Business Impact Analysis Starter Kit

Business Impact Analysis Starter Kit Contents

• BIA Starter Kit – Instructions (Start Here).pdf
• Unit Business Impact Analysis Instructions.pdf
• Unit BIA Questionnaire.xlsx
• Org BIA Summary.xlsx

This document will walk you through the process of conducting a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) for business units within your organization, compiling these processes into a prioritized list, and creating a prioritized recovery plan for technology resources based on business needs. Additionally, it will instruct you on simple methods to keep your BIA updated over time.

Process Outline

1. Business Impact Questionnaire: The plan administrator sends the BIA Questionnaire to each business unit/department for them to complete. It is recommended that the administrator or a delegate (project manager) meet individually with each business unit to aid in their completion of this form.
   • Read through the Unit Business Impact Analysis Instructions document.
   • Complete the Process Questionnaire spreadsheet.
   • Complete the Resource Criticality column to the best of your ability.
2. Business Impact Summary
   • • Process Summary: The administrator consolidates information from each unit’s BIA Questionnaire into the BIA Summary spreadsheet.
       • The Process Questionnaire is used to complete the Process Summary.
       • The Resource Criticality section is used to start the Technology Summary sheet.
     • Key Vendors: The administrator reviews the Resource Criticality lists to identify vendors and consolidates these into a single list that can be used to better understand the organization’s reliance on these vendors.
     • Technology Summary: The administrator meets with the IT department and other IT service provider(s), as needed, to fill in details on the BIA Summary for technology resources, create technology recovery groups, and review recovery procedures.
3. Plan Integration: The Administrator integrates the collected information into the organization’s Disaster Recovery Plan and other recovery strategies.
   • • • Annual Update: Repeat the process annually and after any event or significant update, updating first the questionnaires and then the summary.

This is a truncated overview of the starter kit contents. Please download the full kit to view a complete and detailed guide.

Benefits

Conducting a business impact analysis will require a dedicated effort by yourself and your organization; however, the benefits you will gain throughout this process extend beyond that of continuity planning.

Through the BIA process, you and your technology team will gain better insight into the who/what/where/why behind various business operations. This knowledge will allow for better, and more informed, decision-making every day as well as during a disaster event. Business units themselves will be challenged to think critically about their processes and the importance of everyday functions they perform, which can lead to identifying process improvements resulting in better resiliency and other potential benefits to your organization as well. Your leadership team will gain valuable information about the capabilities and limitations of current recovery processes and technology, as well as receive critical information about the overall resiliency of the organization.

What you will need

• Leadership buy-in. Depending on the culture at your organization, getting an hour (or more) with key people from each department of the organization may be a challenge. This is where getting the support of leadership is crucial. When key leaders at your organization are bought in and willing to champion and set expectations for others within the organization, you’re going to find it a lot easier to get good participation from all involved.
  • Before you start, take some time to read the “Benefits” paragraph above again and think about all the ways going through the process of conducting a BIA can benefit your organization. If you’re struggling to see the vision, start small. Start with someone heading a department that you have a good relationship with or that is easy to get time with. Once you’ve gone through the questionnaire with one team, you should see the benefits firsthand, making it easier to sell other leaders on participating. Additionally, you’ll have someone else in your organization that other department leads can talk to about what the BIA experience was like.
• Plan Administrator(s). This is the person responsible for the overall completion of the BIA and/or DRP. This person may be a business leader responsible for overall continuity planning or risk management for the organization, the person who would be responsible for technology recovery efforts in the event of a disaster, or both. Ideally, these would be two different roles, but depending on the size of your organization and the resources available, may be a single person.
• Project Manager. If you have more than a handful of business units, you may need to assign a project manager or other capable and available person to communicate and follow up with various teams throughout the process. It is important to set deadlines throughout the process so that no single part of the process will put a stop to the effort. Communicate deadlines to leadership so that they can help to hold you and your team accountable.