ISO/IEC 27031 outlines a continuous lifecycle comprising:
Unlike a general IT disaster recovery plan, ISO/IEC 27031 focuses on the continuity of business operations as enabled by ICT services. Its key objective is to ensure that an organization’s ICT systems can resume critical business activities within agreed timeframes, such as the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). The standard is explicitly designed to be used alongside (Business Continuity Management Systems) and ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security Management), integrating seamlessly into the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle. The official ISO page emphasizes that ISO/IEC 27031
The official ISO page emphasizes that ISO/IEC 27031 is not a certification standard in itself; rather, it provides guidelines that can be used to satisfy the ICT requirements of ISO 22301 and ISO/IEC 27001. For example, an organization certified to ISO 22301 would use ISO/IEC 27031 to specifically address clause 8.4 (Business continuity procedures and resources) with respect to ICT. By explicitly linking ICT recovery capabilities to business
Here's a brief overview of the standard: ISO/IEC 27031 provides the official
Source: https://www.iso.org/iso-iec-27031-ict-readiness-for-business-continuity.html
ISO/IEC 27031 is more than a technical manual; it is a strategic framework that operationalizes business continuity within the ICT domain. By explicitly linking ICT recovery capabilities to business requirements—through RTOs, RPOs, dependency mapping, and integrated testing—the standard ensures that technology serves resilience, not the other way around. For any organization that depends on digital systems (which today means virtually every organization), ISO/IEC 27031 provides the official, internationally recognized blueprint for ensuring that when disruptions strike, ICT readiness turns potential disaster into manageable interruption. As the official ISO page makes clear, this standard is not an isolated IT project but a core component of mature, enterprise-wide business continuity management.
Organizations of all sizes and industries can benefit from implementing ISO/IEC 27031, including: