EC-Council EDRP study plan
EC-Council EDRP · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 6 hours per week
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Define business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) and state the scope boundary between them
Explain the difference between a disaster, an incident, and a disruption, with one example each
List and describe the phases of a BC lifecycle (analysis, strategy, plan, exercise, maintenance)
Draft a one-page glossary of at least 15 BC/DR terms in your own words
Your checkpoint
A one-page glossary plus a written summary of at least 300 words on the BC/DR lifecycle that you can explain from memory
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA) for a sample organization you invent, covering at least five business processes
Derive recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), and maximum tolerable downtime (MTD) for each process and reconcile them
Rank processes by criticality and justify the ranking with financial and operational impact
Identify interdependencies between processes and third-party suppliers
Your checkpoint
A BIA workbook with five processes, RTO/RPO/MTD values, criticality ranking, and a short justification note per process
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Compare recovery strategies for data (backup types, replication, snapshots) and state when each is appropriate
Compare recovery strategies for infrastructure (hot, warm, cold sites, cloud failover) against RTO and cost
Select a strategy for each process in your BIA and document the trade-off
Explain single points of failure and how redundancy addresses them
Your checkpoint
A strategy selection table mapping each BIA process to a recovery strategy with the RTO it satisfies and a one-line cost/risk trade-off
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Structure a DR plan document with roles, contact lists, activation criteria, and escalation paths
Write the first 60 minutes of an incident response runbook for a declared disaster
Define plan activation authority and the criteria for declaring a disaster
Map communication flows to internal staff, customers, regulators, and media
Your checkpoint
A complete DR plan outline with an activation checklist and a written crisis communication matrix
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Design a test and exercise program covering tabletop, walkthrough, simulation, and full failover
Create at least ten exercise objectives and the pass/fail criteria for each
Run a tabletop exercise with a colleague or alone as a scripted scenario and record observations
Write after-action findings with owners and due dates
Your checkpoint
An exercise plan with objectives and criteria plus an after-action report from one tabletop you actually ran
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Explain how backup integrity, restore testing, and retention policy support RPO commitments
Describe how to validate that a DR plan stays current after organizational, vendor, or architecture change
Identify metrics and KPIs that show DR readiness over time
Analyze at least three failure cases where a plan existed but failed in practice
Your checkpoint
A DR readiness scorecard with at least six measurable KPIs and a written analysis of three failure cases
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Integrate BC/DR with risk management, vendor management, and regulatory obligations
Explain how DR requirements flow into architecture and change management decisions
Answer scenario-style practice questions under time pressure and log every miss by cause
Close knowledge gaps flagged in your practice log
Your checkpoint
A practice log of at least 60 scenario questions with error-cause categories and a remediation list
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Reconstruct the full BC/DR lifecycle, BIA method, and strategy trade-offs from memory without notes
Re-teach your weakest three topics aloud or in writing as if to a junior colleague
Take a timed full-length mock and review every wrong answer to root cause
Finalize a one-page recall sheet limited to facts you have verified
Your checkpoint
A one-page recall sheet and a mock exam score with a written gap-closure note
Milestones
Week 2: You can derive RTO, RPO, and MTD for a new process in under ten minutes and defend the numbers
Week 4: You can walk through DR plan activation and the first 60 minutes from memory without notes
Week 6: You can name six DR readiness KPIs and explain how each is measured
Week 8: You explain the whole BC/DR lifecycle and strategy trade-offs unaided, and your mock score shows no repeated error category