Contingency plans for information resources are one component of an agency's risk strategy, and thus should be consistent with the philosophy and goals of the overall risk plan. However, contingency plans for information resources are narrower in scope, dealing only with information resources. An agency risk strategy is broader in scope, including abatements for risks in all resource categories such as staff, facilities, etc. A Disaster Recovery Plan covers procedures for resuming agency functions in the case of a catastrophe. This type of planning assumes that few or none of the agency's normal operations can function.
Contingency planning is similar to disaster planning, with two major differences.
First, contingency planning doesn't assume the source of the failure, only the steps needed to resume normal operations. These plans describe procedures to back the new system out of production in the case of problems. After some period of time, it becomes impractical to revert back to the old production system. Conversely, a contingency plan is longer term - it only needs to be changed if the underlying assumptions upon which the plan was built change. It is best to think of a backout plan as a contingency plan to handle a specific failure - that is, the failure of a newly implemented s ystem to perform as expected.