Are there any special tools available to help create a business impact analysis?
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There are a number of business impact analysis (BIA) tools available, and more are being added each day. Depending upon the vendor, you will receive spreadsheet formats, document templates, etc. Having said that, do you really need a business impact analysis tool, and/or how can you tell which is appropriate for your environment? You should decide if you're more comfortable using spreadsheets or document formats. Then, decide what will create results that are more advantageous to your management, and what would be easier to use.
When you get down to basics, what you look for in a business impact analysis is an accurate response to the following questions.
- What does the department provide?
- Who are the key personnel in the department responsible for these functions?
- How critical are these functions to the health/reputation/finances of the organization?
- What is needed to perform the functions?
- What dependencies are required to perform these functions?
- How long can you accept a cessation in these functions?
- How much data loss can these processes tolerate?
The responses you receive to these questions will be the base for your business impact analysis, whichever business impact analysis tool you select.
This was first published in March 2011