BCPMP study plan
BCPMP · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Business Continuity Program Initiation and Management & Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis
Define the scope, governance structure, and program lifecycle stages of a BC program in your own written summary
Map each of the eight exam domains to its weight and rank your personal weak areas using a scored self-assessment
Explain how a risk assessment differs from a business impact analysis and list the inputs each one requires
Build a one-page glossary of core BC terminology (RTO, RPO, MTD, BIA, BCP, crisis management) with your own definitions
Your checkpoint
A one-page program charter plus a scored domain self-assessment table ranking all eight domains by confidence
Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis
Conduct a full risk assessment for a sample organization, identifying threats, likelihood, and impact ratings
Classify risk treatment options (avoid, transfer, mitigate, accept) and justify a choice for each identified risk
Draft a business impact analysis questionnaire covering critical functions, dependencies, and recovery objectives
Derive RTO, RPO, and MTD values for at least five business functions and reconcile conflicts between them
Your checkpoint
A completed risk register and BIA worksheet for a fictional organization with justified recovery objectives for five functions
Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis & Business Continuity Strategies and Solution Design
Analyze BIA outputs to identify the most time-critical functions and their interdependencies
Compare recovery strategies (hot site, warm site, cold site, reciprocal agreement, cloud failover) on cost, RTO, and risk
Select a continuity strategy for each critical function and document the rationale against its RTO
Evaluate single points of failure in a sample supply, technology, and workforce chain
Your checkpoint
A strategy selection matrix matching each critical function to a chosen recovery approach with cost and RTO justification
Business Continuity Strategies and Solution Design & Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Management
Design a solution architecture that satisfies the recovery objectives set in your BIA
Distinguish emergency response, crisis management, and business continuity roles and describe how they hand off
Draft a crisis management team structure with defined decision authority and escalation triggers
Outline the components of an emergency operations center and its activation criteria
Your checkpoint
A crisis management org chart with escalation triggers plus a solution design summary covering at least three recovery strategies
Plan Development and Documentation
Structure a BCP document set according to its intended audiences and activation levels
Write plan sections that specify roles, call trees, resource requirements, and recovery procedures
Convert your strategy matrix into step-by-step recovery procedures for two critical functions
Apply documentation standards for version control, plan ownership, and distribution
Your checkpoint
A draft BCP for a fictional organization containing at least two complete functional recovery procedures and a call tree
Awareness, Training, and Exercises
Design a training curriculum that differentiates awareness, training, and exercise objectives by audience
Build a progressive exercise schedule moving from orientation to tabletop to functional exercise
Write measurable exercise objectives and evaluation criteria for a tabletop scenario
Create an after-action reporting template that captures findings, gaps, and corrective actions
Your checkpoint
An exercise plan with a tabletop scenario, measurable objectives, and an after-action report template
Plan Maintenance and Program Improvement & Coordination with External Agencies and Supply Chain Resilience
Establish a maintenance calendar covering plan reviews, exercise cycles, and change-triggered updates
Define performance metrics and a corrective action tracking process for program improvement
Identify the external agencies and vendors a BC program must coordinate with and describe the coordination mechanism
Assess supply chain dependencies and design resilience measures such as alternate suppliers and buffer capacity
Your checkpoint
A maintenance and improvement schedule with corrective action tracker plus an external coordination and supply chain dependency map
Business Continuity Program Initiation and Management & Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis & Business Continuity Strategies and Solution Design & Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Management & Plan Development and Documentation & Awareness, Training, and Exercises & Plan Maintenance and Program Improvement & Coordination with External Agencies and Supply Chain Resilience
Synthesize all domain notes into a single integrated study outline organized by exam weight
Complete a timed full-length practice assessment and score each domain separately
Re-teach your three weakest domains in writing without consulting notes
Finalize a one-page pre-exam review sheet of formulas, definitions, and decision rules
Your checkpoint
A scored full-length practice result with a remediation log and a one-page pre-exam review sheet
Milestones
Week 2: Can complete a risk register and BIA for a new scenario without notes, correctly deriving RTO and RPO for at least five functions
Week 4: Can justify a recovery strategy choice for any given RTO and budget constraint, and can explain crisis team roles and escalation triggers from memory
Week 6: Can design a tabletop exercise with measurable objectives and describe how findings feed corrective action
Week 8: Scores at least 80 percent overall on a timed practice assessment with no domain below 70 percent