According to established best practices and foundational cybersecurity frameworks, a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan should be tested at a minimum of once per year. Annual testing ensures the plan remains effective, relevant to the current business and IT environment, and that personnel are prepared to execute their roles. This frequency provides a reasonable balance between the need for assurance and the significant cost and operational disruption that BCDR tests can cause. More frequent testing may be required for highly critical systems or in rapidly changing environments, but annually is the accepted baseline minimum.

B. Once a month: This frequency is generally considered excessive and impractical for a comprehensive BCDR plan test due to high costs and operational disruption.

C. Every six months: While semi-annual testing is a commendable practice for critical systems, it is not the universally recognized minimum requirement for all BCDR plans.

D. When the budget allows it: This approach is reactive and fails to treat BCDR as an essential, planned business function, directly contradicting best practices for risk management.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-34 Rev. 1

Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems. Section 5.3

"Testing

" page 41

states

"The contingency plan should be tested at least annually to determine its effectiveness and the organization’s readiness to execute the plan."

2. Cloud Security Alliance (CSA)

Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing v4.0. Domain 5: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

page 101

notes

"The BCDR plan should be tested on a regular basis (at least annually) to ensure that it works as designed."

3. ISO 22301:2019

Security and resilience — Business continuity management systems — Requirements. Clause 8.5

"Business continuity documentation

" requires organizations to establish and implement a BCM exercise program. While the standard requires exercises at "planned intervals

" industry best practice and certification audits widely interpret this as a minimum of annually for key plans.

4. Carnegie Mellon University

Software Engineering Institute

CERT Resilience Management Model (CERT-RMM) v1.2. The model emphasizes regular

planned exercises as a core process area (OPM: Operational Resilience Management). The appraisal methods for maturity levels consistently look for evidence of planned

periodic (typically annual) exercises.