Change Control ensures that major changes to the production environment are captured in real-time as they occur instead of in arrears according to some arbitrary schedule. Given today’s large, complicated, multi-platform business environments, and the constantly accelerating rate of change, traditional periodic plan maintenance is inadequate. By the time the quarterly or semi-annual maintenance update cycle comes about, the plan is often outdated. Our experience indicates that the significant components of a recovery plan change 40% to 70% every year. At this rate, there is enough change between quarterly updates to invalidate a recovery capability and make a company non-recoverable.
As such, WTG’s methodology calls for an “Evergreen” approach to change control. We employ real-time change control procedures to ensure that major changes in the production environment are reflected in the recovery documentation as they occur. To do so, change control “traps” are integrated into the fabric of the daily culture. Both internal and external sources of change are identified and documented. For each category of change, procedures are developed for how to capture the change and how to update the plans accordingly. Often, application of the change to the recovery plans can be fully automated to dramatically reduce maintenance effort. Wherever possible, disaster recovery change control is integrated into existing change control procedures. Where change control does not currently exist, WTG will work to implement appropriate new procedures.