The assets and activities necessary to sustain minimum operations of the function are identified and documented in continuity plans
Context and Guidance: Although organisations perform many activities in support of and related to the delivery of the function, during times of disruption minimum operations can often be performed with a smaller set of those activities. By identifying the subset of critical activities needed to support minimum operations, the organisation can prioritise response activities and focus resources on restoring the assets that support those activities first. Function leaders must first decide what constitutes “minimum operations.” They might do this by identifying the operations that most directly affect the ability to achieve the function’s primary mission, or which operations their highest priority customers depend on. IT and OT operations teams should then identify which systems, technologies, data, staff, and processes are associated with maintaining those operations at normal functionality (including any dependencies on external functions or entities). IT and OT teams can then determine how minimum operations could be sustained in different types of degraded conditions (for example, if certain databases, staff, or external data feeds that the operations depend on are not available). Additionally, organisations should consider what sustaining minimum operations may require in different situations. For example, in a pandemic situation where sudden wide-spread remote work is necessary, individuals may not have physical access to high-priority equipment.
Related Practices • Progression: This practice is part of a practice progression. Practice progressions are groups of related practices that represent increasingly complete or more advanced implementations of an activity. The practices in this progression include: RESPONSE-4a, RESPONSE-4d, RESPONSE-4e, RESPONSE-4f, RESPONSE-4g, RESPONSE-4m, RESPONSE-4p.