The British Business Continuity Institute‘s Technical Director Lyndon Bird wrote in the July/August issue of BCI’s Continuity magazine that the new AS/NZ 5050 standard “does not follow…a generally accepted international view of business continuity management” and that 5050′s underlying principles were “not in line with progressive BCM thinking.”

Perhaps he can be forgiven for staging an unexpected  suicide attack on the Unbelievers from Down Under, as he was severely provoked. The SAI Global web site says AS/NZ 5050 “goes beyond many of the concepts that in the past may be been described as ‘Business Continuity Management’ or ‘BCM’”, and the Standards New Zealand web site said 5050 “[builds] on earlier concepts (often called ‘business continuity management’).”

Clearly intolerable provocation. So can we all agree that the Aussies and Kiwis started it by declaring a professional intifada? Those troublemakers.

I teach the BCI’s five-day entry-level training course, and I believe the BCI-prepared slides for that course reflect the BCI catechism on risk management (RM) and business continuity management. The orthodox BCI worldview is that RM is part of BCM, not the other way around (course module 2). On the right is the BCI’s “umbrella” slide from an earlier version of the course; note RM over there on the far left under the BCM umbrella. BCI acolytes also learn in the course that “formal risk management has limitations in dealing with unlikely but feasible catastrophic risks.” Lyndon Bird’s comment just reiterates the BCI’s long-held belief that BCM’s “progressive” priesthood focuses on consequences, not causes.
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You have to love a risk management standard called “fifty-fifty”. All three (3) parts of Australia & New Zealand’s proposed AS/NZ 5050 standard for risk management and BCM are available for free: Part 1 is the Specification (what to do, “shall” do this, “may” do that); Part 2 is the Practice (how to do, why you “should”); Part 3 is called Assurance (controls & verification, and the first audit guidance for a BCM standard). The comment period ended last year; keep  New Zealand or Australia on your watch list for a final release.

The Sphere Handbook lists minimum standards for disaster response by NGO’s, governments and relief agencies. 400 organizations in 80 countries contributed in many languages to 8 common standards (participation of the affected individuals in response planning, for example) and specific standards in water & sanitation, food, shelter and health services. The Sphere Project also published a Humanitarian Charter in 2004 that expresses the commitment of relief agencies to the Sphere minimum standards.

Not enough standards for you? The ISO 31000:2009 standard was released in November “to harmonize risk management processes in existing and future standards.” A standard for standards? That sounds like a tough sell. The Institute of Risk Management warned that ISO 31000 “is not intended as a standard against which an organisation can be certified.” So, maybe just wait until your hear ISO 31000 mentioned about 10 times, then you’ll know it’s important enough to buy it for USD 110.  Read more... (2077 words, 0 images, estimated 8:18 mins reading time)