How important are business impact analysis and risk assessment to the formation of a BC/DR plan?
“A BIA and risk assessment (RA) are key elements of a BC/DR programme as this allows the organisation to fully understand the true impact of significant business interruption and also the many risks that are most likely to cause any such business interruption,” says Stevens. RA and BIA are the beginning phases of forming a BCP. The results of this activity provides the basis for the construction of the entire plan and provides the team with a clear idea of the critical areas that they should be concentrating on. Risk analysis has to be performed to identify the real threats to the continuity of business operations. A good RA therefore will help install preventive controls. A BIA will help identify operational priorities and resource requirements, and provide information on the timeframe in which data has to be recovered. NME recommends: The importance of RA and BIA to a BCP cannot be overrated; they form the foundation of any comprehensive plan for BC/DR. Time and effort should be dedi