Software contingency planning

Please note that the italicized text is for explanation purposes to further clarify each section. Sometimes unpredictable and difficult to control, network failures are common risks to every business. Network failures are not uncommon.

They can be caused by internal error or unpredictable external factors, like severe weather. IT teams have access to secondary networks should primary network failure occur. If it is a result of an external error, teams know who they need to contact.

All data is backed-up and available on offline networks so the business can continue running if transfer to the secondary network is needed, and so nothing is lost should the network crash.

Marketing and customer-facing teams draft communications that will be sent to customers should issues arise, letting them know that there are service interruptions but people are still available to help.

IT teams immediately switch over to secondary networks, and alert all employees as soon as possible. They continuously work to restore original networks, or work with necessary external parties. Communication is sent to customers to notify them of possible interruptions and service people communicate issues with customers when receiving calls.

They continue to work to solve customer issues, but let them know that it may take longer than normal to reach resolution. When primary network connection is restored, all employees are notified, as well as all affected customers. This is a positive scenario, as it could mean you have the opportunity to quickly draw in a new target audience that was once loyal to your competitors.

However, you would likely be aware ahead of time if this were to occur, as most businesses are in periods of decline before they officially close their doors. Markets are volatile, there's no way to anticipate whether something like this will happen, but some businesses face more struggles than others and, as a result, must close down or minimize their operations.

Marketing teams use social listening to discover new clients that may be interested in moving over and have copy available to reach out to those customers, whether via social media, email, or in-person. Having plans to hire and onboard more team members in anticipation of larger business operations.

Recruiters hire and onboard more workers to ensure that there is enough staff to handle larger business operations. All in all, contingency plans help you prepare for a host of what-if scenarios, whether they happen or not. As you never want to be caught in a challenging situation, being prepared is the best thing you can do to ensure your business continues to succeed, regardless of whatever happens along the way.

Originally published Nov 16, PM, updated November 16 Subscribe to Our Blog Stay up to date with the latest marketing, sales, and service tips and news. Thank You! You have been subscribed. Start free or get a demo. Service 7 min read. This risk can be tackled in this way that you will include the happening of the risk as a part of your product development process.

Call it research and get back on track of your scope as soon as possible. You can further be cleared in scope by getting a user sign-off agreement and also inquire more about the scope. You can ask and clear any uncertainty in the scope before initiating the project scope. Ask questions about the scope and keep listing items that are out of scope. This contingency plan includes the changing of processes to be able to overcome risk hence encountered.

Having an inexperienced team that at the start seemed as if they have entire expertise can bring in low quality work. A complex product can bring in many defects in this case. And if some changes are made in a certain product development phase, then many defects can stack up.

This can impact the schedule massively. And trying to find, fix, and deliver a corrected version of the product can take a lot of time. Doing this will help the QA engineer only to do a quick review of the work and deliver it later. The quality checkpoint will be your contingency plan and will help the removal of defects that could have made the product out of scope.

This reduces the number of defects in almost aa half amount. A completely planned project and a realistic-looking plan seems great and is also loved by the client. Having a look at the schedule will help you identify the personnel that is the most important in your team—someone who might be involved in all of the activities on a critical path. Or there might be someone who is having major expertise and knowledge required for the completion of your project.

Such team members are of high importance, and they are the ones carrying out the project in the right direction at the right place. But what if one of them leaves in the middle of the project? These are hard to replace people, and the risk of replacing such people can hinder the project completion.

The best contingency plan examples for such a case can be to try to mitigate the risk. Try talking to these team members and having them change their decision. But even still they leave, then the best option is to have already someone under consideration which could fill up the gap.

Moving someone up in the ladder can not be the perfect solution, but this is the only way out of such aa case.

Or you can urgently find someone outside the company who has the expertise to handle everything at once. Assuming that you clearly understand the requirements and then having your clients arguing about changed requirements is a major risk.

You might be working on a project that can only be best known to be built accurately by getting end-user reviews. Once you go through all the phases of product development and then distributing it to the end-user, you may be sure that you did the right thing.

But once you get the review or feedback, you realize that you made a wrong assumption about the requirements. To tackle this case, you need to have a contingency plan examples that include the manufacturing of a prototype. Bring it to the end-user and collect their feedback. What are the different types of contingency plans? A school near the sea plans for a tsunami. A city plans what it will do if air quality reaches dangerous levels. What are the steps in contingency planning?

Conduct the business impact analysis BIA. Identify preventive controls. Create contingency strategies. Develop an information system contingency plan. Ensure plan testing, training, and exercises. Ensure plan maintenance. What are the key concepts of contingency planning? Contingency plans are an essential part of risk management. They help to ensure that you've always got a backup option when things go wrong, or when the unexpected happens.

Then, include the following points for each threat: Scenarios. Response overview. Your contingency plan might include who can cover certain projects or processes while you hire a backfill, or how to improve team documentation to prevent siloed skillsets. Make sure relevant company leaders know about the plan and agree with your course of action. Keep your contingency plans in a central source of truth so everyone can easily access them if necessary.

Creating a project in a work management platform is a great way of distributing the plan and ensuring everyone has a step-by-step guide for how to enact it. Take into account new risks or new opportunities, like new hires or a changing business landscape. If a new executive leader joins the team, make sure to surface the contingency plan for their review as well. If you discover a new risk, and it has a high enough severity or likelihood, create a new contingency plan for that risk.

A contingency plan is a powerful tool to help you get back to normal business functions quickly. To ensure your contingency planning process is as smooth as possible, watch out for common pitfalls, like:. It takes a lot of work to create a contingency plan, so before you get started, ensure you have support from executive stakeholders. By doing so, you can ensure your stakeholders see your contingency plan as something they can get behind.

But thinking this way can actually expose your team to more risks than if you proactively create a Plan B. Creating a contingency plan can help you ensure that, if a negative event does occur, your company will be ready to face it and bounce back as quickly as possible. It takes a lot of work to put a contingency plan together.

But make sure you schedule regular reminders maybe once or twice a year to review and update your contingency plan if necessary. If new risks pop up, or if your business operations change, updating your contingency plan can ensure you have the best response to negative events.

But in addition to creating a strong contingency plan, make sure you keep your plan up-to-date. Being proactive can help you mitigate risks before they happen—so make sure to communicate your contingency plan to the team members who will be responsible for carrying them out if a risk does happen.

If it does come time to use one of your contingency plans, storing them in a centrally accessible location can help your team quickly turn plans into action.