A plan that exists only as a document and has never met the systems, people, or changes it is supposed to guide.
18 PUBLIC GUIDANCE
A disaster-recovery checklist starts with what must return
You do not need a perfect plan to begin. You do need a clear list of the work, the people who own it, and the services it depends on that cannot be unavailable for long.
01 WHAT WE ASSESS
A checklist is not a private runbook. It is a public starting point for making recovery work visible before an incident forces the questions out of people one at a time.
The useful first move is smaller than most plans: write down what returns first, the current copy, the last successful restore, and who can authorise the next restore.
02 WORKING GUIDANCE
A practical disaster-recovery checklist
- 01
Rank what must return first. List the applications, data, and business work that cannot be unavailable for long.
- 02
Name the business and technical owners. Record who understands each item and who is responsible for the next decision.
- 03
Map the dependencies. Note the identity service, domain-name settings (DNS), email or collaboration platform, payment service, and anything else each priority item needs.
- 04
Set recovery objectives in business terms. For each priority item, state how quickly it must return and how much recent data loss is acceptable.
- 05
Locate the current copies. Record where backup copies live, what they cover, and when each item was last restored successfully.
- 06
Confirm restore authority. Name the person who can authorise a restore and the people who need to be notified.
- 07
Choose a safe place to test. Decide where a restore can be tested without affecting live systems or data.
- 08
Run one realistic test. Start with one item or workload that matters, rather than attempting a full recovery scenario on the first pass.
- 09
Record the result and review it. Note the date, item tested, result, approver, gaps found, owner of each next action, and the next review date.
Review the list after a material change, growth, or an incident.
04 THE OFFER
A continuity assessment that turns this checklist into an initial restore test for your own environment.
- 01
Write down what matters.
- 02
Find the current copy.
- 03
Choose the first test.
05 THE AGREEMENT
This page is educational. It is not a certified plan and it is not JFDI’s private operating procedure.
A living assessment of what comes back first, what depends on it, and what a real test should record.
This checklist is adapted from public U.S. guidance on contingency planning and recovery testing, including NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1 (Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems), NIST SP 800-184 (Guide for Cybersecurity Event Recovery), and CISA recovery and ransomware backup-testing themes. It is an educational starting point, not a certified plan and not JFDI’s private operating procedure.
07 QUESTIONS
Ask before you decide.
Is this JFDI’s internal runbook?+
No. It is an educational starting point adapted from public U.S. guidance.
08 NEXT STEP