Picking a Disaster Recovery Planning Coordinator
Who a DRP Coordinator is and What He or She Should be Able to Do
Feb 22, 2009
Disaster can strike any business at any time. Management should take a proactive stance toward disaster prevention and recovery in order to minimize both risk and loss. Since disaster can take various, often unforeseeable forms, the disaster recovery coordinator plays a key role in the continuing health and prosperity of an organization.
The Role of a Disaster Recovery Planning Coordinator
A Disaster Recovery Planning Coordinator acts as a team leader for all disaster recovery planning (DRP). He or she trains and supervises junior members of the DRP staff. Specifically, a coordinator's responsibilities include the design, development, integration and testing of an organization's DRPs.
Moreover, the coordinator oversees corporate-wide disaster recovery and readiness efforts, including risk assessment and strategy development. This means he or she takes a hand in assessing potential business impacts and recommending recovery options. The coordinator has to work on all levels of his or her organization and with customers. This work means that the coordinator has to interact with technical experts, vendors, and government functionaries, among others.
The Skill Set of a DRP Coordinator
The coordinator needs a broad skill set in order to function in these capacities. He or she relies on analytical, organizational, and leadership skills, writing ability, interpersonal grace, the capacity to travel and work long hours as necessary, project management and administrative knowledge, the ability to work solo or as part of a team, the ability to pass government security clearance, and certifications as a security professional or the ability to obtain such certifications.
According to John Kauffman, the training director for The Hartford Financial Services Group's loss control services, a recovery coordinator should ultimately be "responsible for all aspects of the recovery phase-from planning and executing activities to evaluating injuries and damage to managing priorities and maintaining communications. This person must have the capability and authority to assume command, to assess the recovery, to determine the recovery strategies and to approve and activate resources."
Preferable Areas of Experience for a DRP Coordinator
This kind of team member should either enter the job with prior experience as a DRP coordinator or be trained first as a junior security staff member. The decision as to whether he or she should come from an information technology division or some other functional area presupposes that one of these areas is more suited than the others for DRP work.
However, Mark Langemo, in Office Systems, argues it is more important that the newly appointed coordinator be given "the authority and responsibility to manage the process of developing a broad-based business continuation plan. This essential function usually doesn't get done until someone in an appropriate position, with an appropriate background, who aspires to accomplish that mission is placed in charge."
Since DRP covers most key systems and departments, the members of the DRP staff could theoretically come from anywhere within an organization. This is particularly true in terms of the coordinator, who may or may not have worked in recovery planning before. If forced to choose, organizations should select a coordinator from their IT department since IT seems to be particularly amenable to maintaining an organization's data, the soul of any business.
References:
Kauffman, John. "Recovering from Disaster." Occupational Hazards 65 (2003): 69-72.
Langemo, Mark. "Flirting with Disaster." Office Systems 14 (1997): 36-39.
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