CRA BCP & Crisis Scenario Planning 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which metric defines the maximum tolerable downtime before a business function causes irreversible harm?
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
- Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption (MTPD) (Correct answer)
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
- Mean Time to Recover (MTTR)
Correct answer: Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption (MTPD)
MTPD is the absolute maximum time a business function can be disrupted before the organization suffers unacceptable consequences.
Question 2: During a crisis, the Incident Command System (ICS) uses a span-of-control ratio to maintain effectiveness. What is the recommended ratio?
- 1:3 to 1:7 (Correct answer)
- 1:10 to 1:15
- 1:2 to 1:4
- 1:8 to 1:12
Correct answer: 1:3 to 1:7
ICS recommends one supervisor for every 3–7 subordinates to ensure manageable oversight during emergencies.
Question 3: A company's BCP requires data restored to within 4 hours of a failure. Which BCP metric is being defined?
- RTO
- MTPD
- RPO (Correct answer)
- SLA
Correct answer: RPO
RPO (Recovery Point Objective) defines the maximum acceptable age of data that must be restored after a disruption.
Question 4: Which crisis communication principle requires that all external statements be approved by a single designated spokesperson?
- Message consistency
- One voice policy (Correct answer)
- Stakeholder segmentation
- Proactive disclosure
Correct answer: One voice policy
The one voice policy ensures that all public communications during a crisis are coordinated and consistent to avoid conflicting messages.
Question 5: In BCP terminology, a 'warm site' differs from a 'hot site' primarily in that it:
- Has no hardware pre-installed
- Has hardware but requires data restoration before operations resume (Correct answer)
- Is fully operational and can take over within minutes
- Is located in a different country
Correct answer: Has hardware but requires data restoration before operations resume
A warm site has hardware and connectivity pre-installed but requires data to be restored from backups before operations can resume.
Question 6: Which type of BCP test involves walking through the plan step-by-step with key stakeholders in a conference room without activating any systems?
- Full-scale exercise
- Tabletop exercise (Correct answer)
- Parallel test
- Cutover test
Correct answer: Tabletop exercise
A tabletop exercise is a discussion-based review where participants walk through scenarios verbally to identify gaps without operational disruption.
Question 7: Which standard provides internationally recognized guidelines specifically for Business Continuity Management Systems?
- ISO 27001
- ISO 22301 (Correct answer)
- NIST SP 800-53
- COSO ERM
Correct answer: ISO 22301
ISO 22301 is the international standard specifying requirements for planning, establishing, and maintaining a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS).
CRA BCP & Crisis Scenario Planning 2
Which metric defines the maximum tolerable downtime before a business function causes irreversible harm?