Grounding the discipline of business continuity planning: What needs to be done to take it forward?

Business continuity planning (BCP) is emerging as a profession unto its own. It is separating itself from related fields such as emergency management, IT, disaster recovery and risk management. But can it attain the status of an independent discipline? And if so, what is, and is not, included in this new discipline? What are the core competencies that should be required of its practitioners? This paper offers an approach to founding BCP as a discipline, but with a narrower demarcation than traditionally accepted. It presents three criteria by which to delineate and ground BCP. It discusses the difference between BCP and the more encompassing 'business resilience', and emphasises the need to clearly choose one or the other of these contexts when discussing certifications, standards and other continuity practices. Finally, the paper outlines areas for future research with an eye to proving the efficacy of BCP, especially to executives and stakeholders.