cloudthinker-ai Business Continuity Plan Skill
Develop BCP for {{ service_name }} ({{ criticality }}, max downtime: {{ max_downtime }}).
Workflow
Phase 1 — Business Impact Analysis
BUSINESS IMPACT
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[ ] Service: {{ service_name }}
[ ] Criticality: {{ criticality }}
[ ] Maximum tolerable downtime: {{ max_downtime }}
[ ] Revenue impact per hour of downtime: $___
[ ] Customers affected by outage: ___
[ ] Regulatory impact of downtime: ___
[ ] Reputational impact: [ ] LOW [ ] MEDIUM [ ] HIGH
DEPENDENCY MAP
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[ ] Upstream dependencies:
- ___: criticality: ___ | SLA: ___
- ___: criticality: ___ | SLA: ___
[ ] Downstream dependents:
- ___: impact if unavailable: ___
- ___: impact if unavailable: ___
[ ] Third-party dependencies:
- ___: SLA: ___ | alternative: ___
- ___: SLA: ___ | alternative: ___
Phase 2 — Recovery Objectives
RECOVERY TARGETS
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Recovery Time Objective (RTO): ___
Recovery Point Objective (RPO): ___
Minimum Business Continuity Objective (MBCO): ___
RECOVERY TIERS
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Tier | Recovery Time | Functions Restored
1 | 0 - 1 hour | ___
2 | 1 - 4 hours | ___
3 | 4 - 24 hours | ___
4 | 24 - 72 hours| ___
Phase 3 — Recovery Strategies
STRATEGY PER SCENARIO
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Scenario | Strategy | RTO | Cost
Single server failure | Auto-scaling/failover | ___ | ___
AZ failure | Multi-AZ deployment | ___ | ___
Region failure | Multi-region failover | ___ | ___
Cloud provider outage | Multi-cloud / manual | ___ | ___
Cyber attack | Isolation + restore | ___ | ___
Data corruption | Point-in-time restore | ___ | ___
Key personnel unavailable | Cross-training | ___ | ___
Third-party outage | Alternative provider | ___ | ___
Phase 4 — Team and Communication
INCIDENT TEAM
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Role | Primary | Backup | Contact
Incident Commander | ___ | ___ | ___
Technical Lead | ___ | ___ | ___
Communications Lead | ___ | ___ | ___
Business Stakeholder | ___ | ___ | ___
Vendor Liaison | ___ | ___ | ___
COMMUNICATION PLAN
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Audience | Channel | Frequency | Owner
Internal team | Slack/Teams | Real-time | ___
Leadership | Email/call | Every ___ hr | ___
Customers | Status page | Every ___ hr | ___
Regulators | Email | As required | ___
Media | PR statement | As needed | ___
Phase 5 — Testing and Maintenance
BCP TESTING
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[ ] Test schedule:
- Tabletop exercise: ___ (quarterly)
- Functional test: ___ (semi-annual)
- Full simulation: ___ (annual)
[ ] Last test date: ___
[ ] Last test result: [ ] PASS [ ] PARTIAL [ ] FAIL
[ ] Issues from last test:
- ___
- ___
[ ] Plan last updated: ___
[ ] Next review date: ___
[ ] Plan version: ___
[ ] Distribution list updated: [ ] YES
Counter-Rationalizations
| Shortcut | Counter | Why |
|---|---|---|
| "We can skip some steps for this case" | Adapt the workflow steps, don't skip them | Skipped steps are where incidents and oversights originate |
| "The user seems to already know what to do" | Complete all workflow phases with the user | The workflow catches blind spots that experience alone misses |
| "This is a minor case, full process is overkill" | Scale the process down, don't turn it off | Minor cases become major when unstructured; the process scales, not disappears |
| "I'll fill in the details later" | Complete each section before moving on | Deferred details are forgotten; real-time capture is more accurate |
| "The template output isn't necessary" | Always produce the structured output format | Structured output enables comparison, audit trails, and handoff to other teams |
Output Format
Produce a business continuity plan with:
- Business impact analysis (criticality, dependencies, financial impact)
- Recovery objectives (RTO, RPO, recovery tiers)
- Recovery strategies (per scenario with costs)
- Team and communication (roles, contacts, communication channels)
- Testing schedule (exercises planned, last test results, improvements)