MBCP study guide
MBCP · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Master Business Continuity Professional (MBCP) is DRI International's highest level of certification, described by DRI as reserved for individuals with significant demonstrated knowledge and skill in the business continuity/disaster recovery industry. It is aimed at experienced practitioners who hold broad business continuity experience and guide practices, departments, or companies with a high level of skill and expertise. The MBCP study guide has 10 sections and about 2,496 words.
01Subject Area 1: Program Initiation and Governance
Business continuity begins with governance, not tactics . Candidates should be able to distinguish the program (ongoing capability) from the plan (a document) and from incident response (a tactical reaction).
258 words, about 1 min02Subject Area 2: Risk Evaluation and Control
Risk evaluation feeds the BIA. Know the risk assessment process : identify threats, assess likelihood and impact (vulnerability), and determine risk treatment.
241 words, about 1 min03Business Impact Analysis
The BIA is the analytical heart of BC. Candidates must know how to identify critical business functions/processes , their dependencies (people, technology, facilities, suppliers, data), and quantify impact over time across financial, regulatory, operational, reputational, and safety dimensions.
269 words, about 1 min04Business Continuity Strategies
Strategy selection translates BIA requirements into recovery approaches. Candidates must compare options across the resources they protect: people (alternate work arrangements, cross-training), facilities (alternate site, reciprocal agreement, work-from-home), technology (hot/warm/cold site, redundancy, replication, cloud), data (backup, replication, RPO alignment), and suppliers (alternate sources).
243 words, about 1 min05Subject Area 5: Emergency Response and Crisis Management
This domain covers the immediate response layer that sits before and alongside the BC plan. Know the distinction between emergency response (life safety, evacuation, shelter-in-place, first aid), crisis management (command, communication, decision-making at the executive level), and business continuity (keeping critical functions running).
235 words, about 1 min06Plan Development and Implementation
Plan development converts strategy into actionable documents. Candidates should know the anatomy of a BC plan: purpose/scope, roles and responsibilities, activation criteria and authority, notification procedures, recovery procedures and sequence, resource requirements, interdependencies, communication plans, and appendices (contact lists, vendor lists, site details).
253 words, about 1 min07Subject Area 7: Awareness and Training
A plan nobody knows is not a capability. This domain covers awareness (everyone understands BC basics and their role), training (role-specific skills for recovery teams, CMT, coordinators), and competence verification .
251 words, about 1 min08Business Continuity Plan Exercise/Test, Assessment, and Maintenance
This domain covers proving and sustaining the program. Know the exercise types in increasing rigor: plan review/walkthrough, tabletop, simulation, functional drill, and full-scale/full-failover test.
264 words, about 1 min09Subject Area 9: Crisis Communications and Coordination
Crisis communication is a discipline distinct from emergency notification. Candidates must understand stakeholder mapping (employees, customers, suppliers, regulators, media, community), message discipline (single source of truth, designated spokesperson, approved templates), and channels with redundancy (mass notification, call trees, social media, press).
235 words, about 1 min10Subject Area 10: Program Monitoring, Audit, and Continuous Improvement
This domain closes the loop: keeping the program effective over time. Know the elements of program governance and performance measurement - metrics/KPIs (e.g., recovery capability against RTO, exercise completion, corrective action closure rate, training coverage).
247 words, about 1 min