Context & scope
Understand the organisation, interested parties, obligations and boundaries of the business continuity management system.
ISO 22301:2019 · Business continuity
Turn continuity plans into a working system.
Connect critical services, dependencies, business impact, recovery priorities, continuity plans, incidents, exercises and improvement actions in one reviewable BCMS operating record.
STORM supports BCMS governance and evidence. Continuity strategies, exercises and certification decisions remain the responsibility of the organisation and qualified independent parties.
BCMS operating cycleContinuity context active
BCMSPrepared to recover
PlanScope · BIA · strategy
DoPlans · roles · response
CheckExercise · audit · review
ActCorrect · improve · repeat
2019 editionthe current published second edition
2024 amendmentclimate-action considerations apply to the BCMS
All organisationsapplicable across sizes, sectors and operating models
Certifiable BCMScertification is optional and independently assessed
The management-system requirements
Prepare, respond, recover and improve.
ISO 22301 is not simply a continuity-plan template. It establishes a management system that connects organisational context, leadership, analysis, operational capability, evaluation and improvement.
Leadership
Establish policy, authority, responsibilities and top-management commitment for continuity capability.
Planning
Address risks and opportunities, define objectives and plan how the BCMS will achieve and measure them.
Support
Maintain resources, competence, awareness, communications and controlled documented information.
BIA & risk assessment
Understand disruption impacts, critical activities, dependencies and risks before choosing continuity solutions.
Strategies, plans & exercises
Establish workable response and recovery arrangements, then exercise and evaluate them.
Performance evaluation
Monitor the BCMS, audit it and conduct documented management reviews.
Improvement
Manage nonconformities and corrective actions and continually improve BCMS effectiveness.
How STORM supports the requirements
Continuity built on the real dependencies.
STORM includes ISO 22301 assessment support and connects continuity work to the same asset, risk, policy, supplier, incident, audit and management records used across the organisation.
Critical services & dependencies
Inventory business services, processes, data, systems, infrastructure, locations, people and suppliers, then model the relationships continuity teams need to analyse.
Cartography · dependency mapBIA & recovery priorities
Perform Business Impact Analysis across business activities, assess operational consequences and capture recovery priorities with RTO and RPO targets.
BIA · impact · RTO/RPOBCP & DRP lifecycle
Develop and maintain continuity and recovery documentation with templates, versions, owners, approvals, reviews, acknowledgements and automated reminders.
Plans · procedures · ownershipIncident & corrective action
Connect incidents to affected assets, services and departments; assign owners, record root cause, track target dates and retain corrective and preventive actions.
Incident register · responseSupplier continuity context
Assess supplier business impact, service replaceability and security posture, collect evidence and track remediation for dependencies outside direct control.
Third-party risk · evidenceAssessment, audit & review
Run ISO 22301 assessments, identify gaps, plan internal audits, retain findings and consolidate risks, incidents and actions in management review.
Compliance · audit · management review
Understand what must continue
Start with services and the dependencies beneath them.
STORM Cartography creates a shared model of business activities, services, assets and external dependencies. That model gives BIA, recovery planning, supplier assessment and incident response a consistent scope.
- Business activities, services and process inventory
- Systems, infrastructure, personnel and supplier relationships
- Exportable asset and dependency reports for ISO 22301
Prioritise recovery
Turn disruption impact into recovery decisions.
Structured impact assessment links business consequences to the assets and activities that create them. STORM supports BIA results, RTO/RPO tracking and exportable evidence for planning and review.
- Legal, financial and operational impact context
- Business-activity BIA with accountable participants
- Reviewable PDF, DOCX and XLSX assessment outputs
Prepare and respond
Keep plans and response activity in the same context.
Versioned BCP and DRP documents can remain connected to the incident workflow used to record affected services, responsibility, root cause, resolution dates and corrective action.
- Controlled plan reviews, approvals and acknowledgements
- Incident linkage to assets, services and departments
- Exercise or incident findings retained as improvement actions
Evaluate and improve
Make readiness reviewable between disruptions.
Assessment status, gaps, audit findings, risks, incidents and actions can feed management review, while objectives and KPIs provide a measurable record of performance and improvement.
- ISO 22301 self-assessment and gap-action reporting
- Internal-audit planning, evidence and remediation
- Management decisions and improvement actions in one record
A connected continuity record01 · What? 02 · When? 03 · How? 04 · Prove
Four questions every workable BCMS must answer.
STORM helps organise the evidence around the standard while continuity leaders retain responsibility for strategies, capability and real-world performance.
What must continue?
Identify priority services, activities, information, systems, sites, people and suppliers within BCMS scope.
Cartography · business activitiesHow quickly?
Use business impact and dependency context to define recovery priorities and relevant time and data-loss targets.
BIA · RTO · RPOHow will it recover?
Maintain strategies, plans, roles, communications and response procedures as controlled, owned documentation.
BCP · DRP · policiesWill it work?
Retain exercise, incident, audit, assessment and management-review evidence and follow every finding to action.
Exercises · audit · improvementThese are operating questions, not substitutes for the licensed requirements. Obtain the official standard and define continuity arrangements appropriate to your organisation.
Operate the lifecycle01 02 03 04 05
From dependency mapping to tested improvement.
Use STORM to preserve context and evidence through the continuity lifecycle rather than rebuilding it for every review.
Scope
Define services, processes, assets, sites, people, suppliers and obligations.
Context · cartographyAnalyse
Perform BIA and risk assessment and establish recovery priorities.
Impact · risk · targetsPrepare
Maintain strategies, plans, procedures, roles and communications.
BCP · DRP · ownershipEvaluate
Exercise plans, assess controls, audit the BCMS and review performance.
Exercises · assessment · auditImprove
Resolve gaps and findings and document corrective and management actions.
Findings · review · actionPractical questions
Keep the platform, the plan and the assurance decision separate.
A continuity tool organises work and evidence. It cannot prove recovery capability without organisational action and exercise.
Does STORM include built-in ISO 22301 support?
Yes. STORM's documented framework catalogue and Compliance Assessment module include ISO 22301 assessments, implementation-status tracking, gaps, review schedules and reports. Internal Audit also supports framework-specific ISO 22301 audits.
Does STORM support BIA, BCP and DRP workflows?
Yes. Documented capabilities include Business Impact Analysis, business-activity inventories, RTO/RPO tracking, continuity and recovery plans, controlled documentation, incident records and exportable BIA results. The organisation must determine whether its strategies and plans are adequate.
Can STORM guarantee that continuity plans will work?
No. Recovery capability depends on resources, technical arrangements, trained people, suppliers, communications and exercises. STORM helps keep plans, evidence, findings and corrective actions controlled and connected; it does not replace exercising or operational validation.
Can STORM issue ISO 22301 certification?
No. STORM can support BCMS implementation, assessment, evidence and audit preparation. If certification is pursued, an independent accredited certification body makes the certification decision.
Is ISO 22301:2019 still the current edition?
It is the current published edition and has the applicable ISO 22301:2019/Amd 1:2024 climate-action amendment. ISO is developing a future third edition, but a committee draft is not a replacement for the current published standard.
What is the role of ISO 22313?
ISO 22301 contains BCMS requirements. ISO 22313 provides guidance and recommendations for applying them. Organisations should obtain the official publications appropriate to their implementation.
Bring your continuity workflow
Book a STORM demo See ISO 22301 through the services that must keep running.
Use a focused walkthrough to test STORM against your critical activities, dependencies, BIA method, recovery targets, plans, incidents, suppliers, exercises and audit requirements.