The Scope and Focus of Business Continuity Plan Development - SSCP Exam

B.

SearchStorage.com Definitions mentions "As part of a disaster recovery plan, BIA is likely to identify costs linked to failures, such as loss of cash flow, replacement of equipment, salaries paid to catch up with a backlog of work, loss of profits, and so on.

A BIA report quantifies the importance of business components and suggests appropriate fund allocation for measures to protect them.

The possibilities of failures are likely to be assessed in terms of their impacts on safety, finances, marketing, legal compliance, and quality assurance.

Where possible, impact is expressed monetarily for purposes of comparison.

For example, a business may spend three times as much on marketing in the wake of a disaster to rebuild customer confidence." Source: KRUTZ, Ronald L.

& VINES, Russel.

D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Page 278.

The correct answer is B. Business Impact Analysis (BIA).

The development of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a critical aspect of any organization's risk management strategy. A BCP helps ensure that essential business functions continue to operate in the event of a disruptive event, such as a natural disaster, cyber attack, or pandemic.

The scope and focus of the BCP development process are influenced by various factors, such as the organization's size, complexity, and industry. However, the most crucial factor that determines the scope and focus of the BCP development process is the Business Impact Analysis (BIA).

A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a critical component of the BCP development process. It is a process that identifies and evaluates the potential impacts of a disruptive event on an organization's critical business functions, processes, and assets. The BIA process provides insights into the criticality and interdependencies of business processes and helps prioritize them for recovery.

The BIA process typically involves the following steps:

1. Identification of critical business functions and processes: This step involves identifying the key business functions, processes, and assets that are critical to the organization's survival and success.

2. Assessment of potential impacts: This step involves assessing the potential impacts of a disruptive event on the critical business functions, processes, and assets identified in step 1.

3. Determination of recovery time objectives (RTOs): This step involves setting recovery time objectives (RTOs) for each critical business function, process, and asset identified in step 1. RTOs are the maximum allowable downtime for a critical business function, process, or asset.

4. Identification of recovery strategies: This step involves identifying and evaluating the various recovery strategies available to restore critical business functions, processes, and assets within the established RTOs.

5. Documentation and reporting: This step involves documenting the BIA findings and reporting them to senior management for review and approval.

The BIA process provides valuable insights into the criticality and interdependencies of business processes, which helps prioritize them for recovery. The BIA process also helps determine the recovery strategies required to restore critical business functions, processes, and assets within the established RTOs.

Therefore, the scope and focus of the BCP development process depend most on the findings of the BIA process, which provides the necessary inputs for developing an effective BCP. The other options listed in the question, such as directives of senior management, skills of BCP committee, and scope and plan initiation, are important factors in the BCP development process but are secondary to the BIA findings.