A business impact analysis (BIA) prioritizes aspects of the business and identifies how risks impact each. BIA examines the amount of time the company can continue without its critical assets and ranks business functions by criticality and their likelihood of being affected by natural disasters. After prioritizing, the business can use the BIA to inform the tactical execution of the disaster recovery plan. For example, a hospital losing power during an electrical storm would select restoring power as a critical function as no electricity downtime is acceptable in this environment. By conducting a BIA, the hospital can adequately allocate resources to prioritize restoring power as part of its disaster recovery plan.
I really like how mention the relationship between the business impact analysis (BIA) to the disaster recovery plan (DRP). I think both should include guidelines and/or protocols for other business disruptions as well as natural disasters (such as loss of life, etc).
A business impact analysis (BIA) can defined as a method that identifies and evaluates the potential impact (financial, life/safety, regulatory, legal/contractual, reputation and so forth) of natural and man-made events on business operations Business impact analysis is a mechanism to help plan for the inevitability of consequences and their cost. It’s another arrow in the quiver to battle risk. If that sounds like it’s important, it is. Risk is always on the horizon and the better equipped businesses are to discern and prepare for them, the more likely they will more likely they’ll be able to continue doing business in the foreseeable future.
Hello Kelly,
In summary, the overall objective of a Business Impact Analysis is to enable organizations to identify the cost allocatable to risks inherent in their mission-critical processes. The BIA ensures that the Risk is identified, summarised and a countermeasure cost is attached.
This is clearly articulated in the steps required to create a BIA, namely:
Step 1: Scope the Business Impact Analysis.
Step 2: Schedule Business Impact Analysis Interviews.
Step 3: Execute BIA and Risk Assessment Interviews.
Step 4: Document and Approve Each Department-Level BIA Report.
Step 5: Complete a BIA and Risk Assessment Summary.
I really like your example of hospitals losing power during an electrical storm. I do End User Support at Jefferson University Hospitals (main campus). & I frequently run into BCA machines that are always plugged into an uninterruptable power supply. You’re right; not having power in a hospital is detrimental to normal operations as well as patient care. Electricity in a hospital is essential, so I agree! Restoring power in that type of environment should definitely be one of the top priorities in a healthcare disaster recovery plan.
A business impact analysis is the process of determining critical business processes based on their impact during a disruption. Basically, it’s the analysis of all the processes within each department of an organization to determine if they implemented robust risk procedures to mitigate the risk in case an unplanned incident happens. As a result, they must define resilience requirement and justify business continuity investments.
It is needed because it helps to determine the future of businesses, by identifying, creating and scoping valuable changes and enhancements to business processes.
Ornella, great response! You did an excellent job in providing an overarching, higher-level approach to assessing an BIA. Great point in mentioning how a BIA can justify business continuity investments; BIA’s are a great tool for security personnel to understand and justify to upper management why certain processes/purchases are needed to continue operating the business.
A business impact analysis is a structured process that organizations use to determine and evaluate the potential effects of an interruption to critical business operations, due to disasters, accidents, or emergencies. In other words, it helps businesses plan for the future. It allows them to see how their business would be affected if its business processes were taken down by an interruption, and determines which functions are the most crucial to business continued operations, and creates a plan for recovery.
Chris,
BIA is important as well as a disaster recovery plan. It is always important for a business to plan ahead in order to react to the situation efficiently. A well thought out plan will give more confidence to the business if an emergency situation ever happens.
Business impact analysis identifies the impact of unexpected loss of business functions, usually in terms of the cost of the business. The BIA is a systematic process that determines and evaluates potential effects of an interruption to critical business operations as a disaster, accident, or an emergency. Often businesses continue to evaluate the risk to the organization and create policies, plans, procedures to minimize the impact those risks might have on the organization. BCP is used to maintain the continuous operation of business in the event of an emergency situation. Business organizations first analyze the responsibilities of the individuals responsible for business continuity planning, identify all departments and individuals who have a stake in the BCP process. The business impact analysis is generally a multi-phase process that includes gathering information, evaluating the collected information, preparing reports to documents finds and presenting the results to senior management
Business impact analysis identifies the resources that are critical to an organization’s ongoing viability and the threats posted to those resources. It also provides quantitative measures that can help prioritize the commitment of business continuity plan resources to the various local, reginal, and global risk exposure. It is important to realize that there two different types of analyses that business planners use when facing a decision: Quantitative Decision making involves the use of numbers and formulas to reach a decision. This type of data often expresses options in terms of the dollar value to the business. Qualitative decision-Making takes non numerical factors, such as reputation, investor, customer confidence, workforce stability and other concerns into account. This type of data often results in categories of prioritizations such as high, medium, and low.
Chapter 18&13 (ISC2)
You have a lot of great points. One thing I like is how you mentioned businesses will continue to evaluate the risk to the organization, and so the BCP is constantly being updated it’s not a one-and-done step. I also like how you mentioned the two aspects of a BIA the quantitative and qualitative decision processes, one to help make a decision based on numbers and the other more on a prioritization scale.
Well said. Continuous monitoring is an essential element to ensuring an effective BCP. The BIA is a sub-component of the BCP. One of the crucial requirements for creating a robust BCP is to implement the Risk management framework (NIST 800-37), which clearly articulates the steps to follow to ensure continuous monitoring as its last step.
The six steps of the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) are:
1. Categorize
2. Select
3. Implement
4. Assess
5. Authorization
6. Monitoring
The Business impact analysis (BIA) Helps identify and prioritize the critical IT systems and components. Organizations must perform BIA to determine which process is most important to the business operations and which would not incase the business is inaccessible. The BIA is important because it will allow the organization to gather information to help implement a recovery strategy. Doing so will help limit and control any potential loss.
A business impact analysis determines what the consequences are of a disruption in a company’s normal work flow. Through this analysis, information is gathered to figure out what the best recovery strategy is. You use this analysis to limit future potential losses and formulate the best recovery plans for each situation.
In support of your comment, the BIA process is a sub-component of Risk Analysis that helps determine the consequences of business disruptions. One of the BIA’s overall objectives is to help the organization highlight and identify the Risks to its mission-critical processes through Risk analysis. Risk Analysis creates visibility by enabling the organization to readily identify and value its assets, the risks inherent in specified mission-critical operations, and proceed to mitigate these risks.
In summary, This helps an organization create its Risk profile for business growth and development. Because when you can identify the risk inherent in what you do, you’re able to plan ahead of such risks.
A business impact analysis (BIA) is a critical assessment done within in organization, evaluating critical operations/support needed in the event of a disaster. BIA’s help security professionals develop a proper disaster recovery plan, considering business enterprises/activity that are essential in business continuity (ie connection to public cloud services for a shared cloud-based organization), and also specify the staff/support needed to ensure business is running smoothly. This is important to the welfare of an organization since it assists in planning for disasters, and defines who/what systems should be continually operational in a time of critical need. For instance, a BIA plan will assist in deciding which systems in a datacenter should be connected to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) if an incident were to occur.
Business impact analysis is performed to determine how the distribution could affect the organization. Business impact analysis is a process for identifying the gaps that could be affected which could cause the impact to the business processes. It also identifies the requirements for the business continuity. It important to perform a business impact analysis as it would identify the time the business could accept to be down for before it could cause them a major impact to their business.
I agree in that a business impact analysis determines how the consequences of a disruption effect a company’s work flow. Having knowledge of how much time you can spend down before there’s a major impact on the business is important so you can plan around this time. This analysis limits potential losses and formulate the best recovery plans for each situation.
A business impact analysis details the level of impact in the case that the organization experiences a business disruption. For example, if a business disruption or loss of life occurred, would the organization still be able to ensure operational resilience and continuity of their operations?
It is needed to help identify areas of a business that are mission or business critical, and can be used to help prioritize areas that the business should focus on in terms of disaster recovery.
It is interesting but very realistic that loss of life/some event that inhibits an employee’s ability to make it to work for example is a relevant aspect to consider for resilience regarding dependencies for critical business functions; it seems like there are many medium-sized companies where there may be only one person who is capable of performing certain critical functions, which exposes the company to massive risks but this would likely be overlooked until the event where it becomes an issue.
You are absolutely correct with your statements. I have seen organizations whose DR plans called for all employees to function from an alternate location, but do not contemplate truly horrific catastrophes. Companies model the loss of a data center, but are not able to model the loss of something like 10-15% of their work force being unable to function because they are all sick (or members of their family are sick).
A business impact assessment (BIA) is a solution that determines critical business processes based on their impact during a disruption. (Vacca 36) During such an assessment, an organization must define resilience requirements, justify business continuity investments, and identify a robust risk mitigation strategy. A BIA is needed to counter the risk of unplanned disruptions that can cause major losses, customer dissatisfaction, and compliance issues. The BIA is a necessary component of the business continuity and recovery planning process.
A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a process that allows us to identify critical business functions and predict the consequences a disruption of one of those functions would have. It also allows us to gather information needed to develop recovery strategies and limit the potential loss. Finally, it helps determine the criticality of business activities and the resources required to ensure continuity post disruptions.
Business analysis is structured process organizations use to determine and evaluate the potential impacts of an interruption to their critical business operations due to disasters, accidents, or emergencies. A business impact analysis is a crucial element of a company’s business continuity plan.
A business impact analysis (BIA) is essential to help the organization predict the consequences of disrupting a business function and gather adequate information to mitigate and recover from interruptions. A BIA should, if nothing, identify potential loss scenarios during a risk assessment.
Thanks for sharing Olayinka – I agree, a thorough BIA is certainly a major underlying component of the business continuity plan as well as the disaster recovery plan. If an organizations business continuity and disaster recovery plans do not adequately satisfy the requirements established in the BIA then they are essentially useless.
The Business Impact Assessment is a vital process in developing Disaster Recovery as it helps “identify critical business processes based on their impact during disruption” (Vacca, Chapter 36).
As Vacca elaborates further than a business should be able to apply an top-down approach to map critical processes and analyze the disruptions that could occur to allocate resources properly to the solution. The BIA is a fundamental process in developing a Disaster Recovery Plan as it allows us to categorize and list detailed procedures, as well as what to prioritize in the grand scope of the disaster, and execute the steps to recovery. It also allows us to identify key metrics such as Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) as the organization will be able to identify critical systems/components and how long recovery takes to bring these processes back into normal operation. An organization cannot have an effective DR plan without performing any Business Impact Analysis.
A business impact analysis is the process in which organizations examines all the divisions of the company and determines several important items. During the analysis the company determines how long the organization can survive without the critical assets, it identifies business functions and prioritizes and identifies which ones are critical, vulnerability in which business functions are susceptible to natural disasters, and estimates the cost of loss for business functions over time. This is important because it allows the company to see what areas of the business would be most impacted by an unplanned disaster so they can better prioritize the resources needed to mitigate the impact of such events occurring.
A business impact analysis is a functional analysis in which a team collects data, documents business functions, develops a hierarchy of business functions, and applies a classification scheme to indicate each individual function’s criticality level. The business impact analysis helps identify and prioritize the critical IT systems and components. A template for developing the business impact analysis is also provided to assist the user.
There are three steps in the business impact analysis process.
Step 1: Determine and identify all business processes and the recovery criticality of these process. Determine how a system disruption will affect the critical systems. Determine outage impacts and estimated downtime if an incident occurs.
Step 2: Identify the resources that are needed to get the systems back online quickly.
Step 3: Identify the recovery priorities for the system resources. Determine which systems are the most critical and make sure that the most critical systems are recovered first… and that the least critical systems are recovered last, to make sure that the organization’s business processes and functions can continue without a negative impact.
Hey Joshua,
That’s a great post. I do agree with the 3 steps that you have mention for analyzing it. First it is important to identify the business function as it will provide an idea of what will need to be received before it could impact the business process and business overall. Then which systems are critical for the business function so they can be recovered before non critical systems.
A business impact analysis is an analysis of how badly different sectors of a business could be impacted by different types of disasters. It is helpful in identifying which areas of a business are susceptible to the highest impact from different disasters, which areas are susceptible to impact from disasters most the frequently, and what the specific risks / loss vectors are and how they can be mitigated. It is needed because it aids in forming the best disaster recovery plan possible by highlighting which sectors are the most important to protect, which mitigations are most important, and the right order to implement mitigations to protect the businesses most valuable assets first while still attempting to get all mitigations in place.
Yes, without getting the most important sectors of the business back up first then it wouldn’t make any sense to bring up anything else at all because it is dependent or relies on the main sectors in order for the business to function properly.
What is a business impact analysis? Why is it needed?
A business impact analysis (BIA) is what an organization uses to assess the critical business processes/sectors and how they will impact the business in the event of a disaster. Creating a BIA involves identifying all of the necessary components to continue business, in order to then address resilience requirements for those dependencies that support the different critical business functions, whether they are systems, IT personnel, or vendors for example. A BIA is crucial to have for an organization as it helps clearly outline the impacts of downtime resulting in loss from all of the different departments that serve each individual business function. It is massively beneficial to have as it also helps identify which sectors are the most vulnerable to certain risks based on what dependencies exist, revealing solutions for resiliency in those areas. It is a “necessary component to business continuity and disaster recovery solutions” (Vacca, Chapter 36).
A business impact analysis determines the severity of a given system being interrupted. The level of severity would be chosen after carefully analyzing the cost and overall effect on the organization’s ability to do business. Risks classified as high impact may demand immediate attention and remediation. The goal is to lower the overall impact of these interruptions by finding means of backing up those systems or protecting them in other ways.
A business impact analysis helps you determine what controls you should be implementing or improving. Ideally, you are looking for the most cost-effective way to manage risk to an acceptable level. This often means implementing controls for the risks with the highest impact.
I agree that it is ideally the most cost-effective solution that you are looking for when managing the risk. That is why it is important for an organization to perform the business impact analysis. They need to prioritize what will have the most impact or the highest probability with a significant impact to business operations. The more downtime, the more revenue lost for the business.
A business impact analysis is what is analyzed to help identify a business core functions for day to day operations. It helps grade the level of importance and level of risk for each function, After each function is identified and categorized properly it will then be assorted into recovery time sets to get back up after a disaster. Lastly it is then put into a disaster recovery plan for what system core functions to bring up first. It is needed for the disaster recovery plan otherwise core business functions could be left out and non business functions can be saved first instead of the system function that more important.
I like how you mentioned that there are different re-up times for when multiple systems/processes go down. It emphasizes the importance of prioritization as part of the BIA, and brings up the questions regarding which backup and re-up methods would best fit a given system when disaster strikes.
A business impact analysis/assessment is a solution that determines the most crucial business processes based on the impact they have during a disruption as stated by Vacca. These analyses are useful because disruptions can be costly and knowing what components your organization relies on the most can aid in business continuity.
The Business impact analysis (BIA) is an essential building block when developing an accurate organizational disaster recovery plan. A BIA provides many benefits to an organization and can help them determine:
• How long the organization can survive without critical assets;
• Identify business functions, then prioritize and identify which are critical;
• Vulnerability, specifically which business functions are susceptible to natural disasters;
• Estimated cost of loss for business functions over time.
Without a thorough BIA, an organization could waste many resources (i.e. money, people) trying to deploy a disaster recovery plan that won’t adequately help them recover from an outage.
Hi Bryan, great points in your outline on how beneficial BIA is to organizations. You have to do what is necessary to keep your business up and running, and making sure a plan like BIA is very crucial in making sure it stays that way.
I agree with you on BIA being the building a block. BIA is particularly focused on establishing business continuity requirements, identifying resource dependencies, and justifying proposed business continuity requirements by estimating the impacts associated with downtime. However, without a formal BIA process, the organization often lacks focus and objectivity in determining scope, establishing priorities, and assigning appropriate recovery objectives.
What is a business impact analysis? Why is it needed?
A business impact assessment (BIA) is a solution that determines critical business processes based on their impact during a disruption. An organization must define resilience requirements, justify business continuity investments, and identify a robust risk mitigation strategy. Unplanned disruptions can be costly, resulting in major losses, customer dissatisfaction, and compliance issues. To counter such risks, developing an effective, end-to-end business resilience plan is a necessary component to business continuity and recovery solutions.
A business impact analysis is an assessment that predicts the impact on the organization that a catastrophic event will have if certain processes are not performed. It allows the organization to plan a response and prioritize their resources and activities ‘before’ a catastrophic event occurs. The essence of the business impact analysis is to identify the mission critical business processes that MUST be performed – no matter what else is happening. This understanding of the priority of business processes and the impact they will have on the business if not performed is the result of a business impact analysis.
I like the emphasis on “MUST” be performed. I’ve seen things go south before on groups that failed to identify on key processes which left them scrambling to identify what to get running. Often prioritizing secondary processes because they aren’t thinking about the core essence of what a system does. It’s like trying to start a car without an engine in it.
A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a process that allows us to identify critical business functions and predict the consequences a disruption of one of those functions would have. It also allows us to gather information needed to develop recovery strategies and limit the potential loss.
A business impact analysis (BIA) predicts the consequences of disrupting a business function and process and gathers information needed to develop recovery strategies. Potential loss scenarios should be identified during a risk assessment.
I agree with you that a BIA can predict the consequences of disruptions to business functions and processes and gather the information needed to develop a recovery strategy. It can determine the operational and financial impact of disruptions to business functions and processes, covering the full range of avoiding unacceptable consequences of the output
What is a business impact analysis? Why is it needed?
A business impact analysis is an impact on the business and gathers information to solve a solution needed to recover from a disaster. Impacts can include loss of income, increased expenses, delay of new business plans, etc. To encounter such risks, a risk assessment would be efficient and necessary. However, it determines how critical it is to an organization and how it fits in the recovery strategy.
Hi Victoria, I agree with your response. A risk assessment is necessary to determine what’s important to the organization. If not the impacts will be great, income and increased expenses are truly detrimental to an organization.
Business impact analysis (BIA) is a process that allows us to identify critical business functions. It predicts the consequences of an outage of one of these functions, allowing us to gather and develop a recovery strategy. While limiting the information needed for potential damage, BIA will assess the risk of a disaster to the organization, and it will allow each department within the organization to explain and discuss how an unplanned event will affect their business functions. This will help the organization prioritize specific functions through the use of Recovery Point Objectives and Recovery Time Objectives.The importance of BIA is demonstrated by its ability to determine the operational and financial impact of business functions and process disruptions. Examples include lost sales and revenue, delayed sales or revenue, contract penalties or lost contract bonuses. Due diligence and a comprehensive business impact analysis are conducted to avoid unacceptable consequences associated with continuity disruptions.
A Business Impact Analysis is a method for analyzing how disruptions may impact an organization. The analysis considers the timescales of a disruption, as well as its intensity, and looks at the resulting impacts on important products and services; and the processes and activities that support these. The BIA identifies the business activities and resources necessary to deliver the organization’s most important products and services. One of the most valuable aspects of the BIA is the estimation of impacts tied to downtime. Understanding financial, reputational, contractual, legal/regulatory, operational, and other impacts enable the organization to develop the business case, with appropriate justification, to select, implement, and maintain business continuity strategies.
A business impact analysis (BIA) is is a process organizations use to determine levels of critical business activities and the resources required to ensure that the organization is able to fully continue operations following a disruption to business activities, such as a disaster. It is used to quantify levels of disruptions on service delivery, risks to service delivery, RTOS, and RPOS in order to develop strategies, solutions, and plans. It is essential for an organization to complete a BIA following disruptions because it allows the organization to assess the risks of disaster on an organization by having every aspect of the organization explain how disruptions affect their level of functionality, which helps to prioritize overall required business functions.
Business impact analysis is a crucial thing to predict consequences if disruption of any of the business function occurs. The risk assessment would help to identify potential loss scenarios. By processing and gathering information, it can develop recovery plan and its strategies. It is needed to understand the impact which might be: lost sales or income, delayed sales or income, increased expense, regulatory fines, customer dissatisfaction, delay of business plan, harm in reputation.
A business impact analysis (BIA) prioritizes aspects of the business and identifies how risks impact each. BIA examines the amount of time the company can continue without its critical assets and ranks business functions by criticality and their likelihood of being affected by natural disasters. After prioritizing, the business can use the BIA to inform the tactical execution of the disaster recovery plan. For example, a hospital losing power during an electrical storm would select restoring power as a critical function as no electricity downtime is acceptable in this environment. By conducting a BIA, the hospital can adequately allocate resources to prioritize restoring power as part of its disaster recovery plan.
Hi Kelly,
I really like how mention the relationship between the business impact analysis (BIA) to the disaster recovery plan (DRP). I think both should include guidelines and/or protocols for other business disruptions as well as natural disasters (such as loss of life, etc).
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Best,
Andrew
A business impact analysis (BIA) can defined as a method that identifies and evaluates the potential impact (financial, life/safety, regulatory, legal/contractual, reputation and so forth) of natural and man-made events on business operations Business impact analysis is a mechanism to help plan for the inevitability of consequences and their cost. It’s another arrow in the quiver to battle risk. If that sounds like it’s important, it is. Risk is always on the horizon and the better equipped businesses are to discern and prepare for them, the more likely they will more likely they’ll be able to continue doing business in the foreseeable future.
Hello Kelly,
In summary, the overall objective of a Business Impact Analysis is to enable organizations to identify the cost allocatable to risks inherent in their mission-critical processes. The BIA ensures that the Risk is identified, summarised and a countermeasure cost is attached.
This is clearly articulated in the steps required to create a BIA, namely:
Step 1: Scope the Business Impact Analysis.
Step 2: Schedule Business Impact Analysis Interviews.
Step 3: Execute BIA and Risk Assessment Interviews.
Step 4: Document and Approve Each Department-Level BIA Report.
Step 5: Complete a BIA and Risk Assessment Summary.
Hello Kelly,
I really like your example of hospitals losing power during an electrical storm. I do End User Support at Jefferson University Hospitals (main campus). & I frequently run into BCA machines that are always plugged into an uninterruptable power supply. You’re right; not having power in a hospital is detrimental to normal operations as well as patient care. Electricity in a hospital is essential, so I agree! Restoring power in that type of environment should definitely be one of the top priorities in a healthcare disaster recovery plan.
A business impact analysis is the process of determining critical business processes based on their impact during a disruption. Basically, it’s the analysis of all the processes within each department of an organization to determine if they implemented robust risk procedures to mitigate the risk in case an unplanned incident happens. As a result, they must define resilience requirement and justify business continuity investments.
It is needed because it helps to determine the future of businesses, by identifying, creating and scoping valuable changes and enhancements to business processes.
Ornella, great response! You did an excellent job in providing an overarching, higher-level approach to assessing an BIA. Great point in mentioning how a BIA can justify business continuity investments; BIA’s are a great tool for security personnel to understand and justify to upper management why certain processes/purchases are needed to continue operating the business.
A business impact analysis is a structured process that organizations use to determine and evaluate the potential effects of an interruption to critical business operations, due to disasters, accidents, or emergencies. In other words, it helps businesses plan for the future. It allows them to see how their business would be affected if its business processes were taken down by an interruption, and determines which functions are the most crucial to business continued operations, and creates a plan for recovery.
Hello Chris,
I agree it helps the business see how the operation would be effected if processes were interrupted
Chris,
BIA is important as well as a disaster recovery plan. It is always important for a business to plan ahead in order to react to the situation efficiently. A well thought out plan will give more confidence to the business if an emergency situation ever happens.
Business impact analysis identifies the impact of unexpected loss of business functions, usually in terms of the cost of the business. The BIA is a systematic process that determines and evaluates potential effects of an interruption to critical business operations as a disaster, accident, or an emergency. Often businesses continue to evaluate the risk to the organization and create policies, plans, procedures to minimize the impact those risks might have on the organization. BCP is used to maintain the continuous operation of business in the event of an emergency situation. Business organizations first analyze the responsibilities of the individuals responsible for business continuity planning, identify all departments and individuals who have a stake in the BCP process. The business impact analysis is generally a multi-phase process that includes gathering information, evaluating the collected information, preparing reports to documents finds and presenting the results to senior management
Business impact analysis identifies the resources that are critical to an organization’s ongoing viability and the threats posted to those resources. It also provides quantitative measures that can help prioritize the commitment of business continuity plan resources to the various local, reginal, and global risk exposure. It is important to realize that there two different types of analyses that business planners use when facing a decision: Quantitative Decision making involves the use of numbers and formulas to reach a decision. This type of data often expresses options in terms of the dollar value to the business. Qualitative decision-Making takes non numerical factors, such as reputation, investor, customer confidence, workforce stability and other concerns into account. This type of data often results in categories of prioritizations such as high, medium, and low.
Chapter 18&13 (ISC2)
Hi Mohammed,
You have a lot of great points. One thing I like is how you mentioned businesses will continue to evaluate the risk to the organization, and so the BCP is constantly being updated it’s not a one-and-done step. I also like how you mentioned the two aspects of a BIA the quantitative and qualitative decision processes, one to help make a decision based on numbers and the other more on a prioritization scale.
Hello Mohammed.
Well said. Continuous monitoring is an essential element to ensuring an effective BCP. The BIA is a sub-component of the BCP. One of the crucial requirements for creating a robust BCP is to implement the Risk management framework (NIST 800-37), which clearly articulates the steps to follow to ensure continuous monitoring as its last step.
The six steps of the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF) are:
1. Categorize
2. Select
3. Implement
4. Assess
5. Authorization
6. Monitoring
The Business impact analysis (BIA) Helps identify and prioritize the critical IT systems and components. Organizations must perform BIA to determine which process is most important to the business operations and which would not incase the business is inaccessible. The BIA is important because it will allow the organization to gather information to help implement a recovery strategy. Doing so will help limit and control any potential loss.
A business impact analysis determines what the consequences are of a disruption in a company’s normal work flow. Through this analysis, information is gathered to figure out what the best recovery strategy is. You use this analysis to limit future potential losses and formulate the best recovery plans for each situation.
Hello Micheal
In support of your comment, the BIA process is a sub-component of Risk Analysis that helps determine the consequences of business disruptions. One of the BIA’s overall objectives is to help the organization highlight and identify the Risks to its mission-critical processes through Risk analysis. Risk Analysis creates visibility by enabling the organization to readily identify and value its assets, the risks inherent in specified mission-critical operations, and proceed to mitigate these risks.
In summary, This helps an organization create its Risk profile for business growth and development. Because when you can identify the risk inherent in what you do, you’re able to plan ahead of such risks.
A business impact analysis (BIA) is a critical assessment done within in organization, evaluating critical operations/support needed in the event of a disaster. BIA’s help security professionals develop a proper disaster recovery plan, considering business enterprises/activity that are essential in business continuity (ie connection to public cloud services for a shared cloud-based organization), and also specify the staff/support needed to ensure business is running smoothly. This is important to the welfare of an organization since it assists in planning for disasters, and defines who/what systems should be continually operational in a time of critical need. For instance, a BIA plan will assist in deciding which systems in a datacenter should be connected to an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) if an incident were to occur.
Business impact analysis is performed to determine how the distribution could affect the organization. Business impact analysis is a process for identifying the gaps that could be affected which could cause the impact to the business processes. It also identifies the requirements for the business continuity. It important to perform a business impact analysis as it would identify the time the business could accept to be down for before it could cause them a major impact to their business.
Hello Vraj,
I agree in that a business impact analysis determines how the consequences of a disruption effect a company’s work flow. Having knowledge of how much time you can spend down before there’s a major impact on the business is important so you can plan around this time. This analysis limits potential losses and formulate the best recovery plans for each situation.
A business impact analysis details the level of impact in the case that the organization experiences a business disruption. For example, if a business disruption or loss of life occurred, would the organization still be able to ensure operational resilience and continuity of their operations?
It is needed to help identify areas of a business that are mission or business critical, and can be used to help prioritize areas that the business should focus on in terms of disaster recovery.
It is interesting but very realistic that loss of life/some event that inhibits an employee’s ability to make it to work for example is a relevant aspect to consider for resilience regarding dependencies for critical business functions; it seems like there are many medium-sized companies where there may be only one person who is capable of performing certain critical functions, which exposes the company to massive risks but this would likely be overlooked until the event where it becomes an issue.
You are absolutely correct with your statements. I have seen organizations whose DR plans called for all employees to function from an alternate location, but do not contemplate truly horrific catastrophes. Companies model the loss of a data center, but are not able to model the loss of something like 10-15% of their work force being unable to function because they are all sick (or members of their family are sick).
A business impact assessment (BIA) is a solution that determines critical business processes based on their impact during a disruption. (Vacca 36) During such an assessment, an organization must define resilience requirements, justify business continuity investments, and identify a robust risk mitigation strategy. A BIA is needed to counter the risk of unplanned disruptions that can cause major losses, customer dissatisfaction, and compliance issues. The BIA is a necessary component of the business continuity and recovery planning process.
A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a process that allows us to identify critical business functions and predict the consequences a disruption of one of those functions would have. It also allows us to gather information needed to develop recovery strategies and limit the potential loss. Finally, it helps determine the criticality of business activities and the resources required to ensure continuity post disruptions.
Business analysis is structured process organizations use to determine and evaluate the potential impacts of an interruption to their critical business operations due to disasters, accidents, or emergencies. A business impact analysis is a crucial element of a company’s business continuity plan.
A business impact analysis (BIA) is essential to help the organization predict the consequences of disrupting a business function and gather adequate information to mitigate and recover from interruptions. A BIA should, if nothing, identify potential loss scenarios during a risk assessment.
Thanks for sharing Olayinka – I agree, a thorough BIA is certainly a major underlying component of the business continuity plan as well as the disaster recovery plan. If an organizations business continuity and disaster recovery plans do not adequately satisfy the requirements established in the BIA then they are essentially useless.
The Business Impact Assessment is a vital process in developing Disaster Recovery as it helps “identify critical business processes based on their impact during disruption” (Vacca, Chapter 36).
As Vacca elaborates further than a business should be able to apply an top-down approach to map critical processes and analyze the disruptions that could occur to allocate resources properly to the solution. The BIA is a fundamental process in developing a Disaster Recovery Plan as it allows us to categorize and list detailed procedures, as well as what to prioritize in the grand scope of the disaster, and execute the steps to recovery. It also allows us to identify key metrics such as Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) as the organization will be able to identify critical systems/components and how long recovery takes to bring these processes back into normal operation. An organization cannot have an effective DR plan without performing any Business Impact Analysis.
A business impact analysis is the process in which organizations examines all the divisions of the company and determines several important items. During the analysis the company determines how long the organization can survive without the critical assets, it identifies business functions and prioritizes and identifies which ones are critical, vulnerability in which business functions are susceptible to natural disasters, and estimates the cost of loss for business functions over time. This is important because it allows the company to see what areas of the business would be most impacted by an unplanned disaster so they can better prioritize the resources needed to mitigate the impact of such events occurring.
A business impact analysis is a functional analysis in which a team collects data, documents business functions, develops a hierarchy of business functions, and applies a classification scheme to indicate each individual function’s criticality level. The business impact analysis helps identify and prioritize the critical IT systems and components. A template for developing the business impact analysis is also provided to assist the user.
There are three steps in the business impact analysis process.
Step 1: Determine and identify all business processes and the recovery criticality of these process. Determine how a system disruption will affect the critical systems. Determine outage impacts and estimated downtime if an incident occurs.
Step 2: Identify the resources that are needed to get the systems back online quickly.
Step 3: Identify the recovery priorities for the system resources. Determine which systems are the most critical and make sure that the most critical systems are recovered first… and that the least critical systems are recovered last, to make sure that the organization’s business processes and functions can continue without a negative impact.
Hey Joshua,
That’s a great post. I do agree with the 3 steps that you have mention for analyzing it. First it is important to identify the business function as it will provide an idea of what will need to be received before it could impact the business process and business overall. Then which systems are critical for the business function so they can be recovered before non critical systems.
A business impact analysis is an analysis of how badly different sectors of a business could be impacted by different types of disasters. It is helpful in identifying which areas of a business are susceptible to the highest impact from different disasters, which areas are susceptible to impact from disasters most the frequently, and what the specific risks / loss vectors are and how they can be mitigated. It is needed because it aids in forming the best disaster recovery plan possible by highlighting which sectors are the most important to protect, which mitigations are most important, and the right order to implement mitigations to protect the businesses most valuable assets first while still attempting to get all mitigations in place.
Yes, without getting the most important sectors of the business back up first then it wouldn’t make any sense to bring up anything else at all because it is dependent or relies on the main sectors in order for the business to function properly.
What is a business impact analysis? Why is it needed?
A business impact analysis (BIA) is what an organization uses to assess the critical business processes/sectors and how they will impact the business in the event of a disaster. Creating a BIA involves identifying all of the necessary components to continue business, in order to then address resilience requirements for those dependencies that support the different critical business functions, whether they are systems, IT personnel, or vendors for example. A BIA is crucial to have for an organization as it helps clearly outline the impacts of downtime resulting in loss from all of the different departments that serve each individual business function. It is massively beneficial to have as it also helps identify which sectors are the most vulnerable to certain risks based on what dependencies exist, revealing solutions for resiliency in those areas. It is a “necessary component to business continuity and disaster recovery solutions” (Vacca, Chapter 36).
A business impact analysis determines the severity of a given system being interrupted. The level of severity would be chosen after carefully analyzing the cost and overall effect on the organization’s ability to do business. Risks classified as high impact may demand immediate attention and remediation. The goal is to lower the overall impact of these interruptions by finding means of backing up those systems or protecting them in other ways.
A business impact analysis helps you determine what controls you should be implementing or improving. Ideally, you are looking for the most cost-effective way to manage risk to an acceptable level. This often means implementing controls for the risks with the highest impact.
Hi Madalyn,
I agree that it is ideally the most cost-effective solution that you are looking for when managing the risk. That is why it is important for an organization to perform the business impact analysis. They need to prioritize what will have the most impact or the highest probability with a significant impact to business operations. The more downtime, the more revenue lost for the business.
A business impact analysis is what is analyzed to help identify a business core functions for day to day operations. It helps grade the level of importance and level of risk for each function, After each function is identified and categorized properly it will then be assorted into recovery time sets to get back up after a disaster. Lastly it is then put into a disaster recovery plan for what system core functions to bring up first. It is needed for the disaster recovery plan otherwise core business functions could be left out and non business functions can be saved first instead of the system function that more important.
Wilmer,
I like how you mentioned that there are different re-up times for when multiple systems/processes go down. It emphasizes the importance of prioritization as part of the BIA, and brings up the questions regarding which backup and re-up methods would best fit a given system when disaster strikes.
Mike
A business impact analysis/assessment is a solution that determines the most crucial business processes based on the impact they have during a disruption as stated by Vacca. These analyses are useful because disruptions can be costly and knowing what components your organization relies on the most can aid in business continuity.
The Business impact analysis (BIA) is an essential building block when developing an accurate organizational disaster recovery plan. A BIA provides many benefits to an organization and can help them determine:
• How long the organization can survive without critical assets;
• Identify business functions, then prioritize and identify which are critical;
• Vulnerability, specifically which business functions are susceptible to natural disasters;
• Estimated cost of loss for business functions over time.
Without a thorough BIA, an organization could waste many resources (i.e. money, people) trying to deploy a disaster recovery plan that won’t adequately help them recover from an outage.
Hi Bryan, great points in your outline on how beneficial BIA is to organizations. You have to do what is necessary to keep your business up and running, and making sure a plan like BIA is very crucial in making sure it stays that way.
I agree with you on BIA being the building a block. BIA is particularly focused on establishing business continuity requirements, identifying resource dependencies, and justifying proposed business continuity requirements by estimating the impacts associated with downtime. However, without a formal BIA process, the organization often lacks focus and objectivity in determining scope, establishing priorities, and assigning appropriate recovery objectives.
What is a business impact analysis? Why is it needed?
A business impact assessment (BIA) is a solution that determines critical business processes based on their impact during a disruption. An organization must define resilience requirements, justify business continuity investments, and identify a robust risk mitigation strategy. Unplanned disruptions can be costly, resulting in major losses, customer dissatisfaction, and compliance issues. To counter such risks, developing an effective, end-to-end business resilience plan is a necessary component to business continuity and recovery solutions.
Vacca Chapter 36. Disaster Recovery
A business impact analysis is an assessment that predicts the impact on the organization that a catastrophic event will have if certain processes are not performed. It allows the organization to plan a response and prioritize their resources and activities ‘before’ a catastrophic event occurs. The essence of the business impact analysis is to identify the mission critical business processes that MUST be performed – no matter what else is happening. This understanding of the priority of business processes and the impact they will have on the business if not performed is the result of a business impact analysis.
I like the emphasis on “MUST” be performed. I’ve seen things go south before on groups that failed to identify on key processes which left them scrambling to identify what to get running. Often prioritizing secondary processes because they aren’t thinking about the core essence of what a system does. It’s like trying to start a car without an engine in it.
A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a process that allows us to identify critical business functions and predict the consequences a disruption of one of those functions would have. It also allows us to gather information needed to develop recovery strategies and limit the potential loss.
A business impact analysis (BIA) predicts the consequences of disrupting a business function and process and gathers information needed to develop recovery strategies. Potential loss scenarios should be identified during a risk assessment.
I agree with you that a BIA can predict the consequences of disruptions to business functions and processes and gather the information needed to develop a recovery strategy. It can determine the operational and financial impact of disruptions to business functions and processes, covering the full range of avoiding unacceptable consequences of the output
What is a business impact analysis? Why is it needed?
A business impact analysis is an impact on the business and gathers information to solve a solution needed to recover from a disaster. Impacts can include loss of income, increased expenses, delay of new business plans, etc. To encounter such risks, a risk assessment would be efficient and necessary. However, it determines how critical it is to an organization and how it fits in the recovery strategy.
Hi Victoria, I agree with your response. A risk assessment is necessary to determine what’s important to the organization. If not the impacts will be great, income and increased expenses are truly detrimental to an organization.
Business impact analysis (BIA) is a process that allows us to identify critical business functions. It predicts the consequences of an outage of one of these functions, allowing us to gather and develop a recovery strategy. While limiting the information needed for potential damage, BIA will assess the risk of a disaster to the organization, and it will allow each department within the organization to explain and discuss how an unplanned event will affect their business functions. This will help the organization prioritize specific functions through the use of Recovery Point Objectives and Recovery Time Objectives.The importance of BIA is demonstrated by its ability to determine the operational and financial impact of business functions and process disruptions. Examples include lost sales and revenue, delayed sales or revenue, contract penalties or lost contract bonuses. Due diligence and a comprehensive business impact analysis are conducted to avoid unacceptable consequences associated with continuity disruptions.
A Business Impact Analysis is a method for analyzing how disruptions may impact an organization. The analysis considers the timescales of a disruption, as well as its intensity, and looks at the resulting impacts on important products and services; and the processes and activities that support these. The BIA identifies the business activities and resources necessary to deliver the organization’s most important products and services. One of the most valuable aspects of the BIA is the estimation of impacts tied to downtime. Understanding financial, reputational, contractual, legal/regulatory, operational, and other impacts enable the organization to develop the business case, with appropriate justification, to select, implement, and maintain business continuity strategies.
https://castellanbc.com/business-impact-analysis/
A business impact analysis (BIA) is is a process organizations use to determine levels of critical business activities and the resources required to ensure that the organization is able to fully continue operations following a disruption to business activities, such as a disaster. It is used to quantify levels of disruptions on service delivery, risks to service delivery, RTOS, and RPOS in order to develop strategies, solutions, and plans. It is essential for an organization to complete a BIA following disruptions because it allows the organization to assess the risks of disaster on an organization by having every aspect of the organization explain how disruptions affect their level of functionality, which helps to prioritize overall required business functions.
https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/bia-business-impact-analysis
https://www.compassitc.com/blog/business-impact-analysis
Business impact analysis is a crucial thing to predict consequences if disruption of any of the business function occurs. The risk assessment would help to identify potential loss scenarios. By processing and gathering information, it can develop recovery plan and its strategies. It is needed to understand the impact which might be: lost sales or income, delayed sales or income, increased expense, regulatory fines, customer dissatisfaction, delay of business plan, harm in reputation.