Define drivers
Define BC drivers
The drivers against which the BCM is implemented should be defined so that the requirements of the organisation are met. The Australian standard HB 292:2006 suggests that key components of determining the organisational need for BCM should include:
- Understanding key imperatives of the organisation including:
- critical objectives, critical success factors and key performance indicators
- major current and emerging risks exposures
- Critical organisational dependencies and interdependencies both within and external to the organisation, including:
- critical business activities
- critical plant, property assets and other infrastructure
- third party relationships such as with the community, suppliers, customers and partners
- regulators (e.g. financial regulators such as FSA in the UK [FSA], APRA in Australia [APRA], Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungs in Germany)
- Analysis of past incidents and disruptions that indicate a propensity for future disruption, including:
- occurrences in the area of the organisation under consideration (e.g. ICT and IS)
- occurrences in the organisation as a whole
- prior involvement of customers, suppliers, strategic alliances and other stakeholders
- experiences of others within the same market sector, industry, geographical location etc
The information gathered from this activity can be used to answer the three following questions:
‘What is important to my organisation and why?’
‘What does my organisation depend upon to continue operating?’
‘What might prevent my organisation from achieving its key objectives?’
The answers to these fundamental questions will allow the organisation to determine what BCM objectives it wishes to achieve and the areas to concentrate upon when developing the BCP.