The largest Indian outsourcers have put significant effort behind process structure such as CMM Level 5, COBIT and other formalized approaches. They have exhibited very professional and mature approaches to IT and other business process management including very detailed business continuity planning.

Well, some of those business continuity plans were recently put to the test. Software companies and outsourcers in India's Bangalore tech hub last week had to invoke business continuity plans as government employees called a general strike that shut down all public services in the city.

Public sector workers in Bangalore were striking to draw attention to a border dispute between Indian states. The strike was expected to last only one day, but had a significant effect on technology businesses in Bangalore. Without most public services, technology workers stayed away from the city leaving the technology office parks deserted. So how did all that outsourced work get done on Wednesday?

Tata Consultancy, one of the largest outsourcers in India and with 9000 employees in Bangalore, moved work to other facilities around the country. 24/7 Customer, another large outsourcer, moved work to Hyderabad and Chemni to keep services running. Wipro Technologies also was affected, but much of its work was rescheduled through extra shifts on Saturday. It seems that this minor blip in public services was handled effectively with business continuity plans through either relocation of work or rescheduling. I would like to hear from those of you who were affected by this event, both positive and negative stories.

Do you know how your outsourcer or your own in-house services would handle a major or minor business disruption event? You should know the answers to all of the following questions:

* Who has the authority to declare a disaster or invoke portions of the business continuity plan?
* Have you detailed several scenarios including weather, power, fire, etc.?
* What work is time critical and must be carried on, and what work can be delayed and rescheduled?
* How will employees be contacted and given instructions to either stay home or report to other locations?
* What notifications will be given to customers?
* Do all of your employees know their role during a business continuity event and understand the communications plan?
* How are service-level agreements affected if a disaster is declared or portions of a business continuity plan are invoked?
* Do you test the plan regularly?