Disaster Recovery Journal Summer 2023

Convincing Management to Do a BIA

When this happens, the business con tinuity management (BCM) team has two choices. The team can acquiesce to the dropping of the BIA or actively work to help management understand why the BIA is so important. The best way to convince management of the need for a BIA is to show them the benefits up front. In this article, let’s look at some of the core benefits of a BIA with an eye toward helping your organization’s decisionmak ers to understand why conducting a BIA would be beneficial to the entire enter prise. Usually when management balks at providing resources for the BIA, they express their resistance in ways like these: n “We just did one recently.” Often when they say this, recently was several years ago. n “Our business has not changed enough to warrant an updated BIA.” n “Can’t we just ask the leaders of each department for the information?” n “This is not business critical. We know what the priorities are.” n “You want two to three hours of how many people’s time? From every department?” These are the kinds of objections and questions you should be prepared to respond to when trying to win support for doing a BIA. Making The Case for the BIA Start talking up the need for a BIA well before your proposal is in process. Often management does not see BCM concepts as strategic but instead “regu latory” or “audit” necessities. At every opportunity, explain to management about the reasons for BIAs. As with most new needs or projects, it’s neces sary to have an education process before approval occurs. Common Objections to Conducting a BIA

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By RICHARD LONG

tization. We know a BIA is essential to the health of any solid BCM program. However, financial decisionmakers and project stakeholders often do not share this understanding. As a result, they often resist in giving approval to conduct a BIA.

hose of us who are on the front lines of protecting organizations from disruptions understand the value of the business impact analysis (BIA) when it comes to strategy development and priori

20 DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL | SUMMER 2023