BCM roles and responsibilities should make ownership obvious before a disruption. The program needs executive accountability, a coordinating BCM function, business/service owners, technology and supplier owners, plan teams, exercise participants and clear decision authority during activation. Titles vary; accountability should not.
BCM responsibility map
| Role | Core responsibility | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Executive sponsor | Policy, priorities, resources and escalation | Approvals and management decisions |
| BCM manager/team | Method, facilitation, assurance, reporting and improvement | Program calendar, metrics, reviews |
| Critical service/process owner | Approve impact and recovery requirements | Approved BIA and plan |
| Technology owner | Validate system/data recovery capability | DR runbooks and test evidence |
| Supplier owner | Confirm third-party obligations and continuity evidence | Assessment and remediation |
| Plan owner | Keep plan usable and exercised | Review history and exercise actions |
| Incident/continuity lead | Activate, coordinate, prioritize and communicate | Decision/activity log |
RACI example for the BCM lifecycle
For BIA, the business owner is normally accountable, BCM facilitates and challenges, technology/suppliers provide dependency evidence, and leadership is informed or consulted for material exceptions. For DR testing, technology may be responsible for execution while the business service owner remains accountable for confirming the recovered service meets the required outcome.
Common governance failure: BCM owns everybody’s data
The BCM team can administer the method but should not become the factual owner of every RTO, plan contact or supplier assumption. If business owners are not accountable for approval and change, the repository quickly becomes stale. Design workflows so accountable owners can see what requires review and what changed.
Activation authority
Define who can activate plans, who can prioritize constrained resources, who can approve customer/regulatory communication and who can accept temporary risk. Alternates are essential. During incidents, authority should be role-based and available even when normal reporting lines are disrupted.
Use the BCM System Playground to assign process and plan owners, then simulate an incident and action log.
Example RACI by activity
| Activity | Accountable | Responsible / support |
|---|---|---|
| Approve BCM policy | Executive sponsor | BCM function drafts and coordinates |
| Approve BIA | Service/process owner | BCM facilitates; technology/suppliers provide evidence |
| Approve recovery strategy | Business owner / designated governance | BCM, technology, workplace, HR, procurement |
| Maintain BCP | Plan owner | Team leads and dependency owners |
| Execute DR test | Technology service owner | Infrastructure/application teams |
| Validate recovered business service | Business service owner | Technology and operations |
| Close corrective action | Named action owner | BCM verifies evidence where required |
Role design principles
- Assign roles to positions or functions so continuity survives staff turnover.
- Keep alternates for critical approvals and incident authority.
- Separate authoring from approval where independence matters.
- Do not make the BCM team accountable for business impact decisions it cannot own.
- Give technology owners responsibility for demonstrated recovery evidence, not business impact acceptance.
- Use escalation rules for overdue approvals and material recovery gaps.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns business continuity?
Leadership is accountable for the management system, while individual business/service owners are accountable for recovery requirements and plans in their scope. A BCM function coordinates the method and assurance.
Who sets the RTO?
The business owner should approve the recovery requirement based on impact and obligations, with technology and other support teams validating achievable capability and cost.
What should a BCM manager do?
Maintain the framework, facilitate BIA/planning, challenge quality, coordinate exercises, monitor metrics, report gaps and drive continual improvement.