Disaster recovery questionnaire (free template)

Disaster recovery isn’t the most glamorous topic in IT, but it quickly becomes the most important when things go sideways. With the average cost of a single hour of downtime now exceeding $300,000 for over 90% of mid-size and large enterprises, no one should wait for disaster to strike before figuring out their plan.`

In this post, we’ll show you a ready-to-use disaster recovery questionnaire that helps IT teams identify problems and clarify priorities to build a more resilient post-incident strategy.

Let’s get into it.

30 questions for your disaster recovery questionnaire

The following list of questions is the foundation of a strong and actionable disaster recovery plan. However, keep in mind that this is designed as a general template, so you might want to consider tweaking it to suit your professional standards.  

Note: Speaking of customization, we’ll show you several screenshots to see what some fields can look like if you use Content Snare to design a questionnaire. Content Snare is trusted by thousands of organizations, with verified reviews on G2, Capterra, and the Xero App Store highlighting its ease of use and effectiveness in document collection.

General information

Before diving into the technical details, you’ll need to capture a few basic facts about the organization and/or the person completing this questionnaire. 

1. Company or department name

2. Who is completing this questionnaire?

Note: Include name, role, and department.

3. What is the size of the organization?

Note: Provide the number of employees.

Risk assessment

First of all, it’s necessary to understand the business impact of system failures. Knowing what’s at stake allows teams to align technical responses with business needs.

4. What are the most business-critical systems and services?

5. What is the estimated financial impact of a 24-hour outage?

Note: Feel free to provide a range.

6. Which departments or processes are most affected by IT disruptions?
Note: Choose all that apply.

• Customer support
• Sales operations
• Finance 
• Manufacturing
• Logistics
• Product development
• Marketing

7. What past incidents have caused significant business disruption?

8. What external risks pose the greatest threat?

Note: Think of things like natural disasters, power outages, cyberattacks, and similar.

Recovery objectives

Recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) guide how quickly systems must be restored and how much data loss is acceptable, so you’ll need to define these values.

9. What is the RTO for each critical application and service?

10. What is the RPO for each data type?
Note: Think of transactional data, files, emails, and so on.

11. Are the current backup and restore mechanisms meeting RTO/RPO targets?

12. Have RTO and RPO values been reviewed with business stakeholders?

If yes, briefly explain the main notes and conclusions.

10. Are there tiered RTO/RPO priorities?

Note: High, medium, and low criticality priorities.

Backup and data protection

This section helps you come up with data protection strategies that align with recovery goals. It also examines backup scope, automation, and access controls.

11. What systems and data are included in regular backups?

12. How frequently are backups performed for all data types?

• Weekly
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• Annually

13. Where are backups stored?

Note: This can be on-premise, offsite, cloud, or hybrid.

14. Do you encrypt backup copies and protect them against ransomware?

DR team

You also need to document DR team roles and keep their contact information current. In this section, you’ll cover both technical responders and executive decision-makers.

15. Who is part of the disaster recovery team?
Note: Provide their names, roles, and phone numbers.

16. Are responsibilities assigned for both recovery execution and communication?

18. Is there a clear escalation path for decision-making during incidents?

If yes, briefly explain this path. 

Crisis communication

Effective communication can prevent confusion and reduce downtime. That’s why the following questions focus on how to communicate internally, with customers, and with third parties during a disaster.

19. Who is responsible for internal and external communication during incidents?

Note: Provide their name, role, and phone number.

20. Is there a documented communication protocol for notifying employees and customers?

If yes, please upload this protocol.

21. How will you communicate if primary channels (e.g., email, VoIP) are down?

22. Are key stakeholders (executives, partners, vendors) included in the comms plan?

23. Do you use templates for status updates, press releases, or outage notifications?

Infrastructure, dependencies & vendor management

Recovery doesn’t happen in isolation, as the organization’s systems depend on many services and technologies. This section helps you understand what could delay or derail your recovery.

24. Do you maintain an updated map of infrastructure and system dependencies?

25. What third-party services are mission-critical to operations?

Note: Provide their names and functions.

26. Have you reviewed DR/BC capabilities and SLAs of your major vendors?

27. Is there a contingency plan if a key vendor fails to meet recovery commitments?

Testing and maintenance

Plans that aren’t tested are just documents. This section evaluates how often your disaster recovery plan is reviewed, tested, and improved, so your recovery strategy can evolve along with infrastructure and threat landscape.

28. How often is the disaster recovery plan tested?

29. When was the DR plan last reviewed and updated?

30. What lessons have been learned from previous tests or real incidents?

Build a smart disaster recovery form with Content Snare

Once you’ve got the right questions, the next step is making it easy and intuitive for others to answer them. This job is best done with Content Snare’s powerful data collection features.

Instead of chasing down responses in spreadsheets, Word docs, or endless email threads, you can turn your disaster recovery questionnaire into a smart and structured form that’s purpose-built for gathering information. Businesses that use Content Snare report spending 71% less time gathering information and see a 67% reduction in stalled projects.

How’s this even possible?

For one, Content Snare’s AI-powered request builder helps you turn your list of questions (or even a form description!) into a polished form in seconds. You can use conditional logic to show or hide questions based on earlier answers, automated reminders to nudge people who haven’t responded, and auto-saving so no one loses progress halfway through. 

Here’s how EventMobi’s Vander Guerrero describes the platform:

“We are saving time and money with Content Snare, but it’s more than that. It alleviates the heat, miscommunication and frustration of trying to get the information we need from clients.”

In addition, Content Snare uses military-grade encryption and is ISO 27001 certified to make sure your backups and uploads remain secure. The whole system is designed to remove friction, whether you're working with internal teams or external clients. Build the questionnaire once, use it repeatedly, and make collecting DR data a task people actually complete.

Are you ready? 

Sign up for a 14-day free trial right now!

FAQ

What should a disaster recovery questionnaire include?

A comprehensive DR questionnaire should cover risk assessment, recovery objectives (RTO/RPO), data protection, team responsibilities, crisis communication, infrastructure dependencies, and testing protocols.

How can Content Snare help with disaster recovery planning?

Content Snare improves disaster recovery documentation by automating data collection, enabling customizable forms, sending reminders, and providing a secure, user-friendly portal for both internal teams and vendors. It features fully customizable questionnaires that guarantee accuracy and amazing client experience.

How often should a disaster recovery plan be updated?

Ideally, it should be reviewed and tested at least annually, or whenever there’s a major infrastructure change, vendor switch, or security incident.