--- sourceDocument: Australia Governance, Risk, and Compliance sourceDocumentLink: https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/r/governance-risk-compliance Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Australia Governance, Risk, and Compliance ft:clusterId : - grc bundleId : - grc workflow : - Technology --- # Business impact analysis # Business impact analysis (BIA) templates {#ariaid-title1} * Release version: Australia * * Updated March 12, 2026 * * ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 2 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Business impact analysis (BIA) templates The Business Continuity Management (BCM) application in ServiceNow offers pre-configured Business Impact Analysis (BIA) templates to streamline and standardize the process of conducting a business impact analysis. These templates are accessible via the BIA Templates module and are primarily managed by BCM or BIA administrators with thesnbcm.adminrole. Show full answer Show less ## Key Features * **Pre-configured Templates:** Templates come with pre-defined impact categories and dependency groups relevant to various business elements such as business processes or configuration item (CI) services. * **Primary Element Assessment:** You can specify the type of element to assess, for example, business processes or IT applications. * **Impact Categories:** Select relevant impact categories like financial or legal impacts to tailor the analysis to your organization's needs. * **Dependency Groups:** Templates automatically populate dependency groups such as Applications, Hardware, Software, Vendors, and Workplaces, which you can customize during the assessment. * **CIA Inclusion:** For elements containing critical data, include Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) information in the assessment. * **Role-Based Configuration:** Administrators with the `snbcm.admin` role can view, configure, or create new BIA templates and manage demo data. ## Benefits for ServiceNow Customers * **Efficiency:** Using BIA templates simplifies and accelerates the BIA creation process by providing structured, reusable frameworks. * **Consistency:** Standardized templates ensure consistent assessment criteria and impact categories across different analyses. * **Customization:** Flexibility to select and modify impact categories and dependency groups allows alignment with specific organizational requirements. * **Improved Accuracy:** Automatic population of dependency groups reduces manual errors and omissions during the analysis. ## Practical Use To leverage BIA templates effectively, BCM or BIA administrators should: * Access the BIA Templates module with the appropriate role. * Select or configure templates tailored to the primary element and impact categories relevant to the organization. * Review and adjust dependency groups associated with the template before conducting the business impact analysis. * Include CIA data when analyzing elements with critical information. This approach enables ServiceNow customers to conduct thorough and tailored business impact analyses while saving time and ensuring comprehensive impact and dependency assessments. The Business Continuity Management application provides pre-configured business impact analysis (BIA) templates for creating a business impact analysis. If you are the BCM or BIA administrator, you can use the BIA Templates module in the Business Continuity Management application. You can then select the type of the template, elements, impact categories, and so on, for the business impact analysis. ## Advantages of using a BIA template {#bia-templates__section_ags_c4g_cyb} The BIA templates store information such as the impact categories and dependency groups that a business process depends on. Using a BIA template offers these advantages: * Simplifies the process of creating a business impact analysis. * Saves time and resources by pre-populating the templates. * Helps you to define the primary object type that you can use the BIA template for. For example, you can use the Application technical impact analysis template to perform a technical impact analysis of an IT application. * Populates the dependency groups automatically in the BIA. * Helps you to select the impact categories that are relevant to your organization. {#bia-templates__ul_jxl_r43_2nb} ## BIA templates in BCM {#bia-templates__section_p1w_gng_cyb} With the sn_bcm.admin role, you can view BIA templates installed with demo data or configure new templates in the BIA Templates module. The example shows the BIA templates that are installed with demo data in the Business Continuity Management application. ## BIA template configuration {#bia-templates__section_y3t_mxg_cyb} With the sn_bcm.admin role, you can configure these details in the BIA template: Name and Description : Use the Name and Description fields to search for the name and select an appropriate template for your business impact analysis. Primary Element Assessed : Select the type of the elements that you plan to assess such as Business processes or CI service. Impact Categories : Assess specific impact categories during the business impact analysis. For example, you plan to assess the financial impact and legal impact of a downtime. Dependency Assessments : Identify the dependencies for your business impact analysis. Include CIA : Include CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability) information in your business impact analysis if the primary element being analyzed has critical data. The example shows the sample configuration of a BIA template in an instance. ## Configuring a BIA template {#bia-templates__section_qss_fxg_cyb} For more information on how to configure a BIA template with the sn_bcm.admin role, see [Configure BIA templates with legacy assessment](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/1idPYvJ57QXrCUeUSBldNg "Configure a business impact analysis (BIA) template in the Business Continuity Workspace with a legacy assessment. Select the type of elements, impact categories, and dependencies to be assessed. The legacy assessment uses the older method of selecting impact categories."). ## Impact dependency groups {#bia-templates__section_pvd_tvf_ldc} The BIA template used for creating a business impact analysis has dependency groups associated with it. When conducting an assessment, the dependency groups are automatically populated in the BIA. You can view them as Applications, Hardware, Software, Vendors, Workplaces, and others, each in its own container based on template associations. Each of them is a dependency group and you can add or remove items that belong to each group within its container.