Quick Answer
The answer is an alternate facility location, detailed technical recovery procedures, and a defined RTO/RPO framework. These three are required components of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) because they directly address the physical, procedural, and time-sensitive aspects of resuming critical operations after a disruption. An alternate facility provides a pre-arranged fallback site, while detailed technical recovery procedures ensure that systems and data can be restored in a structured manner, and the RTO/RPO definitions set the maximum acceptable downtime and data loss. On the CISSP exam, this question tests your understanding that a BCP must include both strategic (where and when) and tactical (how) elements, not just high-level policies. A common trap is confusing optional enhancements, like cloud backups, with mandatory components. Remember the mnemonic “FAT-R” for Facility, Action steps, and Timeframes—if any of these three is missing, the plan is incomplete.
This CISSP practice question tests your understanding of security operations. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
Which THREE of the following are required components of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?
Alternate facility location
Required if primary facility is unavailable.
Contact list of key stakeholders
Essential for communication during a disruption.
Detailed technical recovery procedures
Necessary to restore systems and operations.
Marketing strategy
Why wrong: Business strategy, not part of BCP.
List of all employees' home addresses
Why wrong: Not a required component; could be a privacy concern.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Alternate facility location
An alternate facility location is a required component of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) because it provides a pre-arranged site where critical operations can resume if the primary facility becomes unusable. This ensures continuity of operations within the defined Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Without a designated alternate site, the organization would lack a physical fallback, making the BCP incomplete.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Alternate facility location
Why this is correct
Required if primary facility is unavailable.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Contact list of key stakeholders
Why this is correct
Essential for communication during a disruption.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Detailed technical recovery procedures
Why this is correct
Necessary to restore systems and operations.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Marketing strategy
Why it's wrong here
Business strategy, not part of BCP.
List of all employees' home addresses
Why it's wrong here
Not a required component; could be a privacy concern.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse BCP components with Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) details, assuming detailed technical recovery procedures are always part of a BCP, when in fact they belong to the DRP, while the BCP focuses on strategic continuity elements like alternate facilities and stakeholder contacts.
Detailed technical explanation
A BCP must include an alternate facility (e.g., hot, warm, or cold site) to meet RTOs, which are defined in seconds or minutes for critical systems. The site selection involves network connectivity, power redundancy, and data synchronization mechanisms like asynchronous replication to ensure data consistency. In a real-world scenario, a financial institution might use a hot site with real-time data mirroring to achieve an RTO of under 15 minutes.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A developer is choosing between AES-256 (symmetric) and RSA-2048 (asymmetric) for encrypting a large file that will be sent to a partner. Symmetric encryption is fast but requires key exchange; asymmetric is slower but solves the key distribution problem. A hybrid approach — encrypt the file with AES, encrypt the AES key with RSA — is standard. Questions like this test whether you understand when each approach applies.
What to study next
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FAQ
Security Operations — This question tests Security Operations — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Alternate facility location — An alternate facility location is a required component of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) because it provides a pre-arranged site where critical operations can resume if the primary facility becomes unusable. This ensures continuity of operations within the defined Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Without a designated alternate site, the organization would lack a physical fallback, making the BCP incomplete.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
This CISSP practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CISSP exam.
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