Training module
Auditing Business Impact Analysis
Assess whether business impact analyses produce credible recovery priorities and recovery objectives in an ISO 22301 BCMS
Do BIAs exist but recovery priorities still feel arbitrary?
Business impact analyses often appear complete while recovery priorities and objectives lack credible justification. This module develops the capability to test whether BIA outputs truly support continuity decisions.
Overview
What this module is about
The business impact analysis (BIA) is the analytical foundation of business continuity management in ISO 22301. It identifies which activities are critical, evaluates the consequences of disruption, and defines recovery priorities and recovery objectives that guide continuity arrangements.
In practice, BIAs frequently appear well documented while decision logic remains weak: critical activities are inconsistently prioritised, recovery objectives are copied from assumptions, and dependencies are not realistically considered.
This module develops the capability to audit whether a BIA produces credible recovery priorities and recovery objectives. Participants first review the purpose and structure of BIA within ISO 22301 and then learn how auditors test prioritisation logic, impact reasoning, dependency coverage, and recovery objective credibility.
Audience
Who it is for
Management system implementers and coordinators
Executives and department heads accountable for management system performance
Those responsible for processes, policies, assets, risks and controls
Auditors seeking insight into management-side practice, not audit technique
Consultants working on management system design, governance or improvement
Decision supportIs this module for you?
It is a good fit if you…
audit business continuity management systems under ISO 22301.
seek to judge whether BIA outputs support credible recovery priorities.
want to test recovery objective credibility using impact and dependency logic.
focus on evidence for prioritisation rather than document completeness.
expect to strengthen audit conclusions on continuity decision logic.
It may not be the best fit if you…
prefer to conduct BIAs or determine recovery priorities yourself.
are looking for methods to calculate impacts or define recovery objectives.
focus primarily on resilience design or continuity planning.
do not intend to audit business impact analysis processes.
What to bring
This module assumes participants can perform basic audit activities and apply evidence-based judgement.
Helpful background includes:
General understanding of ISO 22301 terminology and business continuity concepts.
Ability to follow audit trails across organisational processes and supporting resources.
Basic familiarity with disruption scenarios and operational dependencies.
Agenda
What is taught
7 parts01Business impact analysis in ISO 22301
How BIA identifies critical activities, evaluates disruption impacts, and establishes recovery priorities and recovery objectives within a continuity management system
02Effective auditing of business impact analysis
How auditors judge whether BIA outputs provide credible continuity priorities rather than relying on document completeness
03Critical activity identification
How to test whether the BIA covers relevant activities, services, and supporting processes across organisational units
04Impact evaluation logic
How to evaluate whether disruption impacts are assessed consistently across financial, operational, legal, and reputational dimensions
05Recovery objective credibility
How to test whether recovery time and recovery point objectives are supported by impact logic and dependency constraints
06Dependencies and supporting resources
How to evaluate whether people, technology, facilities, suppliers, and data dependencies are realistically reflected in BIA outputs
07Common BIA failure patterns
How to detect copied recovery objectives, incomplete coverage, inconsistent prioritisation, and unrealistic assumptions
Outcomes
Learning outcomes
01
Assess whether business impact analyses identify critical activities and disruption impacts coherently
02
Test recovery time and recovery point objectives for plausibility using impact and dependency evidence
03
Trace BIA outputs to recovery priorities using defensible audit evidence
Evaluate whether dependencies are sufficiently reflected in BIA impact reasoning
Detect common BIA failure patterns such as copied recovery targets or inconsistent prioritisation
Select meaningful sampling targets when auditing BIA outputs across functions or sites
Formulate defensible audit conclusions on BIA credibility and decision usefulness
Materials
The content and the assessment
Written module
The full content in writing, complete in itself. Videos are recorded for parts of it as an alternative way through, and the written module always carries everything.
Exercises
Graded work on the case organisation's own registers: structured answers checked against the encoded case, written answers scored against a rubric traced to it, with a trainer holding the final word on every assessed item.
On completion
The assessed exercises must be passed before the certificate is issued.
Scheduling
No public run of Auditing Business Impact Analysis is scheduled at the moment. Tell us you are interested and we will let you know when the next one opens, or discuss running it in-house.
Module facts
- Module ID
- HAM-BC-A-01
- Discipline
- Business Continuity
- Part of tracks
- Management System Auditor
Case organisation
All modules share one company
Each module enters the company at a particular point in its history and finds it as that history has left it.
Northstar Integrated Services AG is a group headquartered in Zurich, operating in six European countries, with about 1,350 employees at the end of 2025. It provides digital operations platforms and managed operational services to regulated organisations in healthcare, the public sector and industrial services. Founded in 2008 as a field-operations firm serving business customers, it had about twenty-five employees when its first regulated customer, a hospital group, required documented decisions, named accountability and evidence on request. It moved into the platform business in 2016 and in 2024 acquired an operating business in Poland and the Czech Republic, whose legal entity continues inside the group.
Linked registers
Organisation and people, roles, risks, objectives, policies, documents and records, communications, findings, audits and reviews, interested parties, processes
Records, not summaries
The evidence sits in the registers and documents where a real organisation would keep it.
A history
The company has a timeline from 2008, so a structure can be examined before and after it changed.
More than one legal entity
A Swiss parent company and an acquired subsidiary in Poland and the Czech Republic, with customers in several jurisdictions
Why it matters
Judgement develops on material that is incomplete and partly contradictory, as it is in practice. Northstar is built that way on purpose. Because modules enter its history at different points, a governance structure can be seen while it is built, when it is outgrown and when it is rebuilt.
Delivery & dates
How this module reaches you
Delivered live online, combining conceptual framing, discussion, case work and direct interaction with the trainer. In-house and contextualised delivery is available on request.
No public run is scheduled at the moment. Most modules run on request as well as on the public calendar, so tell us the timing you need.
Want this module scheduled?
We will tell you when the next run is scheduled, or run this module in-house with your own case material.
Not sure it is the right module?
Describe your context in a short message and we will tell you honestly.