The information technology system for the national power grid has been working well. Today, the main control processor crashed, disabling the west coast delivery of power to four states…

Determining why the risk response plan failed is important but is a secondary activity performed after the immediate problem has been resolved.

Fixing the problem is the first priority because power is currently out to four states, meaning ongoing harm is being caused to millions of people. Restoring functionality takes precedence over root-cause analysis or plan adjustments, which are secondary activities performed after the immediate crisis is resolved. This reflects the principle that operational continuity and safety always come before process review.

Determining why the problem happened is a root-cause analysis step that should follow, not precede, restoring the system to operation.

Adjusting the risk response plan is a post-recovery activity and cannot be the first step while the critical system remains down.