Towards a framework for business continuity management : an IT governance perspective

Abstract

The concept of business continuity management has gained wide acceptance in recent years. Recent natural disasters such as the 2004 tsunami and terrorist activities such as the 911 World Trade Centre bombing, has emphasised the importance of business continuity management. Many of these events had catastrophic consequences, which left most executives faced with the challenge of improving the continuity of their organisation. Not to long ago, these executives were also faced with the challenge of managing their IT investments in such a way that it is aligned with the strategic goals of the organisation. An initiative referred to as IT governance was developed and IT governance frameworks instantly assisted executives to obtain direct business value from IT investments. The problem statement addressed in this research is the lack of a generally accepted business continuity management framework. This research aims to leverage of the success of IT governance in an attempt to establish the beginnings of a framework for business continuity management. In addition, the research also illustrates a paradigm shift where the enterprise continuity of a typical organisation has evolved from disaster recovery to business continuity management. The research approach executed is based on the interpretivism paradigm and is used to interpret the results of the research methodology and research method. The research methodology consists of a literature survey and empirical study whereas a content analysis is used as the research method.