Make no assumptions, include details in plan
Utilize non-IT people to review and test plan
"The devil is in the details" when designing an information technology (IT) recovery plan as part of your disaster planning process, explains
Rajesh Shetye, MS, MBA, executive
vice president of information services for VNA Healthcare Partners of Ohio in Cleveland. "Plans fall apart for simple reasons," he says.
The most common reason for a plan’s failure is that it is written only by information technology (IT) staff members who make a lot of assumptions, Shetye adds. "This is a problem when only non-IT people are on-site to implement the plan during a disaster," he says.
Not only will IT people use computer terminology that non-IT people do not understand, but IT staff also tend to leave out steps that are necessary because they are so familiar with how to perform the task they are describing.
"It is comparable to telling someone who has never seen a car how to drive the car," he explains. "If you’ve driven a car, you know to put the key in the ignition before you do anything else, so you might forget to tell another person to take that first simple step."
To make sure that your plan can be understood and implemented by staff members who may not be your regular IT staff members, Shetye offers the following suggestions:
- List locations of all software in department that is needed for recovery.
"My staff know that we keep the CD for Microsoft Windows on the top shelf in a certain closet, but a vendor or another department employee who is helping with the recovery won’t know where to look if the plan just directs them to reinstall the software," Shetye points out.
- List location of system administrator
passwords.
The person implementing the plan may not know the passwords, especially if you do change them at regular intervals, Shetye says. "Write your passwords down and store them in a safe every time you change them, and include the location in the plan," he suggests.
- Identify employees and skill sets needed for tasks.
For different tasks, list the skill sets needed to repair or restore the equipment or information, Shetye recommends. Next to the skill sets needed, list employees who have those skills and their contact numbers, he says. "Also, be sure to include vendor contact information if the vendor also can help with recovery."
- Identify all supplies needed during recovery.
As you think through your plan, don’t forget to make sure backup supplies that you may need are identified and in place, recommends Shetye.
"We tested our recovery plan for our payroll system, and everything worked perfectly until we went to print checks," he says. "We forgot to have check stock available at the location at which we would print the checks," he says with a laugh.
- Don’t rely on IT staff to write, review, and test plan.
Once your IT staff have written a plan, have people in other departments read through the plan to see if they would be able to follow it, Shetye suggests.
The next step after your IT staff have walked through the plan to test it, is to perform a walk-through without key IT staff involved, including people from other departments who might be pulled into the recovery process during a disaster, he says.
By including people who don’t know your department as well as your key IT people, you can make sure instructions are clear and complete, Shetye says.
The time and effort to develop and test your IT recovery plan is important to your agency’s operations, he notes.
"Downtime of a key system can mean reduced cash flow when you can’t send bills as well as missed patient visits or incomplete documentation," Shetye adds. "All of these events can be minimized with proper planning."
Utilize non-IT people to review and test plan The devil is in the details when designing an information technology (IT) recovery plan as part of your disaster planning process, explains Rajesh Shetye, MS, MBA, executive vice president of information services for VNA Healthcare Partners of Ohio in Cleveland. Plans fall apart for simple reasons, he says.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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