--- sourceDocument: Yokohama Governance, Risk, and Compliance sourceDocumentLink: https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/r/yokohama/governance-risk-compliance Release : - yokohama ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Yokohama Governance, Risk, and Compliance ft:clusterId : - grc bundleId : - grc workflow : - Technology --- # Business impact analysis # Business impact analysis {#ariaid-title1} * Release version: Yokohama * * Updated July 31, 2025 * * ![](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 Business impact analysis (BIA) is a structured process to evaluate the effects of disruptions on business processes or functions. It is a critical part of an organization's business continuity plan, helping identify key information systems, assess risks, and develop strategies to minimize potential damage. By conducting a BIA, businesses can better predict consequences from unforeseen events and enhance recovery capabilities. Show full answer Show less ## Creating and Managing a Business Impact Analysis The BIA process involves several key steps: * The BIA owner initiates a new analysis from the Business Continuity Management (BCM) Workspace. * Details are added on the Details tab, and stakeholders respond to assessment questionnaires on the Assessment tab. * The BCM application automatically calculates recovery objectives such as Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO), along with dependencies. * The owner submits the analysis for review and approval by the business or IT manager. * Once approved, the BIA is archived and can be exported as a PDF for documentation. The BIA owner and administrators can perform setup and configuration tasks, including using pre-configured BIA templates and managing grid configurations for dependency assessments. ## Use Cases and Practical Benefits ServiceNow customers can utilize BIA within the Business Continuity Management application to assess downtime impacts on business services, processes, and technical assets such as datacenters and applications. This enables informed decision-making to mitigate risks and contribute to business resilience. ## Templates and Configuration Pre-configured BIA templates assist administrators in standardizing assessments by selecting relevant impact categories and elements. Grid configurations allow customization of the dependency assessment views, enhancing usability and clarity in analyzing dependencies. Business impact analysis is a structured process where you assess the impact categories and dependencies and predict the consequences of a disruption on a business process or business function. ## An integral component of your business continuity plan {#bia-uib__section_r5r_mv3_mxb} A business impact analysis is an integral component of the business continuity plan for an organization. It includes information on the important information systems and a planning component that includes the strategies for minimizing your risks. Business managers have to make challenging decisions that can contribute to overall business growth. Sometimes, an unforeseen event or a disruption can cause disruptive effects. Performing a business impact analysis helps your business to mitigate these concerns. By evaluating the potential impact of an event or a decision, your business can predict future consequences and recover from setbacks successfully. For information on the use cases for business impact analysis, see [Use cases for business impact analysis](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/vsVOhcD6jmsg1igGWYqokQ "You can use the Business Continuity Management application to assess the impact of a downtime on your business services or processes and technical entities such as datacenters or applications. For creating a business impact analysis for your organization, you can refer to the common use cases that are used for managing the business continuity tasks."). ## Steps involved in creating a business impact analysis {#bia-uib__section_cn1_bws_byb} Typically, the following steps involved in creating a business impact analysis: * The business impact analysis owner creates a business impact analysis either from the Home page or the business impact analysis record page in the List view of the BCM UIB Workspace. * The BIA owner adds additional details for the business impact analysis on the Details tab. * Different users of the BCM application respond to the assessment questionnaire for the business impact analysis on the Assessment tab. * Based on the responses received, the BCM application calculates the recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), and dependencies for the business impact analysis. * The business impact analysis owner reviews the information and submits the analysis for a review and approval to the business manager for services or IT manager for applications respectively. * The business manager, IT manager, or BCM lead review the details of the business impact analysis and approve or reject it. * An approved business impact analysis is moved to Approved and later, it is moved to the Archived state. * The business impact analysis owner can generate the PDF of the analysis and save a copy for reference. {#bia-uib__ul_acv_sy5_pxb} A typical business impact analysis workflow is shown in the following examples: ## Setup tasks for the business impact analysis administrator {#bia-uib__section_sjg_1gy_1yb} If you are the business impact analysis administrator, you can view [Setup for a business impact analysis](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/xhKbz1ZZgdutNiL~xhuSqQ "The administrative tasks that are associated with a business impact analysis are listed in the General Administration module in the Business Continuity Management application.") for information on the setup tasks. ## Creating a business impact analysis in Business Continuity Workspace {#bia-uib__section_krr_tys_byb} if you are the business impact analysis owner, you can create a business impact analysis in Business Continuity Workspace by using one of the following options: * You can navigate to the Business impact analysis tab in the Home page and select Create BIA as shown in the following example. For the description of the cards and action buttons in the Business impact analysis tab of the Home page, see [Home page view](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/RKw29BrakO3pcq6vRwyogA "The Home page in Business Continuity Workspace serves as the landing page of the BCM application."). * You can also navigate to the List view and select New in the Business Impact Analysis records as shown in the following example. {#bia-uib__ul_zgg_1zs_byb} To create a business impact analysis in Business Continuity Workspace, see [Create a business impact analysis](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/a6I01FQ6_pPSYovpMYSSTA "Create a business impact analysis in BCM UI Builder Workspace to get the necessary information for a plan."). For information on managing the tasks that are related to a business impact analysis, see [Structured workflows for BIAs](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/tBNo6VKxBnLRRY4Apkc9kw "Perform the tasks that are outlined in this section to create a business impact analysis in Business Continuity Workspace (also known as BCM Configurable Workspace)."). * **[Use cases for business impact analysis](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/vsVOhcD6jmsg1igGWYqokQ)** You can use the Business Continuity Management application to assess the impact of a downtime on your business services or processes and technical entities such as datacenters or applications. For creating a business impact analysis for your organization, you can refer to the common use cases that are used for managing the business continuity tasks. * **[Business impact analysis (BIA) templates](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/650H~om1b2XU9ClLDJjoGw)** 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. * **[Grid configurations and categories](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/wyjD6prEI3XFi9oDPQDuug)** You can set up the grid configuration to render the BIA dependency assessment grid with configured columns. You can define the grid category such as Dependency Assessment for which the grid configuration is applicable.