Planning Definitions
- Business Continuity Plan – Documented step-by-step plan for emergency response, backup operations, and post-disaster recovery steps that will ensure the availability of critical resources and facilitate the continuity of operations in an emergency situation.
- Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) – Organized processes that facilitate system restoration for emergencies, disasters, mobilization, and for maintaining a state of readiness to provide the necessary level of information processing and business functions commensurate with the mission requirements and priorities.
- Emergency Management Plan (EMP) –
The strategic plan that each organization has and maintains for responding to hazards. Describes the organization’s strategic approach to responding to emergencies within the organization or in the community that would suddenly and significantly affect the need for the organization’s services or its ability to provide those services. The plan addresses the phases of emergency management, prevention, preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation as well as governance, quality improvement, education and training, drills and exercises. Sometimes this term is used interchangeably with EOP.
- Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) –
The “steady-state” plan maintained by various jurisdictional levels for managing a wide variety of potential hazards. A document that describes includes polices and procedures and describes actions to be taken in the event of disasters that are from intentional or unintentional, man-made or natural causes. Sometimes this term is used interchangeably with EMP.
- Incident Action Plan – An oral or written plan containing general objectives reflecting the overall strategy for managing an incident. It may include the identification of operational resources and assignments. It may also include attachments that provide direction and important information for management of the incident during one or more operational periods.
- Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) –
A set of instructions having the force of a directive, covering those features of operations which lend themselves to a definite or standardized procedure. Standard operating procedures support an emergency plan by describing in detail how a particular task will be carried out.
