developing your own business continuity plan

Chapter overviews and objectives

Appendices with sample risk assessment and risk analysis checklists

Glossary with 120 business continuity terms

Accompanying free download with numerous templates and forms; bibliographies; articles and papers; links to a variety of related Web sites


Author who is a veteran practitioner of business continuity and disaster recovery for 20+ years

Ideal for senior undergraduate, MBA, certificate, and corporate training programs

"In more than 30 years as a business continuity practitioner, I have seen many small and medium-size businesses pay the penalty for lack of preparedness. Often, overwhelmed by the jargon employed by many practitioners and the mistaken concepts that business continuity is too costly, that it is only for the 'big boys,' and that they do not have the resources or knowledge base, they choose to take the risk instead. For many, it is an unfortunate choice because much can be done with reasonable commitment to avoid business disruptions or mitigate the impact for those that are unavoidable.... In this excellent primer, Mr. Fulmer sets out a simple, concise, and, most of all, logical roadmap both for developing the justification for a business continuity/disaster recovery program as well as for developing and maintaining the resultant plan."

--Larry Kalmis, FBCI, Project Executive, Virtual Corporation

Chairman, Business Continuity Institute