Program Initiation and Management
What the domain is really testing
Business continuity is a program, not a document. Initiation and management covers how the program is chartered, sponsored, funded, staffed, governed, and measured over its lifecycle.
Concepts you must know
- Executive sponsorship - a named senior champion who owns authority and budget; without it the program stalls.
- Governance structure - steering committee, BC coordinator/manager, business unit coordinators, and their decision rights.
- Policy and charter - the policy states why and what authority; the charter defines scope, deliverables, budget, and timeline.
- Scope definition - which entities, locations, functions, and third parties are in and out.
- Program maturity - progression from policy-only to embedded, measured, continuously improving program.
- Performance metrics - plan coverage %, BIA completion, exercise frequency, issue closure rate, RTO achievement.
- Integration with ERM, ITDR, security, and supply chain so BC is not a parallel universe.
Traps in questions
- Confusing the program manager with plan owners (owners are business units).
- Assuming IT, security, or facilities owns BC - they are stakeholders.
- Treating "we have a plan" as equivalent to "we have a program."
- Believing the steering committee approves recovery strategies without the BIA data behind them.
Rule of thumb
Sequence matters: sponsor → policy → scope and charter → budget → roles → BIA/Risk → strategies → plans → exercises → maintenance. Questions often ask for the next step; answer from this order.
Worked example: A director asks what to do first after being told to "build a BC program." Correct first action is to obtain a documented executive sponsor and policy mandate with defined scope - not to start writing plans or buying software.