Overview
ISO/TS 22332:2021 - Security and resilience: Guidelines for developing business continuity plans and procedures provides practical guidance for creating, documenting and maintaining business continuity plans (BCPs) and procedures. Applicable to all organizations - private, public and not‑for‑profit - it aligns with ISO 22301 requirements and ISO 22313 guidance to support a consistent Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) approach. The technical specification focuses on actionable steps to activate response teams, manage disruptions, recover prioritized activities and restore normal operations.
Key Topics
The standard covers the full lifecycle of business continuity planning with emphasis on clarity, usability and maintainability:
- Prerequisites: identifying interested parties, approved continuity strategies and resources required to develop BCPs.
- Response structure: roles, team composition, competence and activation/assembly procedures for strategic, tactical and operational teams.
- Types of plans and procedures: team plans (strategic/tactical/operational), common plan sections and specific procedures.
- Core plan content: purpose, objectives, assumptions, roles and responsibilities, tasks, communications, interrelationships, resource and contact information, version control and distribution.
- Specific procedures: emergency response, communications, ICT recovery, alternative facilities and resource procedures.
- Disruption‑specific guidance: planning for pandemics/epidemics and cyber‑attacks, among other scenarios.
- Documentation and control: clarity, completeness, storage, availability, plan control and distribution.
- Maintenance and assurance: exercising, testing, monitoring, performance review, maintenance and management review; annex on maintaining business continuity capability.
Practical Applications
ISO/TS 22332 is intended for organizations that need to develop or improve practical, repeatable business continuity plans:
- Business continuity managers and BCMS implementers use it to structure plans consistent with ISO 22301.
- Risk managers, incident response and crisis teams apply the guidance to define roles, activation triggers and communications.
- IT and ICT teams adopt the ICT recovery procedures when planning technical continuity.
- Senior leaders and resilience planners use the strategic team plan guidance to ensure command and control.
- Consultants and auditors use the specification to assess plan completeness, clarity and maintainability.
Adopting this guidance helps organizations improve resilience, reduce recovery times, protect people and assets, and ensure continuity of critical products and services during disruptions.
Related Standards
- ISO 22301 - Security and resilience - Business continuity management systems - Requirements
- ISO 22313 - Guidance on implementing ISO 22301
Keywords: ISO/TS 22332, business continuity, BCMS, business continuity plans, incident response, crisis management, ISO 22301, resilience, continuity procedures.