What do Playboy and Hustler magazines and British Standards publications have in common? You’re not allowed to see inside until you buy them.

British Standards Group released BSI Published Document (PD) 25666:2010 Business continuity management: Guidance on exercising and testing for continuity and contingency programs in July. Like a shrink-wrapped nudie magazine in a shop, you have to buy it before you can read it. Except here in Sin City, where it’s illegal. Playboy, I mean, not guidance.

A Published Document means it’s not a standard recognized by BSI (see definition 4 at this link), and that its content originated outside BSI. So this PD 25666 better have some very Prurient Details to get me to spend ninety-five (95) Great British Pounds (USD $150, SGD $200) on it sight unseen. Do these titillating blurbs from the PD 25666:2010 web page cause a bulge in your wallet?

PD 25666 “provides a framework for, or signposts to, good practice for any organization that wishes to engage in exercising activities” (‘nudge, nudge; wink, wink‘, as Monty Python‘s Eric Idle used to say); “describes the various methods of delivering exercises”; “details the parameters that need [sic] to be considered” (parameters cannot ‘need’ anything); “establishes the principles and terminology of exercising”; “describes the processes for defining the aim and objectives of exercises.”  Read more... (567 words, 1 image, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

In July 2008, I wrote that Technical Reference 19 (TR 19:2005), Singapore’s proposed international standard for business continuity management (BCM), appeared to be dying a slow death and suggested that the prognosis for it might be terminal. I was wrong.

It turns out that the patient just needed cosmetic surgery. Singapore’s standards body SPRING revealed in October a new Asian face for BCM, Singapore Standard 540 (SS540). Like TR19, SS540 is a BCM standard for certification of organizations, not practitioners, but unlike TR 19, which was to be an international standard, SS540 is specifically aimed at Singapore companies and organizations.

You can buy a printed or digital copy of SS540 for SGD $47 (USD 31.00) at the SPRING Standards Shop. Here is a preview of the first five pages.

The content of SS540 is very similar to that of TR 19. The foundation matrix of policy, process, people and infrastructure considerations for each component of BCM – risk and business impact assessments, strategies, plans, testing and program management – remains the same in SS540. There are some grammatical corrections and word replacements, too.  Read more... (2603 words, 0 images, estimated 10:25 mins reading time)

The authors of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Framework for Voluntary Preparedness report of January 2008 refer to Singapore’s Technical Reference for Business Continuity Management (TR19 ) as an “authoritative source” for “best practices” (page 4).

That’s pretty ironic, because here in Singapore, TR 19 has been mostly a source of derision since its release in 2005.

The marketing of TR 19 has been catastrophically bad. The target market was apparently local, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) and manufacturing companies, none of whom have paid much attention to BCP in Singapore or anywhere else world. TR 19’s promoters, local standards body SPRING Singapore and industry group Singapore Business Federation (SBF), bickered for years over the responsibility to promote the standard – so neither of them did. Outreach to individuals certain to be interested, if not supportive – local consultants and practitioners, other than those who wrote it – was, in my personal experience, half-hearted tending toward hostile. When consultants were contacted, it was to get us to work for free to draft audit guidelines for TR 19 – without support, facilities or coordination of any kind. I was in that group. We failed miserably.  Read more... (1272 words, 0 images, estimated 5:05 mins reading time)