SmartSuite for the Recovery Plan Owner
A Recovery Plan Owner owns a business unit's continuity or recovery plan and is accountable for team readiness and execution. They manage recovery tasks, map upstream and downstream dependencies for critical processes and validate readiness metrics after each test.
Reports to:
What you own
A Recovery Plan Owner owns a business unit's continuity or recovery plan and is accountable for team readiness and execution.
- Own and maintain the business unit's continuity or recovery plan
- Map dependencies for each critical process
- Assign recovery tasks and verify updates from participants
- Lead the unit's participation in exercises
- Validate readiness metrics and raise improvement actions
- Activate and execute the plan during a disruption
At a glance
The GRC processes this role owns, touches and depends on.
Owns
accountable for the process
Touches
contributes or approves
Depends on
consumes its output
How the GRC processes connect
Three lines of defense set the frame; the chain shows where each process hands off to the next. Colors follow the role: navy is owned, blue is touched, gray is depended on.
Reporting lines
Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.
Reports to
Direct reports
Works closely with
How SmartSuite supports this role
Lead
Operational resilience. Gives plan owners clear responsibilities, automated reminders and real-time readiness metrics, with dependencies mapped for each critical process.
Issues and actions. Tracks recovery tasks and improvement actions with verification from participants.
Reporting. Shows the unit's readiness scores, exercise results and recovery timelines.
Products this role uses most
Industry reference
ISO 22301:2019 requires each documented plan to have a defined owner responsible for its maintenance, activation and the team that executes it; the BCI Good Practice Guidelines describe the owner's role in BIAs and exercises. The IIA's Three Lines Model places this accountability in the first line.
Regulators check that plans are owned and current. FFIEC examiners and UK operational resilience rules expect named accountability for important services; CMS requires hospital department plans to be exercised; FEMA continuity guidance assigns plan ownership to program managers; SOC 2 auditors look for approved, tested plans.
Related roles
Explore Further
Guides and definitions from the GRC Knowledge Center and the What-is glossary, chosen for this role.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Recovery Plan Owner responsible for?
A Recovery Plan Owner is responsible for one business unit's continuity or recovery plan: keeping it current, mapping the upstream and downstream dependencies of each critical process, assigning recovery tasks and verifying that participants have done them, leading the unit in exercises, validating readiness metrics afterwards and raising improvement actions. During a disruption they activate and execute the plan. ISO 22301 requires every documented plan to have a named owner; this is that person, sitting in the first line.
How does SmartSuite help a Recovery Plan Owner keep the unit ready?
Operational Resilience gives plan owners clear responsibilities, automated reminders and real-time readiness metrics, with dependencies mapped for each critical process, so the Recovery Plan Owner knows what is due, who owes it and how ready the unit is without chasing by email. The dependency map, built from the Business Impact Analysis (BIA), shows which systems, suppliers and teams each critical process relies on, which is what the plan has to recover in order.
How are recovery tasks and improvement actions tracked after an exercise?
SmartSuite tracks recovery tasks and improvement actions with verification from participants, so when an exercise shows that a contact list was stale or a workaround did not work, the improvement action is assigned to a named participant and closed only when they confirm it is done. The Recovery Plan Owner sees open actions for the unit, and the Business Continuity Analyst sees the same list across units. Nothing raised in an exercise is lost between one test and the next.
How does a Recovery Plan Owner report readiness to the Business Continuity Manager?
SmartSuite shows the unit's readiness scores, exercise results and recovery timelines, so the Recovery Plan Owner's report to the Business Continuity Manager is a current view rather than a self-assessment form. Readiness is read from whether tasks are verified and dependencies mapped; exercise results and the recovery timeline achieved sit beside it. The Crisis Response Coordinator and the IT Disaster Recovery Lead see the same unit view when they plan a joint exercise.
How much time does the role take once the plan is in SmartSuite?
Less than keeping a plan in a document, because the reminders do the chasing and the readiness metrics do the scoring; the owner's time goes to the dependency map, the exercise and the improvement actions. Getting started takes the existing plan, the critical processes it covers and the people who hold recovery roles. The Business Continuity Manager usually sets up the structure and the Recovery Plan Owner maintains the unit's part of it, which is how ISO 22301 expects ownership to work.
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