Continuity and recovery is the set of practices that keep an organization's essential functions running during a disruption and restore normal operations afterward. Business continuity planning, or BCP, focuses on sustaining critical activities, while disaster recovery, or DR, focuses on restoring the technology and data those activities depend on. Crisis management coordinates the people and decisions that guide the response.

Within operational governance, continuity and recovery govern the organization's readiness for the days when controls are tested by real events. It connects risk assessment, which identifies what could disrupt operations, to concrete plans, roles, and resources that reduce downtime and loss when disruption occurs.

This area matters because disruptions, whether from technical failure, human error, or external events, are a question of when rather than if. Organizations that have planned, documented, and rehearsed their response recover faster and with less harm to customers, finances, and reputation than those improvising under pressure.

The work involves understanding which functions are most critical and how long they can be unavailable, setting recovery objectives, documenting plans, and assigning clear responsibilities. Equally important is testing through exercises, because a plan that has never been rehearsed often fails when it is first needed. Plans are reviewed and updated as the business changes.

References#

• ISO 22301, Business continuity management systems.
• NIST SP 800-34, Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems.