Impact and Threat Analysis
Impact and Threat Analysis are two of the most important phases involved in a business continuity plan. They determine the different threats that may be faced by the organization as well as the possible impacts of the different functions of the organization's members, when tasks are disrupted. Various resources like BCP Articles talk about these aspects of continuity planning, as well as other subjects affecting businesses.
Impact analysis involves the differentiation of critical and non critical functions or activities of the organization, as the disruption of such may have certain degrees of effect in the continuity of the business. Defining the urgency of these functions helps in determining and establishing the right course of action for the situation.
Threat Analysis on the other hand, defines the possible threats that the organization could be subjected to. The most common of these threats are disasters like earthquake, flooding, hurricane and fire, as well as disease outbreaks, terrorism, and other business related threats like sabotage, online attack and utility outage.
Threats are also analyzed to define the impact that they could have in the continuity of the business. After doing Impact and Threat Analysis, business continuity planners usually lay out some impact scenarios, in which they define the worst potentials that the threats could have.
Impact and Threat Analysis are just among the important aspects of business continuity plans. Information about the different portions and phases of a BCP like the recovery plans and solution designs can also be found in sites like BCP Articles.