Continuity Planning

The following information provides instructions, guidance, and tips for the development of continuity plans. 

• Introduction to Continuity Planning
• FSU Continuity Planning Guide
• Things to Know as You Plan
• Critical Functions: A Fast Track Approach
• How to Create and Manage Action Items

The continuity planning training component gives an overview about continuity planning and its importance. The training helps users navigate through the continuity planning tool and is broken into three segments:

• Continuity Planning Overview
• Continuity Planning Tool: Plan Details, Contact, Critical Functions
• Continuity Planning Tool: Key Resources, Information Technology, Faculty Preparedness

It is important to review, test, and update continuity plans on a regular basis to ensure that they will meet our current organizational needs in the event of a disaster. To this end, feel free to use the following resources to conduct testings and reviews on your department's continuity plan. 

• Annual Review Checklist
• Updates Calendar
• Tabletop Exercise

The purpose of having a continuity plan is to ensure the continuation of departmental operations in the event of any disruption on campus. It reduces the impact of a disaster as it establishes recovery strategies for any potential interruptions of your department’s critical functions. Furthermore, continuity planning may serve as a tool to review and update departmental processes.

It takes roughly four to six weeks to complete a continuity plan. The amount of time depends on how often the department’s representatives can meet and collaborate to write the plan. Most of the development time will be spent on determining the critical functions.

Any staff member who has a deep knowledge and understanding of the department’s operation should be in the planning group. They are usually the upper and middle managers including, but not limited to directors or assistant directors, building coordinators, HR managers, IT managers. 

Critical functions are functions that are vital to the department and/or the University—without which Ferris would lose the ability to achieve its Mission. Follow the steps below to determine your critical functions:

• Identify all functions that your department performs regularly.
• Determine the critical functions by asking the following questions:
  
  - Would the cessation of the function cause any threat to life, health, and safety?
  - Would the pausing of the function result in grave consequences?
  

  - Would the university be at risk if you are unable to perform this function for 30 days or more after a disruption?

• If you answered “yes” to any of the questions above, that function is one of your critical functions.