Project Management for Disaster Recovery

The best tool for disaster recovery in project management is the disaster recovery plan. Most often, a disaster recovery plan contains the following elements: preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation.

Prepare

• A business can prepare for a disaster by having a solid disaster recovery plan with which all employees are very familiar. Additionally, all materials and assets needed to respond to a disaster should be readily available or easily attainable at any point.

Respond

• The response element of a disaster recovery plan encompasses identification of the resources that will need to be utilized in the event of a disaster. This would include a list of people available at any hour as well as backup contacts should the primary individual be unavailable. The primary goal of the respond element is to stop further damage.

Recover

• The recover element of a disaster recovery plan addresses how recovery will begin once further damage has been stopped. This should include elements such as how and who will address the media, if and how victims should be compensated, and who is in charge of cleanup.

Mitigation

• The disaster recovery plan must also address how the mitigation element will occur. Once recovery is complete, it is imperative that in-depth analysis is done of the disaster to pinpoint why the disaster occurred. Then, changes should be made so the disaster cannot repeat itself.