Continuity of Operations Plan

Continuity of Operations Planning is the effort within individual agencies to ensure they can continue to perform their mission essential functions during a wide range of emergencies. It’s the initiative that ensures that governments, departments, businesses and agencies are able to continue their essential daily functions. Continuity of Operations Planning requires planning for any event – natural, human-caused, technological threats and national security emergency – causing an agency to relocate its operations to an alternate or other continuity site to assure continuance of its essential functions.

Continuity of Operations Planning is simply good business practice. Plans address orders of succession, delegations of authority, continuity facilities, continuity communications, essential records management, human resources, testing, training, exercising, devolution, and reconstitution.