[BL-WSQ] 310 [BIA]: Executing the Business Impact Analysis

Overview

At this stage, you are about to attend the second of the one-day WSQ BCM workshop organised in-house. The course code is BCM-310. 

This first 1/2 day onsite session or Module 1 Session 2 for Blended Learning  "Business Impact Analysis" will be conducted following the completion of the "Risk Analysis and Review" module.

Again, it may be useful if you have not read the first two articles regarding how this project started, you may want to read "[1A] Starting the Project" and "[1B] Developing BCM Structure and Framework."

This article is the fourth part of the "WSQ Funded BCM Project" series.  This is the reading for participants embarking on a BCM implementation using a combination of training with SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) funding from the Singapore government and consulting to develop, implement and finalize its BCM program for an organisation.

Business impact analysis or BIA is the process of analysing the effects of interruptions on business functions, and the organisation as a whole. And based on the severity of these effects, the Organisation BCM Coordinator would be able to infer the relative recovery priorities of these business functions.

The process of conducting the "Business Impact Analysis" or "BIA" in the WSQ-based BCM Project is as follows:

 1.  Supplementary Readings [Onsite or Online]

1. Participants will receive emails containing bite-size information on business impact analysis.
2. The purpose of doing so is to introduce them to the key concepts ahead of the coming workshop.
3. This helps participants optimize their time at the workshop. 

What participants should do:

Participants are encouraged to read through the supplementary material and jot down any questions they may have.

2.  Workshop [Onsite or Online]

A workshop is conducted to guide business unit BCM coordinators to collect data on:

1. Critical business functions (CBFs),
2. Potential impacts of a prolonged disruption of CBFs
3. Time periods within which the CBFs must be recovered, in order to minimize losses
4. Key dependencies to perform CBFs
5. Resources necessary to perform CBFs

For the online workshop, participants will be put through an E-Learning program a week before a zoom session with the instructor himself, giving them the necessary information and context to understand some of the key concepts involved in Business Impact Analysis prior to the actual workshop session itself.

What participants should do for the Onsite Workshop:

1. As the BIA is an important cornerstone of the business continuity planning process, participants are encouraged to read the email supplementary materials before the workshop.
2. The soft copy BIA templates will be sent to participants before the workshop
3. Participants should load the templates into their laptops and have them available during the workshop.

What participants should do for the Online Workshop:

1. Participants are encouraged to read the email supplementary materials before the workshop 
2. The soft copy BIA templates should be downloaded from the same E-Learning portal 
3. Participants should complete the E-Learning Module and begin filling in their templates
4. Participants should then submit their completed templates

It is important to note that because the workshop is a 1-time group event, it is important that participants lock this event in their calendars. No repeat workshop will be conducted for absent participants and there is a possibility that SkillsFuture Singapore or SSG will not approve the course subsidy if the participant is absent for more than 75% of the module.

3.  Consultation & Assessment [Onsite or Online]

After the workshop, participants will have one week to complete and submit the templates to their organisation BCM Coordinator, who will consolidate the templates and send the batch to the consultant.

A consultation and assessment session (approximately  30 mins) has been arranged for individual departments to go through the templates with the consultants, and sit for a simple open-book assessment comprising a few easy-to-answer questions. This assessment is a requirement from SSG to qualify for government funding. 

Assessment sessions can be conducted either face-to-face or online. In the event of the latter, Zoom will be used to facilitate the assessment between consultants and participants.

What participants should do for the onsite class:

1. Submit the BIA templates to your BCM Coordinator on time
2. Before the consultation/assessment session, review your templates, and quickly read through the course materials
3. Attend the consultation/assessment session at the appointed time
4. If there are any changes required, submit a revised completed template to your BCM Coordinator.

What participants should do for the online class:

1. Submit the BIA templates to the E-learning Portal on time
2. Prior to the Consultation/assessment session, comments will be sent over via the E-Learning Portal. Participants are expected to make edits to their BIA template prior to the session
3. Before the consultation/assessment session, review your templates, and quickly read through the course materials
4. Attend the consultation/assessment session at the appointed time (On Zoom)
5. Re-submit the final, revised template to the E-learning Portal

The consultant will process the templates from all departments and write a report for submission to the organisation's management.

4.  RAR & BIA Presentation

At this juncture, it is appropriate to update senior management on the progress of the project, as well as to present to them the interim findings of the RAR and BIA. Once the findings are endorsed, the reports are finalized and submitted.

What senior management should do:

1. Review the key risks for the organization (RAR)
2. Review the list of critical business functions and their recovery time objectives (BIA)
3. Endorse the findings.

Henceforth, during the next two phases, the business continuity strategy (BCS) and plan development (PD) phases, that are developed will be based on these endorsed findings.  

We will enter into the Business Continuity Strategy phase of the project only after management endorsement of the RAR and BIA findings.

4.  Public WSQ Course

One of the challenges to maintain the competency of this program is the training of newly appointed business unit BCM coordinator when they are being replacing the incumbent.  The newly appointed officer can undergo the same training and he is allowed to bring his/her current templates to the public course offered by BCM Institute. Just make the advanced arrangement with the program administration officer.

If you are attending a public WSQ course, this course is similar to the afternoon session for the WSQ-BCM-310 (Course code) and it is titled as "Assessing Risk and Business Impact Requirements"

5.  Next Step

Once this session is completed, you are now ready to attend the 2nd one-day WSQ course titled "Developing Business Continuity Strategies and Plans." and course code is WSQ-BCM-320 . Read more for what is the expectation for the the next 1/2-day workshop, which "Evaluating the Business Continuity Strategy".