Incident Management Plan Policies and Instructions

The IMP's association with other aspects of the Business Continuity Management Plan should be clearly stated within the policies and instructions component. This will ensure that users are guided to the correct supporting policies and procedures that govern the implementation of the IMP (if they are not included within the IMP as stated). The IMP should not seek to duplicate unnecessarily those instructions, policies, plans, or procedures captured within other components of the Business Continuity Management Plan; however, it should briefly articulate how those elements guide the management of the IMP. The core subjects that might be covered for IMP usage are:

• Structure of the crisis management organization.

• Decision‐making and authority matrixes.

• Alert states and response trigger points.

• Organizational interfaces and their part in the IMP.

• Communicating IMP activities through the communications plan.

• Leveraging resources through the resource and procurement plan.

• Reference policies, protocols, and other planning documents associated with the IMP.

• Reporting and record‐keeping guidelines.

• Reference mapping and schematic usage.

As the IMP is designed to be a user‐friendly document, the introductory elements should seek to be succinct and relevant. At most, these elements should introduce supporting policies and plans so that the user can be guided to these elements where required.