10 Tips for a Successful Business Impact Analysis

Undertaking the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) in an organization can seem to be a daunting activity. There is a lot of critical information that need to be captured and everyone has different opinion as to the best way to pursue the information. The subsequent challenge is how to interpret the collected information to identify critical function and the order in which they must be restored. Here are some tips to help you achieve a successful BIA.

• Don’t go alone, get executive buy-in
• Interview the managers, don’t just send questionnaire. Make it more conversational about what they do in their day-to-day job
• Consistently question participants
• Document interview results
• Involve IT from the beginning, help them to see the benefit of your BC plans
• Involve all level of managers
• Have objective business impact criteria
• Analyze impacts over time to the organization as a whole
• Validate results with Senior Executives
• Use the BIA to build the plan