• Home /
• Useful BCM resources /
• Book reviews /
• A Guide to Business Continuity Planning

A Guide to Business Continuity Planning

James C. Barnes

Not so much a guide as a complete instruction manual for anyone unlucky enough to find him or herself in charge of creating the Business Continuity Plan. This particularly applies to those whom prior to that moment had never previously used those three words in the same sentence.

James Barnes' book will lead the uninitiated, step-by-step through his methodology of Business Continuity Planning, which seems to me, to work on the principle that every tiny aspect, of every single feature, is important. Although personally I am not one who bothers much with the minutiae, I did find the author's attention to detail quite enlightening in places; indeed there were a couple of points which I shall be using for my own workshop on the subject. The book appears to comprise of a list, or a form, for everything except the coffee maker and even that got a mention, of sorts!

In fact, it was this litany of inventories and methodologies that presented the book's only negative quality; even the nineteen-page introduction contains a list that is sixteen pages long. Do not however, mistake this one criticism as a condemnation of what is otherwise, a very useful library of documentation. It explains to the inexperienced, exactly how to set up a project to fulfil an organisation's Business Continuity Planning needs.

It is the kind of tome that, even though it describes the Business Continuity Planning process in chronological order, is best appreciated if it is ‘dipped into' for a specific item of research, rather than read cover to cover.

A practitioner of some experience in the BC field might find Mr Barnes book of great use to the totally uninitiated in teaching them the jargon and fundamental principles of BCM, but maybe a little old fashioned and out of date. I particularly refer to the way it approaches BC planning, seemingly concerning itself with every pencil, pen and waste paper basket. It is my understanding that as a result of exercising and testing, best practice has demonstrated that a more strategic approach is necessary, if one is to create usable Business Continuity Plans that will protect their organisation's critical activities.

Should you buy it? Definitely - if you know absolutely nothing about Business Continuity. Should you read it? Only if you have a very long journey ahead of you and you wish to sleep through most of it!

Thomas Bannister
Business Continuity Professional
Member of BSI BCM/1 Committee