Implement Disaster Recovery Processes - Lessons Learned From Recovery

Implement Disaster Recovery Processes

Lessons Learned from Recovery

As you read through many business continuity and disaster recovery frameworks, standards, and guidance documents, you might get the impression that after the dust has settled and everything is back more or less to normal it is the right time to catch one's breath, review all of the event logs, and see what kind of lessons ought to be learned from the experiences the organization has just been through. That's one way to look at these lessons learned process.

One of the lessons learned thus far by many organizations from the COVID-19 pandemic is that this process of active assessment, decision making, direction, and lessons learned review must be an ongoing process. Many events that trigger business continuity plans are similar in this regard. Due diligence, if nothing else, requires the prudent management team to glean every possible lesson from a painful experience.

Think of the costs spent to recover from a disruptive event, along with all of its other painful impacts, as tuition paid to learn how to be better prepared for the next such event.

You've also got the opportunity to learn from your responses, thus far, while you still have a ways to go to get back to your new normal.

By making lesson-learning an ongoing part of the day to day or week to week incident or disaster response management process, the memories and impressions of what just happened are fresher in everyone's minds. The evidence and artifacts are closer to their condition at the time of the event; analysis can be more revealing.