Organizational dependency on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) drives the preparedness challenge to cope with business process disruptions. Business Continuity Management (BCM) encompasses effective planning to enable business functions to resume to an acceptable state of operation within a defined timeframe. This paper presents a systematic literature review that communicates the strategic guidelines to streamline the organizational processes in the BCM program, culminating in the Business Continuity Plan design, according to the organization’s maturity. The systematic literature review methodology follows the Evidence-Based Software Engineering protocol assisted by the Parsifal tool, using the EbscoHost, ScienceDirect, and Scopus databases, ranging from 2000 to February 2021. International Standards and Frameworks guide the BCM program implementation, however, there is a gap in communicating metrics and what needs to be measured in the BCM program. The major paper result is the confirmation of the identified gap, through the analysis of the studies that, according to the BCM components, report strategic guidelines to streamline the BCM program. The analysis quantifies and discusses the contribution of the studies on each BCM component to design a framework supported by metrics, that allows assessing the organization’s preparedness in each BCM component, focusing on Information Systems and ICT strategies.

The underlying concept of business continuity is that an organization must have the strategic and tactical capability to plan and respond to business incidents and interruptions, in order to continue business operations at an acceptable predefined level. This chapter proposed an approach to business continuity management in an organization through the definition and implementation of a set of four related phases. The authors integrate the main guidelines, based on the literature review and on good practices and concerns, referred to in the ISO standards and on ITIL, CMMI, and COBIT frameworks. This approach will allow organizations to address the most relevant activities for the development of a business continuity management program. By implementing each of the phase activities, the organization will have a systematic overview of the steps required for an optimized planning and response to business incidents and disruptions, supported by the strategy defined framed within their needs.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) can provide added value in an organizational context in order to enhance the definition of business support strategies. The purpose of the chapter is to focus on the contribution of ICT to implement a sustainability policy in the organizations, in the context of the sustainable development goals to improve cooperation and promote development. In this context, the principles of the Karlskrona Manifesto are applied to the development of software systems. The methodology focused on the literature review of the domain and on a case study, in order to analyze the impact of ICT as an engine of sustainability in organizations. The main conclusions focus on the analysis of the impact of established practices in organizations to design and develop sustainable software systems. The results point to a greater consciousness of the potential effects of software systems on sustainability, which will improve management practices, reducing the quantity of material to be recycled, and aligning organizational strategies with Green IT.

In a competitive business landscape heavily reliant on information and communication technology, organisations must be prepared to address disruptions in their business operations. Business continuity management involves effective planning for the swift reestablishment of business processes in the short term. However, there are still obstacles to implementing business continuity plans, which can be justified by various factors. The purpose of this study is to present the perspectives and future research paths based on a systematic literature review from the peer-reviewed literature published from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2021. This systematic literature review adheres to the guidelines established by evidence-based software engineering and leverages the Parsifal online tool. The primary research results identify and establish connections between the common components and activities of business continuity management as defined in international standards and frameworks to identify gaps in the existing knowledge. These findings will contribute to the development of a framework that provides a practical approach applicable to organisations of all sizes, taking into account each aspect of business continuity management, with a particular emphasis on information and communication technology systems. This paper’s contribution lies in offering insights from a systematic literature review regarding the strategic principles for designing and implementing a business continuity plan, along with a comprehensive overview of related research. Furthermore, it presents a path forward to guide future research efforts aimed at addressing the gaps in the literature concerning continuity planning.

The Public Administration (PA) in Portugal is impacted by the constant acceleration and evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), where the Portuguese State, transposing European Union directives, has legislated and encouraged their use as instruments of added value for the PA. Establishing rigorous and sustainable governance is crucial, ensuring that the organization’s strategic objectives are aligned with ICT and, preferably, with Green IT practices. In this context, it is necessary to be able to estimate and subsequently evaluate the impact of strategic and operational choices on improving environmental quality. For such, this article presents a framework developed to optimize ICT management practices and indicators that, in this environmental area, support the forecasting and assessment of the impact of the choices made in the search for technologically advanced solutions in the Barreiro municipality. These choices enable, among other things, a reduction in energy consumption, implying a reduction in financial costs, resulting in environmental benefits, such as a reduction in CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere or less deforestation. The results presented, obtained in a real-world context, make it possible to assess the progress of alignment with Green IT in this area, as well as the overall result.