ISCA Journey from 17 to 50 through mnemonic words

Hello everyone, this is my first attempt to write an article in CAclubindia or rather on any social platform. So your suggestions and comments are most welcomed..

Though subject ISCA is famous in our student fraternity but my serious interaction with the subject came after passing 1st group in Nov’2012.

First attempt was disaster. When I got my answer copies didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. Yes…laugh!!  Because all the marks each question, sub-question were all in binary form (1 and 0 )  even total on cover page 10. And with 7 grace marks given …I finally landed gracefully on 17. (it seemed that my answer sheet understood subject better than me). 

Next attempt started working hard on subject and had many readings. I realized that in order to pass in the subject answer has to be given specifically and important points should be part of your answer. So being technical subject remembering important points is easy with the help of key words / Mnemonic words.

There are mnemonic words already there in Prof. Jignesh Chheda book that I was using. Apart from that I started developing such words for the rest of questions. Here I am sharing with you all the mnemonic words I used.

I hope this will be useful to you.

Before starting with I would like to clear that I will be reproducing some mnemonic words already there in Prof. Jignesh Chheda book, just to maintain the control and flow of the chapter. All the due credit to the author for his work.

I begin with CHAPTER 4 : BUSINESS CONTINUTY PLANNING AND DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING

Objectives of BCP :  Serious Crime Requires CID

1. Safety & well being of people on premises
2. Continue critical business operations
3. Reduce complexity
4. Co-ordination of recovery tasks
5. Immediate damage – minimize
6. Duration of serious disruption –minimize

Goals of BCP :  ICDR guidelines  (Prof. Jignesh Chheda)  

1. Identify weakness
2. Co-ordination of recovery tasks
3. Duration of serious disruption –minimize
4. Reduce complexity

Methodology of BCP :  US Doctors Do Full Third Party Insurance

1. Understanding total efforts to develop plan
2. Support & participation of management
3. Defining recovery requirements
4. Documenting impact of loss to operations & business
5. Focusing on disaster prevention & impact minimisation
6. Selecting BCP Team
7. Developing BCP Plan
8. Integrating BCP into ongoing business planning

Eight phases of developing BCP :  Pakistan V Bangladesh Delayed  Playing Their Match in India

1. Pre-planning activities
2. Vulnerability Assessment  
3. Business Impact analysis
4. Detailed definition of Requirement  
5. Plan Development
6. Testing program
7. Maintenance Program
8. Implementation of Plan

Task performed in Vulnerability Assessment :  Air India Cancel Staff Flight Services  

1. Assessment of systems security and communication environment
2. Improve any existing emergency Plan 
3. Communicate present findings & recommendation to Steering committee
4. Define Scope of Plan 
5. Develop plan Framework
6. Conduct awareness Session

Contains of Detailed Definition of Requirement or Profile of Recovery Requirement:  High Speed Diesel N Petrol  

1. Hardware
2. Software 
3. Documentation
4. Network   
5. Personnel

Components of BCM process:  Sachin Develops Testing and Training of Mumbai Indians    

1. Strategy process
2. Development & implementation process 
3. Testing & maintenance process
4. Training process  
5. Management process
6. Information collection process

Classification of Critical activities :  VED    

1. Vital 
2. Essential
3. Desirable 

Parameters considered in business categorization of VED:  PC - Revenue and Reputation    

1. Productivity loss (man hrs) 
2. Customer satisfaction decrease
3. Revenue loss
4. Reputation loss

Disaster scenario :

• 1-2 Trivial
• 3 Minor
• 4 & 6 Major
• 9 Catastrophic

BCM Maintenance :  Overseas Countries Praising Modi Version     

1. Ownership  
2. Communication 
3. Prevailing system
4. Maintenance process
5. Versions

Types of Plan :

Emergency Plan 4 aspects :  CAER  (Prof. Jignesh Chheda)

1. Whom should be Contacted    
2. Actions to be undertaken 
3. Evacuation procedure
4. Return procedure

Back up Plan following resources must be considered :  PHD Facilitates Supplies for DAS    

1. Personnel   
2. Hardware 
3. Documentation
4. Facilities
5. Supplies 
6. Data / information 
7. Applications software
8. Systems software 

Recovery Plan                                                                        

• > Set out procedure to restore information system                 
• > Recovery committee for execution of plan
• > Plan should be tested periodically

Test Plan        

• > Identify deficiency in other plans                                 
• > Simulate range of disasters

Types of Back ups :

1. Full back up
2. Incremental Back up
3. Differential Back up
4. Mirror Back up

Alternate processing facility arrangement :

1. Cold site
2. Hot site
3. Warm site
4. Reciprocal agreement

Disaster Recovery Procedural Plan :  Candidates Exempt in FR Secure Rank; CV in CD  BEEM     

1. Conditions for activating plan  
2. Emergency procedure
3. Fallback procedure
4. Resumption procedure
5. Schedule of testing 
6. Responsible person for executing plan
7. Contingency plan
8. Vendors List…contact no, address
9. Insurance papers
10. Names of employees
11. Checklist for inventory taking
12. Details of airlines, hotels,
13. Back up location
14. Employees phone nos.
15. Emergency phone nos. Police, hardware software suppliers
16. Medical procedures in case injuries

Audit of BCP /DRP :  EBT Revise Op. Bal. Unnecessarily DR Instruction / Permission BINA     

1. Determine if DR/BR plan Exists    
2. Back up procedures are sufficient  
3. Test plan exist and to what extent it has been tested
4. Resources have been made available to maintain plan
5. Obtain and review existing plan
6. Background information for preparation of plan
7. Understanding methodology used to develop existing plan
8. Plan is Dated each time and current version is used
9. Review back up procedure in general
10. Interview functional area managers, whether they have clear understanding of their roles.
11. Personnel : contact information of key employees
12. Building, Utilities and Transportation : Building engineer to inspect building soon after disaster. Building safety features regularly inspected
13. Information Technology : Reflects current IT environment and includes prioritization of critical application and systems
14. Names & numbers of suppliers of essential equipments
15. Approval to expand funds that were not budgeted