Create and manage a recovery team
Create a recovery team in the Business Continuity Workspace, add users and groups, attach locations, and build parent-child relationships to organize your business continuity response structure.
Before you begin
Role required: sn_bcm.core_manager
About this task
Recovery teams are created and managed at a global level, so you can reuse the same recovery team across multiple recovery plans and crisis events. You can add individual users, system user groups, or a combination of both to a recovery team. You can associate one or more locations with it and build a hierarchy of parent and child recovery teams to model your organizational structure.
Recovery teams are managed globally rather than being local to individual recovery plans, making the same team available across all BCM applications.
Procedure
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Navigate to Workspaces > Business Continuity Workspace > Recovery teams in the List view.
You can view the list of existing recovery teams as shown in the image.
[Omitted image "cm-new-recovery-teams-list-in-ws-view.png"] Alt text: Recovery teams list with name, description, active status, and locations columns.
This same list of global recovery teams is also available by navigating to Business Continuity > General Administration > Recovery Teams. Opening a team from that list shows the recovery team record along with its Users, Groups, Parent recovery teams, and Child recovery teams related lists. For steps, see Create a recovery team.
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To create and manage a recovery team, select New.
[Omitted image "cm-create-recovery-team.png"] Alt text: Create Recovery team form with name, description, active status, and locations fields.
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Enter a name and description for the recovery team.
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Select the Active check box.
This sets the recovery team status and marks the team as active. To mark a recovery team as inactive, clear the Active check box. Inactive recovery teams aren't displayed in the recovery team picker on a plan or in the recovery team type on the collaboration thread.
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In the Locations field, add one or more locations to associate with the recovery team.
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Select Save.
The recovery team is saved, and the recovery team record with the Users, Groups, Parent recovery teams, and Child recovery teams tabs is displayed as shown in the example.
[Omitted image "cm-recovery-teams-lists.png"] Alt text: Recovery team record with Details, Users, Groups, Parent recovery teams, and Child recovery teams tabs.
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On the Users tab, select Add, search for and select one or more users from the list or filtered conditions, and select Add again to confirm the selection.
The selected users are added as members of the recovery team.
Note: The Department column on the Users tab reflects each member's department, helping you review and confirm team composition by department.
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On the Groups tab, select Add, and select one or more system user groups from the list or filtered conditions, and select Add again to confirm the selection.
All users who belong to a selected group are added as part of the recovery team.
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On the Parent recovery teams tab, select New.
The Create New Recovery team hierarchy form opens with the current recovery team already populated in the Child recovery team field.
- Select a team in the Parent recovery team field and select Save.
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On the Child recovery teams tab, select New, select a team in the Child recovery team field, and select Save.
If the selected team creates a duplicate or cyclic parent-child relationship, an error message is displayed and the record is not saved:
Invalid recovery team hierarchy: "<child-team>" cannot be added as a child of "<parent-team>" because it would create a cyclic dependency.The recovery team hierarchy also has a maximum depth, controlled by the sn_bcm.recovery_team.max_hierarchy_levels system property (default: 10 levels). If adding a parent or child team would exceed this limit, an error message is displayed and the record is not saved. For more information about this property, see Properties installed with BCM.
-
Select Save.
The recovery team is saved with its users, groups, and parent-child relationships.
Related topics
Recovery teams, loss scenarios, and recovery tasks
Global recovery teams and collaboration threads
---
title: Create and manage a recovery team
description: Create a recovery team in the Business Continuity Workspace, add users and groups, attach locations, and build parent-child relationships to organize your business continuity response structure.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/governance-risk-compliance/create-recovery-team.html
release: brazil
topic_type: task
last_updated: "2026-09-10"
reading_time_minutes: 4
keywords: [recovery team, business continuity management, BCM, recovery team hierarchy]
breadcrumb: [Global recovery teams and collaboration threads, Manage, Business Continuity Management, Governance, Risk, and Compliance]
---
# Create and manage a recovery team
Create a recovery team in the Business Continuity Workspace, add users and groups, attach locations, and build parent-child relationships to organize your business continuity response structure.
## Before you begin
Role required: sn\_bcm.core\_manager
## About this task
Recovery teams are created and managed at a global level, so you can reuse the same recovery team across multiple recovery plans and crisis events. You can add individual users, system user groups, or a combination of both to a recovery team. You can associate one or more locations with it and build a hierarchy of parent and child recovery teams to model your organizational structure.
Recovery teams are managed globally rather than being local to individual recovery plans, making the same team available across all BCM applications.
## Procedure
1. Navigate to **Workspaces** > **Business Continuity Workspace** > **Recovery teams** in the List view.
You can view the list of existing recovery teams as shown in the image.
\[Omitted image "cm-new-recovery-teams-list-in-ws-view.png"\] Alt text: Recovery teams list with name, description, active status, and locations columns.
This same list of global recovery teams is also available by navigating to **Business Continuity** > **General Administration** > **Recovery Teams**. Opening a team from that list shows the recovery team record along with its Users, Groups, Parent recovery teams, and Child recovery teams related lists. For steps, see [Create a recovery team](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/governance-risk-compliance/add-recovery-team-classic-ws-admin.md).
2. To create and manage a recovery team, select **New**.
\[Omitted image "cm-create-recovery-team.png"\] Alt text: Create Recovery team form with name, description, active status, and locations fields.
3. Enter a name and description for the recovery team.
4. Select the **Active** check box.
This sets the recovery team status and marks the team as active. To mark a recovery team as inactive, clear the **Active** check box. Inactive recovery teams aren't displayed in the recovery team picker on a plan or in the recovery team type on the collaboration thread.
5. In the **Locations** field, add one or more locations to associate with the recovery team.
6. Select **Save**.
The recovery team is saved, and the recovery team record with the **Users**, **Groups**, **Parent recovery teams**, and **Child recovery teams** tabs is displayed as shown in the example.
\[Omitted image "cm-recovery-teams-lists.png"\] Alt text: Recovery team record with Details, Users, Groups, Parent recovery teams, and Child recovery teams tabs.
7. On the **Users** tab, select **Add**, search for and select one or more users from the list or filtered conditions, and select **Add** again to confirm the selection.
The selected users are added as members of the recovery team.
**Note:** The **Department** column on the **Users** tab reflects each member's department, helping you review and confirm team composition by department.
8. On the **Groups** tab, select **Add**, and select one or more system user groups from the list or filtered conditions, and select **Add** again to confirm the selection.
All users who belong to a selected group are added as part of the recovery team.
9. On the **Parent recovery teams** tab, select **New**.
The **Create New Recovery team hierarchy** form opens with the current recovery team already populated in the **Child recovery team** field.
1. Select a team in the **Parent recovery team** field and select **Save**.
10. On the **Child recovery teams** tab, select **New**, select a team in the **Child recovery team** field, and select **Save**.
If the selected team creates a duplicate or cyclic parent-child relationship, an error message is displayed and the record is not saved: `Invalid recovery team hierarchy: "<child-team>" cannot be added as a child of "<parent-team>" because it would create a cyclic dependency.`
The recovery team hierarchy also has a maximum depth, controlled by the **sn\_bcm.recovery\_team.max\_hierarchy\_levels** system property \(default: 10 levels\). If adding a parent or child team would exceed this limit, an error message is displayed and the record is not saved. For more information about this property, see [Properties installed with BCM](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/governance-risk-compliance/properties-bcm.md).
11. Select **Save**.
The recovery team is saved with its users, groups, and parent-child relationships.
**Related topics**
[Create a recovery team](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/governance-risk-compliance/add-recovery-team-classic-ws-admin.md)
[Recovery teams, loss scenarios, and recovery tasks](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/governance-risk-compliance/recovery-teams.md)
[Global recovery teams and collaboration threads](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/governance-risk-compliance/recovery-team-collaboration.md)
[Add associated plans and recovery teams](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/governance-risk-compliance/add-related-plans-recovery-teams-bcp-uib-ws.md)
[Create a business continuity plan](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/brazil/markdown/governance-risk-compliance/create-bcp-plan-in-uib-ws.md)
| title | Create and manage a recovery team |
| description | Create a recovery team in the Business Continuity Workspace, add users and groups, attach locations, and build parent-child relationships to organize your business continuity response structure. |
| locale | en-US |
| canonical_url | https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/governance-risk-compliance/create-recovery-team.html |
| release | brazil |
| topic_type | task |
| last_updated | 2026-09-10 |
| reading_time_minutes | 4 |
| keywords | recovery teambusiness continuity managementBCMrecovery team hierarchy |
| breadcrumb | Global recovery teams and collaboration threadsManageBusiness Continuity ManagementGovernanceRiskand Compliance |