Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Auditing - The DR Committee and Auditor

The DR Committee and Auditor

The organization appoints individuals responsible for designing and implementing the disaster recovery plan when needed. Generally, this consists of a team headed by a project manager, with a deputy manager who has the capability to take over the responsibilities if needed. The qualities needed for this position vary depending upon the organization. A good disaster recovery plan project manager is often someone who has good leadership abilities, strong knowledge of company business, strong knowledge of management processes, experience and knowledge in information technology and security, and of course, good project management skills. Other members of the team need to have a clear understanding and ability to perform the requisite procedures.

An auditor is assigned to examine and assess the project manager and deputy project manager’s training, experience, and abilities as well as to analyze the capabilities of the team members to complete assigned tasks and that more than one individual is trained and capable of doing a particular function. Tests and inquiries of personnel can help achieve this objective.

Organizations, particularly large organizations, ordinarily assign the task of determining, on an ongoing basis, if the procedures stated in the disaster recovery plan are actually consistent with real practice to a specific individual within the organization. This individual may be referred to as the disaster recovery officer, the disaster recovery liasion, the DR coordinator, or some other similar title. Some of the techniques used to determine such consistency are direct observation of procedures, examination of the disaster recovery plan, and inquiries of personnel.