BCM Getting Started > Learn about Business Impact Analysis

[Mary Hain]

Overview

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) enables you to prioritize your organization's business processes and critical IT assets when a disruption occurs.

BIAs help you identify the recovery time objectives (RTOs), recovery point objectives (RPOs), and maximum tolerable period for disruptions to critical business services or functions. These determinations are used in disaster recovery planning, exercises, and real-time recovery so that an organization can understand the potential and real consequences of incidents and disruptions on overall business continuity.

🆕 New in Zurich: MS Word Report Builder: Export BIAs, business continuity plans, events, and exercises as Word documents using customizable templates—so you can create reports that match your organization's format and requirements, not just static PDFs.

Demo

• Zurich release:  MS Word reporting capabilities for simplified reporting (coming soon).
• The Execute a Better BIA with ServiceNow Business Continuity Management demo explores the importance of a BIA in business continuity planning. 
• Business Continuity Management Overview provides a short demo of BIA features of BCM starting at 3:28
• For additional BCM demos, check out our demo library.

Resources

(Login may be required.)

• Now Create Process Guide - Provides detailed guidance on the way that ServiceNow intends Business Continuity Management to work. (P.14)
• Product Documentation – Business Impact Analysis
• BCM Community Forum    

Quick tip   

Enroll in “GRC: Business Continuity Management (BCM) Implementation (Xanadu),” an on-demand course in ServiceNow University.  In module 4, you will learn to:

• Complete base BIA configurations including recovery timeframes, recovery tiers, categories, etc.
• Build out BIA templates
• Create a BIA utilizing the BCM configurable workspace

FAQ

What tasks does the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) owner perform?
The BIA owner creates the BIA, assesses impact categories, and submits the analysis for review and approval.

What role does a BIA Contributor have?

The BIA owner typically contacts business teams/ experts (BIA contributor role of sn_bia.bia_contributor) seeking feedback on the BIA to keep it relevant and up to date.

What happens if an approval record already exists for a BIA?
If an approval record exists, the Approve or Reject buttons are not displayed on the BIA form.

What role is required to approve a BIA?
The user must have the sn_bia.bia_manager role to approve the BIA.

What updates were made to the BIA in the Xanadu release?
The Xanadu release includes updates such as access to the latest recovery time objectives (RTOs), recovery point objectives (RPOs), recovery tiers, and configurable columns in the dependency assessment.

Can BIA updates be automated?
Yes, updates can be scheduled automatically based on the CMDB, and manual reviews can be configured for dependency updates. See details here. 

Do the BIAs use the Smart Assessment Engine functionality?
As of the Yokohama release, ServiceNow BCM uses the Smart Assessment Engine capability, which enables BCM teams to design and execute assessments without involving developers. It is available to both BCM Standard and BCM Professional users.

Migration to Smart Assessment Engine is optional, and ServiceNow currently continues to support the native assessment experience. Customers have reported that the intuitive, low-code, no-code experience using Smart Assessment Engine has enhanced the experience of all users and streamlined the assessment process. 

What information can be found in the Business Impact Analysis tab on the Home page?

The tab provides access to important information regarding business impact analysis in the BCM workspace. It provides details of the number of BIA by state, i.e., in draft, in review, approved, pending approval, expired, archived, as well as the recovery time objective (RTO) and adjusted RTO.

What aspects of a dependency can administrators configure starting with Release 6.1.x?
Administrators can configure the Dictionary, UI policy, element variables, and UI views for dependencies.

How do you create a business impact analysis?
A BIA is created in the BCM UI Builder Workspace to gather the necessary information for a business continuity plan. It can also be directly created from the BIA tab in the Business Continuity Workspace by clicking on “Create BIA."

What role does the contributor have in updating the BIA?
The contributor role can update impact category results, RPO analysis responses, dependency group states, and work notes in the Activity section.

How can you visualize relationships for a BIA?
A 360° view of the BIA and its associated entities can be visualized in the BCM UIB Workspace during the creation process.

What kind of BIA maintenance is required once BCM implementation goes live?

BCM owners must define the frequency for BIA updates and approvals. This step is essential for gauging the level of participation needed from BIA contributors and for planning an effective maintenance process. You should be able to answer the following questions:

• How often should BIAs and plans be updated and approved?
• How often should plans be exercised?  (This response helps determine the level of effort required of exercise participants and program owners to create new recovery events.)