Glossary

We have prepared a glossary of common terms for your convenience. These terms have been extracted from various sources. Just click on the alphabet of the term you are looking for to find the definition.

We shall be updating these terms from time to time so please visit us to get the latest updates.

You will find at the end of the definition there will be an abbreviation within bracket. This indicates the source of that definition. At times a single term may have different definition from different sources. We have included it for your benefits.

Below is the meaning for each abbreviation:

  • BCI  -  Business Continuity Institute, UK
  • DRII - Disaster Recovery Institute International, US
  • BCMI - Business Continuity Management Institute, Singapore
  • MS1970 - Business Continuity Management Framework, Department of Standards Malaysia
  • ASIS International – Organization for security professionals.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)

A formal agreement between service provider (whether internal or external) and their client (whether internal or external) which covers the nature, quality, availability, scope and response of the service provider. The SLA should cover day-to-day situations and disaster situations, as the need fro the service may vary in a disaster. (BCI)
Simulation Exercise

One method of exercising teams in which participants perform some or all of the actions they would take in the event of plan activation. Simulation exercises, which may involve one or more teams, are performed under conditions that at least partially simulate ‘disaster mode’. They may or may not be performed at the designated alternate location and typically use only a partial recovery configurations. (DRII)
Single Point of Failure

The only (single) source of a service, activity and/or process i.e. there is no alternative, whose failure would lead to the total failure of a Mission Critical Activity and /or dependency. (BCI)
Standalone Test

A test conducted on a specific component of a plan, in isolation from other components typically under simulated operating conditions. (DRII)
Structured Walkthrough

A type of exercise in which team members physically implement and verbally reviews ach step of plan to assess its effectiveness, identify enhancements, constraints and deficiencies.
See: Testing (BCI)
 
System Recovery Time Objective (SRTO)

SRTO is the period of time within which an application system is required to be recovered upon invocation of an IT recovery plan to support functions. (MS1970)
Tabletop Test


A paper feed scenario based method of testing plans, procedures and people.
See: Desktop Exercise. (BCI)

One method of exercising teams in which participants review and discuss the actions they would take per their plans but do not perform any of these actions. The exercise can be conducted with a single team or multiple teams typically under the guidance of exercise facilitators. (DRII)
Test


An activity in which some part(s) of business continuity plan(s) is followed to ensure that the plan contains the appropriate information and produces the desired result. A test is distinct from an exercise in that a test occurs at an alternate site whereas an exercise is generally a simulation.
See: Exercise. (BCI)

An activity that is performed to evaluate the effectiveness or capabilities of a plan relative to specified objectives or measurement criteria. Types of tests include: Desk Check, Peer Review, Structured Walkthrough, Standalone Test, Integrated Test and Operational Test. (DRII)
Test Plan


A schedule of work designed to plan for testing a business continuity plan, people, systems and processes. (BCI)

A document designed to periodically exercise specific action tasks and procedures to ensure viability in a real disaster or severe outage situation. (DRII)
Test Script

A detailed description of the tasks that will be undertaken whilst conducting a test. The test script details the scope of the test and defines the success criteria. (BCI)