Fujitsu's business continuity plan development methodology

In today's high-risk business environments, more and more companies are focusing on the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) as a management methodology for improving their ability to respond to any contingency. However, BCP development methodologies suitable for the business environment of Japanese companies have not progressed much beyond the theoretical stage, and the persons in charge of BCP development in companies have been struggling with this issue. Fujitsu has developed a practical methodology and software tool called BCEXPERT to streamline development of its own BCPs for business formations within the Fujitsu Group. This paper describes Fujitsu's BCP development methodology that has been standardized as the Fujitsu Business Continuity Management Model. This methodology mainly consists of three steps: 1) structuring business processes and resources required for the processes, 2) extracting essential resources for business continuity; and 3) analyzing the business impact of assumed resource damages in various risk scenarios. This methodology can be applied not only to BCP development but also to business resource optimization.