What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 6.2.1 Establishing business continuity objectives?

Retained objective register showing function, level, measure and owner; Evidence of monitoring against each measure; Communication records for the objectives; Update history for the objective set.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 6.2.1?

Objectives only at corporate level, so no function owns one

ISO 22301:2019 · Planning, ISO 22301:2019

`6.2.1` Establishing business continuity objectives

Establish business continuity objectives at the relevant functions and levels; each must be consistent with the continuity policy, measurable where practicable, informed by applicable requirements, and monitored, communicated and updated as appropriate, with the objectives retained as documented information.

Source: ISO 22301:2019, 6.2.1. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ISO 22301:2019 in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

SIEM / log platform

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

Evidence of monitoring against each measure · SIEM / log platform
Update history for the objective set · Policy repository / GRC workspace

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Communication records for the objectives · Policy repository / GRC workspace

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Retained objective register showing function, level, measure and owner · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your SIEM / log platform. Retention and alert rules exported from the SIEM; review evidence is the closed-alert record with reviewer and time.

Common gaps auditors find

Objectives only at corporate level, so no function owns one
Measurability waived without any judgement recorded on why it was impracticable
Objectives inconsistent with the policy, most often on recovery ambition

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

6.2 Business continuity objectives and planning to achieve them · 6.2.2 Determining business continuity objectives