# Clause 8.4.4: Business continuity plans

Document and keep up business continuity plans that lead teams through response and recovery. Taken together, the plans set out: the actions for keeping prioritized activities going, or restoring them, within time frames fixed in advance; how the disruption and the response will be monitored; the thresholds set beforehand, and the process, for triggering the response; procedures for delivering products and services at the capacity agreed; and how the immediate effects are handled with regard to people's welfare, avoiding further loss, and the environment. Each plan must state its purpose, scope and objectives; the roles and duties of the team that carries it out; the actions that put the solutions into effect; the supporting information needed to trigger, run, coordinate and communicate the response, including the triggering criteria, internal and external interdependencies, what resources are needed, what must be reported, and how the response is stood down; and it must be usable and to hand when and where it is needed.

Cloud: The plan itself should be usable when the provider console is unavailable. Keep the contact list, the fallback steps and the customer message offline and current.

Evidence: Plan set with each plan carrying every required element; Activation criteria and thresholds stated in the plan itself; Interdependency and resource sections reconciled to the BIA; Stand down process defined; Evidence of availability at the point of use, including offline copies.

Test: Open the plan with the network blocked and see whether it is usable.

Citation: ISO 22301:2019, clause 8.4.4. Source: https://compliance.theartofservice.com/frameworks/iso-22301-2019. Last updated: 2026-10-20.