The correct answer is Inadequate executive sponsorship and ongoing oversight.

Inadequate executive sponsorship and ongoing oversight is the most common root cause because without clear executive ownership the disaster recovery program lacks priority funding and an accountable owner to keep the plan current.

Inadequate executive sponsorship and ongoing oversight also prevents sustained governance of testing training and change integration so technical fixes or single exercises will not produce a reliable recovery posture on their own.

Insufficient rehearsal and testing is often a visible failure point but it is usually a symptom of poor sponsorship or scheduling rather than the underlying root cause.

Technology component failures can interrupt recovery efforts but they tend to be addressed by design choices such as redundancy and vendor management and they do not explain why the overall plan governance failed.

Shortfalls in employee training and preparedness degrade execution but they frequently result from lack of investment and prioritization driven by weak executive oversight.

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