I recently gave a presentation on how to prepare for your first Business Impact Analysis (BIA) study at your organization. I used the analogy you see on TV shows or car ads that say “Don’t attempt this at home, unless you are a professional”. We can’t emphasize enough that you should use a qualified consultant to either provide coaching and/or lead you throughout the pre-planning, development, implementation and post study reporting.
We have been at clients who have attempted a BIA and either completely failed, were never were able to get it done, created 60 page BIA questionnaires or didn’t get the information they needed at the end of the initiative.
Where can a consultant best support you in your initial BIA study:
- Determining the Scope of the Initial Study
- Development of the Questionnaire that is Concise Yet Comprehensive
- Identifying Who Should Be Interviewed and at What Level in the Organization
- Developing the Agenda for the BIA Interview
- Leading Interviews and Handing Over Once You Can Do it
- Support the Documentation of the Post Exercise Report
The expense in using a good consultant will pay for itself not only in the initial study, but most importantly, when you go to do the BIA again. A solid BIA process is crucial to ensuring you protect the right assets, using the right recovery strategy and spending the right amount of money to get it done. The BIA is a time and people intensive initiative. It pays off to do it right the first time.
If you have questions on getting your first BIA done, contact me, Michael Herrera, at herrera at mha-it dot com. Michael Herrera has taught the BIA class at the Disaster Recovery Journal World Conferences since 2001 and published the DVD “BIA and the Best Practices” sold on Amazon.com and approved by the Disaster Recovery Institute International. He has completed well over 500+ BIA interviews and 15+ enterprise BIA studies for companies across the USA.
Michael Herrera
Michael Herrera is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MHA. In his role, Michael provides global leadership to the entire set of industry practices and horizontal capabilities within MHA. Under his leadership, MHA has become a leading provider of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery services to organizations on a global level. He is also the founder of BCMMETRICS, a leading cloud based tool designed to assess business continuity compliance and residual risk. Michael is a well-known and sought after speaker on Business Continuity issues at local and national contingency planner chapter meetings and conferences. Prior to founding MHA, he was a Regional VP for Bank of America, where he was responsible for Business Continuity across the southwest region.
