Continuity of Operations Plan Templates

The purpose of the Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) is to establish a framework for maintaining and restoring essential business operations in the event of a disruption. This plan focuses on minimizing downtime, protecting assets, and ensuring the continued delivery of services to customers, whether through on-premise installations or SaaS cloud deployments. It is crucial for safeguarding business functions, ensuring regulatory compliance, and maintaining client trust within your business sector.

You can download these MS Word and Excel COOP templates to develop a framework for ensuring business continuity, protecting your assets and staff, and maintaining trust and compliance when unexpected disruptions occur.

Table of Contents

The Introduction section sets the foundation for the Continuity of Operations Plan by explaining why the plan exists, what it covers, and its overall goals. It provides essential context for the rest of the document. This section explains the overarching reason for the COOP’s existence, specifically focusing on ensuring the continuity of operations in case of disruption. Each of the following sections includes sample text to help you get started.

In addition, you can use the MS Excel spreadsheets to capture, track, and generate report data. Each of the spreadsheets also includes sample date and charts to illustrate how you can track tasks related to the on-going continuity of operations projects.

1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose

1.2 Scope

1.3 Objectives

1.4 Assumptions

1.5 Applicability and Overview of Plan Usage

2. Roles and Responsibilities

2.1 Key Personnel

2.2 Continuity Team Structure

2.3 Authority and Delegations

2.4 Roles of External Vendors and Partners

3. Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

3.1 Identification of Critical Business Functions

3.2 Key Systems and Assets (On-Premise and SaaS)

3.3 Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD)

3.4 Recovery Time Objectives (RTO)

3.5 Recovery Point Objectives (RPO)

3.6 Dependencies and Interdependencies

4. Risk Assessment

4.1 Threat Identification

4.2 Vulnerability Analysis

4.3 Likelihood of Occurrences

4.4 Potential Impact and Loss Scenarios

4.5 Mitigation Strategies

5. Continuity Strategies and Implementation

5.1 Continuity Strategy Overview

5.2 On-Premise Continuity Planning

5.3 SaaS Continuity Planning

5.4 Data Backup and Restoration Strategies

5.5 Business Recovery Prioritization

5.6 Alternate Site Locations and Infrastructure

5.7 Cloud Infrastructure Redundancy and Failover Procedures

6. Incident Response Plan

6.1 Activation Criteria and Process

6.2 Incident Reporting and Notification Procedures

6.3 Crisis Management and Communication

6.4 Immediate Response Activities

6.5 Incident Command Structure

7. Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan

7.1 DR Plan Objectives

7.2 Technology Infrastructure Recovery (On-Premise and Cloud)

7.3 Data Restoration Procedures

7.4 Application Restoration and Validation

7.5 Communication During DR Activities

7.6 Transition to Normal Operations

8. Plan Activation and Execution

8.1 Criteria for Plan Activation

8.2 Notification of Key Personnel

8.3 Initial Actions and Response

8.4 Coordination with External Stakeholders

8.5 Timelines and Milestones for Activation

8.6 Reconstitution of Operations

9. Training, Testing, and Exercises

9.1 Staff Training Requirements

9.2 Plan Testing and Validation

9.3 Types of Exercises (Tabletop, Functional, Full-Scale)

9.4 Frequency of Drills and Simulations

9.5 Continuous Improvement and Lessons Learned

10. Appendix A: Reference Documents

11. Appendix B: Glossary of Terms

12. How to Use This Template

12.1 Add Your Logo to the Cover Page

12.2 Add Your Logo to the Header

12.3 Update the Table of Contents

12.4 Add Notes

12.5 Add Warnings

12.6 Add Comments

12.7 Add Code Samples

Product Specifications

File Format

• MS Word (.docx)
• MS Excel (.xlsx)

File Size: The download file is 1 MBs.

Opening the Files: You don’t need any special software to unzip the files. To unzip the files, right click on it, then select Extract, and save it to your computer

Getting Started: Depending on your MS Office settings, the files may say Read Only when you open them. If this occurs, click File, Save As and save the files. There are no security settings on any of the files.

Images: All of the images in the templates are copyright free.

Contents

The template pack includes the following documents

MS Word

• 1 x Business of Continuity Template
• Page count: 33 pages

MS Excel

Continuity of Operations individual spreadsheets:

1. Communications Schedule
2. Disaster Recovery Matrix
3. Recovery Tasks
4. Recovery Tests
5. RPO and RTO Matrix

Continuity of Operations Toolkit

This Excel file contains the following spreadsheets:

1. Risk Log
2. Risk Register
3. Risk Response Plan
4. Status Report
5. Checklist
6. Document Plan
7. Failure Analysis
8. Questionnaire
9. Contingency Plan Budget