CISA Practice Question: Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience
An organization is developing a business continuity strategy. Which THREE of the following are essential components of a comprehensive BC strategy?
⚠ Common exam trap
CISA often tests the boundary between BC strategy components and adjacent governance areas — candidates who pick software licensing or vendor audits confuse IT compliance activities with continuity planning.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Alternate facilities
A comprehensive business continuity strategy must include alternate facilities (A), because if the primary site is unavailable, the organization needs a prearranged recovery site such as a hot, warm, or cold site to resume critical operations within the recovery time objective. Data backup and technology recovery (B) are essential because restoring systems, applications, and data from backups (with defined RPO/RTO) is the technical foundation for resuming business functions after disruption. People procedures and communication (E) are equally essential, since BC plans require defined roles, call trees, escalation paths, and communication methods to coordinate staff, customers, and stakeholders during and after an incident. Software licensing compliance (C) is a legal/audit concern rather than a core BC component, and vendor audit reports (D) support third-party risk management but are not themselves essential elements of a BC strategy.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Alternate facilities
Why this is correct
Alternate facilities provide the recoverable processing environment when the primary site is unavailable, satisfying the continuity strategy's requirement for restoring critical operations within the maximum tolerable downtime. Without a prearranged site, recovery depends on ad hoc arrangements that rarely meet required timeframes.
- ✓
Data backup and technology recovery
Why this is correct
Data backup and technology recovery restore the systems and information critical processes depend on, addressing the recovery point and recovery time objectives within the maximum tolerable downtime. Continuity fails if data and platforms cannot be reconstituted, regardless of alternate space or staffing.
- ✗
Software licensing compliance
Why it's wrong here
Software licensing compliance is a legal and procurement control, not a continuity component; it does not restore operations after disruption. Licence registers matter during vendor contract reviews or audits. A BC strategy instead requires business impact analysis, recovery time and point objectives, alternate processing sites and tested recovery procedures.
- ✗
Vendor audit reports
Why it's wrong here
Vendor audit reports evidence a supplier's control environment; they do not themselves restore the organisation's critical processes after an outage. Such reports belong in third-party risk management. A BC strategy needs business impact analysis, defined RTOs and RPOs, recovery strategies and regular testing.
- ✓
People procedures and communication
Why this is correct
People procedures and communication ensure staff know their continuity roles and that stakeholders, customers and authorities are informed during disruption, covering the human element technology recovery cannot. Documented procedures and contact arrangements make the strategy executable rather than theoretical.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This CISA question is part of Courseiva's 934-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official ISACA exam blueprint
This CISA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISACA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CISA exam.