Program Assessments: How to Identify Gaps & Improve Maturity

Modern businesses are complex and as our environments evolve, our risk and threat landscapes grow along with them.

Resilience program policies, plans, and processes you had in place just a few years ago may not be effective in your more complex work environment today. So, how do you get an accurate, complete look into your existing program and risk landscape so you can improve your readiness and response capabilities?

A resilience management program assessment might be what you need to identify gaps and weaknesses and mature your program before problems occur.

And it’s something you can get started doing on your own today, or if you need help, you can also partner with an assessment consultant to make your program stronger.

Starting Your Assessment Journey

First, what is a resilience management program assessment?

A resilience management assessment can help you identify your current state of preparedness, as well as any gaps or weaknesses so you can make plans to address them and mature your program over time. It’s an important part of the process of moving from your current profile to the target profile you want to achieve in both the short and long term.

Assessing your resilience management program is more than just double-checking your documents or paperwork before for your next audit. It’s about applying a more holistic approach to program management so you get better insight into your program’s big picture, all the while helping you identify and manage the granular details that contribute to success and close gaps where necessary.

So, where do you begin? How can you get a resilience management program assessment underway?

While every assessment may look different depending on the scope and nature of your operations, here are some tips that may help:

1. Work with your core teams to get a clear understanding of your unique organizational structure, needs, and requirements. This will help establish your current resilience profile. This is also a great time to compare your existing program to industry standards, best practices, and resilience management frameworks to see exactly how you align with them today and what that should look like as your organization scales and evolves.
2. Take a close look at your program goals, objectives, and requirements, including your assessment timeline. Consider having a kick-off meeting with all your key team members and develop communication strategies for what this process will look like.
3. Establish your assessment scope and begin gathering data. If you haven’t done so already, you may find it helpful to aligning your assessment with Castellan’s Business Continuity Operating System (BCOS) and other industry standards. This is also a great time to review your existing policies and documents. Also, consider conducting interviews to determine your program’s intended  scope, and to help outline what your assessment process will look like, who will be involved, and what success looks like.
4. Conduct your program assessment.

Throughout your assessment, be sure to document your findings. You’ll use these findings to determine where you need additional capabilities so you can work toward maturing resilience in the days, weeks, and months ahead. This should also include action plans and timelines to remediate any weaknesses or deficiencies you uncover.

You can use these action items to develop a short- and long-term roadmap, which can cover the next quarter, overview the next year, and get you set for the future. This can help you better engage with your executives and key stakeholders about where and when you’ll need to invest in resources, people, technology, and funding.

Support Your Roadmap with Automation

In addition to your program assessment, you may also find it easier to support your program and stay aligned with your roadmap by adopting a simple, easy-to-use platform that supports your readiness and response capabilities.

In many instances, organizations find by adopting resilience management software, they can automate a number of tasks that help them reduce administrative burden and have continuous insight into their programs at all times.

A resilience management SaaS solution like Castellan can even manage alerts and notifications so you’re always aware of any potential disruptions developing in real time.

How Resilience Management Consultants Can Help

If you don’t have the resources available to give your programs a thorough review, it may be helpful to work with a resilience management consultant, like the experts at Castellan, who can bring additional expertise, support, research, and resources to your team.

Not only will a consultant assist in evaluating the current status and maturity of your program, but they’ll also identify areas for improvement and provide you the resources and expertise to implement them efficiently.

There are a number of benefits of working with resilience management consulting services including:

1. Clear vision: Help develop a long-term vision for your resilience program and help you align that vision to your organization’s strategic objectives. At Castellan, that vision plan also comes with a roadmap focused on continuous improvement.
2. Improved capabilities: Highlight current capabilities and identify where you may need additional capabilities to ensure your organization always operates within your risk appetite and your program meets its goals and objectives. This includes developing relationships with your executives and key stakeholders to solidify program understanding and support.
3. Compliance: Ensure you have a partner who understands changing compliance requirements and helps you know where you are now and what you need to do to get where you need to be.

Need help conducting a resilience management program assessment or selecting the right consultant to support your program? Would you like to know more about how resilience management software can help you automate key resilience tasks? Contact a Castellan advisor today, and we’ll be happy to help.