CBCP key terms

A management discipline that builds resilience by identifying threats, measuring their impact, and putting plans and capabilities in place so critical services keep running and recover quickly after disruption.

A senior executive who authorizes the continuity program, secures its funding and staffing, and answers to top leadership for whether it delivers results.

A cross-functional group of department leaders that guides the continuity program, sets priorities, resolves conflicts, and approves policies, plans, and budgets.

The process of identifying events that could disrupt operations, estimating how likely and how damaging each would be, and ranking them against the organization's tolerance for risk.

Any natural, technological, or human-caused event or condition with the potential to harm people, damage assets, or interrupt operations.

A weakness in a facility, process, system, or organization that a threat can exploit to cause disruption, damage, or loss.

The amount and type of risk leadership is willing to accept while pursuing its objectives; it sets the threshold for deciding which risks need treatment.

Deliberate actions that lower the likelihood or impact of a risk, such as added controls, engineering changes, insurance, or moving work to another party.

A structured study that identifies an organization's critical functions, measures the harm of losing them over time, and sets recovery priorities and time targets.

The target time within which a function, system, or resource must be restored after a disruption before the consequences become unacceptable.

The greatest data loss an organization can tolerate, expressed as the time between the last usable copy of data and the moment of disruption.

The longest outage a function can survive before harm becomes unacceptable; it caps the recovery time objective and the window available for manual workarounds.

An activity or service whose interruption quickly causes severe harm, such as regulatory breach, major financial loss, or danger to people, and which therefore gets recovery priority.

The chosen approach for continuing or restoring each critical function, such as an alternate facility, technology failover, manual workaround, or accepting a period of outage.

A pre-identified location that staff can move to when the primary facility is unusable; it may be a hot, warm, or cold configuration depending on readiness.

A fully equipped alternate facility with hardware, software, data, and network already in place so operations can resume within hours, usually at high cost.

An alternate space with basic infrastructure such as power and floor area but no installed equipment; it costs least but takes longest to become operational.

A written arrangement in which organizations agree to share facilities, equipment, or staff during a disruption; inexpensive, but it assumes the partner also survives the event.

Procedures covering the first hours of an incident: warning, evacuation or shelter, accounting for people, medical aid, and calling emergency services.

A standardized, scalable management structure with defined roles and common terminology for directing response and coordinating several responding organizations at one incident.

A designated physical or virtual space where the response team gathers to collect information, make decisions, and direct resources during an incident.

The structured inspection of facilities, systems, and operations after an event to establish what is usable, what is lost, and whether recovery must be activated.

The group of senior leaders and specialists who direct the organization's overall response, make strategic decisions, and coordinate recovery and communication during a major disruption.

The documented procedures, roles, resources, and priorities that guide an organization in responding to a disruption and restoring its critical functions.

The formal decision, made by a named authority against defined triggers, to put the continuity plan into effect and start recovery actions.

Documented assignment of decision-making power to named alternates so approvals and orders can still be given when executives are unavailable.

Planned activities that give all staff basic continuity knowledge and give responders the specific skills their roles require, refreshed on a schedule and tracked for completion.

Instruction tailored to what a particular position must do during a disruption, such as plan activation, damage assessment, or spokesperson duties, rather than general awareness.

A discussion-based session in which participants talk through a simulated scenario using the plan, exposing gaps in roles, decisions, and coordination without deploying equipment.

An exercise that tests specific capabilities, such as notification or the emergency operations center, by simulating operations in real time without full field deployment.

The most realistic exercise type, moving people, equipment, and communications as in a real event so plans are tested end to end, often with outside agencies.

A document written after an exercise or incident that records what happened, what worked, what failed, and the corrective actions assigned with owners and due dates.

The scheduled cycle of reviewing, updating, re-approving, and redistributing continuity documents so they stay accurate as people, systems, and risks change.

Prepared procedures, pre-approved messages, and channels for informing employees, customers, media, and regulators accurately and on time during a disruption.

A trained, pre-designated person authorized to speak publicly for the organization during an incident, keeping public statements consistent and accurate.

A documented method, manual or automated, for reaching employees quickly at the start of an incident with instructions and status information.

Building relationships and shared protocols with fire, police, public health, utilities, and government before an incident so response and recovery work together.

A single coordination point where communicators from several organizations share verified information and release consistent public messages during a multi-agency incident.