J
Ö N K Ö P I N GI
N T E R N A T I O N A LB
U S I N E S SS
C H O O LJÖNKÖPI NG UNIV ER SITY
T h e n e e d f o r a d e v e l o p e d
B u s i n e s s C o n t i n u i t y P l a n
Paper within Bachelor Thesis in Informatics Author: Peter Gneist
Robert Kiersz Omid Osman Tutor: Jörgen Lindh
Abstract
In order for an organization to stay as resilient as possible a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) can be of importance. Today many advanced technologies are being imple-mented into organizations which are leading to a higher degree of risks and vulnerabili-ties. Organizations therefore need to focus on identifying problems in order to work more efficiently in order to succeed with their business.
The report is using the framework of Business Continuity Planning approach and is em-phasizing on how to prepare a plan in order to make organizations more resilient. The research is conducted in a deductive way which includes testing theories and their prop-ositions against data which have been collected. Therefore the theories found from the literature were applied on a case and appropriate data was collected to suit our purpose. Moreover, problems were analyzed and suggestions proposed of how to deal with them. Many critical organizational components were revealed but the main findings can be summarized as how organizations can identify and evaluate problems. This is an impor-tant part of the BCP and is of need when preparing the plan. Other imporimpor-tant sugges-tions which need to be considered when preparing the plan is to; obtain top management support, assigning a steering committee, a clear communication strategy and a docu-mentation plan.
Table of Contents
Abstract ... i
1
Introduction ... 1
1.1 Background... 1 1.2 Problem Discussion ... 2 1.3 Research Questions ... 3 1.4 Purpose ... 3 1.5 Perspective ... 3 1.6 Delimitations ... 3 1.7 Definitions ... 4 1.8 Interested parties ... 42
Methodology ... 5
2.1 Scientific approach ... 5 2.2 Research philosophy ... 5 2.3 Research approach ... 5 2.4 Research strategies ... 6 2.5 Time horizon ... 62.6 Literature search strategy ... 6
2.7 Literature review ... 8
2.8 Reliability and validity ... 9
2.9 Generalizability ... 10
2.10 Objectivity ... 10
2.11 Data collection techniques ... 11
2.11.1 Defining research ideas ... 11
2.11.2 Observation strategy ... 11
2.11.3 Interview strategy ... 11
2.11.4 Analyzing techniques of interviews ... 12
2.11.5 Questionnaire strategy ... 12
2.11.6 Analyzing techniques of questionnaire ... 13
3
Theoretical Framework ... 14
3.1 Steps in creating a successful Business Continuity Process ... 14
3.2 Training ... 15
3.3 Risk Management ... 16
3.4 Soft systems methodology ... 21
3.5 Reflections from the theoretical framework ... 23
4
Empirical findings ... 24
4.1 Case observation ... 24 4.2 Interviews... 24 4.2.1 Interview 1 ... 25 4.2.2 Interview 2 ... 25 4.2.3 Interview 3 ... 26 4.2.4 Interview 4 ... 275
Analysis ... 29
5.1 Categorization of problems ... 30
5.2 Risk Evaluation ... 31
5.3 Problem relation analysis ... 32
5.4 Suggested components to become resilient ... 35
6
Conclusion ... 37
6.1 Fulfilling the purpose ... 37
6.2 Future research ... 37
References ... 38
Appendix ... 40
Appendix 1 ... 40 Appendix 2 ... 42 Appendix 3 ... 44 Appendix 4 ... 46 Appendix 5 ... 47 Appendix 6 ... 521
Introduction
“Business survival depends on the assured continuity of core business activities and supporting services: business continuity (BC)” (Morwood, 1998)
Today most organizations are exposed to some kind of risks that can damage their busi-ness in different ways and threaten its survival.
Therefore it can be vital to organize a plan to prevent the risks, to be able to recover from disasters, and to minimize the damage when a risk occurs as well. The approach of business continuity management (BCM) will be used in this report to work as a frame-work. Today more and more organizations are using a BCM approach due to the large amount of risks existing but at the same time many are not putting enough efforts in BCM as they should.
The BCM covers numerous of organizational issues. However, this research paper will mainly focus on the working processes around IT/IS. Since an IT system can be very complex many organizations fail in identifying existing vulnerabilities. A system related problem can be devastating for an organization since IT is in many cases closely aligned with the business. When a system is down for a longer period of time, the business might stop functioning properly and in the long run this can lead to a major catastrophe. According to Doughty (2000), statistics indicate that having the IT system down for more than 5 days would put 90 percent of all organizations out of business within a year.
Implementing and using a contingency plan, as the Business Continuity Plan (BCP), can help the organization to understand the risks and vulnerabilities associated with the IT system and at the same time provide solutions to deal with these issues. Critical compo-nents in the perspective of IT issues are not only IT compocompo-nents itself but also people, equipment, location, data and communication networks which can make the plan rather comprehensive (McCrackan, 2004).
The plan can even, if implemented properly, lead to a more efficient and profitable or-ganization in the long run (Reuvid, 2006). Impact and risk analysis is a part of the BCP and an important tool which will be handled in our research.
1.1 Background
The perceived level of threats and risks has increased since the start of the computer era. This has put the business continuity management processes at a higher level of priority in order to become more preventive and resilient towards organizational wounds.
“The main purpose of BCM is to ensure that the organization has a response to major disruptions that threaten its survival” (Reuvid, 2006).
A threat towards the organization can occur from many different sources, everything from unintentional causes to intentional causes. Therefore a BCM approach takes into account a large range of aspects which are caused by several different factors. Analyz-ing the risks and threats can lead to a more cautious way of workAnalyz-ing with less disrup-tions and a more resilient organization. Identifying requirements and knowing how to deal with disruptions can also eliminate inefficient ways of working. Having a BCM that benefits an organization will assure that there is a more stable business environ-ment. The BCM is a concept which has been written a lot about in recent years and
many different authors provided a high number of different ideas which can be useful for an organization.
Implementing a BCM approach can though require essential changes in the organiza-tions structure and culture, due to the need of alignment between business processes and the BCM (McCrackan, 2004). Hence, a BCM approach can be very time consuming and require lots of resources in order to be implemented in the business. Preparing a busi-ness continuity approach involves the construction of a Busibusi-ness Continuity Plan (BCP). The BCP goes through the steps required in order to deal with the issues around continuity management.
Complex IT infrastructures within businesses can be very vulnerable and have to be managed very thoroughly to eliminate and deal with its risks. Some organizations or departments might become extensively damaged when their computers are down. There is not always room for a system downtime; the business can lose customers to their competitors while it is down. This in turn can lead to decrease in profits. An example is the case of Union Bank of Switzerland, when their computers crashed for only several minutes they experienced losses that could fund their entire network a number of times. The Executive Vice President of the Bank argues that the bank would collapse in case the computer systems would be down for more than 2 days (Doughty 2000).
Processes around IT/IS can have many vulnerabilities and risks which might need to be considered and dealt with. A resilient IT infrastructure is of great importance to stay competitive. A well formulated guide specified for processes around IT/IS can lead to a better work efficiency is therefore of huge interest.
1.2 Problem Discussion
Today’s organizations have to compete in an ever growing and faster moving economy. Generally, managers have to make complex decisions much faster and mistakes can have huge impacts on an organization’s performance and overall well being.
Due to the fact that more and more critical and value producing business processes are based on information technology, it is crucial for organizations to ensure a high level of system reliability and availability. Morwood (1998) argues in the same direction when he says that business survival is depending on the assured continuity of core business activities and supporting services.
However, problems with information technology and information systems are just a matter of time. In order to respond to the occurring problems in the best way, every or-ganization would need to have a Business Continuity Plan.
Unfortunately, not many organizations are aware of the fact how crucial a business con-tinuity plan is to their operating business and internal affairs. Botha and von Solms (2004) state that resources and staff involved in Business Continuity Management is li-mited, especially when it comes to smaller organizations. Another problem identified by Weems (1999) is that the business continuity planning project is a non-revenue produc-ing project and therefore it is not seen as a high priority project for most organizations. In comparison, Business Continuity Plans ensure that the organization has a plan in
effective recovery of core business activities following a disaster (Morwood, 1999). If a company does not have any Business Continuity Plans the impacts on the company can be immense.
1.3 Research Questions
Focusing on the nontechnical side of the organizational IT/IS environment is our main target to conduct this research.
How can an organization assess its IT/IS related problems?
What could be done in order to achieve efficient solutions to IT/IS related prob-lems?
How can an organization achieve a resilient way of working in order to be pre-pared for upcoming IT/IS related problems?
1.4 Purpose
The purpose of this research paper is to show how problems can be assessed and rela-tionships among these problems can be drawn. This research paper will also focus on how to improve problem related working processes. Through analyzing the current situ-ation of one service-oriented organizsitu-ation we intend to provide suggestions of what to include in a BCP in order to deal effectively with problem and risks.
1.5 Perspective
A perspective statement is necessary for the internal agreement, which is a process of analyzing and developing different hypotheses and understandings about what involves in the research area (Goldkuhl, 1998). This study will be focused on system related problems in a department of a large service-oriented organization located in Sweden. The problem will study two perspectives, from the managers and the employees (agents) point of view. The agents’ perspective is assumingly more about the ease of use and usefulness since they are working with the system on a daily basis. In contrast, the perspective of the managers can be seen more as a strategizing perspective where the focus is more on the IT contribution towards the business. Moreover, the manager pers-pective is influenced by cost issues as well.
Our basis for choosing more than one view is that it will provide us with a better and comprehensive understanding of the problems at hand and permit us to conduct our re-search from multiple views, rather than from one actor’s perspective.
1.6 Delimitations
The BCM concept will be the main focus area together with a larger case study. The ap-proach will be conducted within processes around IT/IS. We will though exclude tech-nical solutions in relation to the problems in this report.
The case to analyze is a department of a large service-oriented organization located in Sweden. The focus will be narrowed down to this particular department. The employees working at this specific department and the internal working processes will be of
inter-est. Their processes of handling the IT/IS environment will be in the spotlight which therefore excludes other non-related working tasks.
1.7 Definitions
Agent:Employee who works at the operational level of the organization
Business Continuity Management (BCM): “A holistic management process that identi-fies potential impacts that threaten an organization and provides a framework for build-ing resilience and the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating activities.” (Reuvid J. 2006) Business continuity plan (BCP): “a series of procedures to restore normal operations following a disaster — with maximum speed and minimal impact on operations. A comprehensive plan will include essential information and materials for necessary emergency action.” (Doughty K. 2000)
Resilience: “Defined as the ability to recover quickly from unpleasant or damaging events.” (McCrackan A. 2004)
Risk: “A risk is an uncertain event or set of circumstances that, should it occur, will have an effect of the achievement of one or more of the project’s objectives” (APM PRAM Guide, 2006, p. 17).
Risk Assessment and management: “In the use of any technology, process, or procedure, someone should determine where unexpected or undesired consequences are likely to occur”. (Doughty K. 2000)
1.8 Interested parties
This thesis is intended to benefit a number of interested parties. The specific service-oriented organization we investigate can therefore be considered as the main interest party because of their direct involvement in our research. Due to this fact they are able to apply our suggestion and findings at first hand and benefit from them.
Also other organizations that operate in the same field may benefit from this thesis. Since the organization which we investigate does not have a Business Continuity Plan we can assume that many other organizations in this sector will be in the same position as well. Therefore, they could be interested in this paper when they decide to develop and implement a BCP.
Other interested parties are academics that work with risk management. These research-ers could find new insights or presearch-erspectives on Business Continuity Planning which could influence their research or future research projects.
Moreover, decision-makers such as project managers, IT managers and IT strategists can be interested in this paper due to the reason that this research will provide sugges-tions of what to include in a BCP in order to deal effectively with problem and risks. It also outlines aspects which are of importance to Business Continuity Planning and could therefore be applied in their organizations.
2
Methodology
This chapter of the research paper will deal with methodology and data gathering tech-niques. Methodology is concerned with the philosophical research approach, reliability and validity aspects. Whereas, the data gathering techniques will describe how we col-lect the data and develop the theoretical frame.
2.1 Scientific approach
Qualitative research is the art of involvement and deepening in a particular situation, which therefore disregards a general objectivity (Potter, 2002). An example of a qualita-tive research can be a face-to-face interview with one or two persons. On the other hand the quantitative approach is concerned with the statistics and generalizations. Conduct-ing a questionnaire for a wide range of people is an example of a quantitative research. The research for this study will be approached and conducted mainly in a qualitative manner. The qualitative approach is seen to be the most suitable one in order to deepen our knowledge and understanding in the field of study. This approach is also helping us building a rich detailed set of data from the situation which we are investigating and at the same time to probe the answers to our research questions. People will be inter-viewed and revealing their perspectives can widen our insights and knowledge.
2.2 Research philosophy
Researchers mostly distinguish between three different research philosophies – positiv-ism, interpretivpositiv-ism, and realism. Realism argues that the senses are showing us the truth. According to Saunders et al. (2007) interpretivism states that it is necessary for the researcher to understand the differences between humans in our roles as social ac-tors. In contrast, the positivistic philosophy takes the role as a natural scientist. In this case the researcher prefers to work with an observable social reality and the results can be seen as law-like generalizations (Saunders et al., 2007).
This research will follow a positivistic approach which is a part of the epistemological research philosophy. Due to the fact that we have direct access to the organization, this approach seems the most suitable for us. Since we are getting an understanding and fur-ther knowledge through investigating one organization in detail, we will be able to draw generalizations according to our findings and results. This is possible due to the nature of the organization we are going to investigate, which is very similar to most other companies in this business sector.
2.3 Research approach
In general, one can distinguish between two different research approaches, deductive and inductive. The deductive research approach is a testing approach where a theoretical frame will be built and a hypothesis will be tested against these theories. Whereas the inductive approach follows the gathering of empirical data and developing a theory based on the collected data.
In our research we will follow a deductive approach since we ought to use existing theo-ries from the literature which will be tested by the use of our collected data. This re-search approach suits our intentions to explain causal relationships between different variables and their impacts on the organization.
2.4 Research strategies
There are different research strategies that can help to answer the research question of a thesis such as experiment, grounded theory, case studies, action research, ethnography, and surveys.
In this thesis, a case study will be used to gain empirical data from one organization in order to answer the research questions. Moreover, a survey strategy will be used as well to investigate the perspective of the employees in that particular organization.
2.5 Time horizon
When undertaking research, there are two possible timeframes to choose from. When conducting cross-sectional studies the researcher is taking a snapshot, at a particular point of time, of a particular phenomenon. The second type is called longitudinal stu-dies. This type of studies is more suitable when it comes to the study of change and de-velopment over time (Saunders et al., 2007).
This research will follow a cross-sectional approach due to time and resource con-straints. One major intention of the report is to reveal and find out about the current sit-uation of the case which we explore in order to give suggestions of beneficial change later. Therefore, a snapshot of the organization will be analyzed and serve as a base for the analysis part.
2.6 Literature search strategy
When searching for appropriate literature for a research paper one need to have a clear literature search strategy which helps to find the most sufficient information within a field of study. A clear literature search strategy also helps to cover most parts of availa-ble literature and ensures that one does not miss out on any important publications. According to Saunders et al. (2007) the literature search strategy can be seen as a process consisting of four steps. The first step would be to define the parameters of our search. These parameters can include areas such as language of publication, subject area, business sector, geographical area, publication period, and literature type.
We defined that the language of the publication we intend to search for should be Eng-lish or Swedish. This is based on the facts that most research is pubEng-lished in EngEng-lish language in order to provide it to a bigger audience, and since we are writing our own research paper in English as well we would save lots of translation efforts. The reason for including publications written in Swedish was that we are able to access a lot of stu-dent theses written earlier by Swedish stustu-dents. This would not only give us the advan-tage of accessing a wider range of literature.
Since our research paper will be written within the field of informatics, the literature we will be searching should be within the same field. Moreover, we are looking for litera-ture that is written within management science – Business Continuity Management. Due to the fact that we will not only have a look on information system issues but also strongly focus on workflow and management issues we are in need to obtain literature from these both areas.
sec-sector. We will collect our empirical data from a service-oriented company; therefore we are intending to obtain literature and knowledge about previous theories in this area. This will deepen our understanding and also help us to have a better data collection strategy in the end which will lead to better outcomes and findings.
There will not be any limits when it comes to the geographical area of our literature search. Since most research papers, from all over the world, are written in English it would not contribute to the overall quality of our work if we would only focus on one or two geographic areas. In our case, focusing on only specific geographical areas would enormously increase the risk of missing important theses and works within our field of interest. Therefore, the geographical area of our literature will not be restricted.
Information systems are getting more and more complex. Today’s businesses have to pay high attention to the integration of business and technology. Therefore, the litera-ture which will serve as a base for our research paper must be relatively up to date. Lots of old publications do not pay too much attention on integration and complex informa-tion systems because these issues have not been really important from the beginning. However, these aspects became more and more important during the last years. In order to write a sufficient research paper we need up to date information and knowledge, therefore we will focus in our literature search strategy on publications that were pub-lished within the last 15 years.
The type of literature we will intend to search for will mostly be academic articles, thes-es, and books. This is based on the possibilities we have with accessing different ma-terial. Since we have the opportunity to use the university library we have access to nu-merous books within our field of research. Moreover, there are a lot of theses available written in the boundaries of Jönköping University. The university library also provides access to several databases which help to find academic articles which can be of good support for the research paper. However, our access to publications is also restricted. Some specific material is only available when you pay a subscription fee or buy the rights to access the material such as conference papers and publications.
The second step in the process of defining the literature search strategy is to explain and define the key words and search terms we intend to use and how we came up with them. Saunders et al. (2007) suggests different techniques to generate key words, these in-clude discussions with colleagues, the project tutor and librarians, initial reading, dic-tionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedia, handbooks, brainstorming, and relevance trees. We approach this step through the use of discussions, initial reading, and brainstorming. Discussions led to the result that we ended up with specific search terms and key words in order to maximize our chances to find relevant literature for our research paper. These discussions were within the project group and therefore really supportive in order to eliminate insufficient key words and focus on the ones we thought will bring the best search results. The internal discussions were also supportive in order to distribute the different key words and search terms among the group members, therefore not every group member used the same terms and it was possible to coordinate the workload in a better way. Furthermore, we received good feedback on our pre-defined key words dur-ing tutordur-ing sessions and also got good hints on how to improve the already existdur-ing key words and to find new ones as well.
Since one group member has read about and handled with Business Continuity Man-agement before, we had a good understanding in which direction we should develop our key words and search terms. The technique of brainstorming was mainly used during discussions in order to develop and refine the pre-defined terms.
Our search terms and key words were: Risk Management
Business Continuity Management Business Continuity Planning Soft System Methodology Resilience
In order to develop a good Business Continuity Plan, one needs to identify the existing risks and problems. Therefore, risk management is one of our main search terms. It will ensure that we find literature about how to identify, assess, and handle risks. Business Continuity Management and Business Continuity Planning are important search terms in order to find sufficient material about how to develop a Business Continuity Plan and therefore essential for this research paper. The term resilience is used in order to find publications about efficient workflows and approaches to strengthen a company’s prob-lem handling procedures. In turn soft system methodology is a concept which is used to support problem identification.
Most literature will be tried to identify through the use of several databases. In this case we mainly use the search tool possibilities of the university library website. Through different types of search functions one is able to cover a high number of different data-bases. Databases that have provided us with the most sufficient results were ABI/Inform, Springer Link, Academic Search Elite, and Business Source Premier. In this research paper primary and secondary literature is the main kind of literature that is used. The theoretical framework consists of primary literature such as academic re-ports, and secondary literature such as books, and journals. This happens due to ease and convenience of access.
The assessment of the relevance and sufficiency of the literature we found is based on our own perspective, experience and judgmental values. Since we are three persons in our research group, with three different points of views and perspectives, the literature must have been agreed upon by every group member in order to be used within the re-search paper.
To use the literature found in a sufficient way, recording the literature is an important aspect. We recorded our literature in the way that we saved all the relevant articles we found and also made notes about the most important facts within these articles. These relevant notes became a base for our writings later on.
2.7 Literature review
To describe the context of a phenomenon when research is conducted, a vital part of the research process consists of critically reviewing the literature. Critical literature review is the process of a detailed and justified analysis and commentary of the merits and faults of the literature within a chosen area, which demonstrates familiarity with what is
already known about the chosen research topic (Saunders et al., 2007). The sources used in this research have been processed according to the approach suggested by Saunders et al. (2007). They suggest thinking of the review as a funnel consisting of seven steps:
1. Initiate the review at a more general level before narrowing down to the specific questions and objectives
2. Make a short overview of the key ideas and themes
3. Summarize, compare, and distinguish the research of the writers
4. Narrow down and emphasize previous work that is relevant to the research 5. Present a detailed description of the findings of the research and show how they
relate to each other
6. Underline aspects where your own research will provide fresh insights
7. Guide the reader into later sections of the report, which investigate these issues Our literature review is following the guidelines of Saunders et al. We started by search-ing the most relevant literature that deal with the purpose of our thesis. The literature that we thought would be the most relevant was summarized and compared in order to find the most appropriate key ideas and to further develop our understanding of the re-levant subjects. Hence, Business Continuity Management (BCM), risk management and soft systems methodology were the most appropriate topics to use as a theoretical framework. Additionally the concept of training within the guideline of BCP was added. The BCM is though the most important concept for our research which deals with the research questions we have specified. Additionally, the risk management approach is used to further develop a well founded BCM. To identify problems existing within an organization and in order to develop an even more thorough BCM, we found the impor-tance of soft system methodology, (SSM). The SSM is used as a framework and guide-line in order to help us analyze and understand the situation which will be researched upon. There is a lot of literature about the BCM and risk management concepts and we therefore carefully chose the literature which is of most help to tackle our purpose and research questions. This will be conducted by choosing the theory from the most ac-knowledged and known authors.
We assume that by using the BCM approach we might get new insights of how to use it as efficiently as possible when applying the concept to our researched case.
2.8 Reliability and validity
Reliability is a concept which is concerned about consistent findings. This means that different researchers with different techniques will have the same results and findings. We are trying to achieve a high degree of reliability through interviewing people in key positions. These people are the local IT manager, the Nordic operating manager, and the agents. These people will provide us with a comprehensive view on the organization and on all system related problems. Therefore, we can eliminate biased views on the working processes and the systems. Moreover, these persons know the organization best and therefore adding the appropriate level of reliability to our research.
Through the use of different data collection and analyzing techniques, we are trying to increase the level of reliability as well. Through the use of interviews and questionnaires we are trying to show a comprehensive and complete picture of all the problems and
how to solve them. We also aim to show as clearly as possible how we collected and analyzed our data in order to make this research paper as reliable as possible.
At the same time through a highly communicative research paper and a clear research approach we try to achieve a high degree of validity. According to Saunders et al. (2007) validity is about ensuring that the findings are about what they appear to be about and if generalizations are possible. In order to achieve a high degree of validity one has to eliminate as many threats to validity as possible. In order to ensure that the findings are about what they appear to be about, we are using different data collection techniques. This will support the development of a comprehensive view of the organiza-tion. Another important factor for achieving a high degree of validity in our research is to collect data from different people on different levels of the organization. This will al-so guarantee that our findings are really about what we think they are about and no mi-sinterpretations are possible.
We also minimized the threats of validity through making sure that we have a consistent dialogue to the same people in the organization at all time during the research.
2.9 Generalizability
Generalizability is a concept which is about drawing predictions on recurring expe-rience and findings. Frequency of occurrence is therefore of value. This means that a particular phenomenon which is generalizable can be applied on many cases (Colorado State University Department of English, 2009).
As mentioned before other organizations in this service-oriented business sector are quite similar to the specific organization we investigate. We believe that this will lead to possible generalizations of our research. Most call centers work with communica-tion/contact management systems (CMS), top down approaches, and computer infra-structures. The external validity is relative high since lots of organizations in this busi-ness sector can actually use our findings and outcomes and display it on their own or-ganization in order to improve their BCP or even start to develop one.
2.10 Objectivity
Objectivity is about the avoidance of personal interpretation and instead focusing on as-sumptions equally agreed upon (Saunders et al., 2007). The concept is therefore the op-posite of subjectivity which deals with personal interpretations. An objective approach will avoid the subjective selectivity data gathering which helps making the research more valid and reliable.
Our report will be of high concern to handle it as objective as possible. The fact that we are three authors with different perspectives is increasing the value free level of the re-port. The literature we use is created by many different authors with different theories, opinions and suggestions which also improve the quality of objectivity.
Moreover we conduct in depth interviews with three different kinds of people in the or-ganization where they freely air their opinions. This happens in order to give us a com-prehensive picture of the situation. The data gathered from the conducted interviews can in turn shape our perspective and secondly our thesis into a more objective direction. The result from the use of this approach makes the report less bias.
2.11 Data collection techniques
In this part we will describe how we intended to achieve our research objective. At the same time an explanation is provided why we choose to use these methods and how these techniques helped us to write the report.
2.11.1 Defining research ideas
In order to come up with a research idea, rational thinking techniques were mainly used. First of all, the group tried to find out the areas in which each group member is interest-ed in. After identifying a couple areas of research, the group lookinterest-ed into old theses and projects to get a better insight and new ideas within these areas. With the help of addi-tional literature and electronic databases different topics were discussed in order to come up with a final topic. Brainstorming, a creative thinking technique, also helped in identifying the final research topic.
2.11.2 Observation strategy
In order to get a good picture of the organization, its structure, and its processes we used the observation data gathering technique. This happened due to the reason that one member of our research group is actually working for this specific company. Therefore, we had rather free access and good insights into the organization.
Saunders et al. (2007) suggest different types of observation techniques. The differences between those types are whether the identity of the observer is revealed or concealed and whether the researcher takes part in the activity or just observes it.
In our case, we used the participant as observer approach. The researcher’s identity was revealed since he is a regular employee (agent). Therefore, he knows most of the other employees within the department as well which facilitated easier access and greater wil-lingness in order to conduct a good questionnaire later on.
Moreover, as a regular employee of this organization he takes part in the activities of the everyday work. Therefore, he can contribute a lot of knowledge of his own experiences to this research. The fact that he is working there gives us as a group the advantage to find the right people easily from which we want to conduct our data gathering activities.
2.11.3 Interview strategy
The main part of the empirical data will be collected through interviews. These inter-views will be non-standardized. The way of conducting these interinter-views will be face-to-face with employees in key roles in that particular organization. The group chose to go with a semi-structured interview strategy which means that we have a number of pre-defined questions and themes we want to ask and leave space for other issues and ques-tions coming up during the interview. This is done, in order to cover our areas of inter-est and leave space to upcoming and follow up quinter-estions which can give us a deeper knowledge in certain areas.
The persons we will interview are the local IT manager at the local department, and the Nordic operating manager. These two persons are in key positions for our research. The local IT manager at the local department can provide us with the most common occur-ring problems related to the information systems and how they are handled so far.
Moreover, he is able to give us a good overview about the work processes and the sys-tem architecture and hierarchy.
The Nordic operating manager is of great value to our research since she is the connec-tion between the local department and the headquarter. Moreover, she is attending board meetings and reporting directly to members of the board. Therefore, she has a lot of knowledge about the company itself and is mostly involved in strategizing new con-cepts for the company. Furthermore, she is the system owner of one of the systems in this organization. This interview will help us to achieve a comprehensive view of the nature of the organization and the thinking about IT from a headquarter perspective as well.
2.11.4 Analyzing techniques of interviews
The analysis is based on our notes from the interviews. These notes are ought to be seen as the layer to create the valuable picture of the analysis. Our interviews will be record-ed qualitatively and be completely available to the reader as an appendix. The collectrecord-ed data will be analyzed by using Yin’s (2003) explanation building approach. This is a deductively based analyzing approach which is in line with the overall deductive ap-proach of the research paper. Moreover, we can explain the relation between the col-lected data and the proposed theory which will help us to gain a thorough base for our analysis section.
2.11.5 Questionnaire strategy
We also intend to gather valuable material by using a questionnaire. This questionnaire will be distributed to a number of agents working for the organization in order to get an understanding of their perspective on the existing issues. Since we want to keep the number of respondents high, we will approach the agents with a self-administered ques-tionnaire. This will also help us to save time. Due to the fact that we can access the or-ganization directly, we will hand out the questionnaire to each respondent and collect it later. Therefore, we are using a delivery and collection questionnaire strategy.
The types of variables we want to collect by using a questionnaire are opinion variables. Opinion variables record how respondents feel about something or whether they think or believe that something is true or false (Saunders et al., 2007). This will support our vision of getting an insight on the employee perspective in this particular organization. The style of question will be a mixture of open questions and closed questions. Saund-ers et al. (2007) define open questions as questions that allow respondents to give an-swers in their own way. In contrast, closed questions provide a number of alternatives or suggested answers from which the respondent has to choose. This will lead to the fact that we can ensure that some answer possibilities will not be too limited in order to not miss out on any important information. The open questions will be used in order to find out what the biggest problems are in the point of view of the agents. In contrast, closed questions will ensure that we will just get the information and data we intend to collect. The way we chose to distribute our questionnaire was non-probability sampling. This was the most sufficient method to reach the agents due to the fact that not all agents work at the same time. We hand out the questionnaire to any agent possible since all cases are equal due to the fact that all agents work with the same systems.
In our point of view, the most appropriate sampling technique was purposive sampling. This means that the researcher uses his judgment to select cases that will best enable him to answer the research questions and to meet the objectives.
Total number of responses 10
Total response rate = --- = --- Total number in sample – ineligible 22 – 0
= 0.45 = 45%
Total number of responses
Active response rate = --- Total number in sample – (ineligible + unreachable)
10
= --- = 0.45 = 45 % 22 – (0 + 0)
The total and actual response rate is about 45%. The reason for this is that we inter-viewed ten out of 22 agents of the sales department. We achieved a 100% responds rate from the agents we interviewed. We missed out on 12 agents due to the fact that most of the agents are part-time employed. Therefore, the chance to meet all agents at the same time is not given.
However, since all the agents work on identical tasks and with the same equipment the number of agents interviewed can be seen as representative. Moreover, they all work on the same level and their position within the company is the same. In our case, ten agents was a sufficient number in order to identify the main part and most important aspects and problems related to their work with the information systems of the organization.
2.11.6 Analyzing techniques of questionnaire
The questionnaire is analyzed by using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The re-sults will be displayed in a bar chart according to how many respondents have men-tioned particular problems. This will give the reader the advantage of getting a quick overview of the problems identified by the agents and the most mentioned problems. Moreover, to display the results in a more detailed way, the answers of the question-naire are presented in a qualitative way. This is done partly in the analysis section and the complete results of the questionnaire can be found in appendix 5. Therefore, we can focus on the most important facts concerning our research without leaving any facts away from the reader.
3
Theoretical Framework
This section will cover important literature and theories already written. Through our research techniques we choose the following concepts to present: Steps in creating a successful Business Continuity Process, Training, Risk Management and Soft Systems Methodology. The displayed concepts will help to analyze our empirical data and draw the conclusions.
3.1 Steps in creating a successful Business Continuity
Process
To establish a Business Continuity Plan there is a guideline to follow developed by Ka-rakasidis (1997) which consists of eleven components. These components are supposed to be used in conjunction with a risk management process. Hereby a brief explanation of the components will be presented:
1. Obtain top management approval and support.
The managers need to support the BCP with the required resources and funds. They also need to fully understand and approve the plan in order to carry it out.
2. Establish a business continuity planning (BCP) committee.
The committee is supposed to deal with the objectives and scope together with the de-velopment of the plan, but also to report, test, and maintain the business recovery processes.
3. Perform business impact analyses.
The business impact analysis (BIA) is about the identification of the potential risks and how to carry out a preventive plan, together with the most reasonable resources. In order to perform an efficient impact analyses Wan (2009) suggests the following steps:
Define assumptions and scope of project for which BIA is being conducted. Develop a survey or questionnaire to gather necessary information.
Identify and notify the appropriate survey recipients. Distribute the survey and collect responses.
Review completed surveys and conduct follow-up interviews with respondents as needed.
Modify survey responses based on follow-up interviews. Analyze survey data.
Verify results with respondents.
Prepare report and findings to senior management. 4. Evaluate critical needs and prioritize business requirements.
This stage is about the evaluation of processes and resources that are of need, in order to continue the business operations.
5. Determine the business continuity strategy and associated recovery process.
This step is about reviewing the components and defining the recover strategy which can help the organization to restore from a failure.
6. Prepare business continuity strategy and its implementation plan for executive man-agement approval.
Creating a manual with the necessary information about the strategies which can be rolled out for any department is of great importance. This will include the tasks, stan-dards, and responsibilities together with other details in order to recover from a failure. 7. Prepare business recovery plan
With the help from a template all information and data concerning the recovery will be put into a larger plan.
8. Develop the testing criteria and procedures.
This step can be seen as a plan for a training mechanism and is created to test and un-derstand how well the recovery plan works.
9. Test the business recovery process and evaluate test results.
A key component is to have meetings regularly before, during, and after the implemen-tation of the plan in order to evaluate the business continuity plan. In this step the test-ing of the recovery procedures takes part.
10. Develop/review service level agreement(s) (SLAs).
To reach a balanced service level agreement between two parties, in order to function synchronously.
11. Update/revise the business recovery procedures and templates.
The continuous maintenance is done in order to prevent that all the procedures have to become redeveloped. Instead it is more efficient to continuously update the procedures by responding to changes, keeping the staff updated, and having an ongoing testing of the plan.
3.2 Training
Morwood (1998) distinguish between two different types of training best suited to busi-ness continuity training. These types are awarebusi-ness training and scenario training. Awareness training intends to give all members of the organization an appropriate level of understanding of the Business Continuity Plan. This type of training consists of two sub-division, introductory awareness training and detailed awareness training.
Introductory awareness training briefs all members of the organization who will have an indirect role in the execution of the Business Continuity Plan. In general, a 60 minutes session about the framework, strategies, and important procedures under the plan should be enough to inform the staff.
Detailed awareness training, in contrast, is aiming to educate the members of the organ-ization who will have a direct role in the execution of the business continuity plan. Morwood (1998) suggests that a half-day session should be sufficient to educate the staff about all aspects of the Business Continuity Plan. The information covered in this session is almost the same as in the introductory session, only more detailed. Another important part of the detailed awareness training is to focus on the precise roles and re-sponsibilities each staff member will have under the Business Continuity Plan.
In general, awareness training should be conducted for all members of the organization upon the establishment of the Business Continuity Plan or following significant changes to it. Moreover, it should be conducted for all newly hired employees and for those people who have moved into new positions or responsibility areas.
The second type of training is scenario training. Morwood (1998) suggests that this type of training should be conducted as a follow up of the awareness training. Scenario train-ing should be conducted at a level as appropriate as possible compared to the crisis or disaster situation. In Morwood’s approach scenario training includes practical exercises designed to confirm employees’ understanding of the Business Continuity Plan. Moreo-ver, it is aimed to raise their skill levels in the execution of the tasks and to identify po-tential weaknesses and issues relating to further development of the Business Continuity Plan.
Morwood (1998) divides scenario training into three distinct variants of training - desk-top exercises, call-out exercises, and operational exercises. Desk-desk-top exercises are taken place within the office environment and participants are just required to assess and comment on how they would react to various scenarios. During call-out exercises par-ticipants are required to contact key staff members with responsibilities under the Busi-ness Continuity Plan and confirm their availability and recall time. Operational exercis-es will be practiced with full operational rexercis-esponse to the exercise scenario. The Businexercis-ess Continuity Plan will be physically implemented by the exercise participants. Due to cost issues, normally, the activation of outside resources is not involved in the training ses-sions.
3.3 Risk Management
“A risk is a potential problem, a situation that, if it materializes, will adversely affect the project. Risks that materialize are no longer risks, they are problems”. “All projects have risks, and all risks are ultimately handled. Some disappear, some develop into problems that demand attention, and a few escalate into crises that destroy projects and careers. The goal of risk management is to ensure that risks never fall into the third cat-egory”. (Hallows, 2005 p.96)
“A risk is a possible unplanned event. It can be positive or negative. In project man-agement the success of our projects depends on our ability to predict a particular out-come. Since risks are the unpredictable part of the project, it is important for us to be
able to control them as much as possible and make them as predictable as possible.” (Newell & Marina, 2004 p.174)
Risks can be divided into two categories - known risks and unknown risks. Known risks are risks that can be identified and unknown risks are those risks that cannot be pre-dicted at all. A threat or a pure risk can only have a negative possibility as a result. In contrast an opportunity is a risk that can only have positive outcomes. Business risks are considered as normal risks of doing business and can both have good and bad outcomes. Risks occur in all companies, therefore an important aspect of managing and minimiz-ing risks is known as “Risk Management”. The International Federation of Risk and In-surance Management Associations (IFRIMA), the international umbrella organization for risk management associations throughout the world, says that risk management is a central part of any organization’s strategic management (Reuvid, 2007). Risk manage-ment is the process of identifying, categorizing, responding to risks strategically, and managing the risks. This process is also known as enterprise risk management (ERM). The initial focus in risk management should be on identifying the risks. These risks can be factors that cause time delays or impede the usual way of working in an organization. According to Hallows (2005), the most common risks that an organization can encoun-ter are:
Staff Risks
Key staff will not be available when needed Key skill sets will not be available when needed Staff will be lost during the project
Equipment Risks
Required equipment will not be delivered on time Access to hardware will be restricted
Equipment will fail
Client Risks
Client resources will not be made available as required Client staff will not reach decisions in a timely manner Deliverables will not be reviewed according to the schedule Knowledgeable client staff will be replaced by those less qualified
Scope Risks
Requirements for additional effort will surface
Changes of scope will be deemed to be included in the project
Scope changes will be introduced without the knowledge of project management
Technology Risks
The technology will have technical or performance limitations that endanger the project
The technology is new and poorly understood
Delivery Risks
System response time will not be adequate
System capacity requirements will exceed available capacity The system will fail to meet functional requirements
Physical Risks
The office will be damaged by fire, flood, or other catastrophe A computer virus will infect the development system
A team member will steal confidential material and make it available to com-petitors of the client
(Hallows, 2005 p.97)
Analyzing information available from previous cases will be valuable and helpful in identifying risks in the current organization. A structured review of previous cases should be done as a part of the identification process. Individuals both inside and out-side the organization will also be useful for the risk identification process. Risk identifi-cation process often involves large numbers of individuals, it is therefore recommended to use different group techniques such as:
Delphi Technique: In the Delphi technique the participants are usually anonymous. By having anonymous participants, problems such as negative effects of face-to-face dis-cussions or individuals that dominate the process by using their authority or position are avoided. In this technique the facilitator asks for input from the participants, in the form of answers to questionnaires and their comments to these answers. The contributions are then summarized by the facilitator into a list that is send to each participant. The partici-pants then add additional thoughts to the summarized list. This process continues until there are no more thoughts generated. This technique can be conducted using any form of communication technology such as e-mail or telephone. One of the advantages of the Delphi technique is that the individuals can participate from many different locations. Brainstorming Technique: The Brainstorming technique is one of the most common group dynamics techniques. In the brainstorming technique a group of participants are summoned to a meeting. The participants are then asked by the facilitator to name any risk that they can think of, no matter their significance. The risks are then listed by the facilitator on a board. The main purpose of the brainstorming technique is to create a kind of chain reaction of identification of risks. For example the ideas generated by one participant will generate new ideas from another participant. The downside of brains-torming technique is that the whole process is dependent on an excellent facilitator. If the process lacks a good facilitator there will be minimum involvement from the partic-ipants. This downside will even get bigger if there is a big difference in the status of the participating individuals. An individual who has more authority may dominate the meeting with his thoughts and ideas.
The second part of the risk management process is dealing with categorizing the risks. Risk categorization is the process of evaluating the risks that have been identified. The
purpose of categorizing the risks is to set up a way of classifying the risks in the order of their importance. Several statistical methods of defining the degree of risk exists, but the simplest and most effective method is to depict risks as high, medium or low. The level of the risk depends on two characteristics; the probability and the impact of the risk. The probability and the impact of the risk can be evaluated on a scale of one to ten. When the impact and the probability value are multiplied together the result will represent the expected severity value of the risk. Figure 3.1 and 3.2 illustrates a method of determining the degree of a risk.
Figure 3.1 Risk Evaluation Table Figure 3.2 Risk Evaluation Table
Note: Scales are arbitrary http://www.staffordshireprepared.gov.uk/risk/default.htm
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/jonhh/Doc?id=10040405&ppg=34
By categorizing risks one can identify the risks that are the most critical ones and con-sequently require the most attention.
When the potential risks are identified and ranked one can start to plan how to strategi-cally respond to those risks. There are a number of strategies available for dealing with risks. These strategies are; acceptance, avoidance, transfer, and mitigation strategy. Acceptance: Risks that are not so harmful fall into the domain of acceptance strategy. This means that risks that are low-ranked should be accepted but not fully ignored. If the planning efforts for fixing the risk would cost more than the actual cost of fixing it, then the organization should just fix the risk when it occurs. The acceptance strategy consists of two types of acceptance; active and passive. An active acceptance is when a plan is made for what to do if an accepted risk occurs. Normally low-ranked risks tend to occur more frequently. Therefore it is much more effective to have a plan when these types of risks occur. In contrast to active acceptance, passive acceptance is when no plan has been made for when a risk occur. These risks are very small risks that are hard-ly noticeable. The cost of dealing with the risk without preparation is often lower than documenting and developing a plan for the risk.
Avoidance: This strategy is used when one prevent a risk to be a possibility. The risk is avoided before an occurance is possible. This is for example done by changing the de-sign of a product or system so the risk cannot occur.
Transfer: This strategy focuses on giving the responsibility of a risk to someone outside the organization. This does not mean that the risk disappears it is only the responsibility of the risk that transferred to someone else. One way to do this is to give the responsi-bility of the risk to a contractor such as a software vendor. Another alternative which is possible is to buy insurance for a specific product or system. The cost of the insurance is often smaller than the cost of the risk.
Mitigation: The mitigation strategy is often used towards medium and high ranked risks. This strategy focuses on lowering the overall severity of the risks by reducing the possibility or the impact of the risks. Using this strategy involves transferring out some money from the contingency budget. The money should then be used in the strategy plan to mitigate the risks. When the probability or impact of a risk is reduced the ex-pected value of the risk will be reduced as well. This in turn will result into a reduced contingency budget.
One of the biggest problems with risks tends to be that they get forgotten in the regular day to day routines. Managing the risks is the process of monitoring, controlling and reevaluating the risks that have been identified. From this process it is possible to identi-fy new potential risks. There are three methods for managing risks: group meetings, sta-tus reports and manager reflection.
During regular group meetings one should devote a part of each meeting to a risk re-view wherein the risks are discussed by each group member. This will make the risks visible and all members will be aware of potential risks. The main purpose of the risk review is to identify what risks exists and if they have changed. The risk review will al-so facilitate the process of uncovering new risks and their potential consequences to the organization. Status reports are also an important part of managing risks. By conti-nuously reporting risks, the management will be aware of the risks and prepared for bad news and surprises. Figure 3.3 illustrates how a risk management process can possibly appear.
Figure 3.3 the process of risk management
http://www.ermanz.govt.nz/about/riskmgm-bckground.html
3.4 Soft systems methodology
The soft systems methodology (SSM) is an approach which is used for change man-agement and problem solving within organizations and has its roots from the systems theory. It was developed at the University of Lancaster in Britain, by Peter Checkland and others, with the help from an action research program.
The methodology is helping to understand and analyze organizational problems. SSM is ought to model processes in the organization but also to include the involved people in the system together with their social and political environment in order to match the real world better. A hard systems approach would focus more on simplistic formal business processes which are rooted in physical science while the soft approach is seen as part of social and management science (Checkland, 2000).
A soft system methodology approach has in mind that organizations are systems and systems are complex which might make it difficult to reach a solution to a certain prob-lem. A narrow and specialized problem solving approach is not what this methodology is emphasizing on but rather on a wider approach where a lot of parties together with their environments can be taken into consideration. Therefore, this approach will help in getting a better insight in the complexity of the problem situations that might exist. The approach can though be very complex and difficult to conduct since humans with dif-ferent attitudes, beliefs, and world views are included and the analyst might therefore need to take many different perspectives into consideration.
When conducting the action from the framework of the methodology the analyst is sup-posed to work as a participant of the research in order to get the most efficient insights of the situations. The SSM framework is built up of a guideline with 7 stages which are recommended to follow in order to understand the organizational problems (Checkland,
2000). The stages do not necessarily need to be followed in order but can be used itera-tively and interchangeably.
The SSM stages revealed:
1. Problem situation: unstructured
This stage is concerned with finding out the problem situation. The problem analyst takes part of all views from people which are part of the problem situation. Here the analyst also tries to reveal the processes occurring in the context of the problems.
2. Problem situation: expressed
From the information conducted in stage one this stage will express the information in a formal way. Drawing a picture diagram of the perceived situation can be a good way of expressing the state together with problem identification. The drawing can be seen as a tool for communication used by the analyst to express the perception of the current state. It can contain things like the people involved, areas of problem, information flow, and relations.
3. Root definitions of relevant systems
This stage is about from which perspectives the problem solver should see the prob-lems. Here the analyst together with the problem owner defines the problems and the re-levant systems. The root definition is therefore also a way of stating what the system is. By the use of the CATWOE technique the analyst can create a root definition. CATWOE is a helpful tool to take all aspects of the perspectives that can exist in a sys-tem; customer, actor, transformation process, weltanschauung, owner and environment. 4. Building conceptual models
From the help of the defined root definitions from previous stage a conceptual model is created in this stage. The model is supposed to be a diagram with activities that tell what the system will do, and is meant to describe something relevant to the problem situation. In this stage a debate is welcomed to shape the model between the actors in order to create a model related to the real world.
5. Comparing conceptual models with reality
This stage compares the models created in stage four with the drawings from stage two. Since all illustrations are created with the help from people with different views, this process can be difficult.
6. Assessing feasible and desirable changes
By analyzing the results from stage five the problem solver proposes the desirable changes needed.
7. Action to improve problem situation
The last stage is dealing with the suggestions of actions in need to solve the desirable changes.
To keep in mind is that this methodology is building up a framework of how to work in order to understand certain problems and is not providing any certain guidelines of how to solve the problems. As told before the seven steps might not necessarily be per-formed in order but might have to be conducted iteratively and interchangeably to reach for the most sufficient understanding of a certain problem. Due to that many perspec-tives are being considered there might be difficulties to reach a consensus when using this methodology. However, the SSM approach is perhaps one of the most effective tools in order to reveal the real situation when analyzing an organizational system.
3.5 Reflections from the theoretical framework
The material presented is of great importance to us in order to succeed with our thesis. All literature is created within the timeframe of 15 years which makes the literature ac-cordingly to us up to date. In order for us to analyze and identify problems within an or-ganization we need a frame to work with, therefore the concept of SSM approach is seen as the most suitable. As well the theory has the ability to help us to gain new in-sights from the case when following it as a guideline.
A Business Continuity Process is a guideline for how to establish a resilient work envi-ronment. Risk management and training are in turn parts of the Business Continuity Plan. Risk management is the process of identifying risks and problems which we will emphasize conduct from our empirical data in the analysis.
Training is as well a tool within the BCP concept, since training benefits the awareness of the BCP and how to use it. Therefore the training approach can be a suggestion for the organization to use when preparing for a BCP.
