Business continuity guidelines are usually sufficient to convey the business workarounds and procedures. Guidelines should specify who would be involved in the recovery, the major steps in recovery, and the external factors involved, such as suppliers. Testing of the business continuity guidelines and recovery procedures There will be some aspects of the contingency plan that cannot be tested. However, a test should be performed for those plans that can be tested. Many times, this will require the cooperation of several areas of the company and the cooperation of external suppliers and agencies.
Planning is the key to making recovery testing effective and efficient.
From what I have I seen in working with companies around the world, the picture is not very rosy. The global impact could be anywhere in the range from major inconveniences and localized outages to major global outages of essential services. Those who think the Year 2000 problem is hype are usually making a judgement based on their own immediate experience and observations. However, everyone can agree that the Year 2000 rollover is one event we know will happen. We also know that the Year 2000 rollover will be a different kind of event as opposed to a natural disaster.