Disaster Recovery Journal Spring 2023

n Your sources are likely to become disengaged or resentful. n The information they give you will be inaccurate or incomplete. n The BIA based on that information will be divorced from reality. n The recovery plan based on the BIA will be suboptimal to say the least.

n Whose importance they doubt. n Which involves homework. n And which takes them away from the real work they need to get done. If you know this and accept it as natural – and work to help the people get past it – you are going to be on your way to getting better results in your BIAs. The Consequences of Doing It Wrong Nowhere is the expression “garbage in, garbage out” truer than with a BIA. If your participants talk to you simply in the spirit of getting you to go away as soon as possible – instead of digging deep and providing you with quality informa tion – your BIA and any plans based on it will be fatally weak. Moreover, the lackluster quality of the resulting BIA will reflect poorly on the person who conducted it. Many managers have the uncanny abil ity to review a BIA and realize at a glance something is off. Usually when that hap pens, the first person they will turn to in seeking an explanation is the person who conducted the BIA. Tips For Doing It Right So how do you successfully manage the human side of conducting BIAs? Here are some tips, divided among the four phases which make up the process. Phase 1: Preparing yourself for conducting BIAs If you aren’t ready, everything else you do to try to be successful might be in vain. Here are some things you should do to prepare yourself for conducting a BIA: n Know your BIA process in and out. n Define ahead of time how you will conduct the BIA, tailoring your approach to the culture of the organization (e.g., entrepreneurial vs. traditional). n Review each of the participating business units ahead of time; know what they do and who you are interviewing and their personalities. n Build a standard agenda for each BIA to ensure consistency in approach and timing.

A good starting point for obtaining a better outcome is to look at the BIA from the point of view of the participants. For the typical person, participating in the BIA preparation and interview usually means: n More work.

n On a subject they find boring. n Which they don’t understand.

28 DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL | SPRING 2023