BCS Practitioner Certificate in Business Continuity Management

The certificate in Business Continuity Management is intended for (but not limited to) those who are involved in the areas of business continuity and disaster recovery. It will provide guidance to the student in good business continuity management practice, and assist the path to BS 25999 accreditation.

The course consists of 8 modules:

Module 1 – Introduction to Business Continuity Management

Module 2 – Business Continuity Programme Management

Module 3 – Understanding the Organisation

Module 4 – Determining the Business Continuity strategy

Module 5 – Business Continuity Response

Module 6 – Exercising, maintenance and review

Module 7 - Embedding Business Continuity Awareness

Module 8 - Preparation for the PCiBCM Examination and Mock Exam Assessment

At the end of each module the student can undertake an assessment to assess their understanding of the information provided in that module and to see if the objectives of the module have been met. Each topic also contains a quiz that enables a student to test their knowledge of the information covered in that topic. At the end of the course, an online examination is provided that prepares the student for taking the official BCS PCiBCM examination.

There are no formal entry requirements but candidates will require an understanding of information assurance and basic risk management practices.

Module 1:

• Introduction to Business Continuity Management
• The need for business continuity management
• The context of business continuity management in the business
• Review of risk management fundamentals
• The business continuity lifecycle

Module 2:

• Business Continuity Programme Management
• Business continuity policy
• Business continuity governance
• Business continuity implementation
• Ongoing business continuity management
• Involvement of third parties
• Business continuity documentation

Module 3:

• Understanding the Organisation
• Identification of mission-critical areas and
• Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
• Continuity Requirements Analysis (CRA)
• Evaluation of threats and risk assessment
• Evaluation of options and business cases

Module 4:

• Determining the Business Continuity Strategy
• Identifying and selecting strategies
• People
• Premises
• Information and communications technology
• Information
• Supply chain and stakeholders
• Civil emergencies

Module 5:

• Business Continuity Response
• The Incident management process
• Types of plan, including incident management,
• business continuity, disaster recovery and business resumption plans

Module 6:

• Exercising, Maintenance and Review
• Exercising and testing of plans
• Maintenance and review of plans

Module 7:

• Embedding Business Continuity Awareness
• Overall awareness
• Skills training

Module 8:

• Preparation for the PCiBCM Examination
• Format, structure and scoring of the exam
• Mock examination

Exam - A three-hour scenario based written examination consisting of:

• Part A: 10 multiple-choice questions (1 mark each) - answer all questions
• Part B: 6 Compulsory short narrative questions (5 marks each) - answer all questions.
• Part C: 3 Compulsory essay style questions. (20 marks each) – answer all questions