Before allocating staff resources to work on Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) planning, what critical element must first be secured?

To effectively implement Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) planning, securing leadership support is crucial. Leadership support provides the necessary authority and visibility to prioritize BCDR efforts within the organization. This backing ensures that adequate resources—both financial and human—are allocated to the planning efforts, and it helps to foster a culture of preparedness and resilience throughout the organization.

Without leadership buy-in, BCDR initiatives may struggle to gain traction, and the necessary resources and participation from staff may be difficult to secure. Furthermore, leadership support is often essential for approving budgets, enforcing policies, and ensuring that the BCDR plans align with the organization’s overall strategic goals.

The other elements, while important, are secondary to the foundation that leadership support provides. Metrics development and testing activities are crucial for evaluating and refining BCDR plans and ensuring they are effective, but these processes rely on the initial support and commitment from leadership to be successful. Similarly, even though staff resources are necessary to execute BCDR plans, their deployment is contingent upon having leadership endorsement to move forward. Thus, leadership support is the keystone for a successful BCDR strategy.