MentisCell – BIA (Business Impact Analysis)
Summary
BIA (Business Impact Analysis) is the process of determining the criticality of business activities and the resources they require to ensure operational resilience and continuity during and after a disruption. It quantifies the impacts of interruptions on service delivery, finances, compliance, and reputation, and informs recovery objectives such as RTO and RPO.
Link to this note
Content
A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) helps organizations understand the consequences of disruptions to business processes.
It identifies which processes are most critical, estimates the potential operational and financial impacts of downtime, and defines recovery priorities.
Main functions
- Criticality assessment: determine which business functions are essential for survival.
- Impact quantification: measure financial, operational, regulatory, and reputational consequences of disruptions.
- Dependency mapping: identify interconnections between processes, systems, and resources.
- Recovery requirements: establish RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective).
- Strategy development: inform continuity and disaster recovery plans.
Typical impacts analyzed
- Lost sales or revenue due to downtime.
- Regulatory fines or contractual penalties.
- Increased operational costs (e.g., overtime, outsourcing).
- Customer dissatisfaction or attrition.
- Delayed projects or strategic initiatives.
Use cases
- Preparing for natural disasters, cyberattacks, or utility outages.
- Evaluating the impact of losing a key supplier or employee.
- Supporting compliance with industry regulations.
- Informing investment in backup, replication, and resilience technologies.
- Building business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
Essence
- Identifies critical processes and their dependencies.
- Quantifies the impact of disruptions.
- Defines recovery priorities (RTO, RPO).
- Provides the foundation for continuity and resilience strategies.
Interconnections
- RPO — BIA defines acceptable data loss thresholds.
- RTO — BIA sets recovery time requirements.
- ITSM — BIA supports service continuity planning.
- ITOM — BIA informs operational resilience strategies.
Tags
#bia #business-continuity #risk-management #resilience #disaster-recovery #compliance
Contributors
Created with the support of Microsoft Copilot on 2025-11-10.
Validation and editorial direction by Jorge Godoy.