Documenting BCP plans

I need your expert opinion about the structure of the BCP. xxx is an engineering company with around 250 employees (about 200 engineers, no manufacturing). We have 4 major sites (3 in Australia and 1 is in Florida).
Australia site 1 – Head office, almost all departments including engineering
Australia site 2 – Sales, logistics and warehousing
Australia site 3 – Engineering, project management, testing
USA site 1 – Engineering, project management, testing
I was wondering if I have to develop 1 BCP for all sites or 4 BCPs?

Answer:

ISO 22301 does not prescribe the number of plans you have to document, so this decision is up to the organization strategies and objectives.

Considering your scenario, I'd suggest 4 BCPs in a master-slave configuration, i.e., the BCP for Australia site 1 documenting all activities, and the remaining BCPs as copies of the first one, covering only the departments locat ed on each site, with adjustments to reflect the specificities of each site (e.g., specific RTO, RPO, activities, etc.).

With this configuration, the documents for Australia sites 2 and 3, and USA site 1, will be smaller, focusing only on the departments on each site, and you will have less administrative effort to manage the documentation, after all, all documents will be as equal as possible, based on BCP for Australia site 1.

These materials will provide you further explanation about documenting BCPs:
- Business continuity plan: How to structure it according to ISO 22301 https://advisera.com/27001academy/knowledgebase/business-continuity-plan-how-to-structure-it-according-to-iso-22301/
- Writing a business continuity plan according to ISO 22301 [free webinar on demand] https://advisera.com/27001academy/webinar/writing-a-business-continuity-plan-according-to-iso-22301-free-webinar-on-demand/