Executive Office Key Person Dependency Map

executive office key person dependency map

Map executive office key person dependencies and assign practical authority, access, documentation, and continuity controls.

Map outcomes instead of job titles

List the executive office outcomes that cannot safely pause, such as approvals, board support, payroll inputs, travel intervention, stakeholder contact, and incident coordination. Name the actual trigger, deadline, customer, and system for each. A job description alone rarely shows where work will fail.

Find single points of knowledge

Identify work understood by only one person, including unwritten preferences, vendor routes, calendar logic, file locations, and exception history. Separate useful operational context from private opinions. Convert repeatable knowledge into governed instructions with an owner and review date.

Check authority and access

For every critical outcome, record who may decide, who may act, and which system permissions are required. Name a primary and alternate. Do not solve continuity by sharing passwords, duplicating mailboxes, or granting permanent broad access.

Design a bounded handoff

Create short runbooks that show the first action, required evidence, escalation owner, stop conditions, and completion record. Link to source systems rather than copying sensitive data into the document. Test whether an alternate can find and follow the path without private coaching.

Exercise realistic absences

Simulate a planned absence and a sudden unavailable-person scenario with the continuity owner. Use sample transactions where possible. Capture missing authority, stale contacts, inaccessible records, and unowned decisions as remediation items.

Maintain the map as work changes

Review dependencies after reorganizations, system migrations, acquisitions, executive transitions, and major vendor changes. Close resolved single points and add new ones. Keep the map restricted because it describes operational weaknesses and sensitive access paths.

Prioritize consequences and recovery

Score gaps using the continuity owner's approved method for time sensitivity, decision impact, information exposure, and recovery difficulty. Fix dependencies that can stop critical outcomes before polishing low-impact documentation. Record the accepted residual risk when an owner chooses not to add an alternate or system control.

Link remediation to the budget, technology, policy, or leadership decision that can remove the dependency rather than assigning every fix to the assistant, and set a documented recurring review date for every remaining unresolved exposure.

Common questions

Is cross-training enough?

It helps, but continuity also requires valid authority, access, source records, and tested escalation.

Should passwords appear in the map?

No. Reference the approved credential and access process.

Who owns remediation?

Assign each gap to the business or system owner able to change it.

Source and service boundaries

Strengthen coverage using executive operations assistance and the assistant succession plan guide. Leaders can arrange a continuity discussion about administrative handoffs. Planning source: NIST contingency planning guidance.