BCI Recovery Planning & Testing 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which test type involves moving actual production workloads to the recovery site for a defined period?
- Tabletop exercise
- Parallel test
- Full interruption test (Correct answer)
- Walkthrough drill
Correct answer: Full interruption test
A full interruption test cuts over actual production operations to the recovery site, making it the most realistic but highest-risk test type.
Question 2: In a parallel test, what distinguishes it from a full interruption test?
- Only documentation is reviewed
- Recovery systems run simultaneously while production stays online (Correct answer)
- Staff rehearse verbally without activating systems
- Only IT systems are tested
Correct answer: Recovery systems run simultaneously while production stays online
A parallel test activates recovery systems alongside live production, validating recovery capability without risking the primary environment.
Question 3: What is the primary purpose of a post-exercise report (PER) after a BC test?
- To bill clients for recovery costs
- To document lessons learned and improvement actions (Correct answer)
- To terminate the recovery contract
- To notify regulators of the test outcome
Correct answer: To document lessons learned and improvement actions
The PER captures observations, gaps identified, and improvement actions to strengthen the BC plan based on test outcomes.
Question 4: Which BCI Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) practice area specifically covers exercising and testing?
- PP1 – Policy and Programme Management
- PP4 – Exercising and Testing (Correct answer)
- PP6 – Embedding BC
- PP2 – Understanding the Organisation
Correct answer: PP4 – Exercising and Testing
PP4 in the BCI GPG addresses the design, execution, and evaluation of BC exercises and tests.
Question 5: A recovery plan references a 'gold copy' of data. What does this term signify?
- The most expensive backup media
- A verified, clean baseline backup used as the authoritative restore point (Correct answer)
- A backup stored at a gold-rated facility
- Data encrypted with a gold-standard algorithm
Correct answer: A verified, clean baseline backup used as the authoritative restore point
A gold copy is a verified, known-good backup that serves as the authoritative point from which systems are restored after an incident.
Question 6: Which metric defines the maximum age of data that an organization can afford to lose in a disruption?
- RTO
- MTPoD
- RPO (Correct answer)
- MBCO
Correct answer: RPO
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) specifies the maximum tolerable data loss measured in time, directly driving backup frequency decisions.
Question 7: What is 'scenario-based testing' in the context of business continuity?
- Testing only financial recovery scenarios
- Designing exercises around realistic, plausible disruption events to validate plan effectiveness (Correct answer)
- Running automated scripts against backup media
- Reviewing vendor contracts for disaster scenarios
Correct answer: Designing exercises around realistic, plausible disruption events to validate plan effectiveness
Scenario-based testing uses realistic disruption storylines to evaluate whether plans, people, and resources respond effectively.
BCI Recovery Planning & Testing 2
Which test type involves moving actual production workloads to the recovery site for a defined period?