Business impact analysis

---
title: Business impact analysis
description: Business impact analysis is a structured process where you assess the impact categories and dependencies. You can then predict the consequences of a disruption on a business process or business function.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/governance-risk-compliance/bia-uib.html
release: australia
topic_type: concept
last_updated: "2026-09-10"
reading_time_minutes: 3
breadcrumb: [Explore, Business Continuity Management, Governance, Risk, and Compliance]
---

# Business impact analysis

Business impact analysis is a structured process where you assess the impact categories and dependencies. You can then predict the consequences of a disruption on a business process or business function.

## An integral component of your business continuity plan

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://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/governance-risk-compliance/bia-use-cases.md).

## Steps involved in creating a business impact analysis

Creating a business impact analysis includes these steps:

-   The business impact analysis owner creates a business impact analysis from the Home page or 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 approval to the business manager or IT manager.
-   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.

A typical business impact analysis workflow is shown in the examples:

\[Omitted image "bia-lifecycle.png"\] Alt text: BIA workflow.

\[Omitted image "bia-workflow-w.png"\] Alt text: BIA workflow for different roles.

## Setup tasks for the business impact analysis administrator

If you are the business impact analysis administrator, you can view [Setup for a business impact analysis](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/governance-risk-compliance/bcm-admin-tasks.md) for information on the setup tasks.

## Creating a business impact analysis in Business Continuity Workspace

if you are the business impact analysis owner, you can create a business impact analysis in Business Continuity Workspace by using one of these options:

-   You can navigate to the **Business impact analysis** tab in the Home page and select **Create BIA** as shown in the example.

    \[Omitted image "bia-home-page.png"\] Alt text: Create BIA from the Home page.

    For the description of the cards and action buttons in the **Business impact analysis** tab of the Home page, see [Home page view](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/governance-risk-compliance/home-page-uib-ws.md).

-   You can also navigate to the List view and select **New** in the Business Impact Analysis records as shown in the example.

    \[Omitted image "list-view-bcm.png"\] Alt text: Create BIA from the record page in the List view.


To create a business impact analysis in Business Continuity Workspace, see [Create a business impact analysis](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/governance-risk-compliance/create-bia-in-uib-ws.md). For information on managing the tasks that are related to a business impact analysis, see [Structured workflows for BIAs](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/governance-risk-compliance/bia-tasks-performed-by-bia-owner.md).