ABC CP study guide
ABC CP · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Associate Business Continuity Professional (ABCP) is the entry-level individual certification offered by DRI International, a nonprofit founded in 1988 that provides education, accreditation, and thought leadership in business continuity, disaster recovery, and related resilience fields. ABCP is designed for people new to the profession: DRI describes the level as intended for individuals with less than two years of industry experience who have minimum knowledge in business continuity management and who have successfully passed the Qualifying Examination. It also suits people with expertise in a related or unrelated field, such as marketing or emergency response, who want to demonstrate professionalism within the industry. DRI frames certification as a two-part process: verification of knowledge and confirmation of experience. Topics on this exam: Business Continuity Management Knowledge (Qualifying Examination content) and Professional Practice and Experience Requirements. The ABC CP study guide has 2 sections and about 734 words.
01Business Continuity Management Knowledge (Qualifying Examination)
Business continuity management (BCM) is a lifecycle discipline, not a single plan. Expect questions organised around the sequence: policy and programme management → business impact analysis (BIA) and risk assessment → strategy selection → plan development → exercising and testing → embedding into culture → review and audit . Know where each activity sits, because a common trap is placing an activity in the wrong phase (for example, treating a BIA as a risk assessment, or treating plan maintenance as an exercise). BIA : identifies time-critical activities, maximum tolerable period of disruption (MTPD), recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO).
392 words, about 2 min02Professional Practice and Experience Requirements
This domain assesses whether you can demonstrate applied competence in BCM, not just recall theory. Expect questions on the evidence a candidate must provide: documented experience across the BCM lifecycle, references or verification, and a professional conduct dimension. Know the distinction between knowledge (what you understand) and experience (what you have done and can evidence). Experience evidence : involvement in a BIA, risk assessment, strategy development, plan authoring, exercise facilitation, or programme governance - with dates, scope and your specific role.
342 words, about 2 min