In this video Paul Kudray discusses the key elements of a Business Impact Analysis (BIA):
- Role
- Core Functions
- What could go wrong?
- Resources required to aid recovery solutions
- Strategic – what is our aim?
- Tactical – what resources are required?
- Operational – how is this practically achieved?
- Ultimately – what is the main objective of your business?
Community Feedback – What do you think a perfect Business Impact Analysis (BIA) would include?
- Perfection comes with the ease of completion and clarity around what is being asked.
- In the same way that Technology is placing an increasing emphasis on User Interface design, Business Continuity Management needs to think carefully about the process of Business Impact Analysis completion from the user perspective.
- So many Business Impact Analyses seem to be clunky by design.
- The challenge is to create a Business Impact Analysis that is simple which still contains valuable, actionable information.
- If it’s a small or medium sized company, and even these terms are subjective, you could resort to asking the “Boss” or the “Managing Director”:
– What activity process product or service is important?
– How long could the business hold it’s breath without them?
– In which order does he/she want them back?
– The contact details of the business’s important people and those of their critical suppliers - Large companies where the senior management are less familiar with the operational nuts and bolts of the business would demand a different approach;
– Instead of individuals these might turn into departments
– The analysis maybe more intense and aligned to defined business risks
– The output consolidated to give a more global view of what is important today and important tomorrow etc to help prioritize the response
– The third parties grilled a little more, the regulators accommodated but in principle the same - One must not confuse this critical analysis with Incident Management or Business Continuity Planning which are associated but independent tasks.
If you want to prepare a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) – check out the BIA tab inside BCP Builder’s Business Continuity Plan Template.
