Disaster Recovery Journal Winter 2022

How To Weight Your BIA Impact Categories N ow you have selected the impact cat egories, you’re ready to determine how to weight each one. What It Means To ‘Weight the BIA Impact Categories’ Weighting your categories is not simply a ranking of how important the processes are to the business. Many things are vital to the business but not especially time sen sitive. What we’re interested in is the vari ous quantitative and qualitative impacts of a disruption over time to the business functions and enterprise. Weighting impact categories is about evaluating the negative impact to the business of having the different functions interrupted. Although we used the word “rank ing” above, the process is actually more involved. What you want to do is assign a percentage value to each of your six cat egories, with the sum totaling 100%. The percentage value you give each category is your team’s estimate of the negative impact on your organization’s key mission and operations of having that function interrupted. Why It’s Important to Weight Your Impact Categories The reason it’s important to weight your impact categories is because you cannot restore everything first. You can only restore one or two things first; the rest will have to wait until you can get to them. The functions you restore first should be those whose interruption is causing you the most damage. Weighting the BIA impact categories is your way of figuring out which these are. Another reason it is important to weight your impact categories has to do with human nature – in this case, the tendency of humans to rate what they do as being

Identifying the impact categories to be addressed in your BIAs is a matter of applying good judgment to wide knowl edge. It comes down to figuring out which are the business units, pro cesses, and applications which support the mission of your organization, day in and day out. Takeaways n Every organization should choose a handful of impact categories which make sense for its industry and mission. n Impact categories are the aspects of your business you consider in assessing the negative effects of disruptions. n To find the best impact categories for your company, figure out which processes, units, and applications support its core mission, day in and day out. n Impact categories are divided between two types, quantitative and qualitative. n Make the impact categories consistent across departments so you can measure apples to apples. n Avoid the mistakes of having too many categories, mixing up quantitative and qualitative, and choosing the wrong categories for your company type.

The Most Common Mistakes People Make in Identifying Impact Categories The three most common mistakes people make in identifying impact areas are n Having too many BIA impact categories. n Mistaking quantitative impact categories for qualitative ones and vice versa. n Choosing the wrong categories for their company type. Examples From Four Major Industries The table below shows the

impact categories commonly used in BIAs in four major industries: finance, health care/hospitals, insurance, and real estate. Naturally, organizations in each

industry choose catego ries which are pertinent to their sector and mis sion. Seeing the cate gories they use might help you in thinking

about what cat egories make the most sense for your organiza tion, whatever industry it is in.

Industry

Quantitative Impacts n Loss of revenue n Increased operating expenses n Penalties, fines, and sanctions n Loss of revenue n Increased operating expenses n Penalties, fines, and sanctions n Increased or additional expenses n Fines, penalties, and sanctions n Loss of revenue n Increased operating expenses n Penalties, fines, and sanctions n Loss of current revenue n Impact to liquidity

Qualitative Impacts

Finance

n Impact to customer service n Legal/regulatory requirements n Impact on public goodwill, brand, image, and reputation

Healthcare/ hospitals

n Impact to patient safety and security n Impact to brand, image, and reputation n Delay in services n Impact on customer service n Impact to brand, image, and reputation

Insurance

Real estate

n Internal and/or external customer impact n Legal and regulatory requirements n Delay in billings and payments n Impact to public goodwill, brand, image, and reputation

22 DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL | WINTER 2022